Corporate governance seminar

Opening remarks by Emmanuel Maurice, General Counsel: The Corporate Goverance Seminar
London, 23 September 2003

I would like to welcome you all to today's seminar. The main purpose of this event is to share with you the results of our Corporate Governance Sector Assessment Project and to discuss corporate governance issues arising from our assessment.

The Corporate Governance Sector Assessment is a new tool developed by the EBRD for assessing the state of legal transition in Eastern Europe and the CIS. It focuses on the "laws on the books", i.e. it analyses the quality of legislation vis-à-vis the standards set by the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

Of course, laws on the books are only one part of the story, and in order to paint a fair picture, there is a need to also consider implementation of the laws in practice. The Bank has developed other tools to assess this aspect: since 1995 the Legal Indicator Survey has tested the perception of local practitioners and has allowed the Bank to assess the effectiveness of laws in the region.

The concept of good corporate governance is at the heart of all our activities here at EBRD but principally in the activities of EBRD as a financier and as a law reformer.

As a financier, EBRD is very interested in promoting better standards of corporate governance because it typically acquires minority shareholders positions in its investments or often co-invests with minority shareholders. Strong corporate governance practices are directly related to the "sound banking principles" that the Bank is using in its investment operations.

As a law reformer, the Bank is also actively engaged in promoting better corporate governance rules at country level, the most recent achievement being the assistance provided in 2002 to the Russian Federal Commission for Securities Markets in developing a Corporate Governance Code. The Code is broadly based on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

In a moment, my colleagues will present the results of the Corporate Governance Sector Assessment, and will explain how factors such as legislative history, legal tradition or even EU accession prospects have had an impact on the quality of corporate governance legislation in our region.

You will see that the assessment results can be surprising at times; they reveal how some countries which are less advanced in economic or transition terms have put in place quasi state-of-the-art legislation, and others which are faring better in economic terms still need to improve their laws on the books. All this complex environment has been analysed in detail and will be presented to you now.

Now, I would like hand over to Gerard, who will introduce the speakers of today's seminar. Once again, welcome to EBRD and I hope you will find this seminar useful.