US Senate Hearing: "Resource Curse or Blessing? Africa's Management of its Extractive Industries"

[img_assist|nid=461|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=150|height=47]The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held 24 September a hearing on Resource Curse or Blessing? Africa's Management of its Extractive Industries. In his opening statement Senator Feingold said "The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is one of several international efforts to fight the resource curse, and the report urges the administration to give the EITI more vigorous support."

Also, Feingold said in his opening statement: "The impact of this curse is not limited to the resource-rich countries themselves. The United States and other developed countries are also affected. (...) It exacerbates global poverty, which can be a seedbed for terrorism, it dulls the effect of our foreign assistance, it empowers autocrats and dictators, and it can crimp world petroleum supplies by breeding instability. (...) The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is one of several international efforts to fight the resource curse, and the report urges the administration to give the EITI more vigorous support. It also urges the oil, gas and mining companies, which often express support for transparency, to do more to encourage it in the countries where they operate."

Witnesses at the hearing were Todd Moss Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Paul Collier, Professor at the University of Oxford and David Goldwyn, President ofGoldwyn International Strategies, and Simon Taylor, Director of Global Witness.

Transcripts of the statements can be found a the US Senate web page http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2008/hrg080924a.html