Legislators' business posts raise concerns
Questions arise over the number of roles some accept, and their capacity to handle multiple duties in a satisfactory manner
Fund managers and brokers are concerned at the trend of legislators retaining multiple corporate directorships, but oppose any proposal to limit the number of board positions a person can accept.
New People's Party deputy chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun, for example, is a director of 42 companies, while others are on the boards of anywhere between 10 and 17 companies.
Hong Kong Institute of Directors chairman Kelvin Wong Tin-yau said holding too many directorships was hardly ideal.
"Directors, particularly of listed companies, have to spend a lot of time reading documents to prepare for and attending meetings," Wong said.
Many companies also follow similar accounting schedules, meaning they release annual and interim results around the same time. "This would be a problem if someone is a director of many listed companies as the person would need to review the financial statements of several companies at the same time. And if the person is also as legislator, it would make the job even more difficult," Wong said.
However, he rejects the idea that Hong Kong should follow the system on the mainland, where one person can be a director of no more than five listed companies.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing in 2010 conducted a consultation process over introducing a similar cap but dropped the idea as the market feared that such a cap would make it harder to find independent directors. It was also pointed out that there are no such limits in Britain, the United States and other developed markets.