Secretaries for listed firms

JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency is requiring all publicly listed companies to appoint corporate secretaries before the end of this year.

The head of the capital market watchdog's law department, I Nyoman Tjager, said yesterday that any listed company should have a corporate secretary by Jan. 1, 1997 at the latest.

"The appointment of a corporate secretary is obligatory to promote services to the investing public," he told members of the association of publicly listed companies in a meeting.

He said that the corporate secretary will serve as a contact person between a publicly listed company and the capital market authority, as well as the investing public.

Nyoman also said that founders of listed companies -- or share issuers -- should add the abbreviation "Tbk" at the end of their companies' names in order to distinguish them from unlisted firms.

"Tbk" is the abbreviation of "Terbuka", which means that the company is publicly listed.(hen)