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The Companies Registry will host the third Corporate Registers Forum (CRF) in Hong Kong from today (March 22) until Friday (March 24).
The Forum provides an opportunity for corporate registers from all over the world to meet and review the latest developments in corporate business registers internationally and exchange experiences and information on the present and future operation of corporate business registration systems.
The themes of this year's forum are "Corporate compliance" and "The role of companies and business registries in promoting economic and business development".
Officiating at today's opening ceremony, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, said Hong Kong had a robust regulatory regime and regulatory requirements were on a par with international standards. "To enhance investors' confidence in market quality, we place a lot of importance on safeguarding investors' interests.
"Effective enforcement is as important as, if not more important than, a sound regulatory framework. In this respect, our regulatory and enforcement authorities deal firmly but fairly with those who are in breach of the statutory requirements under our companies and securities legislation," Mr Ma said. "An ingrained sense of fair play underpins our level playing field for business."
The Registrar of Companies, Mr Gordon Jones, said companies and business registries played a fundamentally important role in the commercial and financial infrastructures of any country.
"They also play a key role in promoting business development and ensuring good corporate governance and compliance," Mr Jones said.
The forum has a full programme of presentations by distinguished speakers and discussions on the two main themes.
Speakers are able to share their experiences with company law reform developments and the latest information technology developments affecting companies and business registries in their jurisdictions.
"Participants will find the three-day forum sessions fruitful and rewarding. The countries and jurisdictions represented at this forum cover a very wide spectrum in terms of legal, regulatory and IT developments," Mr Jones said.
Registrars of companies or their equivalents from 20 jurisdictions, including 10 member jurisdictions of the CRF from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom will share their insights and experiences on the forum themes during the three-day event.
Officials from the State and Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce in Beijing and Shanghai of Mainland China are also participating.
Members of the European Commerce Register's Forum, the organisation for the Commerce Registers of Europe, are attending as observers.
The inaugural meeting of the forum was held in the name of Asia Pacific Corporate Registers Forum in Auckland, New Zealand in February, 2003, and attended by member jurisdictions mainly from the Asia Pacific region.
At the second forum in Melbourne, Australia, in March 2005, members voted to change the name to Corporate Registers Forum and opened up its membership to facilitate exchange of insights and experiences internationally.
Ends/Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:00
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