Published 07-22-05
Submitted by East-West Management Institute
The survey was conducted by PFS Program interns Szymon Gawel, Monika Sowinska and Dominika Sipowicz.
The survey analyzes companies' disclosures in English on the English-language company website and in the English-language annual report during April 2005. It documents a generally similar level of disclosure on company websites to that observed in August 2004 across all three information categories analyzed - corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. However, in certain countries, availability of English-language websites has increased. Also, corporate governance codes significantly impact reporting on corporate governance issues in certain countries.
In Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia all 10 of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; however, companies in Latvia and Lithuania generally did not disclose information on all three categories surveyed. In Hungary, nine of the 10 companies have an English-language website. In general, companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia disclosed the most information online. The level of disclosure decreased in Bulgaria and Romania, perhaps due to the fact that due to changes in market capitalization the universe of companies surveyed changed significantly. Approximately half of the companies in each country were surveyed for the first time. By contrast, the level of disclosure improved in Croatia.
Survey findings include the following:
Starting today, the survey is available online at: http://www.pfsprogram.org/capitalmarkets_research.php
About the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program
The Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program, established in December 1999, is a cooperative program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and several other institutions, including East-West Management Institute (EWMI), a New York-based non-profit organization. EWMI implements the regional component of the PFS Program.
From late 1999 until April 2004, the PFS Program was active in five Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Under a grant from the United States Department of State, the PFS Program remained active in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania until March 31, 2005. USAID is currently assessing the potential expansion of the PFS Program to several Southeastern European (SEE) countries.
The PFS Program is mandated to fill remaining gaps in the institutional development of the financial sector through regional integration and cooperation, selective technical assistance programs and the practical application of lessons learned in neighboring countries. The substantive areas covered under the PFS Program are: accounting, auditing, banking, capital markets, insurance and pension reform. For more information, please visit the PFS Program website at http://www.pfsprogram.org.
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