Hong Kong now has more than 900k registered companies

77,991 new local companies were registered during the first half of this year, an increase of 8.53% from 71,861 in the second half of last year.

The number of companies registered under the Companies Ordinance now tops 900,000, according to Company Registry figures released on Sunday.

The total number of live local companies registered was 912,242 as at the end of June this year, up 48,480 from the end of 2010.

"The number of new companies incorporated continued to rise in the first six months of this year, with a monthly record averaging around 13,000," Registrar of Companies Ada Chung said.

A total of 77,991 new local companies were registered during the first half of this year, an increase of 8.53% from 71,861 in the second half of last year, and up 15.25% from 67,669 in the first half of last year.

In the first half of this year, 402 non-Hong Kong companies that established a place of business in Hong Kong and were newly registered under Part XI of the Companies Ordinance were registered, up 14.86% from the corresponding period in 2010.

The total number of non-Hong Kong companies registered stood at 8,342 by the end of June this year.

Ms Chung said with the introduction of the one-stop electronic company incorporation and business registration service at the new e-Registry platform since March 18 this year, 5,576 companies had been incorporated online by the end of June.

She added that the Companies Bill was introduced into the Legislative Council on January 26 this year. A bills committee has been formed to examine it and the Government aims to enact the bill in the 2011-12 legislative session.