ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard: Country Reports and Assessments 2013-2014

Corporate governance principles provide guidance on how corporations should operate. Adoption of international corporate governance best practices leads to long-term sustainability and resilience, and can be a competitive tool to attract foreign investments. ADB in partnership with the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum have jointly developed the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard, an assessment based on publicly available information and benchmarked against international best practices that encourage publicly listed companies to go beyond national legislative requirements. This report can be used by capital market regulators and other stakeholders as a reference to understand the current corporate governance standards across the region. It is also a useful diagnostic tool to guide improvement of corporate governance standards.

The ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard provides a rigorous methodology benchmarked against international best practice to assess the corporate governance performance of publicly listed companies in the six participating ASEAN member countries.

This common methodology provides foreign investors and external fund managers comparable information to form part of their investment decision-making process.

The scorecard is a useful tool to demonstrate ASEAN members’ commitment to sound corporate governance which will be important to increase foreign direct investment into the region.

Conclusion

The performance of ASEAN publicly listed companies in applying recommended corporate governance principles is commendable, although there is still room for further improvement. As the scorecard is premised on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, it should be applied as a diagnostic tool by publicly listed companies to identify gaps in their corporate governance practices and assist in achieving sustainable long-term growth and value creation.

Domestic ranking bodies have played a significant role in promoting and creating greater awareness of this initiative and the requirements of the scorecard. Continued commitment from all stakeholders will be crucial to ensuring the sustainability of this initiative. While there may be certain inherent limitations in the scorecard and the domestic assessments of publicly listed companies, domestic ranking bodies will continue to review and refine the scorecard and its assessment methodology to ensure applicability and relevance to ASEAN publicly listed companies.