For the purpose of encouraging companies to retain investors' ongoing support by developing friendly relationships and helping companies enhance their image, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), following the Investor Relations Forum in Taipei on April 26, 2016, teamed up with the TPEx to host two more Investor Relations Forums in Taichung and Kaohsiung on December 15 and 16. There were around 200 in the audience with representatives from TWSE/TPEx listed companies, professional investment firms, and investor relations consulting firms. The main topic was "Initiating Two-way Communication Between Companies and Investors and Achieving Corporate Sustainability". Experts in related areas shared their views on investor relations practices through keynote speeches and panel discussions.
　
Statistics show that close to 50% of the amount of trading value generated by institutional investors, and close to 40% of the shares in terms of market value held by foreign investors. Since the TWSE released the Stewardship Principles for Institutional Investors on June 30, 2016, many domestic and foreign government funds, life insurers, and SITEs have shown their support and signed the principles for a total of 28 to date. (For a detailed list, please visit the Corporate Governance Center website at http://cgc.twse.com.tw/stewardshipList/listCh) In particular, the TWSE invited Chief Nai-Wen Yu of the Domestic Investment Division of the Bureau of Labor Funds of the Ministry of Labor to speak on new directions for the capital market and share with forums’ attendees his views on how to actively exercise their influence and implement the Stewardship Principles effectively. Mr. Yu also spoke on how investors can follow companies in which they invest in order to increase long term returns and create value for clients and beneficiaries through communication and engagement.
　
Mr. Yu is an experienced government official and has been involved in a number of fiscal projects. He has an extensive knowledge of market developments. Mr. Yu started on the topic of shareholder activism in terms of the size and operation of the Bureau of Labor Funds. He explained the Bureau's interaction with the companies in which it invested. He also demonstrated the importance of investor relations by sharing actual cases with the audience. He emphasized that investment decisions had to be supported by an analysis of sufficient information. Therefore, companies should take a positive view to understand the reasons of why investors would like to receive more information from the companies in which they invest. Instead of denying all requests, companies would be better advised to engage investors in a more honest manner so to avoid causing unnecessary suspicion and discouraging investment. Furthermore, Mr. Yu shared that the Labor Funds pays attention to Socially Responsible Investment, including the issues of companies giving raises to employees and employing more persons with disabilities. For the Bureau of Labor Funds, attention to ESG issues contributes to corporate sustainability of a company, which in turn benefits the investors and creates a win-win result.
　
The TWSE also invited investor relations representatives from Taiwan Paiho, Acter, and China Steel Corporation (CSC) to share their practical experience at the forums. First, Kui-Chu Yeh, VP at Taiwan Paiho, spoke on ways to promote a company and the right attitude for the staff in an investor relations department. Regarding investors' questions, Ms. Yeh stressed repeatedly the idea that the staff should open-mind and provide as much information as is legal and reasonable, and respond to investors' expectations as they are able. She explained her four principles, which are not to provide only good news but bad news as well, not to make negative comments regarding competitors, not to criticize analysts, and not to discuss share prices. Yun-Han Tsao, manager at Acter, shared the company's investor relations procedures and actual cases of engagement with the audience. Ms. Tsao used detailed charts and tables to illustrate different ways of responding to investors' questions under different circumstances. Examples included sending consistent messages to outsiders, not making exaggerative or untrue statements, always releasing information in a timely manner, avoiding information asymmetry, and keeping an open channel for investor communication. Finally, Guan-Ying Li, manager of shareholders affairs and investor relations at CSC, informed the audience that CSC had a full-time investor relations team. CSC is generally recognized by investors as being always ahead of the laws and regulations in implementing corporate governance policies, such as voting on a case-by-case basis and making information available in English, as part of the company's effort to meet investors' expectations. Once they started paying attention to investor relations, the management become a stalwart supporter of the practice and its development, and enabled enhanced investor communication.