AMMAN — The
Lower House of Parliament on Sunday
continued deliberations on the draft law regulating the investment environment
for 2022, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
اضافة اعلان
The deputies approved a number of articles in the bill, after
“extensive” debate, as referred by the House’s Economy and Investment
Committee.
The lawmakers approved Article 15 as sent from the government,
which entailed replacing the phrase “300 Jordanians” with “250 Jordanians”. The
new version now reads: “If the legislative or regulatory clauses are amended or
altered and the outcome will have a negative impact on the investor who has
investments in a single project amounting to JD5 million or more, or who has
employed 250 Jordanians or more, then he/she has the right to demand deferring
implementation of these articles for a seven-year period from the date of
fulfilling any of these two conditions.”
The House also approved Articles 16 and 17, which grant the
investor, his family and his high-profile employees an “investor identification
card” to facilitate procedures at official authorities and facilitate their
entry and exit to and from the Kingdom.
In addition, the deputies approved Article 18, which establishes
the development zone through a Cabinet decision upon the recommendation of the
Minister of Investment. The zone’s borders are set, modified, or canceled by a
government decision, all the while preserving the investors’ acquired rights.
239
investors have obtained Jordanian citizenship since 2018
In a related item, the House approved Article 19, which details
the mechanism of transferring land ownership of a development zone from the
public Treasury to the Ministry of Investment, which has authority to sell or
lease land plots to the main developer, according to the development agreement
approved by the Cabinet under the specified financial leasing conditions.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Administration
Tawfiq Krishan, speaking at the meeting, said that there is no sale of state lands,
but rather a sale to the developer, which consists of government companies.
In response to the lawmakers’ interventions, Krishan said that the
government stands by its laws, and that the draft law regulating the investment
environment is now debated in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Al-Mamlaka TV, quoting data from the Ministry of
Investment, reported that from 2018 until the end of July this year, 239
investors qualified for and obtained the Jordanian citizenship.
According to the data, the investments of these individuals
contributed to employing 12,757 people.
The law granting Jordanian citizenship was issued on December 12,
2018; several amendments were made to it.
The ministry data shows that investments were made in the
industrial, tourism, medical, educational, and energy sectors, as well as in
satellite broadcasting.
Some people obtained citizenship by making deposits with the
Central Bank of Jordan.
In
March 2022, the Parliament agreed to add commercial sectors to those approved
for the purpose of granting Jordanian citizenship to investors, and approved
the technical committee’s recommendations that included the mechanisms and
bases for implementing this decision.
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