Singapore tops regional corporate governance rankings

SINGAPORE has beaten the competition and emerged at the top of regional corporate governance rankings, "Corporate Governance (CG) Watch 2016".

The much-anticipated results were announced on Thursday morning by brokerage and investment group CLSA and the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), which produce the rankings bi-annually.

Singapore beat close competitor Hong Kong, as well as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Korea, China, Philippines and Indonesia.

Australia was included in CG Watch for the first time due to "popular demand". But it was excluded from the rankings, so as not to skew past results as its CG score was significantly higher than Singapore's.

The 2016 report analysed and rated 1,047 Asian companies and 12 key Asia-Pacific markets on their performance in corporate governance. The markets are assessed based on a country's cumulative score across five categories: CG rules and practices, enforcement, political and regulatory environment, accounting and auditing and CG culture.

Singapore and Hong Kong tied for top rankings in the previous rankings in 2014. But both countries also achieved lower scores that year, when compared to the previous rankings in 2012, because of factors such as regulatory conflicts of interest and out-of-date institutional structures.

Singapore pipped Hong Kong to the top spot in the 2012 rankings.