On 30 August, in Okhtyrka, Sumy Oblast, the representatives of local government, extractive companies, the public and the local media discussed the problems of extractive sector in the Okhtyrka raion at a roundtable Transparency of Oil and Gas Industry in Okhtyrka Raion: a Road to Prosperity of Communities.
The roundtable opened with welcoming remarks from Zoia Sakovych, chief of administrative services at the Raion Council, who underlined the need for addressing the problems of the oil and gas industry in the Okhtyrka raion.
Experts of the NOVA Energiya NGO familiarized the attendees with the main results of the second EITI Report for Ukraine for 2014-2015 and shared the experience of implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in other countries. The experts have also told about the examples of effective collaboration between extractive companies, local governments, and the public for the purpose of implementation of social projects and development of the regions, and also discussed the situation with assuring transparency in operations of extractive companies at the local level, and the rational use of rent payments.
The Chairman of the Board of the NOVA Energiya NGO, Vitalii Filenko, and the Subgrant Manager at NOVA Energiya NGO, Olena Agapova have told the roundtable participants about the international standard of effective management of resources of extractive regions and distribution of the rent for use of subsoil resources for extraction of hydrocarbons to local budgets in 2018.
Yurii Buts, an expert with NOVA Energiya NGO has highlighted the issues of environmental safety in extractive regions.
The participants have discussed the problems of the extractive sector in the Okhtyrka raion, and the representatives of local government have received recommendations for developing their own plans for improving energy efficiency of settlements and raions, for implementation of which they could use the financial resources from rent payments by extractive companies paid into local budgets starting in 2018.
Glyanec