LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A group of international investors with $5.8 trillion under management has written to the Canadian government urging it to enact extractive transparency laws like those recently passed in Europe and the United States.
Transparency campaigners and a number of Western governments have pushed for greater transparency in the extractive sector so that citizens of resource-rich countries can better hold both their governments and extractive companies to account.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged in June to push forward mandatory reporting requirements for the Canadian oil, gas and mining industry that would force the companies to publish the payments they make to governments around the world. Canada has one of the world’s largest extractive sectors in developing countries.
About 3.5 billion people live in countries with extensive oil, gas or mineral reserves, but poor governance and corruption mean many of them do not benefit from the wealth created by their extraction.
“From an investor perspective, the key is reducing risk – operating risk for oil, gas and mining companies who face potential unrest – even violence – from a populace that sees little benefit from its mineral wealth;