kit ieng tam

As the debate on convergence and divergence in corporate governance has received considerable research interest, this study aims to explore whether the recently developed independent director systems in China and India could be characterised as convergent or divergent. More importantly, do the independent directors in these two jurisdictions possess the core governance attributes regarded as essential for performing their governance roles effectively? Based on corporate governance guidelines and codes worldwide, four core attributes are identified as influencing the capacity of independent directors to successfully perform their role. A means test (t-test) is used to compare the attributes of independent directors in the largest Chinese and Indian companies. Additionally, these companies are benchmarked against the largest companies in Hong Kong, as they are perceived to have achieved better governance efficiency. Analyses show that while the regulatory development of corporate gove...

perceptions and the policy that flows from them do not take into account the differences in culture and tradition that have deterred Beijing from developing an effective IP regime in the past. Indeed, he concludes that U.S. policy is based on "fundamental misconceptions about the nature of legal development and is therefore in need of major reformulation" (p. 3). Alford's treatment of broader issues is forceful. He underlines the importance of a lesson that many Americans, especially some in the U.S. Congress, have been unable to absorb: Western pressure and preaching about law and rights can have only a limited effect in changing Chinese behaviour and the institutions necessary to implement a change in behaviour. Key to the development of meaningful Chinese legal institutions are "further political liberalization and a greater concomitant commitment to the institutions, personnel, and values needed to undergird a rights-based legality" (p. 120). He does not suggest how such development might be given momentum, either within China or from abroad, but it seems clear that change can only be slow, no matter how impatient members of Congress and American owners of pirated works may be. Alford's is a cultural explanation, but although he necessarily looks to the past, his gaze is not completely directed backward. He notes that political culture changes, and cites Taiwan as an example. In recent years, since Alford's book was first published in a hardback version, IP enforcement in China has continued to be problematic and also illustrates the weakness of rights-based legality. Writing in the January-February 1999 issue of the China Business Review ("A patchwork of protections"), Michel Oksenberg and Pitman Potter have noted that enforcement efforts are carried out not only by the courts but by administrative agencies (principally the State Administration of Industry and Commerce), which are relatively stronger. While the agencies are enhancing their revenue by collecting fines, they are simultaneously influencing the market because they have the power to order cessation of infringing publications. In the meantime, the courts remain weak and economic actors are not gaining the power with which their ability to use private prosecution might otherwise endow them. The current scene thus reflects the trenchancy of Alford's analysis, both of problems specifically relating to IP and to Chinese legal development as well.

In February 1985, Hui Tong Urban Co-operative Bank, China's first new private bank since 1949, opened for business in Chengdu City in Sichuan Province. The bank was set up by a group of young economists from the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences and university teachers in Chengdu City.