April

Best Corporate Governance practices and Best Online Annual Report in Asia Pacific by IRGR

In Malaysia, we have long promoted greater transparency and accountability in terms of corporate governance processes and disclosures, and we have been at the forefront of the development of the investor relations profession. These initiatives were given international prominence in April 2010, when Bursa Malaysia received the Investor Relations Global Rankings awards for Best Corporate Governance Practices and Best Online Annual Report in Asia-Pacific. The IRGR awards are organised by MZ Consult, a leading investor relations and financial communications firm, with the support from KPMG, NYSE Euronext, Arnold & Porter, Demarest & Almeida, The Bank of New York Mellon, Corporate Asia Network, Bloomberg, NEVIR, Sodali and MZ-CCG.

Award for support of Malaysia's venture capital and private equity industry

Also in April, our 2009 move to open the avenues for efficient capital raising in the ACE Market by high growth companies was given appreciation. Bursa Malaysia was granted a Recognition Award for a Public Organisation that has Supported and Contributed Towards the Malaysia Venture Capital & Private Equity Industry by the Malaysian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. The ACE Market allows for a much broader spectrum of companies to access the market than the narrower technology based MESDAQ board which ACE replaced. Encouraging emerging businesses to flourish is a key component of a vibrant exchange, and the ACE Market provides a natural investment environment for venture capital and private equity investors.

July

Bursa Suq Al-Sila's market innovation award for the Asset Triple A awards for Islamic Finance

Bursa Malaysia's work to develop a unique presence in Islamic products is a key element of our overall strategy. It was especially pleasing, therefore, to learn in July that our Shari'ah compliant commodity trading platform, Bursa Suq Al-Sila' won the Market Innovation award from The Asset Triple A Awards 2010 under the Islamic Finance category. Bursa Suq Al-Sila' is the world's first end-to-end Shari'ah trading platform for commodity financing and liquidity management by Islamic banks.

August

Bursa Suq Al-Sila's Islamic innovation award by MOSTI

Awards of this nature help cement our position at the forefront of innovation in this increasingly important sector, and this was further enhanced in August when the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, in conjunction with the Islamic Innovation Carnival, conferred the inaugural Islamic Innovation Award to Bursa Suq Al-Sila'. Through creative innovations like this, Bursa Malaysia contributes to the promotion of Islamic financial products globally and the continued Islamic economic development of the country.

December

MSWG recognises Bursa Malaysia's achievements

The year was rounded off in December with Bursa Malaysia's achievements in the annual Malaysian Corporate Governance Index awards, conducted by the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group. For the second year running, MSWG has reviewed Malaysian PLCs using a suite of objective and subjective measurement tools. For the second year also, Bursa Malaysia was singled out with a Top Three (Overall) Award for excellence in corporate governance. We also achieved a Distinction Award and a Special Transparency Award. Part of our work is to enhance overall market quality, and encouraging PLCs to adopt leading CG practices has always been high on our agenda.