The
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) board recently agreed to
allow Mongolia
to remain an EITI Candidate. Mongolia,
which is yet to be confirmed as EITI Compliant, submitted its final EITI
validation report before its deadline of March 9. The Board welcomed the
country”s achievements in EITI implementation and noted that the validation
report concludes that further steps need to be taken to achieve EITI Compliant
status. Within the next six months, the International Secretariat will assess
whether the recommendations of the Board to Mongolia have been adequately
addressed. The International Secretariat will then make a recommendation to the
Board on whether they are EITI Compliant.

EITI is a
voluntary initiative born out of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg.
It is meant to address the resource curse syndrome that has bedeviled many
natural resource dependent countries in the developing world. It remains the
only credible international standard for improved transparency and
accountability in the generation and use of extractive sector revenues.