Interview with Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute (OSI), a foundation funded almost entirely by billionaire investor George Soros, has spent the last six years working to give civil society a louder voice in Angola. But in the last three months it has also begun negotiating directly with the Angolan government in an effort to encourage transparency in the oil- and diamond-rich country. OSI's president Aryeh Neier, on his first visit to Angola, spoke to IRIN about the "publish what you pay" campaign and the "curse" of over-reliance on high-value primary commodities like oil. QUESTION: Why is the issue of transparency so important for Angola? ANSWER: Angola is precisely the kind of country that we are particularly concerned with, a country that ought to be very wealthy; ought to be able to provide basic services to its population; ought to be able to provide education, public health and a variety of municipal services. Yet you have this contradiction in Angola of great wealth on the one hand, and great poverty on the other hand. This is a troubled country, a country that is resource-rich, but where most of its people seem to live in great poverty. There hasn't been a way to make the benefits of the resources available to the population as a whole. Our feeling is that quite a lot of countries that have very large mineral reserves suffer from the same problem. Angola is a prime example of a country that seems to suffer from the "resource curse". Another characteristic of Angola is that it suffered from military conflict over an extended period and, whatever other elements there were to the military conflict, it seemed to be sustained by the question of control of resources. Angola has been as, if not more, affected than the other countries that have this problem. Q: What is OSI doing to improve transparency in Angola? A: Internationally we are a leading member of a coalition of more than 100 organisations referred to as "publish what you pay". We have been attempting to negotiate an agreement with the government for greater transparency, in terms of bringing in the revenue and expending the revenue. Negotiations have been underway now for two or three months between a representative of the OSI, our executive vice-president, and individuals associated with [state oil company] Sonangol and the Ministry of Finance. Q: How are negotiations progressing? A: Sometimes they seem to move forward, sometimes they seem to move backward. You never can tell about a negotiation until it's concluded. I can't go into it in detail because we don't have an agreement. There are discussions that are ongoing but ... it is impossible to say what the elements of it will be until an agreement is actually concluded. Q: Why should the Angolan government listen to you? What are the benefits to the government of being more transparent? A: The government has, at least for the next two or three years, significant financial problems. Before it is able to benefit substantially from oil revenues, it desperately needs international funding, and I don't think it can get that international funding unless it moves forward on the question of transparency. We're taking advantage of the government's interest in getting international financial support by trying to get a good agreement on transparency. [We would] then advertise that agreement to the international financial institutions and the international donor community, and in that way assist the government of Angola in meeting its short-term needs. If the government goes along with an agreement and shows that it is complying ... then we would try to assist the government with the international financial institutions. [We would work] as a go-between, and we would use whatever credibility we had with the financial institutions to suggest that a transparency agreement is in place and is working. Q: There have been many calls in the past for increased transparency in Angola. Why should this plea from OSI have any more chance of success? A: I don't have a reason to expect it to be any different. On the other hand, I think it's worth making an effort to try to enhance transparency, and enhance the distribution of resources in ways that improve lives of ordinary Angolans. Q: What influence do you think the chairman of OSI, George Soros, may have on the negotiations? Would he consider investing in Angola if the country cleaned up its act? A: There is no question that the fact that George Soros is known internationally as a very large investor is one of the incentives for the government of Angola to negotiate with us. Clearly, his reputation as an investor is something that the Angolan government would like to capitalise on. I think they imagine that if he were to invest, it would encourage others to invest. George Soros is known in the investment industry for having a shadow. Others like to follow in his footsteps. He does not now have any investments in Angola but I think if there were heightened transparency and good faith in compliance, I imagine that it would make Angola more attractive to him, and more attractive to many other investors. He hasn't expressed specific interest in investing in Angola, but his firm is always looking for investment opportunities and steers clear of certain instances in which there is no transparency, no ability to determine whether contracts will be honoured, or the rule of law enforced. Q: How optimistic are you that the government will sign this transparency agreement? A: I don't know the government. I don't have a way of estimating whether [it] is prepared to sign the agreement. I don't know whether the people who have been involved in the negotiations have the necessary clout within the government to be able to deliver on the agreement. I'm always hopeful. That doesn't mean I'm necessarily confident. The end of the conflict provides an opportunity. It's our hope that this opportunity will not be allowed to slide by. Previously there were always justifications for the diversion of the wealth derived from resources, because of the need to maintain the conflict. There is no such justification that can be offered at this moment, when the conflict is over. This is the time, if ever there was a time, to make the wealth derived from resources public, and to see to it that that wealth is used for the benefit of the people of Angola.