Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance is established in 1999, serves as a regional forum for exchanging experiences and advancing the reform agenda on corporate governance while promoting awareness and use of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance (ARCG) gathers the most prominent, active and influential policy makers, practitioners and experts on corporate governance in the region, from OECD countries and relevant international institutions.
The goal of ARCG is to support decision makers in their efforts to improve corporate governance in the region. This is achieved through informal peer review of corporate governance policy frameworks and practices in the region, benefitting from international experiences. Participants seek to raise awareness of major developments and challenges, evaluate implementation and enforcement as well as discuss and analyze policy options to support viable and effective corporate governance.
Forum for Corporate Governance in Indonesia (FCGI) along with Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship and Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Board (Bapepam) attended the prestigious meeting of ARCG in Manila 9-10 September 2009. In commemorating ten years ARCG since it’s established in 1999, the conference took “Asian Roundtable of Corporate Governance: Ten Years from Now” as the meeting topic. The meeting was expectedly became the major turning point for good corporate governance implementation in the next decade. The meeting was a milestone with three key features: First, the meeting is designed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance standards and practices as a vital step to reinforcing market integrity. Second, the meeting will launch Guideline on Fighting Abusive related Party Transaction in Asia, an issue that has been much debated. Asian decision-makers collectively developed this Guide through a Task Force formed in 2008. In this meeting, the participants will also discuss on how to implement the guide. Third, the conference also spent some time to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help.
As the conference aimed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance within 10 years, there are some significant achievements that have had by ARCG and OECD namely:
a. Broad range of corporate governance reforms in many economics;
b. Globally compatible rules and regulations are introduces such as enhancing transparency and accountability;
c. Most of emerging market economies adopted outside director and audit committee as part of mandatory requirement.
d. Convergence of corporate governance regulations in Asian Economics
e. Improvement quality of corporate governance around Asian Countries.
There also significant role that has been played by ARCG within 10 years to the implementation of Corporate Governance is Asia countries namely:
a. Provide podium to share and exchange experiences and ideas on corporate governance implementations
b. Set current critical agenda for the region
c. Build positive influence across economies through supports as well as through pre assure
d. Share director training knowledge and experiences
e. Build connected cooperation among business, academics and regulators, etc.
In this meeting, OECD launched new corporate governance series of guideline on fighting abusive related party transactions in Asia. This guideline is developed by the Task Force, seeks to provide policy makers, enforcement authorities, private institutions, shareholders and other stakeholders with key recommendations and analysis of core issues. The Guide focusing on publicly listed companies in Asia which may also be useful to technical assistance agencies working on this issue. The recommendations covering legal definition and framework of related party transactions, highlight on several experiences in some countries in Asia regarding related party transactions, board oversight and approval as well as some case studies on how to assess Related Party Transactions.
The last key feature of the conference is to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help. The participants were divided into some groups discussing about what the possibility issues and actions can be taken in the next decade. The result mostly concern on implementation of the OECD standards and guidelines as well as enforcement on the laws and regulations containing corporate governance principles.
Even some achievements have been reached and significant role has been played, some huge homework on implementations and practices of good corporate governance within Asian countries still be a greatest barrier for the next decade. There are still large disparity between practices and regulations. These may happen because of the weakness of enforcement and inactive stakeholders. Therefore, it needs continued effort to strengthen the enforcement capabilities of regulators and involving all stakeholders to support the implementation.
The Role and responsibilities of the board is also reviewed as their value of role and responsibilities needs to be increased. The effectiveness of a board in directing and controlling a company to ensure that all actions are in the interest of shareholders has again been the subject of scrutiny. In particular, their failure on the ability to provide effective stewardship and to ensure risk management is allegedly related to the current global financial crisis.
To empowering shareholders with the ability and willingness to take governance factors into account when making their investment decisions and to actively participate at general meetings and make their voices heard is key to keeping management and board vigilant and ensuring that they act in the interest of shareholder. This also being the focus of the corporate governance in the next decade.
In the last session of the meeting, Mr. John Lim, the Chair of Asia State Owned presented an updated on the Roundtable Meeting of Asia State Owned Enterprises. The last Asian Roundtable on SOEs was held in Bangkok 20-21 May 2009. The SOEs Roundtable has developed guideline of corporate governance in SOEs and developed some important comparative publications on key issues such as “Enforcement of Corporate Governance in Asia: Unfinished Agenda” and also “Asia: Overview of Corporate Governance Frameworks in 2007”.
The goal of ARCG is to support decision makers in their efforts to improve corporate governance in the region. This is achieved through informal peer review of corporate governance policy frameworks and practices in the region, benefitting from international experiences. Participants seek to raise awareness of major developments and challenges, evaluate implementation and enforcement as well as discuss and analyze policy options to support viable and effective corporate governance.
Forum for Corporate Governance in Indonesia (FCGI) along with Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship and Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Board (Bapepam) attended the prestigious meeting of ARCG in Manila 9-10 September 2009. In commemorating ten years ARCG since it’s established in 1999, the conference took “Asian Roundtable of Corporate Governance: Ten Years from Now” as the meeting topic. The meeting was expectedly became the major turning point for good corporate governance implementation in the next decade. The meeting was a milestone with three key features: First, the meeting is designed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance standards and practices as a vital step to reinforcing market integrity. Second, the meeting will launch Guideline on Fighting Abusive related Party Transaction in Asia, an issue that has been much debated. Asian decision-makers collectively developed this Guide through a Task Force formed in 2008. In this meeting, the participants will also discuss on how to implement the guide. Third, the conference also spent some time to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help.
As the conference aimed to review and evaluate implementation of corporate governance within 10 years, there are some significant achievements that have had by ARCG and OECD namely:
a. Broad range of corporate governance reforms in many economics;
b. Globally compatible rules and regulations are introduces such as enhancing transparency and accountability;
c. Most of emerging market economies adopted outside director and audit committee as part of mandatory requirement.
d. Convergence of corporate governance regulations in Asian Economics
e. Improvement quality of corporate governance around Asian Countries.
There also significant role that has been played by ARCG within 10 years to the implementation of Corporate Governance is Asia countries namely:
a. Provide podium to share and exchange experiences and ideas on corporate governance implementations
b. Set current critical agenda for the region
c. Build positive influence across economies through supports as well as through pre assure
d. Share director training knowledge and experiences
e. Build connected cooperation among business, academics and regulators, etc.
In this meeting, OECD launched new corporate governance series of guideline on fighting abusive related party transactions in Asia. This guideline is developed by the Task Force, seeks to provide policy makers, enforcement authorities, private institutions, shareholders and other stakeholders with key recommendations and analysis of core issues. The Guide focusing on publicly listed companies in Asia which may also be useful to technical assistance agencies working on this issue. The recommendations covering legal definition and framework of related party transactions, highlight on several experiences in some countries in Asia regarding related party transactions, board oversight and approval as well as some case studies on how to assess Related Party Transactions.
The last key feature of the conference is to reflect on what next decade of corporate governance in Asia may look like, new priorities, obstacles and how OECD can help. The participants were divided into some groups discussing about what the possibility issues and actions can be taken in the next decade. The result mostly concern on implementation of the OECD standards and guidelines as well as enforcement on the laws and regulations containing corporate governance principles.
Even some achievements have been reached and significant role has been played, some huge homework on implementations and practices of good corporate governance within Asian countries still be a greatest barrier for the next decade. There are still large disparity between practices and regulations. These may happen because of the weakness of enforcement and inactive stakeholders. Therefore, it needs continued effort to strengthen the enforcement capabilities of regulators and involving all stakeholders to support the implementation.
The Role and responsibilities of the board is also reviewed as their value of role and responsibilities needs to be increased. The effectiveness of a board in directing and controlling a company to ensure that all actions are in the interest of shareholders has again been the subject of scrutiny. In particular, their failure on the ability to provide effective stewardship and to ensure risk management is allegedly related to the current global financial crisis.
To empowering shareholders with the ability and willingness to take governance factors into account when making their investment decisions and to actively participate at general meetings and make their voices heard is key to keeping management and board vigilant and ensuring that they act in the interest of shareholder. This also being the focus of the corporate governance in the next decade.
In the last session of the meeting, Mr. John Lim, the Chair of Asia State Owned presented an updated on the Roundtable Meeting of Asia State Owned Enterprises. The last Asian Roundtable on SOEs was held in Bangkok 20-21 May 2009. The SOEs Roundtable has developed guideline of corporate governance in SOEs and developed some important comparative publications on key issues such as “Enforcement of Corporate Governance in Asia: Unfinished Agenda” and also “Asia: Overview of Corporate Governance Frameworks in 2007”.
