Mr. Matthiew Saloon, a senior advisor of Transparency International (TI), analyzed at a press conference on May 24 before the Dialogue that the mining industry is a corruption-prone sector due to such factors as large investment, exclusive advantages, while the watchdog role of social organizations has not been promoted effectively. Corruption in the mining sector makes benefits not going to the Government’s budget and people. If the Government’s management capacity is weak, “the resource curse” can easily occur.
Mineral exploitation in Cao Bang Photo: Kien Trung
Mr. Salomon took an example of Indonesia, where the most resources-rich provinces are also the ones with the highest poverty rate, instable political system and frequent social conflicts. In contrast, Mrs. Thea Martine Ottmann, the First Secretary of Norwegian Embassy, shared her view that Norway is an example of success in the transfer of wealth in natural resources into national prosperity thanks to political commitments, good governance and more attention being paid to social welfare for people.
How Vietnam can turn “the resource curse” into an advantage like Norway is also the main purpose of the 9th Anti-corruption Dialogue. In the Dialogue, there were some speeches of the Office of the Central Steering Committee about corruption prevention, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Government Inspectorate for corruption prevention in the state management of mineral resources, in the exploitation and processing of natural resources, violations of mechanisms and policies in mining exploitation as well as social consequences of corruption in mineral mining.
The key theme of this Anti-corruption Dialogue is transparency and accountability. The Swedish Ambassador, Mr. Staffan Herrstroem stated that it is a method to completely combat corruption in every field. “The Government should create favorable conditions for all individuals and organizations to participate. Mass media are Government’s friends in corruption detection”, he added.
“Ensuring stable access to information for all citizens is extremely important because corruption prevention is a task requiring the participation of all stakeholders and any government cannot fight it alone by itself”, Swedish Ambassador said.
Source in Vietnamese: http://vacne.org.vn/default.aspx?newsid=5924