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In July 2010, Colonial First State Global Asset Management released its third Responsible Investment Report 2009, based on its responses to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Reporting & Assessment survey submitted in mid-2010.

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APG again published a report on its responsible investment activities, explaining the steps that it had taken in 2009 to put its responsible investment policy into practice. The report provided extensive coverage of the climate summit in Copenhagen as well as other ESG issues that APG had undertaken in the course of the year, such as human rights, child labour, the environment, and the human and environmental cost of mining and oil production from tar sands.

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In June 2010, CLSA produced the report "Nice Guys Finish Ahead" that showed good corporate governance practices does pay for shareholders. The results came from over five years of CLSA's Corporate Governance Scores with CLSA analysts looking at the added price return for a company that came purely from its standing on the corporate governance score with all else being held equal.

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PGGM published its second annual responsible investment report in March 2010. The Dutch pension fund administrator believes strongly that responsible investing pays and that financial and social returns go hand in hand. This report shows the implementation of its responsible investment policy in 2009, which included speaking to members of the European Parliament on climate change and writing to all their companies in the portfolio with operations in Sudan and Myanmar.

In October 2009, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, an ACGA member, published its Hong Kong Financial Services briefing. The newsletter covers a number of pertinent issues such as "The Du Jun insider dealing prosecution: The SFC's enforcement approach in living colour"; "Short selling in Hong Kong: will SFC proposals bring greater transparency?"; and "Schemes and scheming in privatisations: a tale from Hong Kong", which covers the recently thwarted PCCW privatisation.

In September 2009, Hermes Fund Managers Limited issued its updated Hermes Corporate Governance Principles - Japan. Hermes, which helped in the development of the ACGA White Paper on Corporate Governance in Japan, summarise the fund's views on the current state of the corporate governance practice and the general nature of ongoing reforms which it believes to be necessary over time. This includes:

• Role of pension funds in Japan;
• A best practice Code on Corporate Governance;
• Accountability: open and ongoing dialogue with shareholders;
• Effectiveness and appropriate composition of boards;
• Efficient capital management;
• Poison pills and takeover defences;
• Transparency: voting results disclosure.

PGGM has published its first annual responsible investment report. PGGM was created on January 1, 2008 to administer the pensions and carry out asset management on behalf of its clients, who own the outsourced pension capital and are responsible for determining the policies on pensions and investments. The integration of responsible investment in all investment activities is an essential part of PGGM's policy.

In February 2009, Hewitt Associates published its "Impact of the Financial Crisis on Executive Compensation, Asia Pacific". The Hewitt Asia-Pacific Hot Topic Survey 2008/09 sought to assess the impact of the global economic downturn on executive pay and long-term incentive programs in the Asia Pacific Region. Hewitt conducted the online survey for a month from December 15, 2008 to January 19, 2009, and received 529 responses from 312 organisations.

Some of the highlights of the survey includes:

• Base pay increases are in the mid to low single digit ranges, and significantly lower than previous years' figures;
• There has been a decline in value through long-term incentives; a 'lost' value that is not likely to be replaced; and
• The manufacturing sector emerges as the worst impacted, followed by the financial services, while the impact on hi-tech has not been as pronounced.

The Enhanced Disclosure Working Group, comprising Standard Life Investments; California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS); Morgan Stanley Investment Management; Ernst & Young; APG Investments; and JP Morgan Securities Limited published the "Guidelines for Enhanced Disclosure" in January 2009. Recognising the need to to restore investor confidence in corporate reporting, the Global Auditor Investor Dialogue, an informal forum whose members comprise the major global auditing networks, leading global investors and share owners, formed an independent working group to address the issues.

The guidelines address a range of topics which are critical to the exercise of effective oversight of audit, risk and control matters by boards around the world, including: information flows to the audit committee; risk and internal controls; valuation of assets and liabilities; write downs and impairment provisions; securitisation, offbalance sheet and contingent liabilities; internal and external auditors; executive compensation and risk; substance not form; audit committee charter; and audit committee membership.

The guidelines are intended to provide a practical tool, which the working group states should be tailored to the circumstances of each company.

This is the third Corporate Governance Review that Grant Thornton has conducted since Hong Kong published its revised Code of Corporate Governance in 2005.

The Review notes that the Code has not changed since 2005 and suggests that "the recent economic crisis is a strong argument that global corporate governance guidelines are generally insufficient". It further states that companies should be reviewing their practices and monitoring their strengths and weaknesses on a regular basis.

Overall, the report found that compliance with the Code among larger Hong Kong companies was improving. But it said that companies still lagged far behind expectations in many areas, including the low level of independence on boards and committees and the lack of an overall strategy for organisational risk management.

In November 2008, Aberdeen Asset Management published its new "Aberdeen Corporate Governance Principles". Aberdeen states that the principles "provide a framework for investment analysis, shareholder engagement and proxy voting for companies worldwide".

In July 2008, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), one of the largest institutional investors in Canada, published the latest version of its "Corporate Governance Principles and Proxy Voting Guidelines". This is the fifth edition of this document, which was first produced in May 1996 and then revised in 2001, 2003, and 2006. New sections in these guidelines include Director Effectiveness under the Board of Directors chapter and Remuneration Policy under the Management and Director Compensation chapter.

Hermes, one of the largest pension fund managers in the UK, published the latest edition of its Principles in 2008. Hermes states that these principles aim at a dialogue between owners and companies to create a "common understanding, between managers and owners, of the proper goals of a public company".

On May 13, 2008, ACGA member, RAILPEN Investments, issued their Hong Kong Corporate Governance Policy, the first stand-alone corporate governance policy by a UK pension fund for Hong Kong. As a long-term investor, RAILPEN is interested in fostering good corporate governance at the companies in which it invests, which the discussion in the policy hopes to do. The policy states that the fund supports the Code of Corporate Governance in Appendix 14 of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK) Listing Rules and other initiatives by the HK Government but it feels there are some areas which the Code does not accentuate or address. These include:

• Independence of directors
• Separation of chairman/CEO
• Board committees
• Capital increases and stock issuances
• Proxy documents, voting, and attendance at meetings

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is the largest US public pension fund with assets totalling more than US$250 billion spanning domestic and international markets as of September 20, 2007.

The Global Principles of Accountable Corporate Governance creates the framework by which CalPERS executes its proxy voting responsibilities and lays the foundation for supporting the fund's corporate engagement and governance initiatives in core, domestic, international and emerging capital markets.

CalPERS, by adopting these principles, strives to influence the global markets through advancing corporate governance dialogue and providing an educational forum by representing a foundation for accountability between a corporation's management and its owners.

This is the second Corporate Governance Review that Grant Thornton has conducted since Hong Kong published its revised Code of Corporate Governance in 2005.

The review shows that major Hong Kong listed companies have achieved a high level of compliance to the Code on Corporate Governance Practices. However, it also shows that companies have as yet to show strong improvement in adopting some recommended best practices in the Code. Grant Thornton says that the authorities, in order to enhance the regulatory framework, should amend the Code so that best practices and more disclosures were mandatory.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) Core Principles of Accountable Corporate Governance is adopted by the CalPERS Board to guide them in serving its more than 1.5 million members and retirees.

The principles create the framework by which CalPERS executes its proxy voting responsibilities as well as providing a foundatiuon for its corporate engagement and governance initiatives. As with its Global Principles, CalPERS states that by adopting these principles it aims to influence the domestic market by advancing corporate governance dialogue and providing an educational forum by representing a foundation for accountability between a corporation's managment and its owners.

In April 2006, the Fuhwa Cultural and Educational Foundation, the Taiwan Securities Association, and the University of Wisconsin Law School co-sponsored a conference on Corporate Governance and Taiwan's Capital Markets at the Taipei World Trade Center.

The University of Wisconsin Law School recently published a report giving an overview of the conference and an agenda for corporate governance reforms in Taiwan based on the conference discussions.

The agenda has been divided into two sections: corporate governance reforms to be undertaken in the near and medium term; and the mechanisms for implementing them.

TIAA-CREF, an ACGA member and the largest private pension scheme in the United States, published a comprehensively revised and updated version of its "Policy Statement on Corporate Governance" in March 2007. Representing more than a year of review and study, the statement includes several new sections including:

• Support for majority voting in director elections in the US.
• Revised policies on executive compensation.
• New voting policies on issues such as lead directors, discretionary broker voting, shareholder advisory votes on compensation disclosure, and shareholder access to the proxy form in the US.
• Reformulated policies on environmental and social issues.
• An expanded program on international corporate governance.

For a brief introduction to the Policy Statement, see TIAA-CREF's letter to portfolio companies. For the full statement, see the attached file.

In August 2006, Deloitte, an ACGA member, released "China's New Accounting Standards: A comparison with current PRC GAAP and IFRS", a report on China's New Accounting Standards. It compares the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBEs), consisting of a new Basic Standard and 38 specific ASBEs, with current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in Chinese Mainland (PRC GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

According to the report, "the ASBEs do not simply expand the disclosure requirements. They make fundamental changes to current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in Chinese Mainland ("PRC GAAP"). Accordingly, they may have a significant impact on the result and/or net asset of enterprises and on the presentation of financial statements".

The new standards, the report states, are in line with current IFRSs, with certain modifications for "China's unique circumstances and environment", and will become mandatory for all listed Chinese companies from January 1, 2007.

JLT Asia, an ACGA member, issued a new report on corporate governance and directors' and officers' (D&O) liability among listed companies in Singapore. A key finding was that the recent scandals among companies in Singapore do appear to have undermined confidence in the quality of corporate governance there. For example:

• Only 43% of respondents this year believed investor interests were adequately protected in Singapore (compared to 60% last year).
• Only 50% of respondents this year agreed or strongly agreed that market manipulation was NOT a significant problem in Singapore (compared to 63% last year).

In October 2004, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) and Policy 21 Ltd conducted its second survey in Hong Kong to obtain views of publicly listed companies on corporate governance and Directors' and Officers' (D&O) Liability insurance. The objectives of the survey were:

1. To obtain information on the purchase of D & O insurance by publicly listed companies in Hong Kong;
2. To gather views from directors and officers of publicly listed companies on corporate governance and its implications for the liabilities faced by directors and officers.

In November 2003, Standard Life Investments published a revised version of its "UK Corporate Governance Guidelines". The Guidelines, which are used by its investment team when evaluating the governance of UK companies, cover the following main issues:

• Directors (including role of the board, board balance, elections, and so on)
• Directors' remuneration
• Accountability and audit
• Shareholders (including voting, dialogue with companies, attendance at AGMs and other meetings, and so on)
• Investment Trust Policy Guidelines
• Socially Responsible Investment Policies

A copy of the Guidelines is attached.

In October 2003, Hermes Pensions Management, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), published a guide for companies called: "Corporate Governance Principles for Business Enterprises". The booklet elaborates in pratical detail 10 key principles of corporate governance. It contains handy references to useful additional material, such as codes of best practice, reports from professional associations, and governance self-rating systems from around Asia and internationally. And it has an appendix that provides a helpful comparison of different definitions of "independent director" from the US and UK. This document is attached.