At the end of its recent meeting, the national committee of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) approved the information on the 2018 report and looked into the situation of the various EITI-Congo commissions and the Sipam company.
The adopted document may be updated by the authorized services. Since 2016, the EITI report has been extended to forestry companies with reconciliation and export figures. As of this period, forest products trade reached more than 900m3 for an estimated value of CFAF 125.8 billion.
Regarding the main customers, South-East Asia is the first destination of Congo’s forest products, with a rate of 77% of exports, followed by the European Union (19%), North America (2%), North Africa and the Middle East (1%) and the rest of Africa (0.4%).
In addition to the adoption of the 2018 report, it appears that the committees of the executive committee of the national committee will be set up. The executive committee also took the decision to exclude the Sipam company from the national committee, for reasons of internal regulations without further details.
The EITI is a voluntary initiative that aims to strengthen, in countries rich in oil, gas and mining resources, the governance of public revenues derived from their extraction. The Republic of Congo joined this initiative in June 2004. It was declared a candidate country in February 2008 then a compliant country in February 2013.
In 2019, the government pledged to take “corrective” measures related to the management of oil and mining companies before December 29, 2019. If nothing was done until this deadline set by the governing body of the EITI, the Republic of Congo risked losing its status as a “compliant country”.
The Minister for the Budget, Ludovic Ngatsé reassured the participants that the information relating to the 2019-2020 period was made available to the independent administrator for this exercise. “This information exists and is part of our discussions with the International Monetary Fund. They should be available to allow for a much more assertive development in the 2019 and 2020 reporting exercise, “he said.
