On 8 October 2026 the Indonesian business daily Bisnis counted down to what it called the “PSPK era”: about three months until Indonesia’s IFRS-based sustainability standards, PSPK 1 and PSPK 2, take effect for annual reporting periods beginning 1 January 2027. The executive director of the Indonesian Issuers Association (AEI) told a seminar that data readiness is now the main job for listed companies.
For a Thai board, the date matters. SET50 companies start collecting data for their first IFRS S1 and S2 year in FY2027 too. Two of ASEAN’s biggest exchanges are therefore starting ISSB-based reporting in the same year, and competing for the same regional investors. They are not starting from the same place. Indonesia has a standard but no final rule saying who must use it. And Indonesian law already requires the annual report to be published in English as well as Indonesian. Thai law does not.
- What starts in Indonesia on 1 January 2027
- The standard is ready. The rule that applies it is not.
- Indonesia and Thailand, side by side
- The difference a foreign investor sees first: language
- The real pressure on Indonesia is free float, not disclosure
- Where the evidence runs out
- What a Thai board should take from this
What starts in Indonesia on 1 January 2027
The Indonesian Sustainability Standards Board (DSK IAI), part of the Institute of Indonesia Chartered Accountants, adopted PSPK 1 and PSPK 2 on 1 July 2025. In IAI’s words, they “refer to IFRS S1 and IFRS S2”, and IAI says the final text has no substantive differences from the exposure draft. PSPK 1 covers general requirements and PSPK 2 covers climate. They use the same four pillars as the ISSB standards: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
Indonesia, unlike Thailand, rebranded the standards rather than applying IFRS S1 and S2 by name. Three features of the drafts, as summarised in the IFRS Foundation’s Indonesia snapshot (updated 18 June 2026), stand out:
Only climate disclosure is proposed as mandatory in the first three years. Other sustainability topics are voluntary. IAI plans a post-implementation review over 2027–2029 before widening the scope.
Draft PSPK 2 extends IFRS S2’s one-year Scope 3 relief to the first three annual periods. It also lets companies keep a non-GHG-Protocol measurement method for three years.
Draft PSPK 1 lets companies publish sustainability disclosures up to one month after the financial statements, but no later than the annual report.
The IFRS snapshot lists Indonesia’s assurance requirement as “Under consideration.” No binding assurance rule exists yet.
The standard is ready. The rule that applies it is not.
This is the part most coverage skips. A standard tells you how to report. It does not say who has to. In Indonesia that is up to the Financial Services Authority, OJK, and its rule is not final. The IFRS snapshot records the reporting entities, the effective date and whether reporting is required all as “To be determined.”
OJK has begun the work. It consulted on a draft regulation replacing parts of POJK 51/2017, its 2017 sustainable-finance rule, between 11 February and 13 March 2026. According to IAI’s own bulletin, the draft would require companies to use the new standards and to disclose their impact on the environment and society, so it goes beyond ISSB’s investor-focused materiality. On 22 July 2026 Joko Siswanto, who heads OJK’s sustainable-finance directorate, gave a target date at the Lestari Summit:
Hopefully it can be launched this year. We’ll wait until December.
Joko Siswanto, OJK, Lestari Summit, 22 July 2026, as reported by Kompas (our translation)So as of this week Indonesian issuers have about eleven weeks until the standard’s effective date, and no final list of who must comply. Phase-in groups, size thresholds and assurance levels are circulating, but they come from consultant summaries of a draft. We are not repeating them.
Indonesia and Thailand, side by side
| Thailand | Indonesia | |
|---|---|---|
| Standards | IFRS S1 and S2, applied directly | PSPK 1 and PSPK 2, based on IFRS S1 and S2 |
| First year | FY2027 for SET50 (reported 2028); SET100 FY2028 | Periods from 1 Jan 2027, but who must apply them is still open |
| Binding rule | SEC roadmap, news release 298/2568 (Nov 2025) | OJK draft rule, consultation closed 13 Mar 2026; not yet issued |
| Climate first | Yes, 5 years (comply-or-explain for other topics) | Proposed: 3 years |
| Scope 3 relief | 5 years | Proposed: first 3 annual periods |
| Assurance | Scope 1 and 2 verified from year one, no relief | Under consideration |
| English annual report | Voluntary (TorJor. 44/2556 cl. 38: “may”) | Mandatory (POJK 29/2016 Art. 5: at least English) |
| FTSE classification | Advanced Emerging | Secondary Emerging |
Thailand: SEC news 298/2568 as restated on SET’s ISSB information hub; SEC Notification TorJor. 44/2556 clause 38. Indonesia: IAI release (1 July 2025); IFRS Foundation Indonesia snapshot (updated 18 June 2026), which describes the draft PSPK reliefs; POJK 29/POJK.04/2016. FTSE: Equity Country Classification annual announcement, 6 October 2026.
On timing, Thailand is the more settled of the two. Its roadmap names the cohorts and years, and its verification duty applies from year one. Indonesia has the standard but not the rule. Our SET50 climate-disclosure guide sets out the full Thai obligation, and the IFRS S1/S2 bilingual-disclosure page covers how it lands in a two-language report.
The difference a foreign investor sees first: language
Article 5 of OJK Regulation 29/POJK.04/2016, in force for annual reports filed from 2017, is four short paragraphs:
The annual report “wajib disajikan dalam Bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa asing”: it must be presented in Indonesian and a foreign language.
The foreign-language edition must “paling sedikit menggunakan bahasa Inggris”: at least English.
The foreign-language edition must contain the same information as the Indonesian edition. The official explanation adds that the two can be one book or separate books.
Where interpretation or content differs, the Indonesian edition is the reference.
Thailand has nothing like it for the One Report. Clause 38 of SEC Notification TorJor. 44/2556 says a company may also file in English. That is permission, not a requirement. The strongest official push is SET’s own Q&A on FTSE Russell ESG Scores, which recommends English disclosure because FTSE Russell assesses information primarily from English. Thai is also not among the key research languages FTSE Russell lists in its ESG Scores FAQ (v1.5, §1.8).
None of this means a Thai-language report scores lower, and we do not claim it does. It means a regional fund comparing an Indonesian bank with a Thai bank gets an English annual report from the first by law. From the second, it gets one only if the company chose to publish it, and nothing makes that English edition match the Thai text. Thai companies that do publish one should hold themselves to Indonesia’s standard anyway: same information, one controlling text, no gaps. That is how we build a clause-mapped bilingual One Report.
The real pressure on Indonesia is free float, not disclosure
It would be easy to frame this as Indonesia catching up and threatening Thailand. The index providers’ own documents don’t support that. Indonesia’s current problem with global investors is shareholder transparency and free float, not sustainability reporting:
- MSCI, 23 June 2026: market participants “raised profound investability concerns.” MSCI welcomed the reforms from OJK, IDX and KSEI, including disclosure of shareholders above 1% and a roadmap to a 15% minimum free float, as “a step in the right direction.” But if progress is not evident by the November 2026 Index Review, MSCI may consult on moving Indonesia from Emerging to Frontier.
- MSCI, 6 July 2026: MSCI kept its freeze on increases to Indonesian foreign inclusion factors and share counts, and on additions to its investable-market indexes, “until further notice.”
- FTSE Russell, 6 October 2026: Indonesia stays Secondary Emerging and is not on the Watch List. FTSE postponed some Indonesian index changes at its March, June and September 2026 reviews and will give an update before the December review. Thailand is Advanced Emerging.
Better ESG reporting will not fix free-float concerns. Even so, the two markets will be compared in the same regional portfolios from FY2027, and Indonesia will arrive with an English annual report as standard. Thailand’s advantage in index classification is a separate question from how readable its disclosure is in English.
Where the evidence runs out
- OJK’s final rule is unknown. We could not open OJK’s own site this run. The consultation dates come from the IFRS Foundation snapshot and IAI’s bulletin, and the December target comes from one press report. Who must apply PSPK, and from when, may change.
- The reliefs are draft-stage. The three-year climate-first and Scope 3 reliefs are from the exposure drafts as the IFRS snapshot describes them. IAI says the final standards have no substantive changes, but the snapshot itself is labelled partly out of date.
- Language rules are not rating rules. We know of no primary source showing that a Thai-language disclosure is scored lower. The case for an English edition is about who can read it and whether it is accurate, not a penalty.
- We have not checked compliance. Article 5 states the Indonesian rule. We have not assessed how well Indonesian issuers’ English editions actually match the Indonesian text.
- The sustainability report may differ. This post covers the annual report. A stand-alone Indonesian sustainability report falls under POJK 51/2017, which we did not re-read this run.
What a Thai board should take from this
Your English edition, held to the same standard as the Thai
Othello builds the English One Report and sustainability report under ISO 17100 Translate-Edit-Proofread, clause-mapped to your Thai filing, together with the IFRS S1/S2 advisory and TGO CFO carbon numbers behind it.
Run the free Gap AuditIndonesia’s start date and Thailand’s are the same, but one of them already requires an English annual report and the other leaves it to the company. If you publish in English voluntarily, the safest approach is to treat it as if it were required. See our notes on where ESG translation goes wrong and our ISO 17100 technical translation service, back the climate figures with a TGO-certified organisational footprint, and follow OJK’s final rule on our regulatory tracker →
Sources, read 12 October 2026: Bisnis.com, “PR Besar Emiten Jelang 3 Bulan Menuju Era PSPK” (8 October 2026); IAI, “Indonesia Launches Sustainability Disclosure Standards based on IFRS S1 and S2”, IAI News (20 July 2025) and DSK Terkini Vol. 5/V/2026; IFRS Foundation, Jurisdictional snapshot: Indonesia (updated 18 June 2026); Kompas, OJK target for the new rule (22 July 2026); OJK Regulation 29/POJK.04/2016 on Annual Reports of Issuers or Public Companies, Articles 5, 7 and 23 (OJK PDF, archived copy); MSCI, 2026 Market Classification Review (23 June 2026) and update on Indonesian securities (6 July 2026); FTSE Russell, Equity Country Classification annual announcement (6 October 2026); SET, Thailand ISSB adoption roadmap (restating SEC news 298/2568); SET, Questions from Q&A sessions, Q16; FTSE Russell ESG Scores FAQ v1.5 §1.8. Quotations from Indonesian and Thai are our translations.
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