The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) stated that, after the launch of Corporate Governance Roadmap, the quality of domestic corporate governance practices has been enhanced tremendously through the implementation and promotion of the Corporate Governance Evaluation System. Take information disclosure practices for example, 69 listed companies had filed their annual financial reports by February 2016, which had increased significantly compared to 47 companies in 2015 and 22 companies in 2014. In respect of nonfinancial information disclosure, 262 listed companies had issued their 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Reports (“CSR Reports”), which already accounted for 30% of all listed companies. The number rose at the annual growth rate of over 50% year by year, as there were 171 companies and 109 companies issuing their 2013 and 2012 CSR Reports, respectively.
　
The TWSE additionally noted that, among the above listed companies issuing 2014 CSR Reports, 258 companies adopted the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines published by the Global Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) to prepare the reports, which accounted for 98% of all companies preparing the reports, and of which, 251 companies referred to the latest version of GRI G4.0 when preparing the reports. It had greatly enhanced the comparability and quality of non-financial information in our capital markets. In addition, 142 companies had acquired external assurance, which accounted for 54% of all companies preparing the reports and had increased largely compared to 42% in the previous year. The external assurance percentage in Taiwan was even higher than that of 42% for N100 companies according to the statistics in 2015 by KPMG and GRI. It shows that the nonfinancial information disclosure in Taiwan has not only been in line with the international trend but also exceeded international practices.
　
The TWSE further emphasized that, as the above data displayed, under implementation of the corporate governance evaluation system, which was designed in accordance with international standards and domestic practices, the listed companies have been gradually guided to adopt best practices. Moreover, with the positive competition mechanism through recognition of companies with excellent performance, the companies are encouraged to voluntarily improve their financial and nonfinancial information disclosure quality. In the 2016 evaluation (3rd Round), indicators regarding whether to publish the financial statements in advance and whether the CSR Report are assured by external party are even listed as point-adding items, in the hope to enhance the effect of encouragement on the efforts of listed companies to improve the information disclosure quality and implement the corporate governance and social responsibility into practices.