OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 March 2008 was announced, that the first national EITI conference in Kazakhstan took place in Astana on February 29, 2008 gathering about 200 participants from the government, parliament, extracting companies, civil society organizations, international experts, and mass media. The goal of the conference was to discuss the implementation outcomes and development prospects of the EITI in the country, as well as to present and discuss the first Reconciliation Report for Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan became the member of EITI in June 2005, and since then considerable progress has been achieved, including creation and work of the National Stakeholder Council, increase in the number of companies which signed Memorandum on EITI and joined the initiative, and preparation of the first reconciliation report. The most active force behind the initiative has been civil society led by the Coalition of NGOs "Oil Revenues - Under Control of Society!".  The first Reconciliation report which provides and compares data on all the payments made by the participating extractive companies on the one hand, and the revenues received from the participating extractive companies by the Government on the other hand, which was long awaited by all the parties, was presented and discussed at the conference.

Speaking at the opening of the conference the World Bank Country Manager for Kazakhstan Sergei Shatalov said: "This report and this conference is a good start as they confirm Kazakhstan's position as a committed member of EITI.  But the country as important as Kazakhstan should be a leader of EITI, not just a member - and it will take more to become that. And the most important issue is ensuring participation of all significant oil and mining companies".

Other speakers at the conference included Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sauat Mynbayev, British Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pall Brummell, Representative of the International EITI Secretariat Randal Fisher, Chairman of the Parliament Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Erlan Nigmatulin, Vice-Ministers of Finance Daulet Ergozhin, Vice-Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bolat Akchulakov, Chairman of the Coalition of NGOs "Oil Revenues - Under Control of Society!" Malik Isabekov, and many others.The World Bank has provided technical and financial assistance to the EITI implementation in Kazakhstan since it began, including organization of this conference. The conference was the first in the series of the national EITI conferences which will be held in the various extractive regions of Kazakhstan during 2008.