News developments Archives - Page 208 of 223

Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council Has Agreed to Amend the Ant-Bribery Law

08/07/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council has agreed to amend the Ant-bribery Law issued by Saudi Arabia Royal Decree No M36/1412 as amended in 2015. The amendments were proposed by Atta Alsubaiti and Latifa Alshalan and seek to stress the provisions of the UN agreement on combating corruption. The amendments propose appointing a special employee for combating bribery and ensuring the implementation of transparency and integrity standards. The amendments are aimed at protecting public facilities from corruption in all its forms and ensure the soundness of investigations and trials for crimes subject to this law.

Kuwaitis Can’t Leave GCC Anymore with Old Passports

08/07/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Source: Kuwait Times, 5 July 2018

The Nationality and Travel Documents Department of Kuwait’s Interior Ministry has advised Kuwaiti nationals must hold e-passports before leaving the GCC. The advice followed a meeting of GCC Interior Ministers, where fellow interior Ministers were also advised the change came into effect on 30 June 2018. Kuwaiti nationals can currently travel freely with their civil IDs.

Read full article here: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/kuwaitis-cant-leave-gcc-with-old-passports/

Kuwait: Amendments to the Companies Law Relating to Protection for Minority Shareholders Approved

01/07/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Kuwait’s National Assembly has approved amendments to the Companies Law relating to protection for minority shareholders. The changes would reduce the minimum percentage of shareholders to request a general assembly requirement from 25% to 10%. Distribution of profits approved in a general assembly would take place within one month of the meeting. For companies with multiple directors, the general assembly would determine their powers and responsibilities. The time before a general assembly would also be increased from 15 to 21 days.

Lawyers have welcomed suggestions a Private-Public Partnership Law could be on the way in the Kingdom. If it is introduced, it will regulate the role of the private sector in terms of partnering with the public sector in infrastructure projects for the first time.

Despite not having any specific regulations in this area, the Kingdom has completed a number of projects using this framework.

Oman: Shoura Council is Set to Discuss a Number of Draft Laws

23/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Oman’s Shoura Council is set to discuss a number of draft laws including imposing selective tax which has been referred to it by the Council of Ministers. The Council is also set to discuss a draft law to amend Article 4 of the Foreigners Residency Law. In addition they will discuss a proposal to amend the Social Housing Law.

KSA: Unified Contract to Start Being Used in Last Quarter of 2018

23/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Sources from the Saudi Arabian Housing Ministry have said it is likely the Ministry, through its electronic Ejaar rent system will start using unified contracts for the commercial sector by the last quarter of this year. The sources added the Ministry has referred the contract template to the Justice Ministry to consider before it is implemented.

The Good, The (Not) Bad And The Uncertain: The Impact of the UAE’s New Federal Arbitration Law – Pinsent Masons

17/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

The final stage of the legislative process for the new UAE Arbitration law (Federal Law No. 6/2018 on Arbitration in Commercial Disputes) took place with the publication of the new law in Official Gazette issue No. 630 dated 15 May 2018. The new law comes into effect on 16 June 2018, one month from the day following its official publication.

The new Arbitration law is a welcome advance for arbitration in the UAE. It expressly repeals the former law governing arbitration in the UAE since 1992, contained in a short chapter of the Federal Civil Procedure Code (Federal Law No. 11/1992), replacing it with a modern law based on the internationally recognised and accepted UNCITRAL Model Law.

Article 59 of the new UAE Arbitration law provides for its immediate application to all existing arbitrations, notwithstanding that they were commenced prior to the law coming into effect. Importantly, the introduction of the new law will not invalidate any aspect of the proceedings that took place before it came into effect. Parties currently in arbitration will need to ensure that they are fully aware of all of the changes introduced by the new law. However, it is unclear how those who are contemplating challenging an award made against them prior to the law coming into effect will be impacted by the new law, and in particular the new 30 day time limit which will apply for raising a challenge to an award.

While significant positive change will be brought about by the introduction of this new law, some of the old uncertainties remain unaddressed and a few new ones will emerge. On balance, however, the impact of the new law is expected to be overwhelmingly positive for the legal community and the wider business community, both within the UAE and abroad.

To mark the announcement of the commencement of the new UAE Arbitration law, Bill Smith and Maria Mazzawi from Pinsent Masons prepared a comprehensive analysis of the new law, which explains which issues troubling arbitration in the past have been addressed by the new law, and which have not. We have also examined whether there might be any new uncertainties introduced by the new law.

The enactment of the new Arbitration law has been designed to attract further foreign direct investment into the UAE, and to firmly reinforce the UAE’s place as the most progressive market for doing business in the Middle East region. Its introduction provides an international framework, which is already familiar to the global business community, for the fair and efficient resolution of their commercial disputes.

Read full article here: www.pinsentmasons.com/Global/UAE_Arbitration_law_update.pdf

Egypt: The New Universal Health Insurance Law Executive Regulations

17/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

The Executive Regulations of the Universal Health Insurance Law, Egypt Law No 2/2018 (the Law) were issued by virtue of the Egypt Prime Minister Decree No 909/2018 on 8 May 2018 (the Regulations). The Regulations have mainly further elaborated on the role and mandates of the three authorities that will replace the General Authority for Health Insurance.

Click here to view the highlights of the most notable provisions: https://www.lexismiddleeast.com/doc/2661065_2661066

The Impacts of the GDPR on Corporate Governance Practices in the GCC – by Robert L. Ford

10/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

The European Parliament and Council passed a regulation (EU) 2016/679 to refresh the data and privacy protection laws for European Union States. The new regulation is commonly known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and came into effect on 25 May 2018. The GDPR has defined the rights of EU individuals relating to how their data is collected, stored, processed and used by organisations. Any organisation that handles the data of any EU citizen is bound by the provisions of the GDPR. This regulation is applicable globally and fines of up to 4% of worldwide turnover or 20 million euros (whichever is greater) will be levied on businesses breaching them. GCC organisations and businesses need to consider whether they collect, store, process or control any data for EU citizens and revise their own governance and enterprise risk management frameworks to comply with the GDPR provisions.

Read full article here.

Bahrain to Offer 10-year Residency Visas to Foreign Investors – LNB News ( 06/06/2018)

10/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

In a bid to boost foreign investment, the Bahraini authorities have announced they are planning on issuing ten-year residency visas to foreign investors.

The visas will be renewable and will enable foreign investors to self-sponsor themselves. It follows an announcement by the UAE authorities that they were going to relax their investment rules and introduce a ten-year visa for investors and innovators as well as medical, scientific, research and technical professionals.

Saudi Arabia: E-medicine System Completed – LNB News (05/06/2018)

10/06/201811/12/2019
by Benjamin Filaferro

Newspaper: Al-Madina, 4 June 2018

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Food and Medicine has announced it has completed an e-medicine system to track medicine from production to customers.

The aim is to ensure medicines are readily available and are safe. The Authority has placed barcodes on packaging and created the necessary technical infrastructure to host the movement details of medicines. They are also working with relevant parties including factories, importers, storage units and distribution centres, hospitals and pharmacies to implement the system.