Round Table discusses Corporate Governance

(Washington, Sept. 7, 2012).- The Organization of American States (OAS), along with CAF –development bank of Latin America–, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) organized a round table focused on the importance of corporate governance in debt issuance. This topic has become more relevant during the last three year’s financial crisis.

A research project by Brazil’s Uberlândia University Professor Germano Mendes de Paula on corporate governance in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico was presented at the event. ECLAC’s Georgina Núñez and CAF’s Andrés Oneto were the publication’s coordinators.

The publication is a joint effort by ECLAC, IDB and CAF to identify corporate governance key elements for risk assessment in debt instruments’ issuance.

In his welcome address, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza highlighted the importance of corporate governance in debt issuance, for its fundamental role in making available for companies “more diversification in financing, investment facilities, more competitiveness, better positioning before competitors and in value chains, increased liquidity and global performance.”

The first panel, moderated by Tulane University Latin American Economy Professor Nora Lustig, included Secretary General Insulza, CAF President Enrique García, and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, with ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena joining in by videoconference.

García said Latin American economies are enjoying one of the best periods in the last decades, which in part is due to progress in macroeconomic stability in the region. However, he said, “there is life beyond macroeconomic stability.” Improving corporate governance is key for companies “to be able to have not only an appropriate business structure, but also access to resources beyond their own savings.”

Moreno pointed out a current paradox in Latin American economies, based on “the huge amount of international reserves we have today.” He said, “suddenly, thanks to macroeconomic stability, we started to accumulate savings, and we still do not have mechanisms to unload those savings into the production sector, the one that has to grow the most.” He said improving corporate governance would help solve that paradox and also create a virtuous circle: “When companies start giving an honest disclosure of their balances, they immediately become companies that pay taxes much better than in the past.”

Finally, Bárcena said “good corporate governance is a central factor in the development of capital markets, and has to play a very important role in long term financing.”