ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) has obviously become the latest business operation trend and investment trend. How can Taiwanese businesses, investment institutes, and individual investors jump on the bandwagon and adapt themselves to this global trend? “2021 Taiwan ESG and Responsible Investment Forum,” held by TDCC, took place on January 27th. Foremost, professionals were invited to the event, and their discussion focused on all aspects of ESG issues. What’s worth mentioning is that the forum went online due to this year’s pandemic, but still attracted over 400 public companies and 50 investment institutes, with the total participant number exceeding 1,000. The forum has won tremendous compliments with enthusiastic and positive feedback.

As Sherman Lin, TDCC Chairman & CEO, indicated at the opening remark, the global sustainability investment volume had seen a steady increase; the volume reached $1.2 trillion in Q3 2020. Among all, Taiwan’s performance was extraordinary, standing at the top of Asian sustainable investment net capital inflow. To further connect Taiwan to ESG, TDCC cooperated with four leading multinational organizations: FTSE Group, ISS, Sustainalytics, and MSCI to establish a brand new ESG platform. British Centennial Media has complimented this initiative as a pioneering global achievement. Besides providing related information, TDCC expects to improve the community exchange function for public companies, investment institutes, and research institutes based on the new platform. Through barrier-free conversation and communication, ESG concepts and rating can be incorporated into corporate policies; effective implementation and information disclosure can be realized. Investment institutes are expected to utilize relevant information for their investment strategies, and third-party institutes such as consulting and accounting firms can create more ESG practices and applications through the platform to activate the development of the ESG ecosystem in Taiwan.

As the FSC Chairperson Tien-Mu Huang emphasized at the opening of the forum, ESG has become a global trend. The FSC will keep strengthening responsible investment and ESG market mechanism, announcing the project “Corporate Governance 3.0—Sustainable Development Blueprint.” The aim is to sufficiently disclose information, enforce institutional investors’ stewardship principles, launch the sustainable version of the platform as well as stewardship principle concepts on foreign investors and international proxy advisors, and encourage domestic listed companies’ communication to create a multi-win situation.

At the forum, representatives from Fidelity International, one of the most prominent fund companies, and Sustainalytic, the largest ESG research institute in Europe, shared that ESG has become the quantitative indicator for investment in the global market. In recent years, Fidelity International has even established their own scoring model, assisting investment teams’ analysts with integrated analysis based on a corporation’s business and ESG practices. As the two major international proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis emphasized, ESG risk management will become an essential issue at shareholder meetings and board meetings. Material weaknesses may influence proxy advisors’ support for the re-election of related board members.

TDCC will continue to promote and develop Taiwan’s sustainability and responsible investment communities. Besides, the company will serve as a hub that connects global and domestic investment institutes, proxy advisors, ESG research institutes, and public companies to promote Taiwan’s sustainability and responsible investment practices. Please go to https://irplatform.tdcc.com.tw for more details.