In their final statement from the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, G8 leaders reiterated their backing of the EITI, and encouraged emerging economies and their companies to support the initiative. In June, G8 Finance Ministers and G8 Energy Ministers expressed their backing of the initiative and called for broader implementation.

At an event in London hosted by BP, Peter Eigen, Chair of the EITI and founder of Transparency International, launched a new guide for how companies can play an integral role in helping create transparency in the extractive sector. The new EITI Business Guide, a joint publication of the EITI and the International Business Leaders Forum, outlines how business can support the implementation of the EITI.

The Africa Progress Panel, an independent mechanism that monitors implementation of commitments and report on progress in Africa, recently launched its 2008 report. In the report, the panelists (including Kofi Annan, Tony Blair, Bob Geldof and Muhammad Yunus) conclude that together with the APRM, the EITI has been "successful, even groundbreaking", in its efforts to improve governance.

Welcome to the spring edition of the quarterly EITI Newsletter. We hope that this quarterly EITI newsletter will be a useful resource for readers that wish to follow recent developments in the EITI community. 3000 users have signed up to receive regular email updates - illustrating both the growing interest in EITI and the growing expectations.

The Energy Ministers of G8 plus China, India and Korea met in in Aomori, Japan on 8 June 2008. They welcomed implentation of EITI in their Joint Statement.

We welcome the efforts of countries exporting oil and gas as well as minerals that are implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) on a voluntary basis to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector.

The G8 Finance Ministers reaffirmed the G8's backing of the EITI, and called for broader implementation when they met 14 June in Osaka, Japan. In the Statement from their meeting, they said:

We affirm the importance of good financial governance, including long-term fiscal discipline for resource rich countries, and of broader implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

On 28 May 2008, members of the Commission for International Cooperation of the Spanish parliament met with EITI Chairman Peter Eigen and Sarah Wykes and Marie-Ange Kalenga of PWYP. The parlamentarians agreed to deepen the debate on future Spanish engagement with the EITI and has already asked the Spanish government to explore future steps.

At the Iraq Compact Review Conference 29 May 2008, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said: "The Government has also committed to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)." Jonas Moberg, Head of the EITI International Secretariat, welcomed Iraq's commitment to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and made the following statement:

In an op-ed piece in Financial Times 10 April, Paul Collier and Michael Spence write:

Any international standards for resource extraction must be voluntary. Fortunately, in this area voluntary standards have a good record. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, launched in 2002 as a standard for revenue reporting, has a wide take-up. Standards provide rallying points for reformers and a benchmark for performance and promote competition between governments.