AMMAN — The
Lower House on Tuesday approved the draft law regulating the investment
environment for the year 2022, including articles pertaining to the
registration and licensing of economic activities.
اضافة اعلان
Some articles in the draft law, most prominently
Article 15, still arouse the discontent of some experts in the field of
investment and of lawmakers, who are asking for a more comprehensive law, free
of legal loopholes, which would contribute significantly to attracting
investments.
The amendment to Article 15, approved by the House
in its Sunday session, guarantees that investors who invest JD5 million or more
in a project, or who employ at least 250 Jordanians, will not be affected by
any amendment or change in legislative and regulatory provisions.
The article also says that “the investor has the
right to demand the non-implementation of these provisions for a period of
seven years from the date of achieving either of the two conditions”.
MP
Saleh Al-Armouti warned that Article 15 of the
draft law “is the most dangerous, especially as it allows the investor to
dispose of lands from the state Treasury, and to sell or rent them without
accountability or supervision”.
He stressed that “it is not acceptable to give these
privileges to and expropriate Treasury lands for the benefit of investors”.
According to Armouti, “the draft law grants
investors many privileges and exemptions, and stripped the powers of other laws
in their favor, which is bound to confuse the judiciary.”
He added: “It granted the investor the right to
suspend any other law presented to the Parliament if the investor feels that it
affects the privileges granted him,” a power that, he stressed, is not given to
the highest authority or the government.
Tarek Hijazi, managing director of the Jordanian
Businessmen Association, told
Jordan News that “the draft law does not
achieve the results expected from the Economic Modernization Vision, with its
investment drive, due to the lack of incentives and the many loopholes that are
of no concern to the investor.”
He also said that “the investment incentives are
supposed to be clear in the text of the law, especially since an investor is
looking to achieving a feasible return on his investments,” adding that
incentives should be clearly defined, to overcome “investors’ reluctance to
invest and to facilitate investment-related procedures”.
Hijazi stressed the importance of “linking
exemptions and incentives to investment in the governorates, which will have a
positive impact by creating new jobs and reducing unemployment rates, in
addition to helping the growth and development of governorates”.
Fathi Al-Jaghbir, head of the
Jordan and Amman Chambers of Industry, said that “over the past two decades, the
unpredictability of legislation is one of the most important challenges facing
the business and investment environment in the Kingdom,” stressing that
“international business reports explicitly indicated that the legislative
instability in the Kingdom is one of the main obstacles to business, and
contributes to limiting investment attraction and its sustainability.”
He said that “Article 15 came in order to reduce
this dilemma and to impose legislative stability on the business and investment
environment, in a way that gives the investor reassurance.”
It enables investors, he said, “to plan
strategically without any variables that may negatively affect production
operations and the growth of their investment, and this will ultimately reflect
on providing more job opportunities and creating more added value to the
national economy”, he pointed out.
Jaghbir added: “As a business community, we seek to make
this article a reference for all investments, as legislative stability is a
challenge to the various segments and categories of business.”
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