Representation of women on boards remains stagnant at 11.1%, according to the latest findings by Community Business, a non-for-profit organisation. Out of all the 638 directorships on the Hang Seng Index, only 71% are held by women—representing the fact there has been no change in female representation on boards, and signalling a halt in the already glacial upwards progress occurring in the territory.
This puts Hong Kong far behind the progress of economic competitors worldwide. According to their annual Women on Boards Hong Kong Report, Malaysia saw their percentage of women on boards rise by 3.7%; India’s rose by 2.8%; and Singapore’s by 1.2%. Hong Kong, by comparison, saw no increase at all.
This makes the issue all the more worrying because Hong Kong is now being seen as falling behind. Fern Ngai, CEO, Community Business told a press conference in Hong Kong, “To drive faster and meaningful progress, rather than implementing across-the-board quotas, which we do not support, we urge companies to voluntarily set targets that are relevant to their own business environment, just like setting KPIs and maintaining scorecards as they would as a natural part of business. If we continue to fail to see improvement, it may well be time for stronger regulated measures to be introduced in order to break Hong Kong’s inertia.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
