OECD ROUNDTABLE

www.oecd.org

Established in June 1999, the Russian Corporate Governance Roundtable brings together an informal but highly influential network of Russian and international policy-makers and private sector decision-makers who seek to guide future corporate governance reform efforts.

The Roundtable aims:
(a) To improve the understanding of present governance practices, inform about ongoing initiatives and formulate practical avenues for bringing Russian corporate governance standards closer to global standards.
(b) In the process, it aspires to make visible to the international community the progress that is being made by Russian institutions, public and private.

The Russian Corporate Governance Roundtable brings together on a regular basis--twice a year--a network of the main decision-makers from the public and private sectors to provide high quality policy advice and to facilitate an exchange of multilateral experience.

This provides the main vehicle for eliciting discussion on corporate governance conditions and setting priorities for reform efforts in Russia. Meeting agendas reflect the main chapters of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (сделать ссылку на принципы ОЭСР, как было в первоначальном варианте) .

Empirical studies and other policy papers will be prepared along the same lines, providing a basis for discussion. Policy recommendations will be formulated. Participating Russian institutions may use the conclusions and recommendations from the discussion and papers to implement reforms. However, it is not the intention of the Roundtable to neither perform a detailed review of legislation nor submit amendments to the DUMA.

One of the main outputs of this process will be the adoption by the Roundtable of a White Paper, an agenda for action on corporate governance with concrete recommendations addressed to specific institutions involved in reforms. This will be of use as a source of legislative change and implementation efforts. The Paper, which uses the OECD Principles as a conceptual reference, will be submitted to Russia's government, private decision-makers as well as the international financial institutions before the end of 2001.

The main Russian institutional counterparts to this program are the Federal Securities Commission and Supreme Arbitrage (Commercial) Court. Leaders and experts from the Russian Trading System (RTS) and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), other securities markets institutions, the corporate sector, investors as well as stakeholders are actively involved. The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Trade, Ministry of State Property, and parliamentarians contribute extensively. Selected legal, financial accounting professionals and academics also provide in-put.

Roundtable Meetings: