Executive Chairman Dato’ Mohd Azlan Hashim said regulators here, as anywhere in the world, will make every effort to ensure that the business of regulating, for sustainable growth, will remain the focus of regulations.
"Businesses have learnt to compete globally. It is not unusual for serious businesses to continuously strive to attain international standards and certification. Such developments beg the question – why shouldn’t regulators be just as progressive in developing and enforcing high standards of regulations?
"Thus, it is in light of such developments that regulators similarly set standards befitting the evolution of business in a globally competitive environment," he said. Mohd Azlan was delivering his keynote address at the Conference on KLSE’s New Listing Requirements: Strengthening the Framework for Market Growth, Efficiency and Credibility.
KLSE’s new listing requirements, launched on 22 January 2001, is a move hailed as a major effort to strengthen further, the capital market and securities industry in Malaysia. In its development, which began in late 1998, the new listing requirements involved an extensive consultative process which was meticulously conducted taking into account the views and feedback of industry participants.
The industry consultation process, a key component in the formulation of the new listing requirements, involved professional organisations, industry standards regulators, financial and investment organisations and other industry participants both foreign and domestic.
Mohd Azlan said at the core of all these efforts is the objective to instill the enduring principles of business efficacy with business integrity in the practice of corporate governance.
"Business without governance is an injustice to all. "It inflicts harm not only onto itself, but onto others in the investment community - impeding growth, destroying reputation, diminishing investment value and with it, investor confidence.
"Now, more than ever, the continued growth and progress of the Malaysian securities industry lies in the collective will of its participants – to be more responsible, to be more accountable," he added.
