Firms mind their own business ethics

ONLY a handful of companies have fulfilled their pledge to establish formal guidelines to raise standards of business ethics, following a seminar organised by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) last month which urged companies to implement in-house codes of conduct.

This is in spite of the conference's main message that good ethics lead to better business, and that any further increase in corruption will threaten development in the region and must be firmly resisted.

Speaking at the conference on business ethics, Governor Chris Patten expressed regret that only 20 of the 182 listed companies without customised codes which had been approached by the ICAC had started drafting them. There are more than 550 listed companies in the territory.

Based on guidelines produced by participants in the conference, companies were encouraged to formulate policies, suited to their business nature, for proper conduct.

Of the 20 companies that had supposedly started drafting their own codes in line with conference guidelines, the ICAC struggled to track down six companies willing to speak about their progress.

''All companies approached by the ICAC were very positive to the idea of a code,'' said Helen Lee, the ICAC's community relations officer. ''Perhaps they're too busy.'' While many applauded the ICAC's campaign, of the six companies contacted by the South China Morning Post, only one had finished drafting a code based on conference guidelines. Two others had had their own codes in place for a number of years without consultation from the ICAC.

Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, managing director of Hopewell Holdings and a convener of a workshop at the conference, declined to comment on his company's progress.