The recently announced Asean Corporate Governance Scorecard 2018 for Singapore must have been disappointing to some observers not just because it showed that the development of overall corporate governance practices here has essentially flatlined, but also that progress towards achieving gender diversity has also been minimal.

While 37 per cent of the 100 Singapore companies provided detailed and measurable diversity policies, only four reported on the progress on achieving those objectives. Worse, six in 10 had no women directors and three in 10 had only one. One has to wonder if the Diversity Action Committee's target of having 20 per cent of listed company boards occupied by women by the year 2020 is realistic.