The Standing Committee on Company Law Reform's recommendations on the Companies Bill will be incorporated into a draft bill for further public consultation in mid-2009 for introducing the Companies Bill to the Legislative Council tentatively by the third quarter of 2010.

The Financial Services & the Treasury Bureau said today as part of the Government's efforts to engage the public in the rewrite exercise, public consultations on a number of complex issues of the ordinance have been launched since 2007.

The Government completed the first topical consultation on the accounting and auditing provisions of the Companies Ordinance in 2007 and published the consultation conclusions last March.

The second public consultation on company names, directors' duties, corporate directorship and registration of charges was completed in June and the Government plans to publish the consultation conclusions by December.

The third and last consultation on share capital, the capital-maintenance regime and statutory amalgamation procedure ended in September, and the Government will publish the consultation conclusions early next year.

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