Some 100 experts, government officials and representatives of multinational companies attended a workshop on Tuesday to discuss the new trend of corporate compliance, its potential impact and how to cope with it.

"It will be wise for a company to enhance its existing corporate compliance and put in place strict internal controls," said Wang Zhile, president of New Century Academy on Transnational Corporations, a non-profit organization under the Ministry of Commerce that sponsored the workshop. "It helps the company to reduce its risk of being prosecuted for an isolated corruption-related offense."

Corruption and regulatory fraud was partly to blame for the global economic crisis. With the economic downtrend, countries are enforcing tighter laws and regulations to prevent bribery.

For example, the United States revised its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, while the UK Bribery Act of 2010 just came into force on July 1. China is also working hard to bring its anti-corruption laws into closer alignment with the provisions of multilateral conventions.

Neal Beatty, the regional director of global client services for greater China at Control Risks, a multinational consultancy firm, urged companies to increase compliance training and review employee handbooks to make sure that gift-giving limits are in line with local law.

"We believe that companies should convey to their employees that anti-corruption is very important," Beatty said. "There are many business reasons for emphasizing corporate compliance. For instance, it is very important for stock market. The companies with bribery records will tend to get less business opportunities."

To prevent people associated with them from bribing, companies should "clearly communicate a 'no bribes' policy, make adequate procedures to prevent bribes to secure contracts and licenses and address demands for operational bribes," Beatty said.

China is also working hard to bring its anti-corruption laws into closer alignment with the provisions of multilateral conventions.

A lot of Chinese companies have committed to enhancing their corporate compliance and have already made great improvements, said Jiang Heng, vice director of NATC.