Responsible Business Conduct: Transparency Act

In this panel, hosted by Team Norway in Singapore in collaboration with the commercial chambers in the region, we focus on the new Transparency Act, regulating responsible business conduct. Experts from the Ministry of Children and Families in Norway, the OECD National Contact Point Norway, the Norwegian Consumer Authority, DNB, and Simonsen Vogt Wiig will be sharing.

We host this special insights panel as a virtual event on the streaming platform Hopin. The main target group is the Norwegian companies in the region.

To register, please visit the Norwegian Business Association Singapore website here​.

Learning

Through this panel, you will gain insight in:

• What implications the Transparency Act does have for the private sector
• International standards for responsible business conduct.
• Guidance on due diligence (aktsomhetsvurderinger) aligned with OECD's guidelines.
• Relevant legal developments in the EU and the US.
• The role of the Norwegian Consumer Authority.
• How the Norwegian Consumer Authority assists the business community and supervises the Transparency Act.
• The transparency Act and its implications from a banking perspective
• DNB's observations of regional issues related to the new Transparency Act.
• What will be expected from Norwegian companies in the region to apply legally to the Transparency Act.
• How companies in the region work with social sustainability, due diligence, and responsible business conduct.

Background

The Transparency Act adopted by the Norwegian Parliament will take effect from 1 July. The Act shall promote enterprises' transparency and work on fundamental human rights and decent working conditions.

The key objective of this event is to initialize a dialogue on what this Act will mean for the Norwegian business community in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia and to provide guidance for responsible business conduct (ansvarlig næringsliv).

The Norwegian Parliament has mandated the Norwegian Consumer Authority to guide the Act. They are now in the establishment phase and have just hired ten employees. The Consumer Authority is currently cooperating on a common interpretation of the OECD guidelines. International developments will also be addressed, as the EU has also announced new transparency legislation in the last year, and the US has formulated seven principles for decent work.

To register, please visit the Norwegian Business Association Singapore website here​.