KUALA LUMPUR: Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Abdul Karim says the government is close to reaching its first target of 18% women on the board of directors in public listed companies (PLC) by 2018.

Rohani said as of June 30, 2017, women comprised 17.9% of the board of directors of Bursa Malaysia’s Top 100 PLCs.

However, she said, among the top 100 companies, there were 17 that still did not have women on their board of directors.

The government hoped to hit the 30% target, set in 2011, by the year 2020, Rohani said during an event hosted by her ministry alongside Bursa Malaysia at the Malaysia Tourism Centre.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had previously said the government would, starting next year, name and shame PLCs that had no women on their boards.

He said although Malaysia had reached the 30% target for women in top management, the government wanted to go farther by achieving the 30% target for women at board level.

Rohani said the government was working with the NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women Malaysia (NIEW) to introduce a Women Directors Programme to help achieve the 30% target.

She said the programme would help select women candidates according to criteria and structure.

“The comprehensive programme was created to gauge the knowledge and potential of candidates which are crucial for the position,” said Rohani.