VOA标准英语2013--New Standards Approved for Extractive Industries

New Standards Approved for Extractive Industries

New performance standards have been announced (5/23) for oil, gas and mining companies, requiring them to be much more transparent¹ in their business dealings.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative approved the new performance standards at a meeting in Sydney, Australia. Created in 2003, the initiative includes government, business and civil society representatives.

Among those supporting the tougher standards is Alexandra Gilles, head of governance at the Revenue Watch Institute, which monitors extraction industries.

She said, “Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or EITI, is a voluntary standard of disclosure in the oil, mining and gas sectors². The countries sign-up to the EITI and in doing so agree to release certain kinds of information about their extractive sectors.”

Up until now, the initiative simply required the release of revenue data.

“So the governments had to disclose how much money they received from oil, gas and mining companies and the companies had to disclose how much they paid to the governments. And then those two sets of figures were reconciled by an independent auditor³. So, it was a really important step forward in terms of advancing transparency and knowing how much money enters into these governments, she said.

But Gilles said that wasn’t enough to ensure complete transparency.

“As we know, the oil, gas and mining industries are very complicated and involve a whole series of decisions that have to be made in order for countries to really benefit from these resources.”

Under the new standards companies will release information on production volumes, corporate⁴ social responsibility payments and money transfers from national to local governments. They also call for countries to disclose all the licenses⁵ they’ve awarded.

“This sounds really basic,” she said, “but in a number of countries, such as Kazakhstan and Mozambique, we don’t even know which companies hold licenses.” 

She said that in the past, the EITI did a poor job of monitoring national oil companies. She describes them as the dominant⁶ players in such countries as Iraq and Nigeria.

“In resource rich countries, there are over one billion people living on less than five dollars a day. So, there’s this huge development challenge to turn oil, gas and mine resources into development outcomes in order to reduce poverty and increase economic growth. Now that only happens if these resources are managed properly,”

Nearly 40 countries, including the United States, are part of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. For some, there’ll be about a year-long transition period to meet all the new requirements.

1 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 auditor   

n.审计员，旁听着

参考例句：

• The auditor was required to produce his working papers.那个审计员被要求提供其工作底稿。
• The auditor examines the accounts of all county officers and departments.审计员查对所有县官员及各部门的帐目。

4 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

5 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

6 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。