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New laws to maintain UAE’s competitive edge: Mansouri
DUBAI — The Ministry of Economy will introduce new laws to address the existing gaps in commercial regulations and arbitration and promote efficiency, transparency, and investor confidence in the business sector.
The new laws will cover Foreign Investment, Competition, Certificate of Origin, Arbitration, Industry Affairs Regulation, Amendment of Industrial Ownership, Anti Commercial Fraud, Auditors Profession Regulation and Companies’ Law. The Competition Law will lay down the mechanisms governing healthy competition in business while the Law of Commercial Arbitration will plug the gaps in the existing one.
“The UAE is revamping its legal system to reflect the changes in the global economic landscape and maintain its competitive edge as a centre of business. It is a thorough process that will fulfill specific conditions and requires a lot of time, research and consensus among all parties involved,” said Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri.
Various other ministries and federal agencies are involved in drafting the laws, with the Ministry of Economy being responsible for specific stages and preparations in the process.
“The Ministry of Economy has its own strategy for strengthening the national economy and retaining the competitive edge of the UAE as a global business centre and investment destination,” Mansouri said.
The new companies law being discussed by the Ministerial Legal Committee, will make it mandatory for companies in the UAE to put a general corporate governance framework to ensure protecting shareholders rights and achieve transparency and disclosure of financial results and reports. The new law reduces the period required to form a shareholding company to 40 days and sets the beginning of the financial year from January 1 to December 31, and excludes the first financial year of the company from this rule.
The proposed foreign investment is envisaged to unify legislations for foreign investments and includes required exemptions and guarantees for investment projects. It is planned to ensure investors the rights in managing their projects. It also reduces cost through customs exemptions rates and the investment window services, which facilitates procedures of licensing, insurance and flexible capital transfer and effective mechanisms for resolving disputes.
The ministry has already prepared the competition law, which has been finalised by the Ministerial Legal Committee and will now be send to the Cabinet. This law will encourage competition and supports the UAE’s economic development drive. The law will reduce monopoly practices in line with the recommendations of the World Trade Organisation during its last review for the trade policy of the UAE.
The minister said passing the laws involve several steps. First, the Ministry will seek the Cabinet’s permission in forming the law, and the first draft will be shared with all concerned parties in the government and private sectors. The Draft Law is then sent to the Cabinet for approval and to the Legal Technical Committee at the Ministry of Justice that amends the draft in coordination with the Ministry of Economy.
The law will then be referred to the Ministerial Legal Committee to be discussed and amended and after that transferred to the Cabinet for revision and approval. It will then go to the Federal National Council for discussions and approval and to the Ministry of Presidential Affairs for issuing it officially.
The certificate of origin law aims to re organise legislations related to certificates of origin in order to specify the origin of the homeland of the commodity and will allow the Ministry to impose fines and penalties on incorrect documents and data.
The ministry has also finalised the draft of the Arbitration law in cooperation with a group of legal experts from Abu Dhabi Arbitration Center. The Industry law that the Ministry worked on, will develop the performance of the industrial sector. It will stipulate plans to encourage small and medium industries and enhance the quality of products. It will work to protect UAE products from harmful practices like dumping and will be in line with the standards issued by WTO regarding trade exchange and increasing exports volume. — abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com
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