【Top 10 CSR Events in China】No.4 CSRC issues Governance Guidelines of Listed Companies to strengthen social responsibility and information disclosure requirements

Since 2006, China WTO Tribune has set up annual columns of the top 10 CSR events for 13 years. China WTO Tribune presents you the Top 10 CSR Events in China in 2018.
 
No.4  CSRC issues Governance Guidelines of Listed Companies to strengthen social responsibility and information disclosure requirements 
   
On September 30, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officially issued the revised Governance Guidelines of Listed Companies, and it would be implemented from the date of promulgation. 
 
This revised version focuses on four aspects, namely, 1) strengthening the leading role of listed companies in environmental protection and social responsibility; 2) further strengthening the constraints on controlling shareholders, actual controllers and their related parties, and paying more attention to protecting small and medium investors; 3) establishing the basic framework for information disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG); 4) raising new requirements on the stability of control in the governance of listed companies, the performance of duties by independent directors, the evaluation and incentive & restraint mechanism of directors, supervisors, and top management in listed companies, information disclosure enhancement, etc.
 
Reason for listing:
 
Strengthening the information disclosure requirements of listed companies, especially information of social responsibility fulfillment, is an important way to promote communication between enterprises and stakeholders. It is also an important link to promote the initiative of the companies to fulfill responsibility by market mechanism and build a “good market” mechanism. 
 
The release of the new version of Governance Guidelines of Listed Companies will further standardize the operation of listed companies, improve corporate governance, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors. It can also enhance the internationalization and international competitiveness of China’s capital market while promoting the stable and healthy development of China’s capital market.
 
From the perspective of information disclosure, the new version clearly puts forward the requirements of including Party building into the corporate articles of association, encouraging poverty alleviation and enhancing ESG disclosure. This changes the status that listed companies have long been accustomed to meeting only the mandatory disclosure requirements, and lays the foundation for the subsequent introduction of policies on mandatory environmental information disclosure and social responsibility information disclosure, etc. This also means that more and more professional third-party organizations need to participate in the process of information collection, research, preparation and disclosure of listed companies to improve comprehensiveness and guarantee professionalism.

For more information, please click here:

http://www.csrc.gov.cn/pub/zjhpublic/zjh/201809/t20180930_344906.htm