By KENNEDY MUPESENI  –

in London,UK
LOW participation by developed countries in the Extractive Industries Transparency  Initiative (EITI) is slowly eroding its  credibility.
Former chief executive director of Chamber of Mines of South Africa (CMSA) Bheki Sibiya said low participation by developed countries in EITI was eroding the confidence of countries wanting to subscribe.
“It is disappointing that the same countries pushing and championing for EITI are not signing it and yet they deal in minerals and oil. How can you attract others to join like that?” Mr Sibiya said in an interview on the sidelines of the three-day Mining on Top African Summit in London, which closed on Friday.
He said it was disappointing that developed countries always pushed agendas which they were reluctant to append signatures to.
Mr Sibiya said there was need to popularise EITI for the metal and oil markets to be transparent, which he said was not going to be achieved if some developed countries were not actively participating.
But Government of Western Australia, European office   senior trade and investment manager Stuart Russell said his country was fully subscribed to EITI.
In a presentation during the summit, Mr Russell said most developed countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America had signed many global initiatives, including EITI.
EITI deputy head and regional director for Africa and the Middle East Eddie Rich said embracing EITI would result in the local community to have a fair share of the natural resources, hence getting more countries to become members.
Mr Rich called for social relationships between the governments and mining investors by rethinking, evaluating the relationships and engaging in serious dialogue to array negative perceptions about each other.