Submitted by Andre Hofer, Jun 7, 2007 06:31

Besides the comments made by Amanda, the proposed support of the PWYP Initiative would not necessarily help in avoiding the economic effects that the author mentions. Indeed, Gabon has signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and did publish (twice) its revenues, while the operating companies published their payments. However, transparency movements do not regulate spending patterns by the governments. Dutch disease effects, while being a sign of sub-optimal managed oil revenues, are not necessarily connecetd with corruption and theft. In fact, this phenomenon was discovered / studied first after the open and democratic Netherlands (it's all in a name) made substantial natural gas sales and experienced then a decline of their manufacturing sector.

So, not everything can be explained with some sinister and evil dictators and corruption. The problems that oil economies face are more complicated, and just publishing the numbers, while being a step, is certainly not the whole story.

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