THE Malaysian chapter of the 30% Club, a group driving a business campaign to increase women’s representation on corporate boards, made good progress this year, said founding chairman Zarinah Anwar.

Since its launch in Malaysia in May 2015, the 30% Club’s initiatives, such as the Business Leaders’ Roundtable, mentoring programmes and the placement of women directors, had yielded positive results, she said in a statement today.

Zarinah said the 30% Club was intensifying efforts to have at least one woman director on all-male boards, particularly in large market capitalisation or the top 100 companies out of the 923 listed on Bursa Malaysia, by next year.

The 30% Club also aims to help Malaysia achieve 30% women’s representation on public-listed corporate boards by 2020, as more qualified women make themselves available for board appointments.

“We are seeing more boards acknowledging that gender diversity makes good business sense,” said Zarinah.

Foo Lee Mei, chief regulatory officer at Securities Commission Malaysia, who co-chaired the recent roundtable, said companies should appreciate the business case for diverse boards with women directors.

She also hailed efforts by the 30% Club towards increasing the number of women on the boards of locally listed companies.

Bursa Malaysia data showed that in the third quarter (Q3) of the year, the percentage of top 100 companies that had 30% women’s representation had risen to 19.1% from 16.6% at the end of last year.

The number of top 100 companies that did not have a single woman on their boards had fallen to 10 in Q4 this year, from 14 in Q3. – Bernama, December 19, 2017.