Sponsored by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) under the joint auspices of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the 10th China Corporate Governance Forum was held in Shanghai yesterday to mark the 21st founding anniversary of the SSE. SSE President Zhang Yujun presided over the opening ceremony of the forum and the awarding ceremony of Special Awards for Corporate Governance of Listed Companies. The officials present at the forum conferred the 2011 Award of Board of Directors, the 2011 Award of Information Disclosure and the Award of Typical Merger and Acquisition Case on the prize-winning listed companies.
Guo Shuqing, Party Chief and Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Han Zheng, Deputy Party Chief and Mayor of Shanghai, and Geng Liang, SSE Governor delivered speeches at the forum. Among those attending the forum were Tu Guangshao, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanghai Committee and Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, Zhou Daojiong, Ex-chairman of the CSRC, Fan Fuchun, Ex-vice-chairman of the CSRC, Chen Dongzheng, Governor of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), Jiang Yang, Assistant to Chairman of the CSRC, Song Liping, SZSE President, and Tao Ruizhi, Deputy Director of the SASAC Property Right Administration. Besides, SSE Vice President Liu Shian and SSE Chief Accountant Zhou Qinye respectively presided over the sub-forums. More than 250 representatives from the CSRC, the SASAC, the listed companies as well as the institutional investors and intermediaries at home and aboard attended the forum.
Concerning the corporate governance, Guo Shuqing discussed five points as follows: 1. China's economic prospect depends on the companies' quality; 2. the corporate governance could be better as there is no best; 3. historical achievements have been achieved in the corporate governance of China's enterprises; 4. it is a very hard task to perfect the corporate governance of listed companies; 5. efforts should be made to improve the governance of securities, fund and futures companies.
After extending warm congratulations on the forum on behalf of the Shanghai Government, Han Zheng said that the Shanghai Government would coordinate with the SSE to strive for new progress and breakthrough by optimizing the environment for the enterprises' development, boost the growth of the capital market, accelerate the building of Shanghai into an international economic, financial, trade and shipping center.
The forum reviewed the fruits achieved by the Shanghai securities market in recent years. The SSE blue-chip market has seen a sound growth upon its development in the past 20 years, while the blue-chip companies have increased the rewards for their shareholders year by year. All this has greatly improved the structure of the listed companies on the SSE and lifted the investment value of the market. Furthermore, the SSE has consistently urged the listed companies to improve their corporate governance, which has laid a solid foundation for the construction of the blue-chip market and the development of the multi-level capital market. According to sources, the SSE will further drive the construction of the blue-chip market in the following two aspects: 1. more pains will be taken to support the listing of medium-sized and large excellent firms on the SSE by facilitating shares issuance and listing of the key businesses in finance, energy, military equipment, culture and Internet industries; 2. the merger and acquisition of listed companies will be encouraged continuously through improvement of the quality and efficiency of merger and acquisition to foster more high-quality and powerful listed companies.
In the past decade, the SSE has always attached great importance to corporate governance and made great efforts in stimulating the listed companies to improve their corporate governance. As early as in the 1990s, the SSE started its research on corporate governance. The "Report on China's Corporate Governance" has been compiled and published on an annual basis since 2003. The guidance for corporate governance, the first of its kind in China, was drafted, with other listing and business rules continuously amended to tighten the requirements for governance structure of listed companies, standardize the operation of listed companies and strengthen the supervision over information disclosure. In recent years, the SSE also set up the Corporate Governance Sector, issued the SSE Guideline on Environmental Information Disclosure by Listed Companies and urged the listed companies to fulfill their social responsibilities. Since 2009, the Award of Board of Directors, the Award of Information Disclosure, the Award of Typical Merger and Acquisition Case, the Award of Excellent Independent Directors and other special awards have been given on an annual basis to commend the elites in the corporate governance of listed companies on the SSE and publicize the advanced experiences, recommended instances and best practice, in a bid to continuously better the corporate governance of listed companies. The SSE's efforts have contributed a lot to promoting the corporate governance of China's listed companies.
At the forum, the representatives also compared notes on these two topics including the "overall listing, connected transactions and horizontal competition" and the "narrative information disclosure and corporate transparency".
FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index: 99,674.79 -406.94
10th China Corporate Governance Forum Unveiled In Shanghai
Date 21/12/2011