Statement to the EBRD Annual Meeting

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. Dialogue with civil society has always been crucial for the Bank’s success in Central and Eastern Europe, and we are delighted to see that the Bank is also open for the dialogue with non-governmental organizations from the Caspian and Central Asian regions.

Our Coalition, whose mission is promoting revenue transparency in the Republic of Kazakhstan, aspires to contribute to this constructive process as much as possible. Members of our Coalition share the common belief that transparency, accountability and public oversight are fundamental for social, political and economic development of any resource-rich country, and Kazakhstan is not an exception. We think that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) provides an effective framework for countries to take the necessary steps towards greater transparency of resource revenues with the support of financial institutions and donors.

In this regard, we believe that a more pro-active policy should be adopted by donor countries and International Financial Institutions towards resource-rich countries which have expressed a general interest towards EITI but have not adopted this initiative yet, e.g. Kazakhstan. Our coalition continues to appeal to the government of Kazakhstan to finally seize the initiative and make the strategic decision to implement the EITI in the near future by working actively with all relevant stakeholder groups, including our coalition and other civil society representatives.

We are happy to see that, as a result of our joint efforts, EITI is gaining growing support among members of the Kazakh parliament and the government. We think that these first moves towards transparency in the extractive sector of Kazakhstan should be encouraged by the international community.

We believe that in the current situation much depends on the position of investors operating in Kazakhstan and International Financial Institutions, including EBRD and the World Bank. The role of multilateral development banks in helping Kazakhstan to pursue better revenue transparency should not be underestimated. In particular, we think that EBRD should more vigorously promote EITI in Kazakhstan using its membership on the Foreign Investors Council.

At the same time, we believe that International Financial Institutions should themselves make some important steps towards transparency in the extractive sector of Kazakhstan. One of the major issues to be considered is making revenue transparency the obligatory requirement for any technical or financial aid provided to development countries and to Kazakhstan specifically. In our opinion, revenue transparency should be required (and not simply “expected”) for all projects the Bank supports in the extractive sector.

Unfortunately, inspire of the civil society’s recommendations, EBRD’s new country strategy on Kazakhstan does not have EITI promotion as one of its priorities. We hope that the Bank’s new energy policy will make an emphasis on the need for better transparency in the extractive sector of the resource-rich countries.

Another example is publishing parts of loan agreements. EBRD claims to require revenue transparency in projects it supports and funds. We believe that the parts of loan agreements which refer to these transparency requirements should be available in the public domain to enable civil society groups to carry out constant monitoring of progress achieved in this area.

We are convinced that the momentum must not be lost and therefore ask EBRD to support our appeal.

Download Resource here