The Chamber welcomes and supports the ISSB’s initiative to formulate a comprehensive set of global sustainability disclosures to serve as performance guideposts for businesses, while providing consistent, comparable and high-quality ESG reporting designed to meet investor needs. However, questions over the approach to and with the proposed standards, such as the lack of clarity on when the ISSB will be fully quorate and the absence of the principle-based GRI standard, will have to be addressed before the new standards are introduced.

The Chamber supports the Government’s efforts to remove Hong Kong from the European Union’s watchlist by introducing changes to our FSIE regime while upholding the key principles of our taxation policy. However, more clarity should be provided on certain issues including the interpretation and application of covered income and economic substance requirement, as well as the eligibility criteria for the proposed participation exemption.

HKGCC supports the Government’s policy objective of improving health and safety at work. However, we believe that it can be achieved more effectively by means other than significantly raising penalties, and doubling the period for summons from six months to one year as proposed.