{"id":1651,"date":"2015-06-05T13:46:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T13:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2015-06-05T13:46:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T13:46:17","slug":"albania-closing-the-book-on-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/en\/albania-closing-the-book-on-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Albania: Closing the book on the past"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on the website of the EITI International Secretariat (eiti.org), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 and on the Progress Report EITI 2015, Thursday, June 4, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Transparency is key in the renewed efforts to leave Albania’s extractives sector in better shape for future generations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Albania’s government has initiated a bold\u00a0reform programme for strengthening its extractives sector. Improving transparency is a crucial part of these reforms.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Albania\u00a0published two EITI reports and\u00a0a new revenue management plan, beefed up the\u00a0capacity for\u00a0contract negotiation, introduced efforts to tackle\u00a0informality in the mining sector and passed\u00a0transparency\u00a0requirements into law.<\/p>\n

Dorina Cinari, EITI Albania\u2019s\u00a0National Coordinator\u00a0said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the extensive disclosures through\u00a0our EITI, we now have\u00a0a critical mass of information about our energy sector. With this information we are painting the picture of what the\u00a0extractive industries\u00a0could look like in Albania. The sector’s\u00a0economic importance is evident\u00a0and it is becoming increasingly politically important. You see proof of this\u00a0throughout the government\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vice Minister of Energy and Industry Bejtja added:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is simple: full\u00a0transparency\u00a0and\u00a0accountability\u00a0in the extractive industry and in the use of our resources. No doubt this sector carries big issues; especially mining. We are working with dedication for a new vision and a new standard, to restore confidence, to create an efficient comprehensive and transparent system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the missing parts of the puzzle<\/h3>\n

A crucial missing piece to the puzzle was until this year\u00a0the state-owned oil company\u00a0Albpetrol. With their latest EITI report, this was addressed.\u00a0Ilir Aliaj of the Center for Development of Democratisation of Institutions and\u00a0member of the Albania\u00a0EITI council\u00a0said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were pleased that further information on Albpetrol has been included, based on civil society\u2019s request.\u00a0This demonstrates its commitment to implement\u00a0the new EITI Standard.”<\/p>\n

Fresh on the heels of these efforts, the\u00a0government is already exploring\u00a0how it can further strengthen\u00a0transparency. On the\u00a0eve of the launch of their EITI\u00a0Report, the government announced two new studies\u2014one on\u00a0the feasibility of including hydropower in the EITI process and one on a unified extractive industries data management tool.<\/p>\n

Albania\u2019s Minister for Energy and Industry Gjiknuri put it succinctly:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must forever close the book on the past. There is no turning back. It is high time that Albanians start obtaining the benefits from their resources. We will fight with determination every plague in the system. We must leave this clean to our future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on the website of the EITI International Secretariat (eiti.org), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 and on the Progress Report EITI 2015, Thursday, June 4, 2015. Transparency is key in the renewed efforts to leave Albania’s extractives sector in better shape for future…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albeiti.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}