Foreign incorporations in Hong Kong rise by nearly a quarter

13/07/2010

Hong Kong has seen more than a 24 per cent rise in the number of foreign businesses being registered there, with finance experts predicting that number to rise further following changes to the incorporation rules.

Three hundred and fifty were registered in the first half this year – a rise of 24.56 per cent from 281 in the same period of 2009. It brought the total number of foreign businesses in Hong Kong to 7,959 by the end of June this year, according to figures released by the city's Companies Registry last week.

The figures have been published just as the new rules governing the electronic registering of companies in the territory were passed.

Registrar of Companies, Ada Chung, said development of Phase II of the Integrated Companies Registry Information System was now underway and an electronic one-stop service for business registration and company incorporation should be available in early 2011.

"With the new electronic services, the time required for incorporation of a company and business registration will be significantly reduced from four working days to less than one day.

"This improvement not only facilitates business, but also puts Hong Kong on a par with comparable jurisdictions like the UK and Singapore," she said.

The figures also showed that the total number of live local companies registered in Hong Kong hit a record high of 815,762 at the end of June, rising 43,509 from the end of 2009.