The fifth global conference for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) took place from May 18 to 21 in Amsterdam. More than 1200 academic experts, corporate, NGO and government representatives from 77 countries concerned with environmental and social sustainability issues attended the conference. The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) organized a delegation of 11 people comprised of representatives from accounting firms and corporations, leading by TWSE President, Michael Lin.
　
GRI is an independent organization established and developed out of a United Nations initiative. In terms of non-financial performance, the GRI Guidelines on sustainability reporting is the most referenced reporting framework. Since 2015, TWSE has requested specific listed companies to compile Corporate Sustainability Reports (CSR) based on GRI’s G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. To gain a deeper understanding of the trends in global CSR reporting, in 2015, TWSE became a GRI GOLD Member. This allows it to maintain close contacts with GRI and stakeholders from all sectors. At this year’s conference, TWSE was also a session supporter at one of the group forums, aiming to raise Taiwan’s global standing.
　
This year’s conference discussions focused on the current status of CSR reporting and future development trends, including linkage to the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), standardization of the GRI Guidelines, and application of XBRL and digitization of CSR reporting. Mr. Michael Lin and Senior VP of the TWSE Corporate Governance Department, Mr. Tsun Cheng, were also invited to speak at two forums to discuss respectively, strategic development of capital markets and CSR reporting quality in the Greater China region, as well as to share Taiwan’s recent efforts in corporate governance and disclosure of non-financial information.
　
The importance of CSR reporting and ESG information in risk management and stakeholder communications was widely recognized by all attendees of the conference. Most attendees believe that the biggest challenge of CSR reports lies in its accessibility, comparability, reliability, and conduciveness to analysis. TWSE will continue to place emphasis on the development of CSR practices and to focus on how to improve quality of CSR reporting in Taiwan.