Corporate Governance Winners 2019 – Asia & Australasia

Implementing good corporate governance ensures organisations conduct their business in a fair and ethical manner, considering the interests of all its stakeholders to achieve long-term and sustainable growth.

The focus on establishing strong corporate governance frameworks has intensified in the face of changing capital markets and megatrends, such as climate shifts and pressures, digitalisation and population change.

In Australia, new regulatory guidelines established by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) aim to drive accountability and corporate governance standards across the country. ASIC’s supervisory initiative – the Corporate Governance Task Force – was established to ‘conduct targeted reviews into corporate governance practices of large listed entities to gain an insight on actual governance practices’ and its first report focusses on director oversight of non-financial risk. The report highlights the standard the corporate regulator expects from organisations when governing for non-financial risks, such as conduct, operational, compliance and strategic risks.

Based on the work of the Taskforce, ASIC will also release a follow-up report later this year that will deal directly with the relationship between conduct risk management and executive variable remuneration.

In Japan, the push for improved corporate governance has seen organisations under pressure to align their management goals of hitting financial targets with their responsibilities towards industry analysts, years of corporate governance reforms by the Japanese government may finally be resulting in improvements, with companies more eager to return money to shareholders, and activism more acceptable to conservative investors. Japanese focus on governance in recent years has elevated the status of shareholders, putting shareholder interests higher than they have been in the past.

In Malaysia, the government believes that a culture of integrity and ethics is central to good governance and that it must be put into practice in every aspect of a company’s operations. This year, Malaysia’s Securities Commission issued its inaugural Corporate Governance Monitor, revealing that 70 per cent or 841 of listed companies have adopted the 27 best practices listed in the Malaysia Code on Corporate Governance. Malaysia’s Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has called upon the nation’s corporate leaders and captains of industry to set a tone of anti-corruption and integrity at the top level to ensure good governance in their respective organisations.

Ethical Boardroom is proud to announce the winners of “Best Corporate Governance” in their respective industry sectors across Asia & Australasia for 2019. The awards recognise the outstanding leadership from boards who have raised the bar to ensure that strong corporate governance plays an essential part in protecting and enhancing long-term value for all stakeholders. Our awards program is a vital part of our continuing mission to elevate corporate governance standards globally.

For those who have made it to the top of the mountain for 2019, we salute you for leading the way

Asia

ASIA INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS

AUSTRALASIA

AUSTRALASIA INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS