KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 9): Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today announced that Malaysia records a higher score of 58% in the biennial Corporate Governance Watch 2014 Report (CG Watch), as compared to 49% in 2007.

“The report drew attention to the sustained and concerted efforts by Malaysia in driving governance reforms, resulting in Malaysia becoming the only market out of the Asia Pacific countries assessed, that consistently improved its scores in each of the last four surveys,” the press release by SC reads.

CG Watch also indicate the areas of consistent improvement include corporate governance culture, rules and practices, enforcement, accounting and auditing.

SC said the positive outcomes were resulted from the implementation of recommendations under the Corporate Governance Blueprint, which it launched in 2011.

“Malaysia was also recognised for its strength in financial reporting and auditing standards, ranking equal first with Singapore in the category of accounting and auditing,” SC says.

According to the regulator, CG Watch also remarks that the SC’s Audit Oversight Board is “one of the better organised and transparent audit regulators in the region.”

CG Watch is a collaboration report by Asian Corporate Governance Association and CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. It was conducted from February to August 2014, by a team of research analysts, experts and consultants. A total of 944 companies across twelve Asia-Pacific nations were evaluated in various aspects of corporate governance.