Matter of urgency: Bill on regulating investment environment referred to Legislation and Opinion Bureau

AMMAN — The Council of Ministers on Monday approved the mandating reasons of a draft legislation to regulate the Kingdom’s investment environment.

In a session chaired by Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Bisher Al Khasawneh, ministers referred the draft law, as a matter of urgency, to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau for debate. 

During the upcoming days, it will be referred to the Lower House, as per the Constitution, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The bill aims to streamline the investment and business environment to enhance the competitiveness of Jordan’s economy and its investment capacity.

It also aims to remove obstacles to doing business and enhance the government's role in protecting investors and their businesses through unifying investment laws.

The bill also seeks to unify and speed up the required approvals for most economic activities, standardise references and remove complications in the definitions of the roles and tasks of relevant ministries and entities.

To give post-investment services utmost attention and follow-up on investor affairs, the legislation offers a “one-stop-shop service” for registration and the licensing of economic activities through a single window. 

Through this window, only one licence is issued in a “quick and simplified manner”, which will enable investors to immediately start business, according to Petra. 

The draft law also entails the establishment of one system to inspect and monitor economic activities to guarantee neutrality and fairness of the inspection procedures, as well as removing all cases of contradiction among the requirements and procedures of inspection.

Also during the session, the Cabinet endorsed the mandating reasons for the draft bylaw of administrative organisation of the Senate of 2022 and the mandating reasons for a draft bylaw to support and develop the industry.