Kazakhstan

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by the U.S. Senate on July 15, 2010 will now allow for Kazakhstani citizens to learn about the payments made by the large extractive corporations operating in the country.

Anton Artemyev

Anton Artemyev is currently director of the Kazakhstan Revenue Watch program (KRW) of the Soros Foundation – Kazakhstan. He has been working in this capacity since 2004, two years after joining the Foundation. Before that Mr Artemyev had worked as project manager for various education projects.

Mr Artemyev is an Economics graduate of Moscow Academy of Labour and Social Relations (2000).

Concern over the destiny of the country compelled the formation of a civil society coalition, “Oil Revenues – Under Public Oversight!”. We believe that Kazakhstan needs to demonstrate its adherence to the principles of transparency, democracy and responsible management of natural wealth in order to create favorable conditions for the development of other sectors of the economy and to enhance healthcare, education and the social welfare system….

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The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) international coalition of NGOs warmly welcomes the launch of the “Oil Revenues – Under the Public Oversight” coalition in Kazakhstan. It marks an important step forward in civil society’s efforts to hold the Kazakh government accountable for the management of revenues from the country’s valuable natural resource industries.

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This is a letter from the NGO coaliton “Oil Revenues – Under Public Oversight” in Kazakhstan to the EBRD President regarding its support for the extractive industries in the country and its endorsement of the EITI.

Op-ed by Director of Global Witness, Simon Taylor.

While oil, gas and minerals are by far the largest sources of state revenue for the world’s poorest nations, these resources, which should help fund development and sustainable economic growth, all too often turn out to be a curse, leading to increased poverty, child malnutrition and civil conflict.

Revenue Transparency: A Priority for Good Governance and Energy Security

Across the globe, revenues from oil, gas and mining that should be funding sustainable economic development have been misappropriated and mismanaged. This Global Witness report considers five major examples of this problem: Kazakhstan, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nauru.

In these countries, governments do not provide even basic information about their revenues from natural resources. Nor do oil, mining and gas companies publish any information about payments made to governments.

In the 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies, Transparency International (TI) evaluates 42 leading oil and gas companies on their current policies, management systems and performance in areas relevant to revenue transparency in their upstream operations.

Coalition “Oil Revenues – Under Public Oversight!” comprised of about 50 non-governmental organizations from all regions of Kazakhstan would like to thank organizers for the opportunity to participate in the Annual Meeting of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development in Belgrade on 22-23 May 2005.