The single most important factor in transforming Singapore into one of the world’s high-performance economies has been good governance. Indeed, the World Bank has identified governance as being essential to economic development. Good governance depends on both formal and informal institutions in law and politics, society and culture, and economy and business.

The recent widespread failure of financial markets around the world, followed by government bailouts, called into question the functioning of market mechanisms and the roles of institutions such as regulations and government supervision that are based on the Anglo-American model.

On the other hand, many Asian countries has achieved strong economic growth despite having weak institutions by Anglo-American standards. These economies have embraced a network form of capitalism with a mixed model of government and private-sector capitalism with institutions ranging from family businesses to equally vibrant government-linked corporations (GLCs).

The Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organizations (CGIO) was set up to spearhead efforts to generate the intellectual leadership and practical relevance of the “Asian model of governance “ to business communities and governments in this region.

Core to achieving the CGIO’s abovementioned mission will be its research program and industry program. Under the research program, the CGIO aims to spearhead high-quality, inter-disciplinary academic research in the areas of corporate governance, institutions and organizations with a focus on Asian countries. In the process, the CGIO is supported by five research units, namely the Family Business, Business Groups, Government-Linked Companies and the Legal and Institutional Developments research units. The CGIO provides and promotes intellectual leadership and best practices amongst corporations, governments and academia through industry and research conferences and seminars.