Minister of Justice participates in session of multi-stakeholder group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative of the Republic of Armenia

The multi-stakeholder group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of Armenia held today a session chaired by Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, chairperson of the multi-stakeholder group of the EITI of the Republic of Armenia Davit Harutyunyan. The launch of the “Support to Enhance Armenia’s Capacity to Implement EITI and to Increase Transparency and Accountability in Mining Licenses and Contracts” Project was declared during the session.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Republic of Armenia Judith Margaret Farnworth, as well as representatives of stakeholder state bodies and organisations also took part in the meeting.

Minister of Justice Davit Harutyunyan expressed his gratitude to the Ambassador for supporting the new project and noted that the 2017-2018 Working Plan has already been approved; in the Working Plan, importance is attached to the studies on identifying the legislative and institutional frameworks.

Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Armenia Judith Margaret Farnworth expressed her gratitude to the representatives of the multi-stakeholder group participating in the session and attached importance to the launch of the Project which, according to the Ambassador, may ensure a bilateral result. "We are ready to support implementation of the Project. We believe that it will lead to the expected outcome, with which we will increase the level of transparency and capacity of information regarding the sector,” the Ambassador emphasised.

The legislation regulating the sector, the specifications for granting and registering subsoil use permits, contracts with mining companies, as well as issues related to the disclosure of real owners of mining companies will be examined within the scope of the Project.

At the end of the session, the MSG members considered a number of other issues.