The 8th China Corporate Governance Forum, hosted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) under the auspices of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was held in Shanghai on December 18 to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the SSE. SSE President Zhang Yujun presided over the opening ceremony of the Forum and the awarding ceremony for governance of listed companies, at which three special awards, "Directorate Award 2009", "Information Disclosure Award 2009" and "Typical Merger and Acquisition Case Award", were granted by the SSE for the first time.
Director Li Rongrong of the SASAC of the State Council, Vice Chairman Zhuang Xinyi of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), Member of CPC Committee and Vice Mayor Tu Guangshao of Shanghai Municipality, Governor Geng Liang of the SSE and Governor Chen Dongzheng of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) delivered speeches at the meeting. SSE Vice Presidents Zhou Qinye and Xu Ming chaired the theme sessions, respectively. Attending the forum were over 200 representatives from the CSRC, the SASAC, listed companies, institutional investors and intermediaries at home and abroad.
Li pointed out in his speech that perfection of corporate governance is not only the core but also the most difficult issue in the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The SASAC will continue to boost the system reform and listing of central SOEs and support eligible ones to realize the overall listing with their major businesses or as groups as soon as possible.
Zhuang praised the Chinese capital market's achievements in corporate governance improvement and noted that a solid foundation for further quality improvement of listed companies in China has been laid in recent years thanks to the cumulative effects resulted from the construction of fundamental systems for China's capital market, which have been embodied through improved market mechanism, gradual popularization of equity knowledge and enhanced quality of intermediaries. In the days to come, the CSRC will continue to take measures to propel the merger and acquisition of companies in a bid to promote the development of control market in China.
Tu, on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal Government, expressed his best wishes to the Forum. He said that capital market plays a crucial role in building Shanghai into an international financial hub. The Shanghai Municipal Government has always attached great importance to the corporate governance improvement of Shanghai-based enterprises in recent years. In terms of reform of SOEs, Shanghai, in accordance with the state strategy, in compliance with the requirements of taking the lead in four aspects (i.e. transforming the mode of economic growth, improving the independent innovative capability, boosting the reform and opening-up and constructing a socialist harmonious society) and focused on the needs in speeding up the construction of four centers (namely international economic, financial, trade and shipping centers), has given its priority to six aspects of work in line with the opinions on further promoting the reform of Shanghai-based SOEs and the supporting documents.
SSE Governor Geng Liang reviewed at the forum the achievements of Shanghai securities market in 2009 and expressed that the SSE would drive the construction of blue-chip stock market in Shanghai from four aspects: firstly, to unswervingly promote the improvement of corporate governance of listed companies; secondly, to attracting more quality enterprises to get listed in Shanghai; thirdly, to encourage the listed companies to make mergers and acquisitions; fourthly, to accelerate the construction of the SSE international board market.
SSE President Zhang Yujun introduced at the awarding ceremony the aims and evaluation process of the special awards for corporate governance. He pointed out that "Directorate Award 2009", "Information Disclosure Award 2009" and "Typical Merger and Acquisition Case Award" were designed to spread advanced experience, offer models and promote best practices by honoring those in Shanghai securities market standing out for their corporate governance. He also said that the special awards for corporate governance would be granted regularly by the SSE.
It is learnt that in the past decade, the SSE has always attached great importance to corporate governance and made great efforts in stimulating the listed companies to improve their corporate governance. As early as 1990s, the SSE started its research on corporate governance. The "Report on China Corporate Governance" has been compiled and published on an annual basis since 2003. The guidance for corporate governance, the first of its kind in China, was drafted, with other listing and business rules continuously amended to tighten the requirements for governance structure of listed companies, standardize the operation of listed companies and strengthen the supervision over information disclosure. In recent years, the SSE set up the Corporate Governance Sector and introduced products including the SSE Corporate Governance Index and Corporate Governance ETF. All this contributed to the advancement of China's listed companies in corporate governance. The corporate governance forum, hosted by the SSE annually since 2001, enters its 8th year this year.
At the one-day forum, participants conducted broad and thorough discussion and communication on subjects of "corporate control market and industrial structure adjustment", "current issues confronting the corporate control market", "perspective of corporate control market" and "merger and acquisition mode of listed company".