The Hong Kong Stock Exchange needs to put the hearts of investors at ease over the dual-class shareholding structure to preserve its world market standing and be seen to be fair. Provided to China Daily The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), backed by the government, is making big strides in reforming the rules to allow dual-class shareholding companies to list in the city despite concerns it could undermine the interest of minority shareholders in those companies. Since losing out to New York over the listing of mainland e-commerce giant Alibaba Group a few years ago, the local bourse has been lobbying hard to change the regulations, arguing that the restriction has placed Hong Kong at a distinct disadvantage against rival financial centers in luring new technology companies to float in the special administrative region, particularly those from the Chinese mainland. The regulator's initial resistance melted away when the government openly backed the proposal after it became clear that the SAR had slipped behind New York and Shanghai in the global IPO market rankings. As it is, public consultations on the issue, which will end later this month, are nothing more than a formality. HKEX has insisted that sufficient provisions will be incorporated into the new rules to provide the necessary protection for minority shareholders' interests. But, there are important issues that need to be thrashed out to help clear lingering doubts in the minds of investors. For instance, nothing has been said about whether those dual-class shareholding companies with sufficiently large capitalization will be accepted as constituent stocks in the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index. This is important because if they aren't, then investors will have the choice of staying away from such stocks if they don't feel comfortable with the inherent unfairness of the shareholding structure. When these stocks are admitted into the exclusive club of the index constituent stocks, index fund managers will have no choice, but to include them in their portfolio in proportion to their index weighting. Another point of contention involves the Takeover Code which sets the trigger point of a general offer at a 30-percent holding. That trigger point has to be reset for dual-class shareholding stocks because of the different voting rights of the two classes of shares. The stock exchange is obliged to clarify all the issues that are of concern to investors to preserve its status as an international market that is fair and transparent. hen fest wristbandsslap wristbandscustom printed wristbandsmake rubber braceletsjordan wristband rubber
Members of the medical staff honor an organ donor in an operating room at the Beijing You'an Hospital. [Photo provided to China Daily] GENEVA - The ongoing 71st World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva on Thursday shows high appreciation for the value of China's model and experience in organ transplantation. The WHA meetings focused on the universal coverage of organ transplantation, with delegates from China, Spain, Russia, Uruguay and Qatar sharing their experience and ideas on the topic. Huang Jiefu, head of China's National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and chairman of China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation, gave a keynote speech titled The Chinese Organ Transplantation Undertaking in Achieving One Belt & One Road Initiative. He said that China's model of organ donation and transplantation features strong government support for legal, administrative and health sectors, and the progress of capacity building in organ transplantation clinical service and technical development. China is now implementing a national anti-organ trafficking surveillance system with joint effort of health, legal and law enforcement authorities, which, based on available data, may serve as an example of an operational mechanism to combat organ trafficking for the rest of the world, Huang added. According to Huang, the final Declaration of the Ethics in Action Meeting held in Vatican in March this year endorsed China as a model for regulating organ transplantation and also as a reference on the issue for other member states of the United Nations. Huang said that China is willing to share its experience with the rest of world under the Belt and Road Initiative, while at the same time working to improve the organ donation and transplantation system in China by benefiting from the highly valued experience of other countries. As an official appreciation for China's support to the World Health Organization (WHO) in promoting universal coverage of organ transplantation, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said thank you China to Huang in Chinese after the meeting. The 71st annual WHA, held in Geneva from Monday to Saturday, is a gathering of nearly 4,000 delegates from the WHO's 194 member states and partner organizations. The assembly is the WHO's highest decision-making body and determines policy for the organization.
