XN000022-1996-07-19 — Page 7

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Annual report on company law reform published

The Standing Committee on Company Law Reform (SCCLR) has submitted its 12th report, covering the year 1995, to the Governor-in-Council, a government spokesman said today (Friday).

During the year the Committee considered a wide range of issues and six of them involved proposals for amendments to the relevant legislation.

"One of the key recommendations of the SCCLR was for the statutory companies forms contained in the Companies Ordinance and related regulations to be removed from the legislation, and the Registrar of Companies empowered, within parameters laid down in the ordinance, to revise and update the forms as and when

necessary.

"This will facilitate the present major exercise to produce forms that are more 'user-friendly' and in a bilingual format. This proposal has been included in the Companies (Amendment) Bill 1996 which is being considered by the Legislative Council," the spokesman said.

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Another recommendation of SCCLR was to expand the application of the existing provisions on the disqualification of company directors to disqualification from directorships of overseas companies which carry on business in Hong Kong as well as from locally-incorporated companies.

"This has also been included in the Companies (Amendment) Bill 1996," the spokesman said.

The Committee also proposed to provide that, firstly, where the auditor of a company has resigned, notice of the resignation should be filed with the Registrar of Companies and, secondly, that the legislation should be more closely modelled on similar provisions contained in the 1985 UK Companies Act, the spokesman said.

Other issues that have also been discussed by the Committee in the past year included the importance of corporate governance to Hong Kong's standing in the business world, the proposed extension to overseas companies of the alternative remedy to winding up under section 168A of the Companies Ordinance and the definition of the term of "place of business" in respect of overseas companies.

"Some of these issues are being considered by the consultant commissioned to undertake an overall review of the Companies Ordinance. The Committee agreed to keep the overall review under close scrutiny," the spokesman said.