The World Bank Group has launched an external review of the Doing Business methodology.
The External Review Panel would like to hear from interested persons by April 16, 2021 on how to improve the Doing Business methodology, including refining existing indicators, adopting new ones, and enhancing the data gathering process.
See https://consultations.worldbank.org/consultation/seeking-feedback-doing-business-methodology
The Corporate Registers Forum will be holding its inaugural CRF Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 0700h UTC.
The winners of the Innovation Awards will also be sharing about the innovative initiatives they have implemented to improve service delivery and operational efficiency.
Due to the current restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony will be held via Zoom. You may wish to download a free version at https://zoom.us/ to join the celebrations.
The programme for the ceremony is as follows:
| Time (UTC) | Programme |
|
07:00h |
President’s Address |
| 07:10h | Awards Ceremony |
|
Presentations by award winners
|
|
| 07:30h | Registrar of Companies Online Registration System under the DigitalFiji Programme
Ministry of Justice, Republic of Fiji |
| 07:45h |
Joint Platform for Starting Business Central Registry of the Republic of North Macedonia (CRRM) |
| 08:00h |
State Registration with Single Procedure State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy, Republic of Azerbaijan |
| 08:15h |
Seamless Filing Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Republic of Singapore |
| 08:30h |
Digitalisation: A More Transparent Non-Possessory Lien Rights Register Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES) |
| 08:45h |
Digital AFS Reporting using iXBRL Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), Republic of South Africa |
| 09:00h |
Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic Companies House, United Kingdom |
| 09:15h | Closing |
Further details of the ceremony (including how to log in) will be sent to CRF members via email.
Here is our January 2021 edition of the CRF quarterly newsletter.
In this edition we provide a summary of the 2020 Annual General Meeting. There is also news on the new Limited Partnership Fund introduced in Hong Kong.
For those who haven’t met our Executive Committee for 2020-2021, you can read about them here 2020 – 2021 Executive Committee.
If you have any feedback, ideas, an article or suggestions for next quarter’s newsletter please don’t hesitate to email the secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org
Download or read the newsletter here CRF Newsletter – January 2021
The deadline for the CRF Innovation Awards has been extended to 31 December 2020.
The CRF Innovation Awards celebrate the spirit of innovation and honours CRF jurisdictions which have successfully put in place world-class initiatives, as well as those which have creatively implemented customised solutions, to make a real difference to their stakeholders. The award recipients will be recognised as a frontrunner or innovator by having their achievements acknowledged and celebrated.
Details on how to apply may be found here crf-innovation-awards/
On behalf of the Executive Committee of the CRF, I am delighted to enclose our September 2020 edition of our quarterly newsletter.
In this edition we have some exciting articles including the impact of Covid-19 0n a number of member registries. There is additional information on the upcoming virtual AGM and a reminder to consider submitting and idea for a CRF Innovation Award.
If you have any feedback, ideas, an article or suggestions for next quarter’s newsletter please don’t hesitate to email the secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org
Download or read the newsletter here CRF Newsletter September 2020
The Corporate Registers Forum (CRF) Community wishes Ada Chung, the former Registrar of Companies for Hong Kong, all the very best in her new role as Hong Kong’s new privacy commissioner. Ms Chung has served on the CRF Executive since 2007 in the capacity of Treasurer. Ms Chung also hosted the 2017 CRF Annual Conference in Hong Kong.
Ms Chung has been a strong supporter of the CRF as an organisation and a generous participant in our conferences and strategy.
Ms Ada Chung is a barrister-at-law and a Certified Public Accountant. She was appointed as the Registrar of Companies of Hong Kong in August 2007 and has since been heavily involved in the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance, the implementation of the new Companies Ordinance and the introduction of electronic company incorporation and electronic filing of company information in Hong Kong.
As a representative of the Financial Secretary, Ms Chung is an ex-officio council member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She also sits on the Financial Reporting Council. Before her appointment as the Registrar, she was a Deputy Law Officer and headed the Civil Litigation Unit of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
Ms Chung takes up the role of privacy commissioner from 4 September 2020.
[Photo kindly supplied by the Hong Kong Companies Registry]
The Corporate Registers Forum will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 28th October 2020 at 09:00:00 UTC.
In light of the current global Covid-19 pandemic, the AGM will be held via Zoom.
In preparation for the AGM members are invited to:
Note that members must register to attend the AGM by emailing secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org, including details of (a) name of jurisdiction and (b) jurisdiction representative no later than Friday 16th October 2020. You should also include in the registration email any members of your jurisdiction that will attend with you as observers. After registration closes, the Secretariat will email details of the virtual platform including details of login credentials, meeting protocols etc.
If you are unable to attend the AGM in person you will be encouraged to submit a proxy to help meet quorum requirements. Proxy instructions and voting forms will be emailed out on 18th September 2020 and will need to be returned to secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org by Friday 16th October 2020.
Members attending the AGM will also need to complete voting forms that will be emailed out on 18th September 2020 and will need to be returned to secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org by Friday 16th October 2020.
For those who don’t use Zoom there is a free version you can download to participate in the AGM, see https://zoom.us/
On behalf of the Executive Committee of the CRF, I am delighted to enclose our May 2020 edition of our quarterly newsletter.
In this edition we have some exciting articles including the impact of Covid-19 0n registries, the International Business Registers Report 2019, and a new corporate entity introduced in Singapore. There is also a reminder to consider submitting and idea to the CRF Innovation Award.
If you have any feedback, ideas, an article or suggestions for next quarter’s newsletter please don’t hesitate to email the secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org
Download or read the newsletter here CRF Newsletter May 2020
The CRF Innovation Awards celebrate the spirit of innovation and honours CRF jurisdictions which have successfully put in place world-class initiatives, as well as those which have creatively implemented customised solutions, to make a real difference to their stakeholders. There are two categories of awards: CRF Innovation Award (Excellence) and CRF Innovation Award (Commendation).
The awards are open to CRF members only. All members are highly encouraged to submit an entry using the attached Submission Form found here:
All entries submitted will be judged by a panel made up of members of the CRF Executive Committee. A total of five prizes, of up to USD $500.00 will be given out at the annual CRF conference.
Award recipients will be notified in Jan 2021. And to promote the sharing of information, they will be asked to present their initiative to CRF members at the conference and contribute an article to the CRF newsletter.
Over the last few weeks, the coronavirus Covid-19 has emerged as an unforeseen threat. These are truly unprecedented times across the entire world, with most countries heavily impacted by border restrictions.
Within this context, our CRF Executive Committee has adopted the following CRF policy regarding the organisation of meetings and events across the organisation.
CRF Policy – Meetings and Events (COVID-19)
The CRF Executive will continue to meet on a regular basis via telephone or video. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation.
We have made the decision to postpone our annual conference in Uganda until 2021. We will communicate in due course re-scheduled conference details and dates.
We are now looking at options for holding our annual general meeting by other means, we will communicate how and when that will occur in the near future
As members of an extended registry family, we are investigating ways to stay connected during these trying times and learn from each other’s experiences , challenges and innovations that COVID-19 may have presented to your registry.
Please email secretariat@corporateregistersforum.org with your experiences and we can look to share them through our newsletter or other means.
Finally on behalf of the CRF Executive, I hope that you remain healthy and stay safe during these challenging times.
Rosanne Bell
CRF President
