Few topics are more central to the international business and development agendas than that of corporate governance. A series of events over the last two decades have placed corporate governance issues as a top concern for both the international business community and the international financial institutions. Spectacular business failures such as the infamous BCCI scandal, the United States’ savings and loan crisis, and the gap between executive compensation and corporate performance drove the demand for change in developed countries. More recently, several high profile scandals in Russia and the recent Asian crisis have brought corporate governance issues to the fore in the developing countries and transitional economies. Further, national business communities are learning and re-learning the lesson that there is no substitute for getting the basic business and management systems in place in order to be competitive internationally and to attract investment.
As a result, the World Bank, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, most of the regional development banks, and the various national development agencies have either launched or expanded programs in this area in the last several years. Similarly, business-related organizations like the Center for International Private Enterprise, an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce, have placed corporate governance at the top of their list of concerns. Think tanks and business associations throughout the developing world and in the transitional economies are also focusing resources on these issues.
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