China's SOEs show encouraging devotion in corporate governance (2)

Six out of the top ten firms with the best corporate governance practices are state-owned or backed with funding from China's mainland, reflecting that many large state-owned enterprises' management have devoted the time and resources needed to improve transparency, to clarify the power and responsibilities of the board of directors, and to enhance their firms' corporate social responsibility efforts.

The six firms from the Chinese mainland are Bank of China, China COSCO, China Life, ICBC, Lenovo Group and CNOOC.

"We are pleased to see the standards have improved, especially among state-owned companies, which show that their Boards of Directors are beginning to attach greater importance to corporate governance," said Kelvin Wong, chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.

In general, the corporate governance practices in rights of shareholders, equitable treatment of shareholders, role of stakeholders and disclosure and transparency have shown an upward trend. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement on board responsibilities in the future, he said.

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