On June 7, 2018 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) published the January-March 2018 edition of its Corporate Governance Updates Newsletter. The newsletter reports that in March 2018 a year-long effort in Kazakhstan led to the country becoming the first in the Central Asia to adopt ESG reporting standards.
“In a first for the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange has approved a methodology for ESG reporting, which now becomes the standard for listed companies. While voluntary for the time being, these reporting requirements will become mandatory beginning in 2020. The adoption of the reporting standards is the culmination of a year-long effort, initiated by the stock exchange. The work brought together IFC’s ESG experts and stock exchange representatives, who developed a document customized to the Kazakh market but aligned with IFC’s Performance Standards and other international standards. It is hoped that these region-leading efforts will set an example and encourage regulators in other countries to heighten their focus on ESG.”
You can download the newsletter from the publications page of the IFC corporate governance internet site.