As a strong advocate of good corporate governance, CPA Australia believes the inaugural Hong Kong Corporate Governance Excellence Awards will help to raise the importance of the topic in Hong Kong and highlight the ways companies embrace corporate governance into their business concepts.
Peter Lee, CPA Financial Reporting & Corporate Governance committee member at CPA Australia Hong Kong China division, said in essence good corporate governance consisted of a set of mechanisms that ensured companies met compliance regulations and protected stakeholders' interests.
Mr Lee said the significance of corporate governance was now widely recognised, both for long-term development and as part of an organisation's financial structure.
Mr Lee said a key success factor was quality leadership and the ability of senior management to instil a culture of corporate responsibility that was absorbed throughout a company.
'Good corporate governance not only applies at board room level, but what happens within a company and includes external relationships with other businesses,' Mr Lee said. An effective system of governance should help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and further allow companies to avoid costly litigation and loss of reputation.
As a Gold Partner of the inaugural awards scheme, Mr Lee said the programme aligned with CPA Australia's education, training and corporate programmes designed to increase awareness of the importance of good corporate governance. 'By supporting the awards CPA Australia hopes to emphasise the importance of corporate governance to companies and to encourage them to adopt corporate governance measures that are over and beyond the statutory requirements,' Mr Lee said.
