QFC says to ease investment rules

DOHA, Nov 11, ( RTRS): The Qatar Financial Centre will pass a new law in 2016 simplifying procedures for foreign investors and giving them more access to the local market, the centre’s chief executive said on Wednesday.

“What we will see is a new QFC law that will be given birth to in the first quarter of next year. The new law addresses access to the market,” Yousuf al-Jaida told reporters.

The QFC has its own legal, regulatory, tax and business infrastructure, which allows for 100 percent foreign ownership and full repatriation of profits.

But it faces tough competition from other financial centres in the region, particularly Dubai, at a time when falling energy prices has increased pressure on countries in the region to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas.

Jaida said the new law would help companies list shares in Qatar, give them more access to bond issues, and facilitate other financial transactions.

“If a company has a dispute, which law applies, Arabic law or English company law? If you go to the state they say state laws apply, if you go to QFC they say QFC laws apply. This has to be addressed. Hopefully this will solve the entire issue of contradictions,” he said, without giving details of the reform.

“If we want more direct investment and better stability, we’re going to need to do this as soon as possible to allow freedom of movement, greater freedom of investment in the country.”

Jaida said the QFC had licensed two regulated and 60 non-regulated companies this year, for a 35 percent increase in the total number of licensed firms.