结束“资源诅咒”：加拿大承诺使采矿更加透明

加拿大总理史蒂芬·哈珀（Stephen Harper）朝着促进透明度和减少全球贫困迈出了重要一步。他宣布昨天，加拿大将对在国内外运营的加拿大采掘公司实施强制性报告要求。

该任务将要求加拿大的挖掘公司公开披露他们向外国政府支付的付款，以换取在其土壤上运营的许可。这种发展将有助于促进采矿业的透明度，如果有效地实施，可以帮助应对“资源诅咒”。

Fighting the Resource Curse through Access to Information

解决“资源诅咒” is a challenge of global proportions. The term applies to situations where, despite a country’s mineral or oil wealth, poverty is exacerbated in part by weak or corrupt institutions, government mismanagement of revenues, and a failure to re-invest into projects that benefit the public—such as infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Often, citizens of resource curse countries aren’t able to hold their governments accountable for this abuse of power because they lack information about their country’s revenues and expenditures (see Box).

新的Africa Progress Report 2013和issue brief从非洲生物多样性合作小组（WRI专家）为矿业行业的进步和遏制资源诅咒的不足而做出了贡献。公司的采矿业务通常在多个东道国进行，通常不公开向这些东道国的合同和付款。但是，如果公司提供有关这些付款的信息，民间社会和投资者可以监控这些公共收入是否已重新投资到真正受益于公众的项目。通过获取信息（加拿大的新任务将有助于提供的信息），这些演员可以通过使政府和公司对支出负责，从而减少腐败和减轻贫困。

Canada’s Action Is Globally Significant

Canada is the world’s leading mining country.Almost 1,700 mining companies由多伦多证券交易所（TSX）和TSX Venture Exchange（TSXV）列出并监管，将全球矿业部门的很大一部分受加拿大的监管。

Of approximately10,000个矿产项目由TSX和TSXV上市的公司承担，将近一半位于加拿大以外。下图说明了加拿大矿业公司的全球覆盖范围，在美国等发达国家以及坦桑尼亚，马里，刚果民主共和国和布基纳法索等发展中国家运营。因此，实施国家披露政策将对使全球采矿部门更加透明和负责产生重大影响。

加拿大加入全球运动

Canada now joins a global movement in improving transparency in the extractives industry. Mining, oil, and gas companies across the world are increasingly recognizing that disclosing financial information can help ensure that natural resource revenues are re-invested to reduce poverty and benefit citizens. For example, 76 extractive resource companies have joined the采掘业透明度倡议（EITI），一个政府，公司和民间社会联盟，致力于全球石油，天然气和采矿的透明度。The EITI standardcalls for companies to publish what they pay to host governments, and, conversely, for host governments to disclose the amount of money they receive from companies.

Several countries are also developing national legislation to address transparency in the extractives sector. In August of 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted rules for the implementation ofSection 15042010年美国华尔街改革和消费者保护法。该法律呼吁采集公司向SEC提交年度报告，向东道国政府披露付款。该立法适用于美国和外国公司。

While these rules arecurrently being challenged由美国石油研究所和其他业务集团（如果在法庭上维持），将要求大约200家采矿公司披露其东道国的付款。¹目前在英国，欧盟和其他国家正在辩论类似的立法。加拿大现在将加入他们的队伍。

一些东道国也正在改变其法律，以提供更多获取政府控制信息的信息。世界各地80多个国家颁布了全面信息自由行为（foias）有助于确保公民获得无访问信息的权利。此外，一些国家自然资源法特别认可了公开交易公司在向财务监管机构报告中向接待政府付款的财务信息。例如，2012年的乌干达石油（勘探，开发和生产法案）包含一项机密条款，但澄清说，如果其家庭政府的要求或任何法律要求，它不会阻止披露公司信息。

Next Steps

Although the announcement from Prime Minister Harper is welcome news, much work still lies ahead—namely, in formalizing a policy that generates real impact. Since September 2012, the资源收入透明度工作组has been developing a framework for mandatory reporting for Canadian extractive companies. A draft of this framework will be released by the end of the week. The working group will then work closely with the Government of Canada as it begins consultations with provinces and territories, First Nations and aboriginal groups, and industry and civil society organizations. Finalizing the formal disclosure policy could take several years. If the resulting policy is strong, effective and consistent with other countries’ initiatives, Canada can help ensure public access to extractive sector revenue without imposing undue burdens on extractive companies. And through this, the country could play a key role in breaking the global resource curse.