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AU urges Ministers to adopt effective mineral management policies to attain sustainable development
ECA Press Release No. 158/2011
Addis Ababa, 15 December 2011 (ECA) - The African Union (AU) has called on African Ministers responsible for mining to
"adopt effective mineral management policies and ensure the exploitation of Africa’s mineral resources can play a vital role in the attainment of the MDGs, boosting economic growth and eradicating poverty.”
The call was made by Maxwell Mkwezalamba, Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Acting Commissioner for Trade and Industry, at the AU during the opening of the Conference of African Ministers Responsible or Mineral Resources Development, Thursday, December 15, following technical meetings of senior officials and industry experts. The
Conference is being held on the theme: Building a sustainable future for Africa’s extractive industry:- from vision to action.
The Conference comes 2 years after member States formulated the Africa Mining Vision Plan (AMV) that puts the continent’s long term and broad development objectives at the heart of all policy making concerned with mineral extraction.In February 2009, the AU Heads of State and government welcomed the AMV and requested the “AU Ministers in charge of Mineral Resources Development to develop a concrete action plan for its realization.”
This week, senior officials and experts elaborated an Action Plan and tabled it for discussion with the expectation that it would be adopted late Friday.
Addressing the Ministers on Thursday, Ethiopian Minister of Mines, Sinkinesh Ejigu said: “The intensive mineral and petroleum operation activities of the mining and oil companies with international experience have created new challenges to the ministry.”
She also noted that the main challenges of the regulatory bodies are negotiating and monitoring the mineral and petroleum operation activities of these companies. This, she added, is a challenge for all African countries.
She further informed the meeting that the Ethiopian Government is committed to managing all mining revenues in a transparent and accountable manner and efforts have been in place since 2008 to implement the principles laid out by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
For his part, Joseph Atta-Mensah posited that the State would have to take on a greater role to guide the implementation of the Action Plan.“The country level is where these actions will be implemented and that is where there is the greatest need to call all of us to action – mining companies, communities, civil society and development partners,” he said.
Jointly issued by the African Union Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa:
More: africaminingvision.org and on Facebook @Africa Mining Vision Twitter updates: follow the hashtag #AfricaMining by
@eca_official; and @wagio2010 Contact:
Ms. Mercy Wambui
Information and Communication Service United Nations Economic Commission for Africa P.O Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa mwambui@uneca.org OR
Ms. Wynne Musabayana
Deputy Head, Communication and Information African Union Commission
P.O Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia E-mail: musabayanaW@africa-union.org Website: www.africa-union.org
ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
Web: www.uneca.org
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