Sri Lanka's Institute of Chartered Accountants (CA Sri Lanka) recently published its revised Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance 2017.

Speaking at the launch event outgoing president of CA Sri Lanka Lasantha Wickremasinghe said that good corporate governance can contribute greatly to a country such as Sri Lanka, which was going through a phase of revival. He noted that with Sri Lanka being promoted as a hub in South Asia, and with more investments coming into the country, there was a greater need for organisations to follow the corporate governance code.

Asite Talwatte, chairman of CA Sri Lanka's corporate governance committee said the code of 2017 built on the previous codes to strengthen best practice in governance in the context of global developments relevant to Sri Lanka, emerging contemporary matters of governance and challenges with greater importance to the Sri Lankan capital market.

“Securities regulations, accounting standards, audits & assurance standards, company law and other industry-specific laws have the force of legislation. Governance, on the other hand, is a voluntary code by which corporates demonstrate their commitment to strategy and execution in a sustainable manner complying with these laws and regulations, with the right set of skills, knowledge and expertise on its boards, thereby delivering results ethically, and recognising all significant stakeholders interests," Talwatte added.

Wickremasinghe said: “CA Sri Lanka is proud to be the pioneer in introducing corporate governance to Sri Lanka. The first Code was issued in December 1997 and was subsequently updated in 2003, 2008, and 2013. But, corporate governance is a dynamic force that keeps evolving, therefore taking into consideration the global changes and the need to adhere to these changes locally, we decided to update the existing Code by accommodating most of the good governance principals.”

Thilak Karunaratne, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka,  said that corporate governance in Sri Lanka had come a long way and the current revision of the code was relevant and timely. He commended CA Sri Lanka for taking the important step to revise the Code to stay abreast of the global corporate governance standards while emphasising that the revised Code also helped foster ethical business behaviour and greater accountability and transparency.