Vietnam urged to join EITI for mining transparency

The EITI was critical for Vietnam to improve transparency of the mining industry, and its management, as the lack of transparency and accountability were resulting in an alarming waste of resources.

VCCI questioned why mining companies constantly wanted to increase their exploitation while they reported low business results. “Are their reports reliable?”

VCCI cited its findings which showed that 85 % of surveyed mining firms admitted that there were “informal expenses” which accounted for 10 % of their total revenues and 72 % said that they must rely on “relationship” to access information.

This was causing distortions in the mining market, according to the VCCI.

In the Resolution 71/NQ-CP dated on August 5, the Government asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to report the feasibility of Vietnam becoming a member of the EITI within this month.

“Joining the EITI is beneficial to Vietnam,” VCCI said in its document sent to the prime minister on Tuesday.

The EITI is an international standard in the management towards extraction of the country’s natural resources, in which member countries publish reports that disclose the mining revenues and other related information.

More than 50 countries in the world are implementing the EITI, including developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Vietnam has not joined the EITI over worries about the cost burden, and risks of leaking confidential State information.

These worries were groundless, VCCI said, and added that international experiences showed that costs for implementing EITI were not significant. For example, in Mongolia, a country rich in natural resource in Asia, cost for implementing EITI was US$200,000 per year.

The EITI standards were also flexible, allowing member countries to choose types of minerals and extraction phase for EITI implementation which were appropriate to the countries’ demand and capacity. Thus, Vietnam can reserve the right to keep State information confidential.

“Vietnam can implement the EITI following a roadmap appropriate to the capacity of the mining firms,” VCCI said.

Expert Dang Hung Vo said that the State management towards extraction must be enhanced together with transparency to prevent illegal mining.