Business leaders and experts from throughout the world met in London for a two-day event dealing with corporate governance regulation in a market-driven global economy, organized by the International Chamber of Commerce.
Speakers grappled with the problem of maintaining a balance between regulation and market-driven solutions to governance issues. Over the past decades developed countries have evolved what one speaker called a “hybrid solution” to the problem: in many cases a code of conduct, drawn up by the private sector, has been endorsed by governments and given legal backing.
The way ahead, said Charles Heeter and Guler Manisali-Darman, Vice Chairs of the Financial Services and Insurance Commission of ICC, was towards greater cooperation among regulators to achieve compatible approaches on common issues. Otherwise, companies with cross-border activities may face different, even conflicting, regulatory requirements in different markets. There was much work to be done. Developing countries, many of which were widely represented at the roundtable, are still at an early stage of dealing with regulation.
ICC calls on business leaders and governments to engage in discussions on how to implement sound corporate governance and work together to promote the benefits of market self-regulation and strengthen existing rules.
This was the third roundtable on corporate governance organized by ICC in the past 12 months. The roundtables have proved to be important international fora, successfully facilitating a dialogue on governance issues among business leaders and identifying practical ways to advance effective corporate governance programmes.
The previous roundtables were in Beijing in October 2004, which reviewed corporate government practices in Asian companies and in Istanbul in April 2005. The Istanbul roundtable demonstrated that, although there is not a one-size-fits-all model for good corporate governance, there are universal governance values and principles, namely accountability, responsibility, transparency and fairness. The ICC website on corporate governance,
http://www.iccwbo.org/cg.htm
contains a report on the Istanbul roundtable. A full report on the London roundtable is expected later this year.
You can learn more on good corporate governance practices by reading “Corporate Governance Worldwide” by Güler Manisali Darman, published by ICC.
ICC Commission on Financial Services and Insurance
ICC Website on Corporate Governance
