Thai Bourse Revises CG Principles To Upgrade Standards For AEC

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has revised its “Principles of good corporate governance for listed companies 2006” to be in line with the ASEAN CG Scorecard, thus upgrading the CG standards of listed companies to be ready for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by adjusting the existing best practices of good CG and adding more best practices for listed companies.
 
The revision will be applied for CG principle disclosure (Form 56-1) and annual report for 2013, scheduling to launch 2014 onwards.
 
SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira said: “SET’s Board of Governors has agreed today to revise the 2006 principles, modernizing them and making them to be in line with the ASEAN CG Scorecard imposed by the ASEAN Capital Market Forum. We aim to raise CG standards and principles for Thai listed companies in order to boost attractiveness for Thai listed companies in the international level. SET has discussed these adjustments with various organizations, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Thai Listed Companies Association, and surveyed listed companies. We found that 85 percent of firms agreed that they have already followed the adjusted principles. Thus, SET will disseminate the revised best practices from this early December, while listed companies have to disclose information following the revision in early 2014.”
 
Key five principles of good CG consist of: 1. Shareholders’ rights 2. Equitable treatment of shareholders 3. Role of stakeholders 4. Disclosure and transparency and 5. Responsibilities of the board. The modifications, in order to make them clearer with higher standard, include disseminating information both English and Thai text for shareholders meetings on a given company’s website at least 28 days before the meeting, setting anti-corruption policies and  encouraging all staff to strictly follow the laws and regulations, as well as conducting a CSR sustainability report. For more information, please visit www.set.or.th