Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday improving the inclusive and data-informed management of the extractive industries is important to help drive economic growth in the long term.
Diokno said during the FORGE PH: Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative National Conference that the extractive industries had contributed P363 billion to government revenues from 2012 to 2019.
“With the Marcos administration banking on the potential of the extractive sector to drive long-term economic expansion, the inclusive and data-informed governance of the extractive industries becomes more critical than ever,” he said.
FORGE PH is the annual assembly of the extractive sector that updates stakeholders on progress in achieving greater transparency and accountability in the extractive industries.
This year, the national conference focused on how the PH-EITI can respond to concerns on climate change and energy transition, which is in line with the initiative to incorporate sustainability concerns in the global reporting standard.
“We call on our participants to actively and constructively engage one another and develop concrete actions to improve the management of this very important sector,” Diokno said.
The government will take necessary steps to strengthen and broaden the space for inclusive multi-sectoral engagement. As such, local government capacity to govern extractive activities, specifically small-scale mining sectors, will be improved through the subnational implementation of EITI.
Moreover, the EITI platform will be used to ensure equitable government revenue share from resource utilization, which is demonstrated in PH-EITI’s contribution to the crafting of a new fiscal regime for mining.
EITI data will be utilized to inform the public and stakeholders of initiatives towards climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the transition to low-carbon energy. With this, Diokno urged stakeholders to continue using PH-EITI data in their research work and policy advocacy.
“As we close in on our first decade of being an EITI-implementing country, we commit to making implementation more inclusive, more meaningful, and responsive to the needs of our stakeholders,” he said.
The EITI International, led by its chairman, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, has been supporting the Philippines in maintaining a high level of transparency and stakeholder engagement in its extractive industries.
The PH-EITI is a government-led, multi-stakeholder initiative implementing EITI, the global standard that promotes the open, accountable management, and good governance of oil, gas, and mineral resources. It was created on Nov. 26, 2013 through EO No. 147, series of 2013.
