ANKARA — Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz has joined Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria to present the newly revised G20 Principles of Corporate Governance. Corporate governance is a set of rules to ensure that companies are run fairly and equitably. “The demands of investors on companies are quite rational: More transparency, more accountability and more effective corporate governance,” state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Yilmaz as saying at the presentation of the rules in Ankara on Sept. 5. Yilmaz added: “Speaking as the G20 Chair this year [under the Turkish presidency of the G20], the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance will provide a significant contribution to the G20 priority of facilitating the companies' access to finance through capital markets and thus supporting investment as a powerful driver of growth.” G20 finance ministers have already endorsed the new set of corporate governance principles. In a statement accompanying the announcement, the G20 Finance Ministers said: “Sound corporate governance is seen as an essential element for promoting capital-market based financing and unlocking investment, which are keys to boosting long-term economic growth.” “In today's global and highly interconnected world of business and finance, creating trust is something that we need to do together,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said. “The new G20/OECD Principles represent a shared understanding of what constitutes good corporate governance. Now the priority is to put the Principles to good use and ensure better functioning financial markets.” There is a shared belief among the members of the Group of 20 leading economies in the need to “double down” against competitive currency devaluation and avoid it in both policy and language, a senior US Treasury official told Reuters on Sept. 5. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Ankara, the official said the final communique from the meeting was expected to address competitive devaluation, where countries attempt to drive down a currency to boost exports. “You can make policy decisions that lead to competitive devaluation, (or) you can say things that lead to talking down a currency,” the official said. “There is a shared sense that the G20 needs to double down on its principle that competitive devaluation is a bad thing.” Currencies have come into sharp focus at the G20 meeting, after China devalued the yuan in a surprise move in August, sparking market turmoil. But Beijing appears to have learned about the importance of transparency in the communication of monetary policy from its latest market turmoil, the official said. Meanwhile, markets have priced in a US interest rate hike and are unlikely to see big spillovers from policy normalization in the world's largest economy, South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene told Reuters on Sept. 5. “The communication and the cooperation that we've been having from the US has actually helped,” Nene said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Ankara. “That is why I don't think it's ... an issue that might have huge, unexpected spillovers.” — Agencies
