New Investment Law to be out soon: Official

The new Saudi Investment Law will be issued soon, representing a legislative roadmap for investors in the Kingdom, Al Eqtisadiah Newspaper cited Deputy Minister of Investment for Policies and Legislation Baker Al Haboob as saying.

The new law would be a systematic tool to guarantee rights and govern procedures, in accordance with leading international practices, the top government official added.

Many initiatives were launched as part of the Saudi National Investment Strategy, in a bid to develop the legislative and regulatory environment in the Kingdom, three of which were aimed at strengthening the local judicial environment. Further, seven others were rolled out to develop the legislative environment, Al Haboob indicated.

He further explained that the strategy seeks, through a number of its initiatives, to enhance the quality of the judicial environment in the Kingdom, most notably the one intended for studying the establishment of a court designated to settle investment disputes.

Additionally, the strategy pursues to find a legislative roadmap through several initiatives, including the Investment Law Project initiative. This is besides another initiative concerned with reviewing all legislations impacting the Saudi investment environment in order to facilitate the investor's journey and enhance investment competitiveness, the deputy minister added.

According to the data available on Argaam, Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih stated earlier this year that work is ongoing on introducing a comprehensive investment law, to replace the current foreign investment law, in order to protect and clarify the rights of local, foreign, and Gulf investors.