KUALA LUMPUR: Only 52 of the top 100 listed companies have achieved the target of having 30% women participation in their boards, while 350 listed companies or 36.5% out of total listed companies in Bursa Malaysia have only one woman director on their boards as of September.
-Advertisement-
Securities Commission (SC) chairman Awang Adek Hussin said under the 2022 budget, all listed companies were required to have at least one woman director on their boards.
“However, listed firms should not stop at one woman director for compliance reasons, but strive towards the 30% target,” he said in his opening speech at the Institutional Investors Council Malaysia (IIC)-Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) Corporate Governance Conference 2022.
He noted that the revised Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors (MCII) 2022 had introduced the “Stewardship Spotlight”, which, among other things, included women’s participation on boards.
-Advertisement-
“I am also encouraged to see that board diversity is in the ‘Stewardship Spotlight’, as it should be,” he added.
Meanwhile, in his keynote address, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz lauded the current progress, commitment and strong stance shown by institutional investors in enhancing gender diversity in senior management.
“The hope here is that these benchmarks such as the MCII are embraced by other institutional and corporate investors as a viable set of guidance to improve their internal governance,” he said.-FMT