Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance

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The Company's goal has always been to enhance its corporate value, to ensure its sustainable long-term development and to generate greater returns for its shareholders. We believe that, in order to achieve the above goal, the Company must maintain and implement corporate governance principles and structures that are credible, transparent, open and highly effective. For this reason, beginning in 1998, we have been taking numerous measures in an effort to achieve an effective board of directors, including establishing three principal board committees, namely, the audit committee, the remuneration committee and the nomination committee. We have established a disclosure committee to help improve and maintain our disclosure controls and procedures and ensure that all material information relating to the Company is made known to our senior management and our board of directors promptly and disclosed in an accurate and timely manner, and further enhanced our internal control over financial reporting in compliance with Section 404 of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the "SOX Act") to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Moreover, we have established an internal audit department, implemented internal audit mechanisms and procedures, and promulgated a code of ethics governing senior management and other designated senior officers of the Group. In order to continuously improve our corporate governance, the Company also conducted training courses on corporate governance on an on-going basis. Our efforts and achievements in corporate governance have won wide recognition and acclaim, and the Company has received a number of awards from internationally renowned professional organizations and journals.

In addition, as a company listed in both Hong Kong and New York, the Company is not only subject to applicable Hong Kong laws and regulations, including the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Hong Kong Listing Rules") and the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, it is also subject to applicable U.S. Federal securities laws and regulations, including the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the SOX Act. The Company is also subject to the listing standards of The New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") to the extent they apply to non-U.S. issuers. For this reason, we also set forth in this report a summary of the significant differences between the corporate governance practices of the Company and the corporate governance practices required to be followed by U.S. companies under the NYSE's listing standards.

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