Public Hearing on Ethical Guidelines

The Norwegian Government has initiated an evaluation of the ethical guidelines for the Government pension Fund - Global.  As part of the evaluation, the Ministry of Finance is conducting a public consultation and has distributed a consultation paper for comments. Yesterday, as the paper was sent out, the Minister of Finance held a discussion with relevant stakeholders.
 
The main objectives of the evaluation are to

• Examine whether the guidelines have worked as intended
• Maintain the broad political support for the ethical guidelines
• Gather feedback that may help strengthening the Government Pension Fund – Global's profile as a responsible investor.

- We believe that we are at the forefront and can help shape the debate on how investors can best assume responsibility for environmental, social and governance issues, says finance minister kristin Halvorsen.
 
The Ministry of Finance arranged 18 June a discussion meeting with a broad group of stakeholders. The Norwegian Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen and State Secretary Roger Schjerva participated, together with representatives from the Ministry's Asset Management Departement, the Ethical Council for the Fund, and Norges Bank (the Central Bank). The Ministry described the evaluation process and the consultation paper, followed by a discussion of the guidelines and future challenges.
 
The result of the evaluation will be presented to the Norwegian Parliament in the white paper on the management of the Pension Fund, during spring 2009.
 
We welcome interested parties to submit their views on the issues raised in the consultation paper by 15 September 2008 to the following address: postmottak@fin.dep.no

 
The consultation paper is available here

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Appendices

Report from Professor Simon Chesterman and The Albright Group

Report from Professors Ole Gjølberg and Thore Johnsen 

Summary report from the conference “Investing for the Future”

Letter of 6 June 2008 from Norges Bank