 A dozen countries from around West and Central Africa meet in Guinea on
Monday to discuss how they can derive greater long-term economic benefit from
their mining sectors, a senior World Bank official said.
The two-day meeting -- backed by the World Bank, the African Development
Bank, West African regional grouping ECOWAS and the French Development Agency
(AFD) -- will share ideas on improving agreements with foreign firms and
managing mining revenues.
West and Central Africa is rich in raw materials including diamonds, gold,
iron ore, bauxite and uranium, yet its countries are some of the least-developed
in the world.
"With rising commodities prices there is a lot of questioning in Africa about
revenues and the benefits that states and populations derive from the mining
sector, and how to make sure those benefits become a pillar of sustainable
development," World Bank mining expert Boubacar Bocoum said.
"Most of the large mining companies which are advancing in Africa and almost
all the financial backers in the sector will take part in the meeting," he told
Reuters in an interview in Guinea's capital, Conakry.
Bocoum said the region's mining sector sometimes lacked a consistent legal
framework, was hampered by poor infrastructure, and in some cases its
governments failed to negotiate beneficial contracts or manage revenues
effectively.
Ensuring that neighbouring countries shared a common approach to regulating
the sector was vital.
"When you talk about diamond or gold smuggling between three countries and
only one has legislation in place when its neighbours have no appropriate rules,
the smugglers will simply go there," Bocoum said.
"Often, infrastructure questions are best managed if approached from the
angle of several countries ... Alongside the regional approach, it is clearly
important to ensure that within each country measures are taken for good
governance in the sector," he said.
Guinea is the world's largest exporter of bauxite, the raw material used to
make aluminium, yet it remains one of the world's poorest countries. Many
residents even in the capital lack piped water or mains electricity.
Other countries due to take part in the forum include oil producer Nigeria,
diamond-rich Sierra Leone, Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo, uranium
producer Niger, iron ore producer Mauritania, as well as Burkina Faso, Ivory
Coast, Ghana, Mali and Senegal.
West African
nations seek more benefit from mining
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