English (United States) SustainableDevelopmentRoadmap

Overview

Sustainability development roadmap

Sustainability Development Roadmap “SD Roadmap”

Backgrounds

1. The National Committee for Corporate Governance approved the Corporate Governance Development Plan in 2004. The plan has been implemented and several milestones have been reached since then. For example, the assessment results of CG Watch, CG ROSC and ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard have shown that the Thai capital market’s rules and regulations on corporate governance practices are in accordance with international standards, lead the ASEAN countries, and hold a top three position in Asia. Nevertheless, challenges remain in some areas, particularly the accountability of listed companies to its stakeholders and the board’s responsibilities.

2. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) gains a more significant role as investors and foreign companies give more weight to the CSR factor when making investment decisions and thus are more inclined to invest in a company or do business with a partner that places extra concerns over the environment and society in addition to corporate governance practices.

3. Increasingly, Thailand has become more concerned with the social and environmental issues, for example, global warming, and degradation of natural resources, more severe nature disasters, social disparities, and corruption. Any one of these issues could bring about damage to sustainability at the corporate, national or even global levels. The SEC Board, therefore, approved the Sustainability Development Roadmap for listed companies, as proposed in the SEC Strategic Plan 2013-2015.

Past developments

The SEC has laid out the Sustainability Development Roadmap, and consulted with related parties, including:

1. Conducting stakeholders’ surveys with the Thai Listed Companies Association, the Association of Securities Companies, the Association of Investment Management Companies, the Securities Analyst Association, the Thai Institute of Directors, and the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 25 November 2013.

2. Consulting with the Corporate Social Responsibility Institute (CSRI) of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, chaired by Prof. Dr. Hiran Radeesri on 24 June 2013 and 26 November 2013.

3. Consulting with the CSRI, chaired by Dr. Chaiwat Viboonsawat on 16 May 2013 and 6 December 2013.

Sustainability Development Roadmap

The SEC has conducted assessments on circumstances that could pose potential impacts on sustainable development of listed companies, for example, global developmental trends, strategies of other countries, challenges of sustainable growth, including demands, opportunities and obstacles of sectors in the Thai capital market. Accordingly, Thai listed companies should focus on three areas, namely:

CG in substance: Focusing on substance of corporate governance practices and providing support for listed company’s directors and executives in creating sustainable growth.

CSR in process: Listed companies operate with social and environmental concern and should be a driving force of its value chain.

Anti-corruption in practice: Listed company is seen as anti-corruption role model, which helps create corruption-free culture in Thai business.

Sustainability issues have been SEC’s top priority. The Roadmap to develop the eco-system for sustainable finance has drafted in 2019 and has incorporated into the SEC Strategic Plan. More information on SEC Strategic Plan, please click here.