ANKARA
Representatives from advanced and emerging economies met in Istanbul on Friday to discuss how good corporate governance can encourage investment.
In his speech, Vahdettin Ertas,the head of Turkey's Capital Markets Board, said that more than seven years after the financial crisis began, overcoming the legacies of the crisis remains high on the agenda of the global economy.
"The challenge is to support economic growth and job creation, while reducing the heavy national debt burden," he added.
Despite all measures taken, economic growth and inflation in the developed economies, notably in the EU, are still not at desired levels. Many countries could not come out of the recession in spite of their negative interest rate policies. Particularly, youth unemployment rates have reached to 20-30 per cent levels in some economies.
Turkey's Capital Markets Board strongly advocates that creating an appropriate environment encouraging private sector investment is crucial for making high growth sustainable in the country.
"And to make this happen, we have recently made major changes in tax laws to strengthen the equity structures of our companies and incentivize corporations’ use of equity finance through public offerings," Ertas said.
Ertas added that adoption and implementation of good corporate governance standards is of vital importance to avoid a new financial crisis, to ensure investors’ confidence in the capital markets, so that corporations can use capital markets to finance their investments.
"The new OECD Principles of Corporate Governance is much more important for emerging market companies. In order to reduce their dependence on short-term bank loans and attract the attention of global institutional investors, they have to adopt and implement internationally accepted corporate governance practices. As the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, we are committed to fulfil our own responsibilities. By introducing mandatory Corporate Governance Principles with our new Capital Markets Law in recent years, we have strengthened our corporate governance framework.There has been significant progress, but globally we still have a long way to go. I believe that the new OECD Principles will provide us with important and helpful guidance," Ertas added.
"Improvement in corporate governance practices, capital market institutions and regulations can facilitate access to capital for growth companies," Hideki Kanda from the University of Tokyo, said.
OECD Principles of Corporate Governance includes ensuring the basis for an effective corporate governance framework, the rights and equitable treatment of shareholders and key ownership functions, disclosure and transparency, the role of stakeholders.
Turkey assumed the G20 presidency last December, vowing to fight global inequality. Around 13,000 people, including a number of world leaders, are expected to attend the G20 Leaders' Summit to be held in Turkey's southwestern coastal province of Antalya in November 2015, according to Turkish officials.
