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Corporate Disclosure in Myanmar – Regulatory Requirements and Sustainability Leadership
Vicky Bowman (MCRB Director) and Nicolas Delange (Managing Director, Yever) presented today at Sule Shangri-La Hotel in Yangon a on recent developments in regulatory requirements for corporate disclosure in Myanmar, as well as local and global trends in voluntary disclosure which companies are pursuing to demonstrate corporate leadership and build trust with stakeholders.
The event was a Breakfast Talk in the Learning Series of the Myanmar Institute of Directors. Around 30 people attended from a mixture of Myanmar and foreign company backgrounds, and large and SME companies, including members and non-members of MIOD.
Vicky and Nicolas’ presentation covered the compliance requirements for disclosure stemming from the Directorate of Investment and Companies Administration, Myanmar Investment Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (who attended the talk), Central Bank of Myanmar and Environmental Conservation Department. It also addressed global corporate reporting frameworks such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Integrated Reporting and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, to which Myanmar companies could look for guidance as they started on the journey towards sustainability reporting. Some Myanmar companies are already starting to do disclose information in accordance with these guidelines.
The discussion which followed covered the process whereby investors and others do due diligence into a company that they are considering investing in or doing business with, and how regulatory compliance and systematic disclosure could aid that; and the advantages for an SME in ensuring that basic information about the company was available on a company website (starting by gathering that already in the public domain for example through DICA MyCo companies register, and the Internal Revenue Department) to ensure that potential investors and business partners could learn more about them. Other issues discussed included the importance of coordinated and consistent regulation of business by different government agencies.
MCRB and Yever are collaborating on the 2020 Pwint Thit Sa report which will assess around 250 Myanmar companies for their corporate disclosure, on which Yever contributes time pro bono.
