only about four times as many as the number of foreign companies with places of business in Hong Kong (521). In Great Britain the countries with most companies operating there were South Africa 334, United States of America 317, Australia 238, Channel Islands 166, Irish Republic 161, and Northern Ireland 146. The list also includes 37 Hong Kong companies.
82. Table XII gives an analysis of the 521 companies to which para- graph 80 refers according to the nature of their business. This shows that the total includes 124 import and export companies, 79 insurance companies, 41 banks, 38 shipping etc. companies, 26 religious bodies, 25 carriers (air and land), 25 land and building companies, and 21 en- gineering etc. companies.
Liquidations in Progress
83. At the end of the year 128 companies were in the course of being wound up as follows:
Liquidations begum prior to 1.4.63
Liquidations begun during 1963-64
58
By Members' Voluntary Winding-up By Creditors' Voluntary Winding-up By Winding-up by the Court
: :
27
5
5
26
7
58
70
Insurance Companies
84. Although an Assistant Registrar is included in the Department's establishment for a proposed new Insurance Companies Registry and an Assistant Registrar was in fact working on Insurance Company matters throughout the year, the new Registry has not yet been formally established pending the enactment of the relevant legislation, on which a considerable amount of preparatory work was done.
85. Local and foreign insurance companies which wish to transact life, fire or marine insurance business in Hong Kong must comply with the provisions of the Life Insurance and Fire and Marine Insurance Companies Ordinances respectively. In addition to the filing of annual accounts, these Ordinances require deposits to be made with the Registrar of Companies unless the company qualifies for exemption by complying with the Insurance Companies Act, 1958, in Great Britain, or-in the case of fire and marine insurance-by maintaining similar deposits elsewhere in the Commonwealth. The approval of the Governor in
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