THE HAGUE, 09/12/06 - Dutch companies have made "slight progress" in providing transparency about the consequences of their operations for the environment, human rights and employees affairs, according to research commissioned by Economic Affairs State Secretary Karien van Gennip.

The Transparency Benchmark 2006, drawn up by PricewaterhouseCoopers, compares the social annual reports of the 98 largest bourse-listed and 76 largest non-listed Dutch companies. They are sub-divided into five scales from leaders to laggards. "Ten percent succeeded in getting in the leading group. Companies in this group score well on all criteria," according to Van Gennip.

ABN Amro Bank and Rabobank are the most transparent companies. Philips, Nutreco, Numico, Reed Elsevier, ING Groep, TNT, Fortis and Akzo Nobel are also in the top group. The fastest climber on the transparency ladder was Numico. CZ Groep, Eureko/Achmea, Euronext and Bavaria have also substantially improved since 2005.

Insurers have achieved by far the biggest advance compared with the other sectors. Remarkably, the banking sector still sticks out way above the average. The building and transport sector brings up the rear of the list, despite an improvement since last year.

Within sectors, big differences can sometimes be seen between companies. In total, there are clearly more advancers than decliners on the list. On average, bourse-listed companies are advancing faster than non-listed companies, according to the research (www.ez.nl).