Hong Kong companies up to 1.5mln

Electronic incorporation and one-stop service for company incorporation and business registration to lessen registration time.

The Companies Registry has incorporated Hong Kong's one-and-a-half millionth local company.
Registrar of Companies Ada Chung on Friday presented the certificate of incorporation to Daniel Kwok, one of the founder members and directors of Youth Elderly Care Movement, according to a government report.

"The first company in the history of Hong Kong was incorporated in 1865 and the number of company incorporations has been increasing rapidly. The five-hundred-thousandth company was incorporated in 1994. It was only five years ago when the millionth company was incorporated," Ms Chung said.

"Despite the significant increase in the number of new incorporations, the Companies Registry has shortened the processing time for incorporating a local company from six to four working days since 2008. We anticipate with the launching of electronic incorporation of companies and a one-stop service for company incorporation and business registration early next year, the processing time will be significantly reduced from four working days to less than one."

The number of local companies incorporated during the first eight months of this year was 92,466, up 31% on the corresponding period last year. The total number of local companies on the register stood at 834,214 last month.