The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – the suitable approach towards more transparency in Chile’s natural resource management?

The effective, long-term management of natural resource wealth represents a big challenge for extractive countries like the Republic of Chile. The blessing of commodity abundance is accompanied by a phenomenon referred to as the resource curse. The implied limited economic growth and the general tendency towards opaque, exclusive and corrupt dynamics present in the extractive business foster the necessity for a strong transparency framework. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has dedicated its efforts to this problem and has established an international standard for data availability and civil society participation along the extractive value chain. Analyzing the effectiveness and suitability of this approach for the achievement of greater transparency in the Chilean mineral resource management, it will be found that the EITI represents the appropriate basis for enhancing commodity governance. However, it will turn out that Chile’s individual motivation and consistency are vital for the initiative’s success. This thesis provides a general assessment of the subject. Further research would be required in order to provide a precise evaluation