The Canadian mining industry says it welcomes the G8’s announcement Friday to introduce new transparency laws that would require oil, gas and mining companies to disclose the payments they make to governments.

In a communiqué published to mark the end of their meeting in Deauville, France, G8 leaders for the first time committed “to setting in place transparency laws and regulations…that require or encourage oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose the payments they make to governments.”

Such transparency laws would require extractive companies to publish details of the payments they make to governments for the exploitation of minerals around the world, observers say.

“It’s something we welcome,” said Scott Jobin-Bevans, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, which represents Canadian mining companies, many of which operate abroad.

“Most of the (global mining) industry is not involved in paying off governments to do deals. We work to build clinics and schools in other countries,” he said.

“Every mining company in Canada is public and has to be transparent, so this is another step forward” in regulating it, he added.

The U.S. and Hong Kong already have mandatory requirements in place that force extractive companies to publish details of payments they make to governments as a condition of their listing on the New York and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

Mining industry critics says the G8 endorsement would allow for greater scrutiny of companies’ payments, thereby helping combat cases of corruption in which the citizens of resource-rich countries aren’t able to benefit from their country’s natural resource wealth.

“It’s good news as far as far as it goes,” said Jamie Kneen, spokesman for industry watchdog Mining Watch Canada.

“We need it to move more quickly to make a difference,” he said.

The G8 pledge follows an announcement by the European Commission that it will bring forward legislative proposals in October for the enactment of transparency laws.