特区政府继续出招在全球抢企业！继成立“引进重点企业办公室”招商引资后，下一个大动作是引入公司迁册制度，吸引非香港企业迁册来港发展，这将进一步发挥香港作为跨国企业集中地和总部经济的竞争优势。财经事务及库务局局长许正宇昨日发出“英雄帖”，欢迎各界在未来两个月内就引入公司迁册制提出建议，协助政府订立便捷有效机制，增加香港市场的竞争力。

　　过去数十年间，离岸公司大行其道。很多企业为了规避本地较严格的监管制度，或为了避税，将公司注册地迁到维京群岛、开曼群岛等所谓“避税天堂”。本港大企业设立离岸公司也屡见不鲜。曾几何时，“××走了”成为一时热话。时移势易，随着近年国际税制改革，加强金融规管，打击“洗黑钱”等非法行为，跨国企业在考虑迁册时更加着重法规和经营效率，“离岸”公司的吸引力因此下跌，大量企业从“迁出去”变成考虑“迁回来”，“上岸”成为新趋势。

　　特区政府看到了机遇所在，近年在这方面积极部署。早前发表的新一份财政预算案宣布，香港将引入公司迁册制度，便利非香港企业迁册来港。事实上，香港具有开放而高效的企业管治制度、可靠的法治传统、简单税制，以及国际级专业服务。香港地理位置优越，接通内地与国际商贸网络，亦有利企业管理其内地以至亚洲区的业务。也有业界反映，有现时并非在本港成立的公司，特别是在本港已有一定业务规模或希望利用香港优势拓展业务的企业，有兴趣迁册来港。机会到了，就应该抓住，许正宇形容香港引入迁册制度是“正逢其时”，可谓一语中的。

　　有调查显示，在香港设立总部或地区总部的跨国企业超过9000家。过去三年疫情期间，地区总部略有减少。随着香港全面复常，全力拼经济，特别是内地积极推进高质量发展，在全球经济风险上升、未来不确定性增加的大背景下，中国重新成为全球经济的火车头和稳定器。多国领袖近来争相访华，加强合作，拓展商机，有利香港进一步发挥内通外联的独特优势。香港对跨国企业吸引力上升，引入迁册制度乘热打铁，可大大减少企业迁册的成本，加快非香港企业作出在港注册的决定。

　　引入迁册制度在香港并非新生事物。早在2021年，特区政府率先为开放式基金型公司和有限合伙基金设立简便的基金迁册机制，以便利外地基金来港营运。建基于这些正面经验，特区政府扩大机制的适用范围，以便迁册制度覆盖不同地区、类型和规模的公司，就可以发挥更大效益。公司注册处将负责审批有关公司的迁册申请，严格把关，确保有关公司符合诚信、偿付能力、债权人保障等要求，并在迁册过程中保护有关企业的财产、权利、义务和法律责任，实现双赢。

　　吸引外地人才及企业来港，是特区政府的一大施政重点，在这两个方面，特区政府都搞得有声有色，令人欣喜。也要看到，各地都在争夺这些从“离岸”到“上岸”的公司，香港需要研究分析竞争对手的策略，知己知彼，制订更全面、更具竞争力的制度和机制。在这方面，特区政府固然要负起主要责任，社会各界也要积极建言献策，群策群力，为本港的专业服务和资本市场注入新动力。

　　Introducing a company re-domiciliation regime to inject new driving force into Hong Kong market

　　The SAR Government goes on with new efforts to compete for enterprises globally! Following estabishing the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises to lure overseas investment, the next major move is to introduce a company re-domiciliation regime to facilitate non-Hong Kong enterprises to re-domicile to Hong Kong for development. This will further bring into play the competitive edge of Hong Kong as a hub for multinational enterprises and a headquarters economy. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu yesterday issued a consultation paper on "Introducing a Company Re-domiciliation Regime" to collect views for two months to help the government work out convenient and effective mechanisms to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness.

　　Over the past several decades, using off-shore companies to run businesses had remained a popular way. In order to circumvent Hong Kong's stricter supervision or for tax avoidance, many enterprises had re-domiciled to so-called "tax havens" such as Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands. It was also often seen that a Hong Kong-based large enterprise would set up an offshore company. Once upon a time, the talk of the town was that "xx has re-domiciled". Things have changed. Following global tax reform, enhancement of financial regulation and supervision and crackdown on illegal activities such as "money laundering", multinational enterprises now attach more importance to laws and regulations and operation efficiency when considering to re-domicile. The attraction of offshore companies begins to fade accordingly. A large number of enterprises now consider to "re-domicile back home" rather than to "re-domicile out". "Going ashore" becomes a new trend.

　　Seeing there are opportunities, the SAR Government has been proactively making arrangements in recent years. The latest Budget announced the introduction of a company re-domiciliation regime to facilitate non-Hong Kong enterprises to re-domicile to Hong Kong. In fact, Hong Kong has an open and efficient system for corporate governance, reliable tradition of the rule of law, a simple tax system, and international-level professional services. Hong Kong's advantageous geological location enables it to connect the commercial and trade networks of the Mainland with that of the outside world, and also is favourable for enterprises here to run their business operations in the Mainland and other places in Asia. Insiders of industries have also revealed that some companies not incorporated in Hong Kong are interested in re-domicile to Hong Kong, especially those which already have sizeable business operations in the SAR or hope to make use of Hong Kong's advantages to expand their businesses. When an opportunity arises, it must be seized. Christopher Hui's comment, that "now is the right moment" for Hong Kong to introduce a company re-domiciliation regime, could be said to have gone right to the heart of the matter.

　　Some statistics show there are over 9,000 multi-national enterprises which have headquartered or set up their regional headquarters in Hong Kong. During the past three years amid the epidemic, the number of regional headquarters has decreased slightly. As normalcy is fully restored, Hong Kong now spares not effort in boosting economic development. In particular, as the Mainland now is proactively promoting high-quality development, China once again becomes the locomotive and stabiliser of the global economy against the backdrop of increasing global economic risks and uncertainties in future. Leaders of quite a few foreign countries now fall over themselves to visit China in the hope of strengthening cooperation and expand business opportunities. This is favourable for Hong Kong to further bring into play its unique advantage of "linking to the Mainland and connecting to the world". As such Hong Kong's attraction to multi-national enterprises grows. Striking while the iron is hot, now is an opportune moment to introduce a company re-domiciliation regime. It could reduce the cost for an enterprise to re-domicile to Hong Kong and thus facilitate non-Hong Kong enterprises to make their decisions to re-domicile to Hong Kong.

　　It is nothing new for Hong Kong to introduce a re-domiciliation regime. As early as in the year 2021, the SAR Government took the lead to introduce convenient re-domiciliation mechanisms for open-ended funds and Limited partnership funds to facilitate overseas funds to operate in Hong Kong. Based on positive experiences in this regard the SAR Government now could expand the scope of application for such mechanisms so that the re-domiciliation regime would cover companies from different regions, of different kinds and sizes. Thus the effectiveness of the regime could be maximised. The Companies Registry is empowered to administer and approve cases of application for company re-domiciliation. It will put in place appropriate check to ensure that the companies concerned comply with the requirements for integrity, solvency and creditor protection, etc., and to protect their properties, rights, obligations and legal responsibilities during the process of re-domiciliation, so as to achieve win-win.

　　Luring overseas talented personnel and enterprises to come to Hong Kong is a focus of the SAR Government's governance. It is glad to see that the government is doing an impressive job along both lines. It must also be noted that many places are competing for such offshore companies to "go ashore". Hong Kong should study and analyse its competitors' strategies, so as, by knowing itself and its competitors, to work out more comprehensive and competitive regime and mechanism. In this regard, while the SAR Government must take the major responsibility, all social sectors should also proactively offer advices and proposals, so that whole society would work and pull together to inject a new driving force into our professional services and capital market.