World Bank Group Proposes Reforms for Extractive Industry Investments

Joseph O'Keefe
Phone: 202-458-4032
Cell: 202-413-5109

Ludwina Joseph
Phone: 202-473-7700
Cell: 202-294-4699

WASHINGTON, 18 June 2004 – A wide-ranging reform proposal for the World Bank Group’s activities in the extractive industries--oil, gas, and mining--was released by the Bank on Friday.

The proposal, released at the request of the Board of Executive Directors, will be available for public comment for 30 days, in order to have the benefit of additional views before the Board considers the substance of the draft. The Board will meet at the conclusion of the comment period to consider all views and to authorize an official Bank response.

Among the reforms being proposed:

• Using explicit good governance indicators in assessing and designing projects;
• Ensuring broad community support for projects prior to an investment decision;
• Committing to a target of at least 20 percent average growth annually in both the energy efficiency and renewable energy portfolio commitments, over the next five years;
• Designing projects to ensure local communities and poorer segments of the population benefit;
• Reducing the risk that extractive industry revenues will be misused by requiring disclosure of revenue figures and the key terms of relevant contracts for all large projects that benefit from Bank Group support;
• Increasing investment in natural gas projects.

The full proposal, encompassing a response to both internal and external reviews, can be found at: www.worldbank.org/ogmc

Public comments on the proposal can be submitted via: eirmanagement@worldbank.org, or www.worldbank.org/eirresponse.Additional information about the various extractive industries reviews can be found at the following web addresses:

The independent consultation with stakeholders led by Dr. Emil Salim:
http://www.eireview.org;

The internal joint review by the World Bank Group's evaluation units (OED/OEG/OEU) of past activities of the WBG in the sector is available at http://www.ifc.org/oeg.

The review by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s office of eight recent private-sector investment projects by the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency, the private-sector lending arms of the World Bank Group is available at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/.