Karan Bhatia talks about strengthening ‘rule of law’

December 12, 2008

Hello GE Reports. This is Karan Bhatia, the vice president and senior counsel of international law and policy at GE. I’d like to talk to you about strengthening the “rule of law,” a concept that means countries have legal and judicial systems that afford companies certainty in doing business there.

Blogging by the rules: Karan Bhatia, vice president and senior counsel of international law and policy<br /> at GE, blogs about how GE is working to strengthen rule of law. (Photo credit: Lee Jin-Man, AP)
Before joining GE earlier this year, I served as the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, overseeing U.S. trade relations with the countries of East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. That experience highlighted for me the critical importance of rule of law to international trade and development. Today, as the leader responsible for GE’s international relations and public policy, I am pleased that working to strengthen the rule of law, especially in emerging markets, is a core goal of GE’s public policy agenda.

I have always been deeply impressed by a hallmark of GE’s culture — our commitment to the highest ethical and compliance standards. That commitment is a natural fit with our policy efforts to enhance rule of law. It is an important, but challenging, task. While we have seen many positive developments in rule of law globally over the past two decades, we still see many areas for improvement. That’s why GE is continuing to engage vigorously to address this issue.

I’m pleased to share how we are working with governments and other partners to assess needs, build on GE’s core strengths, and find ways to deploy our resources to attain results that strengthen our company, our customers, our partners, and the world.

You can find more information here.

Also, if you’re still interested on rule of law policies, you might be interested in exploring the following links.

* My full perspective on promoting rule of law
* More about citizenship at GE
* More about GE Foundation public policy initiatives


This entry was posted in Citizenship, Policy and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Gil Carter

    I am concerned about what seems to be a lack of corporate accountability. Small shareholders have little or no effective input to controlling excessive executive compensation and other extravagant perks to upper management. How does GE monitor and control this? Boards of Directors have become (or maybe they have always been) a group of yes men enjoying the rewards of being successful in some field. GE seems to be well run but there must be some internal guidance for controlling excesses. Can you comment?

  • Megan Parker

    Hi Gil,
    I would encourage you to read the Governance section of our Annual Report. Here is the direct link:
    http://www.ge.com/ar2007/gov.jsp

    Best- Megan

  • cwxwwwxdfvwwxwx

    well, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)