Mr. Singh Tangtatswas, advisor to the SET's CG Center, chaired the seminar 'Expectations of the Directors Towards Corporate Secretaries' Roles'. The event was organized by the Subcommittee for Public Relations and Building Understanding about Operations Related to Corporate Governance in Thailand in conjunction with the SET and the Thai Institute of Directors Association (IOD). Mr. Singh opened the seminar by saying the event would provide a forum on directors' expectations towards the duties of their corporate secretaries.
"Normally the duties of corporate secretaries include holding meetings for directors, committee members, and shareholders. Nevertheless, seminar attendees further believe that corporate secretaries should be able to advise their directors on legal matters, compliance issues, and good corporate governance matters. Additionally, corporate secretaries should also be able to communicate the directors' policies or resolutions to related parties, monitor the outcome, and then report it back to the directors."
"Moreover, corporate secretaries need to ensure that information disclosure and reports comply with related laws and regulations, and they should liaise with and provide information to the directors, especially outside directors, about the company's business. Secretaries should also communicate with the shareholders. In fact, it is not necessary that corporate secretaries know everything, but they should know how to obtain needed information," the CG Center's Advisor commented.
Mr. Singh added that the directors expect corporate secretaries to work efficiently, support them, and constantly access the shareholders' needs.
Mr. Charnchai Charuvastr, President of the IOD, talked about how corporate secretaries can help promote good corporate governance in that: "The corporate secretary should be independent, unbiased, responsible, transparent as well as possess good interpersonal relationship skills and not be afraid to express their views. According to the seminar attendees, Thailand should have laws or regulations to officially support the duties of corporate secretaries. This will enable them to work to their utmost potential since their roles are increasingly important."
The Subcommittee for Public Relations and Building Understanding about Operations Related to Corporate Governance in Thailand will organize two more seminars as part of the 'Directors' Roundtable' series. A seminar on "Audit Committee: From Five-Years' Experience to Initiative for Effectiveness" will be held on Tuesday November 25, 2003, at 13:00-17:00, for audit committees of listed companies. It will provide a forum for sharing experience, problems and obstacles faced in implementing accounting changes, ways to solve problems, and suggestions to make audit committees more efficient.
The other seminar is entitled "Directors' Remuneration: How to Appropriately and Fairly Determine It Based on Responsibilities". It will be held for company directors and provide a forum about making the standards of remuneration determination to be in line with the directors' roles and responsibilities while being fair to the shareholders. The discussion will be recorded for the listed companies to refer to when formulating directors' remuneration policies. The seminar will be held on Thursday December 11, 2003 at 13:00-17:00.
For people interested in the information on good corporate governance policy and its implementation, as well as related seminars, please see the website of the National CG at www.cgthailand.org.
