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TWSE promotes the implementation of ethical management and corporate social responsibility

Publish time:2016-09-09

To help directors and supervisors of listed companies realize the importance of corporate ethical risk management and control and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on value creation and sustainable development of company, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange (TPEx) held 2 seminars in the topic of "2016 Corporate Governance Forum Series-Ethical Management and CSR" respectively in Fullon Hotel in Kaohsiung and Splendor Hotel in Taichung on September 1 and 2. Shi-Jin Yang, Deputy Director-General of Agency Against Corruption (AAC) under Ministry of Justice, Dr. Eugene Chien, Chairman of Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Dong-Li Mo, Deputy Secretary-General of Business Council for Sustainable Development of Taiwan were invited to the seminars as guest speakers, giving speeches on topics of "Corporate Ethics and Morality," "Practice of Environment Sustainability - Starting from 2015 COP21 Paris Summit" and "Corporate Sustainability and Disclosure of Non-financial information" respectively. Close to 350 directors and supervisors signed up for the seminars. The response was overwhelming.
 
Deputy Director-General Shi-Jin Yang shared the 2015 global "Corruption Perceptions Index" released by Transparency International, and Taiwan ranked 7 out of 28 countries in Asia Pacific. Taiwan's global ranking was also raised to 30 from 39 in 2008, which required a lot of effort. In addition, in order to make information of listed companies more transparent, AAC is currently pushing for a "Whistleblower Protection Act," which would encourage employees in enterprises to be whistleblowers and expose scandals since ethical management and anti-corruption are inseparable. "Corruption is just like a virus. If this virus comes from enterprises, then it would be a bribe when money or other valuable things are sent to government officials with discretionary power." This reveals that the establishment of anti-corruption and corruption prevention awareness and mechanisms for enterprises are also critical.
 
Chairman Eugene Chien indicated that participants of Paris Summit (COP 21) reached a consensus on climate changes and carbon reduction issues of UNFCCC last year (2015). The "Paris Agreement" was signed under the witness of 196 countries, and the goal is to maintain the temperature increase within 2℃ of the temperature before the industrial revolution as well as striving to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃. Although Taiwan is not a UN member, Taiwan is concerned about climate change just as much as other countries. Taiwan proposed "Intended Nationally Determined Contribution" (INDC) in 2015, hoping that the international society would notice Taiwan's measures for greenhouse gas emission. The Paris Agreement is a critical moment where the world enters an era of low-carbon and sustainability. Our government shall introduce a national development strategy, push forward the carbon reduction and energy policy comprehensively, ensure that our greenhouse gas management mode complies with international standard, as well as utilizing the strength of diplomatic allies to establish good relationships with periphery organizations of UNFCCC, which will allow Taiwan to enter a new era of sustainability.
 
Deputy Secretary-General Dong-Li Mo indicated that international economic development is in a severe situation due to the limits of carbon, energy and resources. Meanwhile, society as a whole is facing a great challenge due to the issues of continuously growing population, a more obvious urbanization, the gap between the rich and poor, declining environment quality and uneven resource distribution. Deputy Secretary-General Mo also quoted Ban Ki-Moo, Secretary-General of UN, "enterprises are the most important partners in the process of reaching the goal of sustainable development!" He hopes that companies can contribute through their core activities, set goals and disclose the results transparently. With the overwhelming participation by listed companies, these seminars were perfectly ended.