DOHA: A law is expected soon that would facilitate foreign as well as local investors to seek all the necessary approvals under one roof to start up a business.
For this purpose a one-window licensing system is being installed. A draft commercial companies’ law, which talks of the above facilities, was initially approved by the Cabinet.
It was forwarded to the Advisory Council for review and recommendations and the Council sent it back to the Cabinet.
At its weekly meeting yesterday, the Cabinet perused the recommendations of the Council and took the necessary steps to get the draft law endorsed by higher-ups for issuance, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reports.
The draft law carries amendments to some provisions of a current commercial companies’ law (Number 5 of 2002) which was issued 13 years ago, since when a lot of changes have taken place in the way business is done.
The draft has 340 articles divided into 13 chapters and talks of six types of companies, the same as in the current law.
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce had earlier clarified, in response to questions from the Advisory Council about the need to have a new commercial companies’ law, that the World Bank had placed Qatar at 81st position among 190 countries in the world in terms of this law (based on how easy it is within the law for an investor to set up a business in Qatar).
“We want Qatar to rank among the top 10 of the above list,” a senior official from the economy ministry had told an internal economic and financial affairs committee of the Advisory Council.
The committee was assigned by the Council the task of studying the draft law and giving its opinion based on which the Council would make its recommendations.
QNA said that the draft legislation has elements of international standards based on which countries are classified as excellent in terms of ease of doing business.
This will help the country attract more foreign investment, said QNA. The draft law includes general rules for commercial companies, their types, how they can be changed from one type to another, mergers, split, expiry and control over these companies.
This is particularly true of public joint stock companies, their establishment, share subscription, their board of directors and remuneration of board members, annual general meeting of their shareholders, functions of these companies and their capital.
The Peninsula
