To help competent authorities implement relevant policies and go digital, the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) established the e-Meeting Platform pursuant to the Regulations Governing the Administration of Shareholder Services of Public Companies. The platform was officially launched on April 1, 2022. The e-Meeting Platform can host two types of virtual meetings: virtual-only and hybrid shareholder meetings. This year marks the first year for publicly traded companies to officially adopt the new system, as a result, some companies have not revised their articles of incorporation and could only convene hybrid shareholder meetings. In the end, 72 companies from a variety of industries, such as the financial industry, semiconductor industry, information and communications technology industry, machinery industry, cement industry, steel industry, tourism industry, shipping industry, and biotechnology industry, chose to conduct hybrid shareholder meetings on the e-Meeting Platform.

During a serious outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus last year, 17 companies participated in the trial run of the e-Meeting Platform. However, most users of the platform have not held shareholder meetings that involve the use of virtual communication. Therefore, to help companies run meetings smoothly, TDCC formed a task force that provided consulting services and on-site assistance on the day of shareholder meetings. The task force also worked with companies and their shareholder services departments to conduct numerous rehearsals and trial runs before their meetings.

During peak shareholder meeting season, multiple shareholder meetings might be scheduled by different companies in one day. To ensure a smooth and successful run of multiple virtual meetings all taking place at the same time, TDCC established a situation room that monitored the network quality of all meetings and sessions in real time. During peak season, the busiest days were May 26, May 27, and June 17, where over 10 hybrid shareholder meetings were successfully convened. To improve the quality of the platform, TDCC promptly invited the companies and their shareholder services departments to a meeting and gathered their opinions and feedback immediately after the hybrid shareholder meetings.

TDCC Chairman Han-Chiang Chu stated that 72 companies organized successful shareholder meetings on the TDCC e-Meeting Platform, which served over 2000 registered participants. Chairman Chu would like to express a special thanks to Chairman Huang of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) for his active promotion of digitalization amid the pandemic. As the competent authority, the FSC adopted a top-down strategy and mobilized all its members to formulate and announce the relevant legal basis for the policy, which they completed within a fairly narrow time frame. As we have successfully completed our mission, TDCC would like to extend our sincere gratitude not only to the FSC for their supervision and support, but also to all TWSE/TPEx listed companies and their shareholder services departments for choosing the platform and devoting their concentrated efforts to help push Taiwan’s digitalization of shareholder meetings to the next phase.