Sustainability Report 2017

27 Developing Quality Listed Companies and Entrepreneurs Over the part two decades, SET has cultivated corporate governance (CG) culture in the Thai capital market by promoting the role of boards and senior excutives of listed companies to lead business with transparency, efficient internal control and risk management, and business and social innovations to achieve long-term corporate stability. In additional to CG, SET has integrated social and environmental aspects in developing listed company quality, particularly on sustainability strategy development and implementation, through training programs, advisory services, practice guidelines and other tools, SET also promotes transparent disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information and encourages listed companies to participate in ESG performance evaluation for continuous improvement. The Thai capital market plays an important part in promoting the quality of life of people in the society. The market capitalization value of over 680 listed firms is equivalent to 120% of GDP. There are over 1.5 million retail investor accounts and over 80,000 practitioners in the capital market. SET has therefore focused on enhancing quality of listed companies, investors and intermediary institutions to promote the country’s sustainable development. In 2017, SET carried out several activities as follows: • SET promoted ESG awareness among listed companies through “Social Responsibility Management for Sustainable Development” training modules and workshops to strengthen skills of ESG practitioners. SET also organized several seminars on CG Code of Conduct in compliance with the SEC’s guidelines, internal control, based on COSO’s guidelines, and shareholder meeting guidelines. More than 3,000 executives and staff of listed companies joined the ESG training programs in 2017. • SET provided ESG advisory programs for 34 newly- listed companies and developed ESG Health Check as a self-assessment tool to promote ESG practices among small and medium-sized listed companies. In 2017, 15 listed companies were selected to conduct a pilot test for the tool implementation. Promoting listed company quality with ESG (203-2) (102-21)