EITI Business Guide

Foreword by peter Eigen (Chairman, EITI) and rex W. Tillerson
(Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Exxon Mobil Corporation)
6 EITI BUSINESS GUIDE
One clear lesson of the 20th century is that solving some of the world’s most
intractable problems, including poverty, conflict and corruption, requires
public discussion among all stakeholders, informed by a sound common
understanding of the issues and the facts.
For countries rich in oil, gas or minerals, the management of a country’s natural
resource revenues for the benefit of a county’s citizens is the domain of sovereign
governments. However, if not managed well, these resource revenues can create
negative economic and social impacts. For the supporting companies of the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), this underlines the importance of
transparency by both governments and companies.
one of the key strengths of EITI is that each stakeholder group has so much to
benefit from constructively engaging with the others. For companies, the reasons
to engage are compelling since EITI:
• provides a means of engaging with stakeholders and helping to create a culture
of accountability
• promotes a more transparent business environment which improves
governance and reduces corruption
• sends a strong signal to the investment community about the country’s
intentions to continue to improve transparency and the business climate
• improves public accountability and governance capacity
• reinforces a company’s international credibility
• illustrates actions based upon a company’s principles
• shows industry leadership