The Taiwan Monthly

ESG

The “International Trend Symposium on Due Diligence Governance of Institutional Investors” organized by the TWSE received enthusiastic feedback

In the “CG Watch 2023” report released by the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) recently, Taiwan tied with Singapore, ranking third   among the 12 Asian countries, achieving its best performance in history. Institutional investors are an important part of the corporate governance ecosystem. In order to ensure that the domestic institutional investors fully understand the latest developments in stewardship in Asian countries, the TWSE held an “International Trends Symposium on Stewardship for Institutional Investors” on June 6.

 

Alex Huang, Head of the Securities Issuance Group of the Securities and Futures Bureau, Financial Supervisory Commission, encouraged institutional investor representatives in attendance to continue to respond to the FSC policies, fulfill their stewardship responsibilities, drive the healthy development of and interaction among enterprises, investors and relevant stakeholders, and enhance the long-term value of both enterprises and institutional investors. Lih-chung Chien, President of the TWSE, stated that since the release of the “Stewardship Principles for Institutional Investors” in 2016, the TWSE has continuously encouraged institutional investors to pay attention to the operational status of their invested companies, attend their shareholders’ meetings and exercise voting rights, and appropriately hold dialogues and interact with their management. He also required institutional investors to pay attention to sustainable development at the same time, and consider ESG related risks and opportunities in their interactions and negotiations. The overall level of corporate governance in the capital market can then be strengthened through the market mechanism, thus creating a virtuous cycle between invested companies and institutional investors, and enhancing the value of each other's long-term growth and investment.

 

Amar Gill, Secretary General of the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), delivered a speech in English on the trends and prospects of stewardship in Asia. He shared the comparison of scores of various countries in ACGA’s “CG Watch 2023” report, acknowledged Taiwan’s efforts in sustainability and regulatory reform, shared items with progress in Japan's market ranking, and encouraged representatives of institutional investors present to continue to deepen their understanding of the stewardship in Taiwan.

 

Joe Lin, Deputy General Manager, Cathay Life Insurance, shared with his peers the experience of Cathay Life Insurance in executing responsible investments, implementing agreements and exercising voting rights, plus enhancing stewardship information disclosure, in the expectation to work together with the investment industry to implement stewardship and drive the sustainable development of the overall capital market.

 

This symposium was attended by nearly 100 domestic institutional investor representatives who interacted enthusiastically on site with the speakers, demonstrating their spirit of active stewardship implementation and practice of shareholder activism. Through the advocacy of stewardship disclosure recommendations, the TWSE demonstrates its commitment to promoting active interaction between institutional investors and invested companies while concurrently enhancing the overall level of stewardship and information disclosure quality.

 

For further information, please contact Ms. Huang at [email protected].