ASEAN nations complete first-ever Corporate Governance scorecard

The first-ever ASEAN Corporate Governance (CG) Scorecard has been completed resulting from the completion of the inaugural assessment of publicly-listed companies using the standardised ASEAN CG Scorecard.

“This is a significant milestone towards ASEAN integration, as the effort has moved beyond national boundaries The ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard supersedes national scorecards,” Asian Development Bank (ADB) Public Management, Financial Sector and Trade division in the Southeast Asia Director Shigeko Hattori said, which has been supporting ASEAN regional capital market integration since 2005 through a series of regional technical assistance projects.

The ASEAN Corporate Governance initiative helps raise corporate governance standards and practices to give greater international visibility to well-governed ASEAN companies and to complement other ASEAN Capital Market Forum (ACMF) initiatives in promoting the region as an asset class.

Six ASEAN countries consisting of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam participated in the 2012-2013 assessment. While the ACMF had endorsed the Scorecard including its underpinning methodology, the development of the Scorecard and actual assessments were performed by a team of independent international CG experts in the region. The OECD Principles of CG were used as the main benchmark in developing the Scorecard.  With sufficient exposure on the requirements of the Scorecard, an ASEAN list of top performing publicly-listed companies can be subsequently published in the coming years. The race to the top will collectively bring ASEAN CG standards and practices to greater heights.

This inaugural publication is released in conjunction with the OECD Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance 2013, hosted by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC Malaysia), which leads the initiative.

It is part of a broader agenda for ASEAN regional capital market integration under the ACMF which is supported by the ADB through the ‘Promoting an Interlinked ASEAN Capital Market’ technical assistance.