PH ranks 10th among 11 countries in corporate governance

The Philippines emerged as the second-worst country when it comes to corporate governance, according to the latest survey of 11 countries in Asia by the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA).

ACGA’s latest “Corporate Governance Watch 2012” showed that the Philippines ranked 10th out of 11 countries in terms of adherence of corporate entities to “good governance” practices.

The Philippines got a score of 41 points in this year’s survey, and only Indonesia ranked lower with a score of 37 points. Singapore again got the highest rank in this year’s survey by scoring 69 points.

But despite the dismal performance in the 2012 survey, it was still an improvement from 2010 when the Philippines was ranked the worst when it comes to corporate governance.

The rankings of the other countries in the 2012 survey are:  Hong Kong, 2nd with score of 66 points; Thailand, third with 58; Japan and Malaysia, fourth with 55; Taiwan, sixth with 53; India, seventh with 51; South Korea, eighth with 49; and China, ninth with 45.

ACGA, a group advocating for the adoption of good corporate governance standards in Asia, rates the 11 selected countries based on factors affecting good corporate governance, such as availability of appropriate regulations by concerned government agencies, enforcement of regulations, disclosure practices of publicly listed firms, and business ethical rules.

Meantime, the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) said it would push for the improvement in the country’s rankings over the medium term by more aggressively promoting the adoption of more good governance practices in the corporate sector.