In February the listing rules respectively of the Main Board ("MB") and Growth Enterprise Market ("GEM") of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Stock Exchange") were amended. The amendments reduced the amount of printing required for listed companies in Hong Kong by allowing documents to be made available in either English or Chinese (rather than in both languages) and despatched electronically. The new rules came into effect on 15 February 2002.
In recent months the Hong Kong regulators have undertaken various initiatives to bring the Hong Kong financial markets into a paperless environment. The reforms discussed in this article will significantly simplify corporate communications between listed companies and their securities holders. In addition, at the time of issue of these new documentation rules, the SFC published a consultation paper on proposals for a scripless (ie paperless) securities market, proposing far-reaching reforms to the current paper-based securities
