14.30 - 16.15

James Hawrylak (Japan)
Director Corporate Services, Japan - Thomson Reuters

Paul Wenman (United Kingdom)
Founder and Managing Director - SourceAsia Ltd

Monitoring Asian Corporate ESG performance on the Web

InvestAssure is a corporate ethics web monitoring service from SourceAsia. We track 4,000 companies in Asia to identify and assess incidents or allegations of illegal, unethical, environmentally damaging or socially irresponsible behaviour.

An analysis of our database from 2009-10 reveals some major patterns of ESG risks for investors and sourcing managers. Nearly 15% of the Asian companies we track had at least 1 significant alert in 2 years. Over 10% of companies had 1 alert or more in 2010 alone.
50% of all alerts to our clients related to the Manufacturing sector, 25% to Mining. More than 50% were in China and 45% related to Health, Safety or the Environment. Less than 10% related to Labour Conditions.

The data raise key questions, as well as answers, about the reality of managing and monitoring ESG risks in Asia.

Nicholas E. Benes (Japan)
Representative Director - The Board Director Training Institute of Japan

Corporate Governance Training: Building the Base for ESG

Corporate governance culture "has a huge impact in organizations and their ESG orientation, and has common characteristics in many Asian countries. I will give an example of just how hard it is to change the "CG culture" of a Japanese company. To meaningfully change patterns of behavior requires bringing in outside executives, directors and training programs. Hard and soft law can require director training and disclosure about it, but investors can have the largest impact, by simply asking companies "what are you doing to train your directors?" Last, I will explain what BDTI is doing to offer new types of training programs to both directors and managers, and to deepen CG culture, in Japan.

Kelvin Ho (Hong Kong)
HK-Asia Regional Manager - STR Responsible Sourcing

Managing Labor Risks and Impacts in Emerging Markets

Increasingly, investors are exposed to risks related to poor working conditions in companies or projects they invest in that could have legal, financial, and reputational consequences. Find out what and where these risks are, what investors are doing to identify and mitigate these risks, and what tools are available to help you incorporate labor issues into your investment decision-making processes.