THE pay of directors lies at the heart of the corporate governance debate, an issue becoming increasingly topical in Hong Kong.
''In Hong Kong everything that happens is larger than life. It is a laboratory of corporate governance,'' according to Bob Tricker, editor of the journal Corporate Governance: An International Review and professor of finance and accounting at the University of Hong Kong.
The aim of corporate governance was not just a matter of asserting the checks and balances of a company's board of directors, it was also about exercising power, said Mr Tricker.
There are two aspects of the work of a board of directors, and the corporate governance debate centres on which of the aspects is most important.
The board is concerned with the direction of the company; the formulation of strategy and the setting of policy, or what is called performance.
The second aspect is conformance: keeping an eye on top management and being accountable to the shareholders, the government and other regulatory bodies or vested interests.
Conformance has been at the centre of debate since the release of the Cadbury Report (the British report of the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance) and following developments in the United States, where shareholders have increasingly put pressure on directors.