Public companies in Myanmar - companies whose shares can be bought by the public - lag behind privately-owned firms in corporate disclosure and governance, according to the latest transparency report released on Tuesday.

This is the fifth Pwint Thit Sa report (Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises) undertaken by Yangon-based Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) in partnership with Myanmar consulting firm Yever.

In 2019, the Myanmar companies with the highest transparency scores are City Mart Holdings (CMHL), First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Max Myanmar and Shwe Taung. These companies have consistently featured in the top 10 of previous Pwint Thit Sa reports and this year’s report found that all of them continue to improve their disclosures.

At the other end of the scale, 108 (44 percent) of the 248 companies reviewed do not have corporate websites. Most of those these companies publish little or no corporate governance and performance data.

First launched in 2014, this year’s report assesses information disclosure on the corporate websites of 248 large Myanmar enterprises, including five listed, 55 public, and 160 sizeable privately-owned companies. For the first time, it also covers 28 of the most important state-owned economic enterprises (SOEs). This amounts to the most ambitious public report ever published in Myanmar about the state of corporate disclosure (CD).

The findings reveal that a number of private companies chose to go beyond the legal transparency provisions. Under the new Companies Law, a privately-owned company only needs to file an Annual Return with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). But, there isn’t a requirement for private companies to publicly disclose this information.

However, seven privately-owned companies in the top 10 list have done so: City Mart, Max Myanmar, Shwe Taung, UAB, Dagon Group, Myan Shwe Pyi Tractors and AYA Bank.