6th Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance: 2-3 November 2004

The 6th Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance was held in Seoul, Korea on 2 and 3 November 2004. The theme of the conference was 'Implementation and enforcement in Corporate Governance'. Sub themes discussed included 'Quality of the Regulatory Framework'; 'Supervision and Regulatory Enforcement: (i) Investigatory Powers and Sanctions, and (ii) Ensuring Capacity, Integrity and Accountability of Regulators and Supervisors'; 'Judicial Enforcement: (i) Civil Enforcement, and (ii) Criminal Enforcement; and 'Ensuring Judicial Infrastructure'.

During the closing session the future work of the Asia Roundtable was discussed; it was decided to form dedicated Task Forces consisting of both Roundtable participants and outside specialists to investigate two or three key topics, e.g. (i) Corporate governance of banks / financial institutions, and / or (ii) Related party transactions, and / or (iii) Convergence to IFRS.

In February 2005 two Task Forces were convened, one to focus on Corporate Governance of banks, and one of the Corporate Governance of State Owned Enterprises. The work of the Task Force on Corporate Governance of State Owned Enterprises will coincide with the publication of the "OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State Owned Enterprises" in Spring 2005.

Task Forces are to report back to Asia Roundtable in 2005 via (draft) Policy Briefs.

• Agenda
• Welcoming remarks: Robert Ley, Deputy Director, OECD

• More information on the Asian Corporate Governance Roundtable

Theme I: Quality of Regulatory Framework

• Mr. Roberto Ulissi, General Director, Ministry of Finance, Italy
• Mr. Paul Chow, CEO Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hong Kong
• Mr. Youngjae Lim, KDI, Korea

Theme II: Supervision and Regulatory Enforcement

Session 1: Investigatory Powers and Sanctions

• Mrs Nik Ramlah Mahmood, Director, Market Policy and Development, Market Policy & Development Division, Securities Commission, Malaysia
• Mrs Louise Macaulay, Director of Enforcement Law and Policy, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australia

Session 2: Ensuring Capacity, Integrity and Accountability of Regulators and Supervisors

• Mrs Jaweria Ather, Director, Chairman’s Secretariat, Securities and Exchange Commission, Pakistan
• Ms Chung-Fern Wu, Commissioner, Financial Supervisory Commission, Chinese Taipei

Theme III: Judicial Enforcement

Session 1: Civil Enforcement

• Mr. Barry Metzger, Senior Partner, Coudert Brothers LLP, United States (Presentation to follow)
• Mr. Lawrence Liu, China Development Financial Holding Corporation, Chinese Taipei
• Mr. Michael Hwang, ICC arbitrator, Singapore
  Reference was made, by M. Hwang, to the OECD "Programme Statement for Corporate Governance and Arbitration of Company Law Disputes"

Session 2: Criminal Enforcement

• Mr. Yong-Jin Jung, Prosecutor, Seoul Northern District Prosecutor’s office, Korea
  powerpoint presentation
  paper

Theme IV: Ensuring Judicial Infrastructure

• Professor Maarten Kroeze, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Mr. John Cooke, Director of Education, Federal Judicial Center, United States

Discussion of the Asian Roundtable Policy Brief on Implementation and Enforcement and future work of the roundtable

• Mr. Louis Bouchez, Senior Corporate Governance Specialist, OECD