Governance 'scorecard' planned for public companies in Asean

The experts are Assoc Prof Mak Yuen Teen of the National University of Singapore Business School, Rongruja Saicheua of the Thai Institute of Directors, Malaysian CG specialist Prof Salleh Hassan, and Prof Sidharta Utama from the Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship.
They will assess Asean public companies against an array of evaluation criteria and develop a ranking list of companies. The list is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2012.
“For example, Thai companies have always come up with detailed minute meetings. Malaysia and Singapore can learn from such transparency,” Malaysian daily The Star quoted Mak as saying at a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
The Asean CG Scorecard and the Corporate Governance Ranking of Asean public companies are among a number of major regional initiatives launched under the Asean Capital Markets Forum. Funded by the Asian Development Bank, these initiatives are aimed at raising CG standards and practices, and enhancing the international visibility and investment profile of quality public companies in the region.
The experts will begin assessing the public companies soon using a CG ranking system that leverages methodologies already implemented in Asean countries, as well as those applied by multilateral agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
For the pilot year, the Asean CG Scorecard will be used to rank the top 30 public companies in each of the participating countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Moving forward, it is envisaged that this initiative will produce an annual top regional PLCs list.
The scorecard is expected to strongly support efforts to establish Asean as an asset class and promote Asean public companies as internationally competitive from a CG perspective.