report
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The year 2004-05 has been very productive for the Companies Registry Trading Fund (CRTF). It made a record surplus of $85.1 million and exceeded all 13 service performance pledges in its core services during the financial year ended March 31, 2005, according to its 2004-05 annual report which was tabled at today's (October 19) Legislative Council meeting.
The Registrar of Companies and General Manager of the CRTF, Mr Gordon Jones, pointed out that the surplus figure represented an increase of 76.6% over that of the previous year as a result of the CRTF's tight control over costs, and an increase of 15.2% in the business turnover which was attributable largely to an increase in revenue from incorporations.
In 2004-05, 66,466 new companies were incorporated, an increase of 37.1% compared with the previous year while the number of dissolutions of companies during the year decreased by 20.2% to 41,394.
Movements in volumes of other types of services were mixed. The year 2004-05 saw increases of 6.7% and 45.4% in the number of general documents and charges received for registration respectively, while applications for change of company names decreased by 3.6%.
Mr Jones said the department's overall productivity in 2004-05 increased by 12% compared with 2003-04. "We will continue to strive for improvements in efficiency and productivity wherever possible," he said.
"This year we have taken a very big step forward in the way in which we deliver our public services," Mr Jones said. The registry implemented new electronic search services under Phase I of the Integrated Companies Registry Information System (ICRIS) on February 28.
"The implementation of new electronic search services has marked a quite exponential leap forward in the manner in which the department delivers its services to the public. Customers can now conduct company searches online concurrently on the current data of companies and directors and over 80 million pages of images of registered documents over the internet 24 hours a day throughout the year," Mr Jones said. The CRTF plans to implement Phase II of ICRIS in 2008-09 which will see the provision of an electronic filing service for incorporation and document registration.
"Over the past few years, the Government has been implementing the Standing Committee on Company Law Reform's recommendations through a series of Companies Ordinance amendment bills. However, a stage has been reached where action to follow up many of the remaining recommendations, such as reform of the capital maintenance provision, modernisation of the statutory language, etc, can be taken forward only in the context of a rewrite of the Companies Ordinance," Mr Jones said.
"The Government has started detailed planning and preparatory work to take forward the rewrite, including the design of the modus operandi and the organisational framework as well as assessing the financial and resource implications. The plan is to seek the necessary approval for the resource requirements later this year and to start the rewrite in mid-2006. I hope that the Legislative Council will support our proposals so that work can start as scheduled."
On the regulatory front, the Government has made substantial progress in the reform of the accountancy profession's self-regulatory regime. "The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) Bill was introduced into LegCo in June 2005 and, depending on the date of enactment, I hope that the FRC will be in full operation in the not too distant future," Mr Jones said.
The 2004-05 Annual Report is the Registry's 12th report since it became a trading fund in August, 1993.
Ends/Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Issued at HKT 14:01
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