As AmCham Taiwan prepares its 2025 Taiwan White Paper, this is an opportune moment to acknowledge progress on past suggestions by the Chamber’s committees. A notable example is the meaningful advancement in transparency and accessibility of shareholder meeting materials, driven by the “Standardization and Bilingualization of General Meeting Proposals” initiative. This effort has helped set a new benchmark for corporate governance practices in Taiwan.
This long-advocated reform – first recommended in AmCham’s 2023 White Paper – is an important step forward in aligning Taiwan’s capital market infrastructure with international best practices, and in reinforcing Taiwan’s role as a competitive, investor-friendly economy.
Taiwan’s equity market has long attracted global attention. Foreign investors currently hold approximately 40% of the shares listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange (TPEx), making them essential participants in Taiwan’s corporate governance ecosystem. However, until recently, the fragmented, non-standardized, and often Chinese-only format of shareholder meeting materials posed a challenge to meaningful engagement by international stakeholders. By addressing these barriers, Taiwan is sending a powerful message of openness, modernization, and collaboration.
At the core of the initiative is the implementation of a more standardized and accessible system for disclosing shareholder meeting information. This includes the adoption of ISO 20022 data exchange specifications and an expanded use of English.
These improvements address long-standing challenges posed by Taiwan’s translation-dependent process, in which foreign custodian banks have been required to independently translate materials for their clients. By embedding bilingual content and structured data fields directly into the submission process, Taiwan is significantly reducing friction and improving the accessibility of corporate governance materials for foreign institutional investors.
The effort has benefited from exceptional interagency cooperation. The TWSE, Financial Supervisory Commission, Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation, and Taiwan Stock Affairs Association have all demonstrated strong commitment to institutional reform. Following constructive input from AmCham’s Capital Markets Committee and other key stakeholders, TWSE has outlined a clear roadmap for phased implementation, including system upgrades, new reporting templates, and capacity-building efforts among issuers and service providers.
Importantly, the approach strikes a balance between ambition and pragmatism. Listed companies and TPEx firms with paid-in capital exceeding NT$600 million (US$19 million) are already subject to mandatory bilingual reporting requirements, while smaller companies are encouraged to participate on a voluntary basis. This phased strategy promotes broader adoption without placing undue strain on less-resourced companies. The initiative also includes carefully considered safeguards for personal data, such as allowing board candidates to voluntarily provide English names in accordance with Taiwan’s Personal Data Protection Act.
By Q3 2026, the reforms are expected to culminate in a fully integrated system capable of delivering standardized English-language materials directly to international proxy voting platforms such as Broadridge and Institutional Shareholder Services.
AmCham applauds the momentum behind this initiative and the openness of regulators to private sector feedback. Taiwan’s proactive approach sets a regional example in corporate governance transparency. We look forward to continued collaboration as these reforms move from planning to execution, and we remain confident that Taiwan’s embrace of global standards will strengthen its appeal to international investors and reinforce its reputation as a modern, resilient economy.
