MTR Corporation has won its seventh Best Report Award since 1990. Its report was viewed by the 9-member Panel of Adjudicators as a comprehensive and innovative report.

The trophy was presented on 13 November, by Dr The Hon David K P Li, JP, Chairman of The Hong Kong Management Association.

Organized by the Association since 1973, the Best Annual Reports Awards is an annual competition with the objective of encouraging the publication of accurate, informative, well presented and timely annual reports for all who may have an interest in the performance and activities of the organization in question.

A total of 116 reports (85 from General and 31 from Non-profit Making and Charitable Organizations categories) were reviewed by the Adjudicators, including reports of all the constituents of the Hang Seng Index. The Best Report was selected from the 72 reports submitted voluntarily from the General category.

The criteria of selection include: conformity with accounting standards, conformity with the requirements of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Companies` Ordinance, general presentation, comprehensiveness, understandability, summary of past results and highlights, general description of business, analysis of assets and liabilities, analysis of income and expenses, indication of prospects, employee relations and development, availability of the annual report on the Internet, as well as promptness of reporting.

To commemorate the century of the Internet, special "Millenium Awards" were presented to four organizations across the "General" and "Non-Profit Making and Charitable Organizations" categories which best use their websites to communicate information to members of the public at large. The winners are The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and MTR Corporation Limited.

In addition, there are two categories of winning reports: General and Non-profit Making and Charitable Organizations. The results are as follows:

"General" Category
Gold:	First Pacific Company Limited
Silver:	HSBC Holdings plc Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
Bronze:	Hang Seng Bank The Hong Kong Jockey Club New World Infrastructure Limited
"Non-profit Making and Charitable Organizations" Category
Gold:	Securities and Futures Commission
Silver:	Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Bronze:	The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The Adjudicators noted with satisfaction that "The overall standard compared well with last year`s with continued improvement in both the quantity and quality of information presented. This is a pleasing development in so far as it is clear that more companies are making strenuous efforts and see the value of good reporting." Moreover, a number of new entries did exceptionally well and produced reports of a high standard.

According to the Panel of Adjudicators, "The current situation facing Hong Kong is a testing one, filled with opportunities and challenges. Companies in future will need to demonstrate a greater transparency with the community in which they operate as well as show a wider responsibility to stakeholders over and above the immediate shareholder register."

"In the Non-profit Making and Charitable Organizations category, the standard of annual reports continued to improve both in terms of content delivery and presentation, and this is a very encouraging trend. The major area of weakness continued to be the report on future plans. The public is entitled to know not only the past and present, but also the likely future progress of the organizations."

Companies and organizations receiving Honourable Mentions are:
Airport Authority Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong
CLP Holdings Limited
COSCO Pacific Limited
Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
Hong Kong Police Force
The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited
The Kowloon Motor Bus Holdings Limited
The Land Registry Trading Fund Hong Kong

The Panel of Adjudicators this year includes Mr Howard Gorges (Chairman), Vice Chairman, South China Brokerage Co Ltd; Mr Robert Bunker, Director, Bentley Reid (Pacific) Ltd; Ms Jill Cheshire, Director, TaoHo Cheshire Design Architects Ltd; Mr Raphael Ding, Director of Professional Conduct, Hong Kong Society of Accountants; Mr Charles R Grieve, Director of Accounting Policy, Corporate Finance Division, Securities & Futures Commission; Mr Caspar Li, Deputy Managing Director, BNP Paribas Peregrine Captial Ltd; Ms Estella Ng, Senior Director - Listing Division, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd; Mr Maurice Ngai, Executive Director & CFO, Orient Union Holdings Ltd and Mr James Soutar, Managing Director, Phoenix Research Ltd.

Issued by The Hong Kong Management Association on 13 November 2000 For press enquiries, please contact Ms Titania Woo on 2526 6516/7392 3505