State Council nod to clutch of draft laws

Muscat: The State Council has approved the joint committee report on four draft laws and deferred the proposal on land laws.
The approval came after intensive discussions on the articles that bear differences pertaining to the draft laws of ‘Bankruptcy’, ‘Foreign capital investment’, ‘Privatisation’ and ‘Public and Private Sectors’in preparation for elevation to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.
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 Al Shura.
Land laws review
The session deferred the land laws review proposal, after discussion. The session chaired by Dr. Yahya bin Mahfoudh Al Mantheri, Chairman of the Council was held in the presence of the council members and its Secretary General.
The 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 review of the land laws and identifying of all problems and challenges facing the land sector through several hosting and 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 legislations governing this sector with new laws, which have the scope of development of institutions and modification of names of some government entities related to the land sector.
In addition, it is required to identify a single legal reference through the creation of a unified land law that regulates all its residential, commercial, commercial, industrial, agricultural and touristic uses.
Also, it is required to ensure efficient governance of the actions of the government institutions of the land sector, standardise them and define their terms of reference to avoid duplication.
This will facilitate support of the national economy by providing an enabling legislative environment for investors in various sectors, and overcome all obstacles they face in benefitting from government lands in the Sultanate. Following in-depth discussions, the session decided to defer the proposal for further consideration.