The EOC made a submission to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) this August in response to the consultation paper on the review of the corporate governance code and related listing rules. In the submission, the EOC expressed support for the HKEX’s dedication to phasing out single-gender boards by 31 December 2024 and the proposals outlined in HKEX’s 2024 Consultation Paper on the Review of Corporate Governance Code and Related Listing Rules to promote gender equality and awareness. To further improve the diversity of Hong Kong’s stock market, the EOC called on the HKEX to bind issuers to: 

1. conduct regular board performance reviews;
2. set out metrics for board and workforce diversity policies and measure their impacts against objectives; 
3. assign dedicated persons to oversee diversity policies; 
4. ensure procedural fairness in the selection of board composition (especially Nomination Committee) and senior management; 
5. disclose gender ratio in senior management and the workforce; and 
6. educate continuously their senior management on anti-discrimination, equal opportunities and diversity. 

The full version of the submission is available on the EOC’s website.

• Read the submission