KUALA LUMPUR: Companies listed on Bursa Malaysia must have at least one woman director from next year, finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said.

       The proposal will take effect from Sept 1, 2022 for large companies and June 1, 2023 for other listed firms.

       He said woman currently made up about a quarter of the board composition a the 100-largest companies on Bursa Malaysia, but 27% or 252 companies of the total listed firm have zero woman representation.

       Public listed companies (PLCs) have, on average, 17% women directors on their boards in 2020 and this was an increase from the 15% recorded in 2019, according to the Minority Shareholders Watch Group (MSWG) in its corporate governance (CG) 2020 assessment published in August.

       The assessment excluded companies listed on the LEAP Market, PN17 and GN3 companies, and it used the Asean CG scorecard.

       In total, 851 PLCs were assessed in 2020.

       Although there was an increase in women directors on board, 220 of the PLCs had no female board representation, MSWG said.

       It also said 370 of the PLCs assessed have at least one woman director and 142 have at least 30% women on their boards.