-joint consultation hears
Stakeholders at the joint Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conference on ‘Managing the Extractive Sector for Deve-lopment in Guyana’ posited that a robust management system designed by countries tackling similar challenges in mining could curb exploitation and corruption.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud said government aims, with support from the UNDP to further its vision and agenda for stakeholders in the industry and to foster corporate social responsibility in the sector.
In his presentation, President Donald Ramotar suggested that countries with similar experiences in mining can collaborate to tackle challenges like illegal mining, particularly if gold is being smuggled to countries with low royalty rates.
“I’m not suggesting that we lower our royalty rates because I strongly believe that we should maximise what we get to invest in our people… but we should probably work with other countries to try to see the possibility if we can get agreements to standardise those regimes so that we can discourage smuggling,” he said.
The gold mining sector in particular has been inundated with illegal miners and criminal activities and it is regarded as a sector vulnerable to corruption because of the high returns generated from minerals.
“It is very tempting to bribe people to turn an eye, to damage the economy. It is very tempting to make some more money by doing other things… our management system has to have a level of transparency that will discourage as far as possible… any kind of corruption,” Ramotar noted.
In his address at the opening session Persaud said the objective at the end of two days is to achieve an enabling framework for the sustainable development and management of the natural resources sector in Guyana. The goal is to work with the stakeholders to overcome perceived resource curses associated with sustainable mining and also ensure the roles and responsibilities of companies, players as well as government are maintainable.
“In so doing and in this approach, we wanted to ensure that we learn not only from the experiences of other countries and institutions… but also review nationally what we have been doing in the area of sustainably managing the extractive industry and also putting emphasis on corporate social responsibility as well as dealing with the issue of resource curse” Persaud said.
The agenda also included reviewing measures that have been implemented and examining how companies, government and other stakeholders have been approaching these issues in terms of sustainable development and management and the utilisation of natural resources, how they have been able to develop a culture of corporate social responsibility and identify areas for improvement, the minister said. “Business today, companies, especially those who operate within the extractive industry will know …they will recognise that adherence to the principle of corporate social responsibility affects their bottom line, it affects their profitability,” he added.
UNDP Resident Represen-tative Khadija Musa said that the seminar was another example of the effective partnership between the Guyana Government and UNDP in this area. In April, UNDP partnered with the ministry to bring experts to identify and discuss the ministry’s role in Guyana’s transition to a low carbon development economy.
Musa said this consultation is to allow Guyana to draw lessons from global experiences of sustainable management of the extractive sector for development and to be able to harness successfully, revenues from its minerals and oil exploration to propel economic growth. The ministry and UNDP hosted the session with a distinct group of international experts to put forward policies and shared experiences with regards to the sustainable management of the extractive industry.
In April, government invited the Head of Secretariat to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Jonas Moberg to discuss several issues in mining sector, including operations in the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.
The two-day seminar also examined Guyana’s development, risks and opportunities for resource extraction, and legal and voluntary responsibilities of enterprise in the mining sectors. Presentations were made by representatives in the mining sector from Brazil, oil sector experts from Trinidad and Tobago and Mongolia, represented by its former of Minister of Mining Dashdorj.
Dashdorj spoke about Mongolia’s experience as a major producer of copper and its laws relating to the allocation of mineral wealth to social sector development. He also expounded on the importance of learning from other countries’ experience.
