Central African Republic

Highlights from the Paris conference: Day 1

The 5th EITI Global Conference in Paris was launched today with around 900 participants arriving the conference today. Participants included Presidents Otunbayeva (Kyrgyz Republic), Kikwete (Tanzania), and Guebuza (Mozambique), as well as CEOs, ministers and civil society leaders from around the world. Former EITI Chair, Peter Eigen, set the tone of the day by highlighting the growing attention being focused on transparency and good governance issues in the extractives sector.

PRESS RELEASE: Six more countries compliant with transparency and accountability standard

PARIS, 2 March 2011 – The Central African Republic, The Kyrgyz Republic, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, and Yemen have achieved Compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for improved transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors. The EITI Board designated them as ‘EITI Compliant’ at their meeting today in Paris, bringing the total number of EITI Compliant countries up to 11.

EITI implementation in Central African Republic is underway

The Central African Republic (CAR) has confirmed its determination to complete EITI Validation by November 2010, and tackle the challenges of managing an entirely informal mining sector. In bilateral meetings with the EITI International Secretariat, the President of the Republic François Bozizé, the Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadéra, and the Minister of State and Mines Sylvain Ndoutingaï, all reiterated their full commitment to the EITI.

Central African Republic

Compliant country Hidden:  Not Hidden EITI Central African Republic website Overview of the Extractive Industries The Central African Republic is a resource-rich country which however has only drawn about 5% of its revenues from the extractive sector in recent years. Exploitation of gold and diamonds has so far been exclusively done through artisanal mining. Industrial extraction is only expected to start production from 2012. Status of EITI Implementation The government of the Central African Republic made an unequivocal commitment to join the EITI on 30 August 2007 and the application for candidate status was submitted on 26 September 2008. It has since met the four sign-up indicators and established a multi-stakeholder group. Two work plans have since been published and can be found on http://www.itierca.org/. The Central African Republic was accepted as a Candidate on 21 November 2008 and became the 24th implementing country. It had until 20 November 2010 to undertake Validation. It submitted its final validation report to the Board on 18 November 2010. The Central African Republic was accepted by the EITI Board as EITI Compliant on 1 March 2011. The final Validation Report is available here. The Central African Republic must be revalidated by 29 February 2016. Stakeholders in the process may request that the EITI Board requires a new Validation at any time within that period if they think the process needs reviewing. The first report for the year 2006 was adopted by the multi-stakeholder group in March 2009. The second report on the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 was adopted in December 2010. Both cover the mining sector including artisanal mining.EITI CAR published its Annual Report 2011 on 24 January 2012 which can be found here. Governance of EITI implementation The Government established through a Ministry Decree the governance structure of the EITI-CAR: a National Council, a Steering Committee and a Technical Secretariat. The National Council and the Steering Committee count on the participation of stakeholders from government, companies and civil society. The National Council is chaired by the Prime Minister. The Steering Committee is chaired by the Minister of Mines. The Technical Secretariat is led by Mr. Robert Moïdokana and has four units: data collection and reconciliation, capacity building, information and communication, administration and finance. 16 multi-stakeholder EITI sub-committees have been set up at the prefecture level to ensure communication and dissemination at the community level. Central African Republic EITI National Coordinator Mr. Robert MoïdokanaTechnical SecretaryEmail: robertmoidokana [at] yahoo [dot] frTel: +23670400976/+23675208116Companies operating* Mining companies: Areva*, Aurafrique, GEM Diamonds, PanAfrican Resources * EITI Supporting Company * Note: Company list based on EITI research and is not conclusive Further information about the status of EITI implementation in the Central African Republic can be provided by Regional Director Tim Bittiger at the EITI International Secretariat.