Development ministers highlight the issue of transparency as the G8 set to meet in a few weeks time.
(Lille, 21/05/2013)
Transparency should be higher on the development agenda according to both French and British development Ministers, Pascal Canfin and Justine Greening (pictured), who addressed a high level seminar today in Lille, France, in which CONCORD took part.
The event comes ahead of the G8 countries meeting in the UK on 17-18 June set to discuss transparency measures for the private sector and the extractive industry. It is expected that the outcomes of this seminar will help formulate the French position on transparency in development for the next G8 summit.
The need for increased transparency – a priority for the British G8 presidency – with regards to the private sector is acutely visible in certain areas: these include increased transparency for the extractive industry, for the use of land in developing countries and on the financial flows which leave developing countries without contributing to national budgets due to tax evasion and tax avoidance.
- CONCORD Director Olivier Consolo, alongside Mr. Ibrahim Coulibaly, Vice President of ROPPA, the Western African Farmers Organisation, called on government representatives to reinforce transparency as a building block of economic democracy which still needs to be concretely addressed. Only democratic debate and control on national and international businesses will deliver sustanable changes in the way international firms behave in poor countries’ markets and societies.