Corporate Governance in Asia - still a very long way to go!

Mahatir Mohammad, an ex Malaysia Prime Minister was a very interesting character. He wittered on about how asian values are different from western values so told the western countries to stop moaning about human rights. It was correct, Mahatir Mohammad doesnt treat Asians as humans. In other words, all that wittering on about Asian Values is simply a fig leaf for being a tyrant, discriminatory, autocratic and dictatorial. Esphoks!

But to get to the point, all these asian values lead to is bad corporate governance and a strong feeling that small shareholders are to be ignored. See here for a better report on it. I quote:

ACGA marks down Singapore for limited disclosure of director remuneration, a lack of legal remedies for investors and continuing use of discounted stock options.

However, even top-ranked Hong Kong lags way behind rival markets in the US and Europe in terms of corporate governance. Hong Kong is criticised for allowing reporting deadlines to remain well below international best practice, for inadequate continuous disclosure of price sensitive information and an “artificially designed” and weak definition of independent directors.

Long way to go!

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!