The Women in Business fully supports the proposed Companies Bill and the proposed amendments, says WIB president, Dr Nur Bano Ali.

Dr Ali made their views known to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights the past week.

She said this would completely reform the existing business registration system in favour of a more efficient and simplified system.

“We welcome many of the key amendments which are in line with our neighbouring jurisdictions,” she said.

“These includes one shareholder companies, abolishment of the Memorandum of Association, removal of the ‘authorised share capital’ concept and no compulsory requirement to have a company secretary.

“We also welcome the introduction of codified directors’ duties.”

WIB represents women from all levels of the community, including micro and small business owners, middle-management level, highest executive positions and owners of large business entities.

As such, Dr Ali said all their members would be affected in different ways by the Companies Bill if approved.

Recommendations

But while the WIB is supportive of the Companies Bill generally, the organization did put forward some recommendations to be considered by the committee.

One of the recommendations was for the committee to look at the possibility of the introduction of an additional level of company such as micro private company.

For this, the threshold could be consolidated revenue for the financial year of $1 million.

“Most micro businesses in Fiji may not even reach a $100,000 threshold and as such it is unfair to categorise all businesses below $5 million together,” she said.

“We do however welcome the reduced lodgement and disclosure obligations on Small Private Companies.”

Dr Ali raised this concern given most of the members Women in Business represented were micro and small business enterprises.

The other recommendation was the introduction of a quota for women representation on the boards of large private and listed companies on the stock exchange.

Dr Ali said they wanted the Fijian Government to follow the example of European Union countries such as Norway, France, Spain, the Netherlands and most recently Germany in imposing gender quotas on boards of large companies.

“Unfortunately, Fiji is miles behind in terms of gender equality,” she said.

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