Council okays reports of joint draft law panel

Muscat, June 26 - The 13th regular session of the State Council on Wednesday gave assent to the report of the joint committee between the State Council and Majlis Ash’shura. The approval came after intensive discussions on differences on articles pertaining to the draft laws of bankruptcy, foreign capital investment, privatisation, and public-private partnership before being sent to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. The session deferred the land laws review proposal after discussion. The session, chaired by Dr Yahya bin Mahfoudh al Mantheri, Chairman of the State Council, commenced its discussion of the proposal of land laws prevailing in the Sultanate with the statement of the Legal Committee, presented by the Head of the Legal Committee, Abdul Qadir bin Salim al Dhahab. He stated that the study involved detailed reviewing of the land laws and identifying of all problems and challenges facing the land sector in several meetings. The committee concluded that a comprehensive law regulating the land sector in the Sultanate should be introduced based on a number of justifications. These include the need to update the prevailing laws governing this sector, which involve development of institutions and modification of names of some government entities related to the land sector. It also stressed the need for a unified land law that covers residential, commercial, industrial, agriculture and tourism sectors. A unified law will also ensure efficiency of all the government institutions related to land, standardise them and to avoid duplication. Investor-friendly legislations in various sectors will ease land acquisition and boost economy Following in-depth discussions, the session decided to defer the proposal for further consideration.