This is true even where commercial secrets are
involved! It has been proven time and again that when commercial
information is kept secret - the firm (or Government) that keeps it
hidden is HARMED. The most famous examples are Apple (which kept its
operating system a well-guarded secret) and IBM (which did not),
Microsoft (which kept its operating system open to developers of
software) and other software companies (which did not). Recently,
Netscape has decided to provide its source code (the most important
commercial secret of any software company) free of charge to
application developers. Synergy based on openness seemed to have won
over old habits. A free, unhampered, unbiased flow of information is a
major point of attraction to foreign investors and a brawny point with
the likes of the IMF and the World Bank. The former, for instance,
lends money more easily to countries, which maintain a reasonably
reliable outflow of national statistics.
4. From Firms to the World - The virtues of corporate transparency and
of the application of the properly revealing International Accounting
Standards (IAS, GAAP, or others) need no evidencing. Today, it is
virtually impossible to raise money, to export, to import, to form
joint ventures, to obtain credits, or to otherwise collaborate
internationally without the existence of full, unmitigated disclosure.
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