Cambodia Stock Exchange to Push Transparency

When the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) was officially launched on Jul. 11 there were no companies listed because of a drive to ensure that everything was above board. "We want to assure full transparency," says Huot Pum, the deputy director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia. "Financial information has to be audited and disclosed regularly." "Companies listed on the stock exchange have to live up to international standards," Pum explained to IPS during an interview in his Phnom Penh office. "The stock exchange is a good way of ensuring sound corporate governance. It could help set the tone for a better corporate culture." Trading is expected to begin later this year once the three state-owned firms that have announced plans to list on the CSX have met "international auditing standards." The companies are Telecom Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and Sihanoukville Autonomous Ports. Using the CSX to nudge the country’s small economic and financial sector go down the road to accountability cannot help resolve problems of poor governance, cautions the World Bank. "Stock markets are not a panacea for poor governance environments," says Mathew Verghis, lead economist for Southeast Asia at the Bank’s regional office in Bangkok Marwaan Macan-Markar, IPS News

 Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.ipsnews.net/2011/07/cambodia-stock-exchange-to-push-transparency/