Azerbaijan, Baku, March 2 / Trend A. Badalova /
Azerbaijan as a pioneer country sequentially developing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) can be proud of the role it is playing in this Initiative, Peter Bateman, the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan said at a conference "EITI and Beyond: View from Azerbaijan" on Friday.
"Azerbaijan has a positive history of its involvement in EITI," Bateman said.
According to Bateman, to date a lot of achievements have been made within this initiative.
The infrastructure of EITI is impressive, ambassador said, stressing the establishment of International Advisory Group and Permanent Secretariat (in Oslo).
Bateman said that today's conference's aim includes the exploration of the way to improve and strengthen the EITI mechanism, expand the cooperation between the countries involved in this initiative and international organizations, as well as hold information exchanges.
Bateman also stressed that UK is ready to actively support the further development of EITI.
The Government of Azerbaijan made a commitment to join EITI in London in June, 2003. In February, 2009 it became the first country to pass the validation process and achieve the status of full member country.
In accordance with the EITI Validation Guide, Azerbaijan must be revalidated within five years (by 15 February 2014).