The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said yesterday that significant upgrades to key services within the Registrar General’s Department were progressing to bring it into the “21st century”, noting that company incorporations should be available online by year’s end.

Such upgrades, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said, would significantly impact the ease of doing business in this nation and its overall ranking in that category. She added that she was satisfied with the pace at which these improvements were being carried out, crediting the team at the Registrar General’s Department and partnership with the private sector.

“We are significantly updating the areas on trademarks,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said. “We have now moved on to patents, and we have received our recommendations from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and are acting on them.”

The Attorney General said plans to move the registry into a new facility were also being discussed.

“We would like to see the various divisions of the registry, including the intellectual property section, set up as a section within the registry,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson explained.

“The companies registry, by the end of this year, we are very certain we would have implemented, and people will be utilising our solution. That will enable companies to be incorporated fully online; from name registration all the way through to receiving a certificate of incorporation, which means that they would be able to immediately receive a certificate of good standing because they would be able to do annual returns online.”

The Attorney General added: “Maritime marriage is working beautifully, and we expect that we could expand that solution to domestic marriages as well.

“We have a deeds and documents solution. We are seeing that the deeds are, in fact, being returned in a timely fashion; within 30 days. A problem, if I could put it that way, is that people are not coming to collect their deeds.

“We are looking for a solution that would enable the process of recording deeds to also be entirely online. We are speaking to different vendors on that. With regards to births and deaths, we have identified a space in the new wing of the hospital, and once that is opened up, to take that space. This would mean that the process would commence online from the time of a birth. This would minimise confusion about who is actually born in the Bahamas,” said Mrs Maynard Gibson.