DUSHANBE, January 26, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, promotes corporate governance best practices in Central Asia by introducing practical skills to develop corporate governance code to market players, press release issued by IFC Dushanbe Office on January 26 said.

The First Eurasian Workshop on Developing Corporate Governance Codes of Best Practice was held in Baku, Azerbaijan recently.

The workshop brought together government officials and private sector representatives from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic. The workshop was the first in a series promoting the development of corporate governance Code in the region, drawing on experience from both within the region and internationally. Corporate governance experts from Germany, South Africa, Bulgaria, and from the Global Corporate Governance Forum shared their practical experience with the participants.

After the workshop the participants decided to organize a round table in Tajikistan and invite to a discussion on the national corporate governance code representatives of the Government of Tajikistan, private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders.

According to IFC’s Legal Advisor Saidahmad Ikromov, who led the Tajik delegation at the workshop, a national corporate governance code plays an important role in addressing governance challenges, faced by Tajik companies. “Though some Tajik companies have their internal corporate governance code, there is no national corporate governance code effective in Tajikistan. We hope that its development will promote making the local companies more competitive at both local and international markets and enable environment for attraction of investments” – added he.

“The workshop was really useful, because we learnt what practical steps need to be taken, what stages should be passed and who should be involved in the working group while developing corporate governance code of best practice. I am grateful to IFC for providing such an opportunity and for its contribution to the sustainable economic development of Tajikistan”, said Valery Kim, Head of Legal Department of Tajikistan Banks Association, a participant of the workshop.

In 2007, IFC launched the Central Asia Corporate Governance Project to improve practices at local joint-stock companies and banks, helping them enhance operations and increase their ability to attract financing and investment.

To date, the project has made the following achievements: consulted or trained more than 1,100 individuals from more than 300 companies in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic on improving corporate governance practices; held the first-ever training for regional educators on corporate governance in June 2008 to help develop educational curricula related to corporate governance; key participants in a working group that drafted annotated comments to the Kazakhstan Model Corporate Governance Code, which were officially adopted in July 2007; helped the Kyrgyz government to clarify director liability, shareholder rights and information disclosure in the legislation, which entered into law in June 2008; and the Kazakhstan team held the first-ever round tables on corporate governance-related legal issues that had the participation of a Kazakh Supreme Court judge, commercial court judges and practicing attorneys.

The IFC Global Corporate Governance Forum is an IFC multi-donor trust fund facility, co-founded by the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1999. The forum aims to promote the private sector as an engine of growth, reduce the vulnerability of developing and transition economies to financial crisis, and provide incentives for corporations to invest and perform efficiently in a socially responsible manner. It sponsors regional and local initiatives that address the corporate governance weaknesses of middle- and low-income countries in the context of broader national or regional economic reform programs. Donors include IFC and the governments of Canada, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.