Hong Kong: the HKEx Listing Committee report

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange Listing Committee has recently published its 2009 report: see here (pdf). The report notes (pp. 5-6):

The Listing Committee has formed a sub-committee to consider whether issuers should set up a corporate governance committee and how the role of the company secretary may be further enhanced. The sub-committee is also taking the opportunity to review other issues relating to the Code on Corporate Governance Practices (“CG Code”) as well as items pertaining to corporate governance that have arisen in the course of our administration of the Listing Rules in recent years. The objective is to make possible enhancements to the CG Code that is benchmarked against international standards. Topics covered include disclosure of information on directors, shareholders meetings and matters relating to directors, in particular, independent non-executive directors".

The report states that the enhancement of listed issuers' corporate governance standards is a priority for 2010. Specifically, the following are amongst the issues to be considered: the development of a corporate social responsibility code for listed companies; a review of the role of company secretaries; contributing to the Companies Ordinance rewrite; and the continuation of the Corporate Governance review (noted above).