New Zealand’s affiliation with a new global corporate secretaries group will give the country a say in the establishment of international best practice corporate governance.
The Geneva-based Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) was launched late last week and represents more than 70,000 governance professionals in more than 70 countries.
The organisation is designed to provide a global focus on improving corporate governance practices, linking professionals with worldwide organisations such as the WTO, WorldBank and the UN.
While corporate secretary associations and institutes from countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, India and UK have signed on as full CSIA members, New Zealand’s professional body has joined as an affiliate member alongside Canada and the US.
Chartered Secretaries New Zealand president Dev Oza told NBR the local division of the international Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators had been working well since it opened in 1937, but joining as an affiliate with the new organisation gave it a wider scope to determine local best practise.
“The institute is an England-based body and primarily represented in countries that have been part of the British commonwealth, so this allows us to deal with a huge, like-minded organisation outside the traditional areas.”
Mr Oza said the newly formed association would allow New Zealand’s corporate governance professionals to work more closely with those countries to develop new practises and tools.
“It will also allow us to have input into areas such as harmonisation, so that things like the qualifications we provide here in New Zealand can be recognised in more countries around the world.”
In launching the CSIA, global president April Chan said corporate governance was under the spotlight after the “serious governance failings” that had contributed to and sustained the financial crisis.
But the need for a global group had been in the works since before the global crisis, according to Mr Oza.
“This is the culmination of work that started five years ago and it’s a giant leap forward for the business of governance, both here and overseas. In New Zealand we have seen the spectacular failure of some finance companies and the best practice governance that will be implemented by this group should help prevent that happening again.”
Robert Smith
Mon, 29 Mar 2010