Finance Minister Paula Cox introduced a raft of bills designed to remove barriers for business in the House of Assembly on Friday.

The Companies Amendment Act 2009, The Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2009, The Partnership Amendment Act 2009, and The Exempted Partnership Amendment Act 2009/The Limited Partnership Amendment Act 2009/The Overseas Partnership Amendment Act 2009 were all tabled as the Island continues to press ahead with its programme for legislative reform.

The proposed reforms are aimed to ensure that Bermuda-registered businesses operate within a legal and regulatory framework that promotes growth and investment.

"For the Ministry of Finance removing barriers is a priority," said Ms Cox. "It's not just business which gain from reform. Streamlining processes also brings savings for government. And both business and government benefit when processes are simple and set incentives for growth.

"It is important to stress that there is relatively little in the way of research based on hard financial information on the costs to business of compliance with existing partnership law requirements. To the extent that the law can be remodeled to fit today's needs better, this will act as a reduction in unnecessary regulation and will, by stripping out unnecessary elements of the compliance regime, yield direct savings for partnerships. Estimating these direct savings is difficult.

"It is relatively easy to establish that a particular regulatory requirement is essentially redundant and should be amended or removed, but more difficult to establish what the monetised impact of this action will be."

Minister Cox said that the new legislation is also intended to provide greater clarity to technical questions and lead to greater levels of understanding by all market participants, resulting in a better degree of compliance.

She added that the proposed reforms would take into account the fact that the majority of the Island's businesses were private, and the impact of excessive data collection, inappropriate, or excessively complex regulation can be disproportionate on firms that do not have much in-house resource or expertise available to deal with compliance issues.

The Companies Amendment Act 2009 will enhance the e-filing requirements for companies registered in Bermuda, while modernising the requirements for officers and directors.

The Stamp Duties Amendment Act 2009 will place aircrafts on the same footing as ships under the Act, while The Partnership Amendment Act 2009 will clarify provisions for liability and partnerships.

The Exempted Partnership Amendment Act 2009/The Limited Partnership Amendment Act 2009/The Overseas Partnership Amendment Act 2009 will provide options for partnerships which need certainty and flexibility in structuring their deals, with the registration process being streamlined for exempted and limited partnerships by delegating consent for registration to the Bermuda Monetary Authority.