Two amendment bills enhancing the efficiency of the company incorporation procedure and enabling the filing of business registration documents by electronic means have been gazetted. They will be tabled at the Legislative Council February 3.

The Financial Services & the Treasury Bureau today said the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2010 will streamline the company incorporation procedure while the Business Registration (Amendment) Bill 2010 will provide a one-stop simultaneous application for company incorporation and business registration.

The legislative amendments are proposed to tie in with the Companies Registry's plan to accept online applications for incorporation and filing of company documents under the second phase of the Integrated Companies Registry Information System in 2010-2011.

Upon the implementation of electronic incorporation of companies, anyone who submits an application for incorporation will be deemed to have applied for business registration at the same time.

The Companies Registry will issue the business registration certificate with the certificate of incorporation to successful applicants.

With simultaneous application in place, application for incorporation of a local company and business registration will be shortened from an average of four working days under the existing system to within one day. This will put Hong Kong on a par with comparable jurisdictions like the UK and Singapore.