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The 2024 Concluding Workshop of Armenia's EITI Secretariat Held in Dilijan

16.12.24
The 2024 Concluding Workshop of Armenia's EITI Secretariat Held in Dilijan

From December 9 to 11 of this year, the Armenia EITI National Secretariat of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia organized a three-day workshop in Dilijan dedicated to the implementation of measures set out in the Action Plan of the Mining Sector Development Strategy and addressing the corrective actions identified in Armenia’s second Validation report.

The workshop brought together 24 participants, including representatives of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance; responsible officials from the affected communities of Meghri, Kapan, Kajaran and Alaverdi; representatives of the civil society and extractive companies constituencies of the Armenia EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG); as well as representatives of the World Bank and the Armenia EITI National Secretariat.

The following issues were presented and discussed during the workshop:

  • The draft Law on Making Amendments and Additions to the Subsoil Code of the Republic of Armenia, in particular the new regulation proposed under Article 30 of the Code concerning the inclusion of beneficial ownership data in the subsoil use permitting process.

    This issue was included in the workshop agenda pursuant to the relevant instruction given by Tigran Khachatryan, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and Chair of the Armenia EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group, during the conference held on November 20 of this year dedicated to Armenia’s fifth EITI national report.

  • The package of draft laws developed to establish a uniform and equitable mechanism for allocating payments to communities, including the draft Laws on Making Amendments and Additions to the Subsoil Code of the Republic of Armenia, the Law on the Budgetary System of the Republic of Armenia, the Law on Local Self-Government in the City of Yerevan, and the Law on Local Self-Government. The package was developed pursuant to the Action Plan of the Mining Sector Development Strategy (Strategic Objective 2, Target Area 2.2, “Ensuring Socio-Economic Balance,” Point 2.1, Sub-point 5).
  • The impact of the above-mentioned legislative initiatives on addressing the corrective actions assigned to Armenia in the Validation report, as well as on meeting the requirements of the 2023 EITI Standard.
  • A review of the EITI’s activities and achievements over the past seven years, with a view to identifying and outlining the next steps.

The discussion of these issues is directly linked to Armenia’s fulfilment of its commitments under the EITI, compliance with the requirements of the EITI Standard and, more broadly, maintaining Armenia’s strong standing as an EITI implementing country.

The workshop agenda was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, with the aim of ensuring the implementation of the corrective actions identified in the Validation report and meeting the requirements of the 2023 EITI Standard by the date of Armenia’s next Validation, scheduled for January 1, 2028. The workshop also aimed to strengthen the capacities of EITI MSG members, specialists from authorized state bodies, communities and extractive companies.

The agenda items were presented by Karen Gasparyan, Head of the Subsoil Department of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure; Seda Hakobyan, Acting Head of the Subsoil Policy Development Division; and Hasmik Manukyan, Head of the EITI Secretariat.

The discussion of the draft Law on Making Amendments and Additions to the Subsoil Code of the Republic of Armenia was particularly productive. The position of extractive companies was presented by Vahram Avagyan, Nerses Karamanukyan and Artur Pepanyan, members of the extractive companies constituency of the EITI MSG. Nazeli Vardanyan, a member of the civil society constituency of the MSG; Artur Ghavalyan, Head of the Heavy Industry Division of the Ministry of Economy; and Karen Gasparyan, Suren Mamy an and Seda Hakobyan, representatives of the Subsoil Department of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, actively participated in the discussions.

The workshop was organized with the support of the World Bank grant programme “Support to Armenia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative: Additional Financing,” Grant No. TF0B4808.