Work Meetings in the scope of the Opening Extractives Program
Armenia has made impressive progress in publishing data on the beneficial owners of companies operating under its legislation. At the beginning of 2021, publishing the information on the beneficial owners of companies in the extractive industries, Armenia then passed legislation according to which as of 2023, the requirement to disclose beneficial owners extends to companies in all spheres.
Under this adopted policy, the Republic of Armenia has membered the Open Extractives program, which is a joint initiative between Open Ownership and EITI, providing technical assistance to countries in implementing beneficial ownership transparency in the extractive industry and beyond.
On May 31-June 02, 2022, within the framework of the visit to Armenia, the responsible persons of Open Ownership and EITI - Louise Russell-Prywata, Policy & Advocacy Director at Open Ownership, Peter Low, the Country Coordinator, Alanna Markle, Policy Consultant, and Olesia Nekhoroshko, Country Officer of EITI International Secretariat, had meetings with the responsible entities and officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance, the State Revenue Committee, the Financial Monitoring Center of the Central Bank, the Agency of the State Register of Legal Entities of the MoJ, EKENG.
The idea of the visit was to jointly launch the Opening Extractives Program by OpenOwnership and EITI, as well as to hold work meetings to raise the needs of consulting, technical and legal support in authorized state bodies, to discuss the possibilities to further improve the ways and the existing systems of providing support. During the meetings, the guests presented the best international practice in this industry and discussed the possibilities of applying that experience in Armenia.
On June 2, Olesia Nekhoroshko, Country Officer of EITI International Secretariat, met Hovhannes Harutyunyan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, member of EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group. They discussed the current and upcoming events of the EITI implementation in Armenia, including the generation of an e-software solution for the systematic disclosure of mining industry data within the framework of EITI. O. Nekhoroshko noted that the efforts of the RA Government in ensuring the significant EITI requirements, as well as the procedures implemented in Armenia, are presented as an exemplary experience to other EITI member countries by EITI International Secretariat.
