KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. The government is accelerating programs to increase the transparency of beneficial ownership of companies. It is one of the requirements in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI).
EITI or Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is an internationally developed standard to promote transparency of oil, gas, and mining revenues. EITI published a roadmap of beneficial ownership transparency in early 2017.
Minister of National Planning and Development (PPN) / Head of Bappenas, Bambang Brojonegoro, said, as a member of the G20, Indonesia has agreed on the high-level principle of beneficial ownership transparency. This principle emphasizes the importance of transparency and availability of accurate beneficial ownership information to be accessed by authorized institutions.
“The roadmap is the beginning of the big beneficial ownership transparency agenda, whereas of January 1, 2020, in which EITI implementing countries must open data covering the names, nationalities, and countries of origin of the beneficial owners of the mining and oil and gas industry,” said Bambang at the Global Conference on Beneficial Ownership Transparency. At the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta, Monday (23/10).
Apart from beneficial ownership data, the government also encourages a better data system on natural resources, financial data, tax data, and one map policy.
“We realize that beneficial ownership data, Natural Resources data, map data, and good tax data are some of the prerequisites for accelerating the use of an evidence-based policy approach in policymaking and development priorities,” he said.
According to Bambang, this transparency is also in line with the government’s efforts to encourage investment convenience. Growing investor confidence must be accompanied by efforts to deliver investments with integrity and quality.
“The government must avoid any indication that the ease of investing is made a space for perpetrators of corruption crimes to take personal benefits. One of the efforts made is to encourage disclosure of who owns a company that will invest. Beneficial ownership transparency can provide further benefits for companies operating in Indonesia, including reducing financial risks,” he explained.