The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS) has published a review report entitled, ‘Missing Opportunities? A Review of Gender Diversity on Hong Kong Boards’ on 9 February 2021.  The report illustrates the inadequate representation of women on Hong Kong boards of listed companies. It calls for the regulatory imposition of a 30% target for women on boards (WOBs) over a six-year period. The target will be voluntary, but only in the sense that it will be subjected to a ‘comply or explain’ regime.

On 24 November 2020, the KPMG and HKICS Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Survey Report - ‘Risk Management Survey: Empowering Success,’ was jointly published. It focuses on governance of risk management and the risk assessment cycle. The report surveyed 129 Hong Kong-based senior managers across a range of industries and types of organisation, assessing the extent to which risk management activities have been embedded within businesses in Hong Kong.

From February to April 2019, the Institute conducted a survey entitled State of Governance seeking insights from its members into current corporate governance practices, policies and attitudes. The detailed results of the survey and an analysis of those results is set out in the report

On 13 September 2018, The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS)/ICSA China/Hong Kong Division released a joint report on environmental, social and governance (ESG) with HKICS China and CLP Holdings Limited. The report, titled ‘ESG: A view from the top’, features a survey that was conducted from February to April 2018. The survey had a total of 212 respondents, comprising either C-suite or senior management of listed companies in Hong Kong. The report finds a majority of surveyed business executives of Hong Kong listed companies have yet to integrate ESG as part of their core business strategy, while most indicate they see value in it. The survey then provides practical and high level suggestions for management buy-in.

On 6 July 2017, HKICS and KPMG China launched a survey report, titled ‘Risk Management: navigating change in Hong Kong'. This is the second report on the topic of risk management jointly published with KPMG China since 2015.  Company secretaries, many of whom are ICSA and HKICS members, have a governance role and serve as gate-keeper as well as trusted advisers to the board and management of companies, and in particular, listed issuers.  The purpose of this Report is intended to consider the progress of listed companies as to the topic of risk management after a year of implementation of the Hong Kong Listing Rules in 2016.  The report is based on the findings from a survey of 197 Hong Kong-based senior management respondents from a cross range of industries, including financial services, industrial & manufacturing, and real estate & infrastructure, which makes it representative.

In collaboration with the ASEAN Corporate Secretaries Network (ACSN) of which HKICS is an Associate member, ‘The Company Secretary, Regulation and Governance Roles – A Comparative Analysis in Selected Asian Jurisdictions’ was published in July 2017. The report covers information relating to ACSN members, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Mainland China. From the report, there are substantial similarities in terms of the general background, qualifications and recognitions, appointments and removal of the company secretary under the covered jurisdictions. The report illustrates the wider opportunities for collaboration in these areas, other OBOR economies and beyond on delivering on good governance which has increasing business and societal relevance.