FINANCIAL AND MONETARY AFFAIRS
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and Latin America, including two funds (making a total of 12) invested in China. Among the different types of funds, Asian equity and warrant funds recorded the best performance in terms of investment return.
Companies Registry
On May 1, the Companies Registry became an independent department, following the dissolution of the Registrar General's Department of which it was formerly a constituent division. The registry is headed by the Registrar of Companies.
On August 1, the registry became one of the first two government departments to be operated on a trading fund basis. As a trading-funded department, the registry is allowed to retain a proportion of its revenue, rather than paying this over to general revenue. Although it is required to balance its income and expenditure, it will be in a far better position to deploy its resources flexibly, in order to react to changing demands for its services. With the financial freedom of a trading fund, the registry will be in a better position to improve its services.
The registry's main functions and responsibilities include the incorporation and registration of companies; the administration and enforcement of the Companies Ordinance and a number of other ordinances (including the Trustee Ordinance as this relates to trust companies, the Registered Trustees Incorporation Ordinance and the Limited Partnerships Ordinance); the registration of documents required to be lodged by registered companies; and the provision of facilities for the search of company records.
The Companies Ordinance is subject to continual review and improvement, subject to the advice of the Standing Committee on Company Law Reform. The committee was established in 1984 and its secretary is a senior legal officer of the Companies Registry. Its main task is to ensure that Hong Kong's company laws meet the up-to-date needs of government and the business community. In January, the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 1993 was enacted and came into operation on July 1. It enables the Registrar of Companies to strike off a company which has for two consecutive years failed to forward to the Registrar its annual return. It also allows a company by special resolution to authorise its directors to change its status to that of a 'dormant' company, after which it will be exempted from fulfilling certain requirements of the ordinance while it remains dormant.
On incorporation under the Companies Ordinance, a local company pays a registration fee of $1,300, plus $6 for every $1,000 of nominal capital. In 1993, 61 831 new companies were incorporated - 3 721 more than in 1992. The nominal capital of new companies registered totalled $7,622 million. Of the new companies registered, 309 had a nominal share capital of $5 million or more. During the year, 12 108 companies increased their nominal capital by amounts totalling $57,005 million. At the end of the year, there were 415 911 local companies on the register, compared with 358 129 in 1992.
Companies incorporated overseas are required to register certain documents with the registry, within one month of establishing a place of business in the territory. A registration fee of $650 and some incidental filing fees are payable in such cases. During 1993, 498 of these were registered. At the end of the year, 3 544 companies were registered from 73 countries, including 694 from the United States of America, 373 from the United Kingdom and 318 from Japan.
During 1993, the Companies Registry continued to explore ways and means of improving its services, in consultation with the Efficiency Unit of the Government