The Government today welcomes the World Bank's assessment which ranks Hong Kong as the world's No. 3 on ease of doing business.
In a statement, the Government said this affirmed its incessant efforts in business facilitation, adding that it would strive to cut red tape, eliminate outdated or unnecessary regulations, enhance regulatory efficiency and reduce business compliance costs.
The World Bank also commended Hong Kong for strengthened minority investor protections by introducing requirements for directors to provide more detailed disclosure of conflicts of interest to the other board members under the new Companies Ordinance, the statement said, adding Hong Kong's ranking in protecting minority investors is up from third last year to second this year.
On the World Bank's remark that Hong Kong made starting a business more difficult by increasing the registration fee, the Government said business registration fees had been frozen for the past 20 years. The Government waived the fee from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, to help enterprises to weather an unsteady economic environment. It then reverted to the normal level on April 1 this year.
According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2015 Report released today, the top three performers are Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The report compares the "ease of doing business" of 189 economies across 10 indicators.
The Government will study the report carefully to identify scope for improvement, and continue to explore ways to improve the business environment by partnering with the business sector and other stakeholders, and reforming the existing regulatory regimes to ensure that regulation is appropriate.
