Time 5:54:32 PM Date 07/04/2015
NP08-NPS-037-
THE NEW PAPER Wednesday, April 8 2015 37
‘No’ to quotas for gender diversity: S’pore
Task force advocates making it a corporate governance best practice & developing board-ready women
A Diversity Action Committee (DAC) that will
put the recommendations into practice will be
chaired by Singapore Exchange (SGX) CEO
Magnus Bocker; Speaker of Parliament Halimah
Yacob, who initiated this project when she was
minister of state for the ministry, is its adviser.
The committee will work with stakeholders such
as the government, the regulators, companies
and their boards and members of academia to
lift the level of female representation on boards.
The DTF has recommended, for example, that:
Photo by AZIZ HUSSIN
Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing with the report on the recommendations of
the Diversity Task Force. Beside him are (from left) task force chairman Mildred Tan, Madam Halimah Yacob,
who initiated the task force in 2012, and SGX chief and Diversity Action Committee chair Magnus Bocker.
[email protected]
SINGAPORE has decided against instituting
quotas, enacting laws or offering incentives to
get companies to appoint more women to their
boards of directors.
(DTF) yesterday, said: “When we initiated this
project, we didn’t necessarily want to start with
legislation or incentives, because that would
have sent the wrong signal. The talents of the
women in our population should be
To increase the participation of women on
appreciated on their own merit.”
boards, it will instead use a softer approach; it
will work with various stakeholders to, for Set up in 2012 under his ministry to look into
example, provide training for women who want gender diversity on boards, the DTF found that
to become directors and include gender women comprised only 8.3 per cent of board
diversity among the list of best practices in the directors in Singapore-listed companies, and
Code of Corporate Governance.
that 57 per cent of company boards were
all-male bastions.
Minister for Social and Family Development
Chan Chun Sing, who received the Yesterday, the DTF presented its
recommendations from the Diversity Task Force recommendations on tackling this issue.
DTF has created some simplicity to all this
A local resource on pro-diversity best practices complexity by coming up with real, hands-on
things that we can do.”
be set up;
Existing “board match” initiatives in corporate Penelope Phoon, executive director of the
Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) – the
and non-profit sectors be leveraged;
national association of company directors –
Companies develop a gender-diversity policy said, in response to the findings: “Board diversity
and discuss the issue at board meetings.
is important and, while board diversity is more
Mildred Tan, managing director of Ernst & than gender diversity, the latter deserves focus
Young Advisory and chairwoman of the DTF, because it is a problem.”
expressed the hope that 1,000 women would She disclosed that SID had formed a Diversity
be trained and board- ready by 2020 – meaning Sub-Committee which will review the DTF’s
they would occupy a fifth of all directorships.
recommendations and the broader issue of
Mr Chan said the less prescriptive approach may diversity in the boardroom, and determine
seem a harder route to take than the legislative actions that SID and its partners can take.
or quota route, but that the quota route would
be counter-productive in the long term.
This text first appeared in The Business Times
“If there is no real appreciation for the talent and on April 26, 2014.
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Yeo Lian Sim, special adviser at SGX and a
member of the DTF, took that thought further:
“If we start with quotas, it might be all too easy
(for companies) to just meet the numbers
without actually addressing the issue – which is
to have a representation on the board that’s
good for the company.”
Research on gender diversity be publicised;
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what our womenfolk can bring to the table on
their own merit, then I think we have failed
them. I don’t think our women need
(prescriptive) kinds of action to affirm what they
are capable of,” he added.
Senior government leaders continue highlighting the importance of gender diversity on Asked why the DTF focused on gender diversity
on boards instead of all types of diversity, Ms
boards;
Tan said it wanted to start with a focus on this
More emphasis be put on the issue in the Code particular area first, so that the results would be
of Corporate Governance;
tangible, and the recommendations concrete.
Programmes be introduced to train and Mr Bocker said of the good that had come out of
develop board-ready female candidates;
the DTF’s work on a complex issue: “I think the
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