Speech made by Mr. Kazuya Ogawa, Minister, Japanese Embassy in France
on "the Roles of Japan in achieving responsible natural resource development on EITI"
on Thursday 3 MARCH 2011 at the plenary 4 : EITI Stakeholder Forum
at the 5th EITI Global Conference
It is a great honor for me to be here at the Fifth EITI Global Conference and to have an opportunity to explain activities of the Government of Japan toward the EITI as a supporting country.
We are very pleased to know that the number of the EITI members has steadily increased and more Candidate Countries have completed the EITI validation to become Compliant Countries.
As all of you may already know, the Government of Japan formally announced its decision to become a supporting country of the EITI at the last Global Conference in Doha in February 2009.
To show our appreciation and support to the EITI and also to raise awareness of the EITI initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan hosted an EITI outreach seminar titled "Emerging Trend toward Responsible Natural Resources Development" in Tokyo in January 2010. We invited speakers to the seminar including Mr. Jonas Moberg, Head of the EITI Secretariat and others from Asia and Africa. The seminar was very successful with around 240 participants, where business people, government officials, academics, experts in natural resource and environment and wide range of stakeholders shared views on sustainable resource development.
With regard to financial supports, the Government of Japan has provided generous financial support to an EITI implementation project through the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa (EPSA for Africa) initiative in coordination with African Development Bank (AfDB).
In addition, we are glad to inform you that we are at a final stage for a budget bill to pass the Diet to contribute for the first time US$150,000 to the EITI Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF).
The Government of Japan continues to support proactively implementing countries' activities under the EITI through not only financial support but also other possible measures.
Finally Japan as an EITI supporting country, our hope is to further enlarge membership of the EITI including emerging donor countries. We would like to work together as responsible partners to support developing countries.