ASFRC Makes Several Proposals To Boost Corporate Governance

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The Asian Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (ASFRC), a body comprising independent academic luminaries on economic policy issues pertaining to financial markets, has made several recommendations to raise the level of corporate governance in public listed companies.

Tan Sri Dr Lin See Yan, the Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia who sits on the committee by virtue of being a country member from Malaysia, said the idea is to make majority shareholders more accountable and prevent them from riding roughshod over minority shareholders.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the 16th Asian Finance Association Conference here today, he said a World Bank study showed about two-third of companies in East Asia outside China usually have controlling shareholders.

In China, he said a majority of companies have a controlling block of shares held by state-controlled entities, and in these contexts, it was important to ensure that minority shareholders were well represented.

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