December 03, 2004 — The workshop “Corporate Groups and Related Issues” was held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) with support from the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF), a multi-donor funded initiative of the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.
The workshop brought together representatives from general corporations (GCs), their line ministries, business associations and researchers to discuss the laws and rules that govern groups of companies. In 2005, based on this and other inputs, the Law Drafting Team will propose a new Unified Enterprise Law (UEL).
The workshop benefited from the international expertise of Prof. Cally Jordan who formerly served as an advisor to the Hong Kong Government on company law reform. In her paper “Legal Approaches to Corporate Groups”, Prof. Jordan presented examples of legislation regulating groups and conglomerates in the United States of America, Europe, Japan and Korea. She also observed that countries differ considerably in how well investors, both shareholders and creditors, are protected by law. Some experts consider differences in law, and the effectiveness of law enforcement as important factors affecting capital markets and, ultimately, the countries concerned.
