Corporate Governance: Improving Competitiveness and Access to Capital in Global Markets

Through its impact on corporate competitiveness and access to global capital markets, corporate governance plays an increasingly important role for entrepreneurship, economic growth and employment. In its report to the OECD, the Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance emphasizes that while corporate governance should remain primarily a private sector prerogative, governments have a distinct and important responsibility in providing a regulatory framework that allows investors and enterprises to adapt corporate governance practices to rapidly changing circumstances. There is no static or final structure in corporate governance that every country or corporation should emulate: experimentation and variety should be expected and encouraged within the limits of credible regulations emphasizing fairness, transparency, accountability and responsibility. Within this framework, the Advisory Group presents the perspectives that it believes should guide public policies related to corporate governance, suggests areas for private sector voluntary action and recommends further actions by the OECD to help articulate a set of common principles guiding national policy reviews and reforms.