KUALA LUMPUR: The Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG) targets to do corporate governance rating and reports on 1,300 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia next year, said chief executive officer Abdul Wahab Jaafar Sidek.
The companies surveyed this year included the top 350 main board companies, and 50 second board and Mesdaq companies, he said after launching the findings of the Corporate Governance Survey Report 2007 yesterday.
Public Bank Bhd
ranked top in the 2007 survey with an overall corporate governance score of 91% while Telekom (M) Bhd and Bursa Malaysia Bhd tied for second place with a score of 83%.
The annual survey was launched in 2005.
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Abdul Wahab Jaafar Sidek |
The survey report, which is based on corporate annual reports, is a collaborative effort between MSWG and the Nottingham University Business School.
According to Nottingham University associate professor Salleh Hassan who presented the survey findings, the requirements of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance had been generally met with high compliance standards.
However, with regards to compliance with international best practices, the survey found that these had not reached satisfactory standards and companies still lacked awareness about these practices, he said.
“As much as we’d like to educate companies about these practices, we should also educate stakeholders. Stakeholders should also put pressure on the company to comply with these practices,” he said.
Meanwhile, he suggested companies could improve on key areas of increasing communication with shareholders, carrying out more corporate social responsibility initiatives and leveraging on technology.
“The survey also revealed that larger companies tend to demonstrate higher level of compliance in comparison to smaller ones,” he added.
He also said government-linked companies had a better performance than other types of companies.
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