The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) gears up to providing corporate governance (CG) expertise for listed companies from staff to management and board of directors levels via seminars, training and workshops throughout 2014, aiming to keep the leading position of Thai stock market’s CG standing in the region after Thailand’s achievement in gaining top CG scores in Asia as assessed by World Bank, reiterating SET’s commitment to continuously enhance CG among listed companies.
SET Chairman Sathit Limpongpan said SET valued the importance of running business with CG as it could stand as firm foundation to strengthen organizations, making them secure and strong, while returning benefits to society and environment on a larger scale following the sustainability development concept.
“The latest global trend getting more and more popular in several countries is that investors consider mainly on sustainable development. The value of investment among companies worldwide that have sustainable development are about USD 13.5 trillion. Such value in Asia is comparatively low. Therefore, this will be a great opportunity for Thai listed companies to be committed in operating business towards sustainability in order to attract more fund flow from foreign investment. Currently, PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, and PTT Global Chemical are members of Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, the global sustainability investment benchmark,” Sathit added.
SET has continuously enhanced listed companies to operate with CG following international standards and best practices and helped the Thai listed companies getting recognized by international organizations. Thailand has made outstanding performance among regional firms, proven by many recent achievements as follows: (1) Thailand gained 83 percent of CG-Report on the Observance of Standards (ROSC) score evaluated by World Bank in 2013 , the top score among 11 Asia countries joining the evaluation, and (2) Thai listed companies received top score of ASEAN CG Scorecard among six ASEAN countries.
In 2014, SET has been focusing on encouraging listed companies to regulate their organizations with CG principles at all levels, from BoD to management team, to operational staff. This year’s first activity will be the quarterly CG Forum, 1/2014, with “Effectiveness in boardroom: Route to success & best practices” theme, on March 25, focusing on board of directors role in gaining trust from shareholders as key mechanism to drive organization and other participants to grow sustainably. SET will also organize CEO CG Talk, a stage for companies’ executives to share experiences and views on CG practices, throughout the year. In addition, there will be workshops on CG practices in report production, a guideline for participants involved in preparing CG reports.
