New Foreign Capital Investment Law

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos issued Sultani Decree 50/2019 on 1 July 2019, issuing the much-awaited new Foreign Capital Investment Law (the “New FCIL”) that replaced the earlier Foreign Capital Investment Law issued by Sultani Decree 102/1994 (the “Old FCIL”).  The development of the New FCIL took over four years and involved assistance from the World Bank.  During the course of the development of the New FCIL, the comments and input from various stakeholders, and consultation sessions, were organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (the “MOCI”).  The New FCIL comes into force six months after the date of its publication in Official Gazette issue 1300 on 7 July 2019.

Under the Old FCIL regime, foreigners could not undertake commercial activity in Oman unless they had a formal presence by way of a legal entity or an agent.  A legal entity would take the shape of either a commercial company under the Commercial Companies Law or a branch of a foreign company.

While foreigners could register a local commercial entity under the provisions of the Old FCIL and the Commercial Companies Law, their ability to establish a wholly owned commercial company was restricted.  Under the provisions of the Old FCIL, a foreigner could establish a commercial company in Oman, subject to a restriction on maximum foreign ownership in the share capital of the commercial company.  This restriction initially allowed up to a maximum foreign ownership of 49%.  Upon Oman’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (the “WTO”), this restriction was relaxed to a maximum of 70% of the share capital of a commercial company.  As an exception to the Old FCIL, complete foreign ownership was permitted in some exceptional circumstances.  The exceptions were as follows:

(i) establishment in one of the Free Zones;
(ii) establishment under the Gulf Co-operation Council (the “GCC Treaty”);
(iii) establishment under the one of the free trade agreements (“FTA”) ratified and in force in Oman; and
(iv) special projects (with a minimum capital of OMR 500,000) which contribute to the development of the national economy as approved by committee for foreign investment following a recommendation from the MOCI under the provisions set out in the Old FCIL.

The New FCIL removes the requirement for having an Omani partner and shareholding restrictions on foreigners, thereby effectively permitting wholly owned non-Omani companies.

Under the New FCIL, all benefits, incentives and guarantees granted to foreign investment projects under the Old FCIL shall continue until such time that those benefits expire.  The New FCIL is promulgated without prejudice to the regimes pertaining to GCC investment, the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates and the Free Zones.  Article 3 prohibits foreigners from practicing investment activities in Oman save in accordance with the provisions of the New FCIL.  It further provides that foreign investment projects will be subject to the laws of Oman and subject to any international treaty in force in Oman in relation to investment and double taxation.  It appears that FTAs entered into by Oman will continue to be implemented in their usual course.

The New FCIL provides for establishment of an Investment Service Centre (the “Centre”) at the MOCI.  The Centre will be responsible for licensing and easing the procedures relating to grant of licences, permits and other consents required for an investment project.  The Centre will also be responsible for issuing foreign investment licences to foreign investors.  While the Old FCIL also provided for grant of a licence for foreign investment, in recent practice that licence was not issued separately and was considered deemed to have been granted with the company registration documents.

Article 7 of the New FCIL states that foreign investors will be required to abide by the timetables provided by them for the execution of the project and approved in accordance with the economic feasibility study.  It also restricts foreign investors from making substantial amendments to the project without the MOCI’s approval.  It appears that under the New FCIL the foreign investors will be required to submit a business plan.  We expect this to be similar to, although more detailed than, the foreign investment application form that the MOCI introduced few years ago.

In addition, the New FCIL provides that the Cabinet may grant a single approval based on a recommendation of the Minister of Commerce and Industry to establish, operate and manage strategic projects.  This approval will be effective on its own without the need for further procedures.  It appears that once the Cabinet’s single approval is granted as an umbrella approval, then the other project approvals from different governmental entities and authorities would not be required.  What this would entail in practice and how different it would be from the other approvals mentioned in the New FCIL is yet to be seen.

While the New FCIL is substantially different from the Old FCIL, there are a number of similarities.  Article 6 of the New FCIL provides that foreign investment projects may be carried out by an establishment or a company established under the law.  Furthermore, Article 14 provides for a negative list of activities, in other words activities that are not open to foreign investment.  The MOCI maintains a list a foreign investment negative list on the basis of the Old FCIL and following reservations made in its accession to the WTO.  Until such time that a new negative list is published we expect that the negative list currently implemented will continue in effect.

The executive regulations of the New FCIL are to be issued within six months of its effective date.  Until such time, the regulations under the Old FCIL will continue to the extent that they do not contradict the New FCIL.