OECD technical mission assesses Romania's progress with corporate governance

 A technical evaluation mission of the Secretariat of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) took place on January 20-23 at the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG).According to SGG, the major objective of the mission was to analyse and evaluate the implementation by Romania, as a candidate state, of the OECD recommendations in the field of corporate governance that address both private sector companies on the Romanian capital market and state-owned enterprises.OECD experts analysed the alignment of national legislation, policies and practices with the organisation's standards related to the implementation of the three components in the field: the Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises, the Guidelines on Combating Corruption and Integrity in State-Owned Enterprises and G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2023At the discussions, the General Secretariat of the Government was represented by Deputy Secretary General of the Government Adrian Tutuianu, who reaffirmed Romania's firm commitment to achieving the objective of joining the OECD by 2026.He presented the progress made by Romania in order to achieve the OECD standards and recommendations in the field of corporate governance, as well as the actions moving forward for the preparation of the technical evaluations that will take place at the organisation's headquarters in Paris. In the spring of this year, the presentations of the OECD Secretariat's conclusions on this area of assessment will take place at the Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices (March) and the Corporate Governance Committee (April) meetings.During this mission to Bucharest, the OECD delegation was made up of Sara Sultan, Head of the State-Owned Enterprises Unit - OECD; Emeline Denis and Tiziana Londero, both policy analysts in the Corporate Governance Unit, Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division, Financial Affairs and Enterprise Department.The General Secretariat of the Government is the national institutional focal point in Romania for the relationship with the OECD Committee on Corporate Governance and organised at the Victoria Palace meetings with both experts and, throughout the week, officials of the relevant public bodies as well as actors from the Romanian business community, namely: the Association of Fund Managers in Romania, Association of Independent Administrators Romania, AMCHAM Romania, Romanian Association for Investor Relations, National Integrity Agency, AMEPIP, Pluri consulting, Financial Oversight Authority, Authority for Public Supervision of Statutory Audit Activity, Bucharest Stock Exchange, Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors, Court of Accounts of Romania, National Anticorruption Directorate, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Energy, Commercial Court of Bucharest, Transgaz, Transelectrica, Teraplast, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Company of Highways and Road Infrastructure, Franklin Templeton/Fondul Proprietatea, Association for Privately Administered Pensions in Romania and NN Pensii.Romania is in the process of joining OECD, currently being at the stage of providing additional technical information, organising fact-finding missions and subsequent evaluation in the 26 committees of the organisation.