The House of Representatives approved, by majority vote, the 2024 General Statistics Law and the 2025 Amended Civil Aviation Law, agreeing to the amendments introduced by the Senate on both draft laws.
اضافة اعلان
This came during a legislative session held on Monday, chaired by Speaker Ahmad Al-Safadi, with members of the government team in attendance.
The Senate had returned both bills—the General Statistics Law and the Civil Aviation Law—to the Lower House on April 8 after making several amendments.
General Statistics Law
One key amendment made by the Senate allows non-governmental entities to conduct studies to market their products or services and collect statistical data for their own use or on behalf of another party, provided they obtain prior written approval from the Director General of the Department of Statistics, according to a special regulation issued for this purpose. This replaces the original government proposal that allowed such studies only under terms set by the Statistics Department.
The House also recommended that the government provide clear definitions of key terms such as statistics, data, information, analysis, processing, and data extraction when drafting regulations and guidelines. This aims to clarify the roles of various institutions, such as the Department of Statistics, the National Information Center, the Ministry of Digital Economy, and private sector institutions.
The justifications for the new General Statistics Law align with the executive program of the Economic Modernization Vision and the Public Sector Modernization Roadmap, aiming to diversify sources of statistical data by relying more on administrative records from ministries, government institutions, and the private sector. The law also seeks to improve efficiency by using non-traditional data collection methods.
Other goals include:
Providing a comprehensive statistical database across economic, demographic, and social sectors;
Supporting decision-makers and meeting data users’ needs;
Establishing an interactive National Data Center for collecting, processing, analyzing, producing, and publishing data and information;
Allowing broader access to electronic data while ensuring information security and the confidentiality of individual responses;
Strengthening the role of official statistics as a key tool for both governments and citizens;
Reflecting the true state of society and the economy through standardized methodologies aligned with global statistical standards;
Creating statistical units in ministries and official institutions to support national efforts and assist the Department of Statistics in its mission.
Amended Civil Aviation Law
The Senate’s amendments grant the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) the authority to approve or reject land use within airports and surrounding areas that could impact the safety and security of civil aviation operations. This replaces a previous clause requiring Cabinet recommendation for such decisions, as proposed by the Lower House.
The Senate also reinstated Article 18, which had been deleted by the House. The article classifies all documents issued by the CARC—including licenses, certificates, accreditations, communications, and reports—as official documents, whether issued in paper or electronic form.
The objectives of the amended Civil Aviation Law include:
Strengthening institutional governance by defining the roles of the Commission’s Board of Commissioners and enhancing the powers of the executive branch;
Allowing the state of registration to delegate some or all of its responsibilities related to an aircraft under a lease or operational agreement to the state of operation, and exempting the registration state from transferred duties;
Regulating the preparation of the National Civil Aviation Security Program, including who is responsible for its development and approval;
Reorganizing the process of investigating aviation accidents and serious incidents to ensure the independence of investigations.
