Abel appointed as Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative member

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel has been appointed to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (Eiti) international board.
His appointment to the board on Friday followed a regional voting of nominees recently.
Abel will be representing the interests of Papua New Guinea and other EITI-implementing countries in the South-East Asian region in the 2019 to 2022 EITI board.
Head of PNGEITI national secretariat, Lucas Alkan, said Abel’s appointment was confirmed by the EITI international secretariat.
“We are very pleased with the appointment and will be working closely with our minister,” Alkan said.
“We will support him to represent PNG and other countries in the region well on the board of this international body when he assumes in June this year.”
Abel will be supported by his deputy, Maria Teresa Habitan, assistant secretary of the Finance Department.
The new board will be announced at the EITI members’ meeting on June 17 at the global conference in Paris, France.
Abel currently serves as governor for the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
His recent appointment to the EITI board is an additional responsibility he will take on to represent PNG and the region.
The PNGEITI is a government initiative established in 2013 to promote transparency and accountability of revenue received from the country’s mining and petroleum sector.
The PNGEITI implements the global EITI standard through its multi-stakeholder group comprising of Government representatives, industry partners and civil society groups.
EITI is an international multi-stakeholder body that promotes the open and accountable management of oil, gas, and mineral resources.
It currently has 51 implementing countries.
The board is the main governing body consisting of 21 members representing implementing countries, supporting countries, civil society organisations, industry and institutional investors.
Each board member is supported by an alternate who deputises for the member.