Hong Kong's lawmakers voted for the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2010 Wednesday, which would allow applicants to file their corporate registration forms and documents through electronic means next year and enhance business friendliness in the city.

Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the HKSAR government, K C Chan, welcomed the passage.

Speaking at the resumption of the second reading debate of the Bill at the Legislative Council in the day, Chan said the amended Companies Bill mainly aimed to tie in with the development of Phase II of the Integrated Companies Registry Information System ( ICRIS II) by the Companies Registry, which will enable on-line applications for company registration and filing of company documents.

Chan said the new system would come on stream in phases early next year, which would facilitate the issue of certificates of incorporation by the Registrar of Companies through electronic means.

Other amendments by the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2010 include three aspects:

-- to strengthen Hong Kong's company name registration system to enhance enforcement against possible abuses by "shadow companies", which are companies incorporated in Hong Kong with names very similar to existing and established trademarks or trade names and often pose as representatives of the owners of such trademarks or trade names to produce counterfeit products.

The Bill empowers the city's Registrar of Companies to act pursuant to court orders to direct a "shadow company" to change its name. The Registrar may substitute the company's name with its registration number if it fails to comply with the Registrar's direction to change its name.

-- to amend the Companies Ordinance (CO) so that Hong Kong companies can make use of electronic means to communicate with their shareholders.

-- to amend the relevant provisions of statutory derivative action (SDA) by expanding the scope of SDA to cover "multiple" derivative actions.

-- to introduce technical amendments to the CO to remove the limitations arising from provisions in the CO that compel the use of paper documents of title and paper instruments of transfer in relation to shares and debentures.

Also in the day, the Business Registration (Amendment) Bill 2010 was passed by the Legislative Council.

The amendments will enable the Companies Registry (CR) to provide a one-stop company and business registration service upon the implementation of ICRIS II. Any person who submits an application for company registration will be deemed to have applied for business registration at the same time.

"With the above service in place, an on-line application for registration of a local company and business registration will be completed within one day, compared with an average of four working days under the existing system," Chan said.