The FINANCIAL — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is hosting the eighth annual Corporate Governance Forum in Ulaanbaatar on October 29 in partnership with the Corporate Governance Development Center (CGDC) to raise standards of disclosure and transparency among Mongolian companies.
This year’s half-day forum examines Mongolia’s disclosure and reporting practices and shares global best practices and trends in these areas. More than 100 participants from Mongolian listed entities and state-owned companies have attended the forum where they discuss the challenges and opportunities in corporate reporting and the quality of annual reports. Numerous studies have shown that companies with good governance typically make better decisions, perform better, and are more attractive to investors, according to IFC.
“We will focus on issues of disclosure and transparency, which is most important for good corporate governance of companies,” says Tsend-Ayush Tuvshintur, Chief Executive Officer of CGDC. “Mongolian companies need to understand the benefits of better reporting.”
Many Mongolian companies still do not produce annual reports, and those who do need to improve their quality. To raise standards, CGDC says it will organize an annual-report competition in cooperation with the Financial Regulatory Commission and the State Property Committee this year.
“Companies in emerging markets, including Mongolia, face similar challenges in terms of insufficient disclosure, but the need for disclosure and transparency will continue to rise due to tighter regulations and investors’ demand,” says Tuyen D. Nguyen, Resident Representative for IFC in Mongolia. “This forum is another step in the right direction.”
In addition to hosting the forum, IFC is supporting CGDC over the next three years to develop training programs for local consultants, deliver corporate-governance assessments for companies, and promote industry and public dialogues to encourage wider adoption of best practices such as proper public disclosure and investor protection.
Since 2009, IFC has supported Mongolia’s efforts to strengthen corporate governance. Corporate governance scorecards were developed in 2013 for Mongolia’s 20 largest listed companies, benchmarking Mongolia’s current practices to global standards. Improvements in related-party disclosures have helped Mongolia rise in the global Doing Business rankings with respect to protection of minority investors. According to the 2016 Doing Business survey, the country ranked 56th in terms of the ease of doing business globally, up three places from a year ago.
IFC’s Corporate Governance Program in East Asia and the Pacific is funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland.
Discussion about this post