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The Companies Registry registered 51,965 new local companies during the first six months of 2009, an increase of 13.41% from 45,821 in the second half of 2008, according to the statistics released by the Registry today (July 23).
A record high of 20,251 companies were incorporated in March this year. This upsurge was mainly due to the waiver of business registration fees for new companies incorporated within 2008-09.
As at June 30, 2009, the total number of live local companies registered under the Companies Ordinance was 741,082, up 30,316 from the end of 2008.
On the programme to enhance services to customers, the Registrar of Companies, Ms Ada Chung, said: "We aim to introduce electronic incorporation services in late 2010. A Companies (Amendment) Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council in the last quarter of this year to facilitate the introduction of electronic incorporation."
Ms Chung said the Registry awarded the contract to develop phase II of its Integrated Companies Registry Information System (ICRIS) in June.
Phase II of ICRIS, to be launched in late 2010, will see the implementation of electronic company incorporation and one-stop service for company incorporation and business registration.
"We envisage that the time required to incorporate a company online will be significantly reduced to less than one day by that time," Ms Chung added.
A joined-up service with the Inland Revenue Department was already launched in December 2008 to provide one-stop services for company incorporation and business registration. Companies can submit applications for business registration at the Receipt and Despatch Centre of the Business Registration Office at the Registry's premises after incorporation.
The Registry also introduced an "Online View" function for Image Record Search at its Cyber Search Centre (www.icris.cr.gov.hk) in April 2009. Customers can view document images instantly online in addition to downloading images.
Since the introduction of new incorporation forms to enable one-stop filing of the first registered office address, the first director(s) and first secretary in July 2008, companies are no longer required to file separate notifications with the Registry. The inclusion of such information on the register upon incorporation led to a slight decrease in the number of documents received for filing during the first six months of 2009 by 0.28% to 815,920, from 818,181 received in the second half of 2008.
The number of document image record searches through the Registry's Electronic Search Services in the first half of 2009 decreased by 2.98% to 1,399,896 when compared with 1,442,961 searches during the second half of 2008.
The total number of summonses issued by the Registrar against companies for breaches of the Companies Ordinance, mainly for failure to file annual returns, during the first six months of 2009 was 2,495, a decrease of 2.46% compared with 2,558 in the second half of 2008.
For details of the half-yearly statistics, please visit the "Statistics" section of the Registry's website (www.cr.gov.hk).
Ends/Thursday, July 23, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:00
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