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The number of companies registered under the Companies Ordinance has passed 900,000. The total number of live local companies registered was 912,242 as at the end of June 2011, up 48,480 from the figure at the end of 2010, according to statistics released by the Companies Registry today (July 17).
"The number of new companies incorporated continued to rise in the first six months of this year, with a monthly record averaging around 13,000," said the Registrar of Companies, Ms Ada Chung.
A total of 77,991 new local companies were registered during the first half of 2011, representing an increase of 8.53 per cent from 71,861 in the second half of 2010 and a rise of 15.25 per cent from 67,669 in the first half of 2010.
As regards non-Hong Kong companies that established a place of business in Hong Kong and were newly registered under Part XI of the Companies Ordinance, 402 were registered in the first half of 2011, up 14.86 per cent from 350 in the corresponding period of 2010. The total number of non-Hong Kong companies registered stood at 8,342 by the end of June 2011.
On the development of electronic services, Ms Chung said, "With the introduction of the one-stop electronic company incorporation and business registration service at the new e-Registry platform since March 18, 2011, electronic Certificates of Incorporation and Business Registration Certificates can be issued in one go in less than 24 hours. As at the end of June, 5,576 companies were incorporated online."
Concerning the progress of the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance, Ms Chung said, "The Companies Bill was introduced into the Legislative Council on January 26, 2011. A Bills Committee has been formed to examine provisions of the Bill. The Administration aims to enact the Bill in the 2011-12 legislative session."
The number of charges on assets of companies received for registration in the first half of 2011 was 20,726, up 6.57 per cent from 19,448 in the corresponding period of 2010. The number of memoranda of satisfaction and releases received for registration in the first half of 2011 increased by 2.04 per cent to 14,984 when compared with 14,625 in the corresponding period of 2010.
The number of documents received for filing during the first six months of 2011 increased by 12.48 per cent to 1,083,453 when compared with the 963,275 documents received in the second half of 2010.
A total of 1,641,432 searches of document image records were conducted through the Registry's electronic search service in the first half of 2011, an increase of 2.30 per cent when compared with the figure of 1,604,472 in the second half of 2010.
Details of the half-yearly statistics have been uploaded to the "Statistics" section of the Registry's website (www.cr.gov.hk).
Ends/Sunday, July 17, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:01
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