International Development and Programs (Development Work) - International Development and Programs (Development Work)

USAID - Corporate Governance in Macedonia. An Analysis of Non-Listed Joint Stock Companies. OECD International Meeting on Corporate Governance of Non-Listed Companies, Istanbul, Turkey. Gregory Maassen and Samir Latif.

This analysis provides an overview of recent corporate governance developments affecting non-listed joint stock companies in Macedonia. The report summarizes the findings of corporate governance surveys, reviews the latest legal developments in commercial legislation affecting corporate governance standards, and describes the steps that have been taken by the Macedonian government, the donor community, and the private sector to improve corporate governance standards of Macedonian non-listed joint stock companies.

The authors would like to acknowledge Janet Katz, Bob Singletary, Wade Channel and Darrel Brown for their contribution to research papers and surveys used for this paper. The statistical analysis of joint stock companies in this paper is derived from a research paper written by Tom Carson and Gregory Maassen for the OECD and USAID in 2003.

The OECD has played an important role in recent corporate governance developments in Macedonia. On June 19, 2003, the OECD participated in the “National Conference on the OECD White Paper on Corporate Governance for South Eastern Europe” organized by the Ministry of Economy and the Macedonia Corporate Governance and Company Law Project (USAID – CG&CL project).

The conference, held in Skopje, presented the official Macedonian translation of the White Paper as part of a drafting process that would ultimately result in a new Company Law in May 2004. The 5th OECD Southeastern Europe Corporate Governance Roundtable was held on June 10-11, 2004 in Ohrid – Macedonia, in cooperation with the Macedonian Corporate Governance Council (established in January 2004), the Ministry of Economy and USAID – CG&CL Project. During this conference, the Macedonian delegation introduced a new company law based on OECD corporate governance principles and EU company law directives.