At a recent World Bank conference, the Pacific company registry reforms including Samoa were held up as the most progressive and advanced in the world.
“Progress on secured transaction reform has been outstanding in the Pacific” said Michael Broshanan, Operations Manager for the Market Services Group at the New Zealand Companies Office, in an item published on the New Zealand Aid Programme website.
A case in point is the Solomon Islands which has had an online companies registry for over two years.
It used to take up to three months to start a company in the Solomons; now it takes just 1.5 days. In the last year Solomon Islands has moved up 39 places in the World Bank’s Doing Business indicators.
Corporate registry reform was the subject of the Pacific Business Registries workshop in Auckland in March, and part of the larger Corporate Registers Forum.
Sixty workshop participants from eleven countries across the Pacific, Myanmar and Timor-Leste met to discuss their progress in updating business registries.
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2469982834957525";
/* Left 300X250 */
google_ad_slot = "8433753430";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script><script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>{/googleAds}
The reforms aim to improve the livelihoods and economic well-being of those in the Pacific. Downstream benefits include improvements to the enabling environment for business, increased transparency, and added credibility to local businesses wanting to work with international companies or seeking finance.
Secured transaction registries also play an important role in credit in the Pacific, given the complexity around using land for collateral.
The workshop facilitated discussions around challenges and achievements.
Payment methods were raised as a problematic area by several Pacific countries, with some breakthroughs such as that by Papua New Guinea, which is taking an innovative approach to its registry by incorporating mobile technology for making payments and accessing the registry.
A number of representatives noted the implementation effort required in training users and convincing stakeholders of the benefits. But there was obvious upside too.
Samoa, which launched its Company Registry in late March, said the beauty of the system was that everything was at their fingertips.
There was real enthusiasm from Pacific delegates for progressing business registries.
The Asian Development Bank and New Zealand Companies Office are working to put in place online companies registries and secured transactions registries, with the New Zealand Aid Programme providing support to the Cook Islands and Samoa, and IFC providing support in Papua New Guinea.
<!-- samoa_observer.ws -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-9419815128221199"
data-ad-slot="5306335075"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>{/googleAds}