ASEAN Capital Markets Forum set key priorities for next five-year action plan

ASEAN Capital Markets Forum has drawn up the roadmap for the next five years of cooperation

These key priorities are (i) driving higher levels of transparency and disclosure; (ii) continuing with regulatory harmonisation; (iii) intensifying capacity building; (iv) amplifying communication and awareness; and (v) strengthening cooperation and coordination. The meeting also acknowledged the progress of ACMF working groups on implementation of the six short-to-medium term focus areas identified in the Roadmap for ASEAN Sustainable Capital Markets.

The meeting also accepted the provision of technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to engage the Climate Bonds Initiative to support the ACMF’s implementation of the roadmap focusing on sustainable finance initiatives. Under the theme of sustainable finance, the ACMF will explore an ASEAN sustainability-linked bond standards to facilitate bond issuance for sustainability-related goals.

This will complement the suite of bond standards that the ACMF has already introduced for green, social, and sustainability bonds. To further foster the development of the region’s sustainable finance ecosystem, the ACMF will be conducting study on the development of a common green, sustainable, and transitional taxonomy for ASEAN.

ACMF will also continue to monitor international developments on the convergence of sustainability disclosure standards, to further inform ACMF’s initiative on corporate sustainability disclosures under the roadmap.

Tran Van Dzung, Chairman of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam and Chair of the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) 2020

The announcement of the recipients of the sixth ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) Awards was done through the publication of an awards booklet on ACMF’s website.

The printed Certificates of Award will be distributed to the awardees by the Domestic Ranking Bodies for companies within their respective countries. The three categories of awards are as follows:

(i) Top 20 ASEAN public listed companies (PLCs);

(ii) ASEAN Asset Class (that is, ASEAN PLCs that scored 97.5 points and above or 75 per cent of the maximum attainable score of 130);

(iii) Top 3 PLCs in each participating country.

The ACMF will continue to collaborate closely with the ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Market Development (WC-CMD) to drive the sustainable finance agenda in capital markets in the region. Together with WC-CMD, the ACMF aims to put forth an ASEAN voice at the 26th United Nation Climate Change Conference (COP26) in late 2021.

The ACMF also expressed appreciation to ADB for its technical assistance support covering activities from 2019 to 2021. The Meeting also saw the handing over of the ACMF Chairmanship from the ACMF Chair of 2020, State Securities Commission of Vietnam, to the Monetary Authority Brunei Darussalam for the year 2021, with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia as Vice-Chair.

The ACMF is a high-level grouping of capital market regulators from all 10 ASEAN jurisdictions, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The ACMF is currently chaired by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam.

Last week, VIR co-organised the Vietnam Listed Company Awards 2020 with the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, and Dragon Capital Group.