Commercial companies law needed soon, says UAE official



The long-awaited commercial companies law should be passed soon or it risks becoming outdated, a government lawyer who helped to draft much of the legislation has warned.

Lubna Qassim, the director of the economic legislations department at the Ministry of Economy, said the law was also required to help to improve the business and investment climate.

"I would not want 2013 to pass by without this law being issued," she said.

"It must, because we are living in a complex economic landscape and corporate governance rules are evolving and things put in four or five years ago may need to be updated if it's not issued."

Considered one of the key cornerstones in reforming the economy, the companies law will set out a framework for how businesses should be run; ranging from how shares can be allocated to accounting standards.

However, the part of the law most eagerly anticipated by foreign businesses is a provision allowing the Cabinet to issue a separate resolution specifying the types of businesses that could be majority-owned by foreigners.

Currently, at least 51 per cent of a business has to be owned by an Emirati national if it is located outside a free zone.

But the law has remained in the planning stage for some time. The existing draft dates from 2006.

A statement from the Emirates news agency (Wam) on Saturday said the law was being discussed by the Committee on Financial Affairs at the Federal National Council. The FNC has been discussing the draft since January.

"It's probably one of the largest and heaviest draft laws the UAE has come up with," said Ms Qassim.

Spanning 12 chapters and 383 articles, the draft has been based on international corporate best practices in areas such as directors' duties, accounting and compliance.

But one of the challenges is that the international rule book is already being updated as western policymakers change business regulations in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Ms Qassim has worked on a number of planned economic laws yet to see the light of day. A bankruptcy law and legislation to help small and medium enterprises are still to be approved

But she considers the companies law one of the most significant. "It's very important for the entire business community and I hope businesses will be able to enjoy the fruits of it soon."

Officials hope the legislation will help to entice foreign investment and give the country a boost in its hopes of getting its stock markets upgraded to emerging market status by MSCI, the index compiler.

It is perhaps the foreign ownership component of the law that is attracting most attention.

"It is one of the areas people are thinking about," said Chris Lister, corporate counsel at Latham & Watkins, the law firm. "We always deal with foreign entities that are looking at doing business here and one of the downsides is the 49 per cent foreign ownership limit."

Dating from 1984, the current companies law is considered inadequate for overseeing the country's now vibrant business climate.

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Number of employees: 90

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The dominant group of refugees in Poland are citizens of Ukraine, but among the people checked by the Border Guard are also citizens of the USA, Nigeria, India, Georgia and other countries.

All persons admitted to Poland are verified by the Border Guard. In relation to those who are in doubt, e.g. do not have documents, Border Guard officers apply appropriate checking procedures.

No person who has received refuge in Poland will be sent back to a country torn by war.

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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

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The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

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What is graphene?

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.

It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.

Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.

By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.

It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.

But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.

In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. 

 

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Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')

Leicester City 5 (Vardy 37' pen, 54', 58' pen, Maddison 77', Tielemans 88' pen)

Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)

Origin
Dan Brown
Doubleday

Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

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Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions

School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira

Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk

Dream City: San Francisco

Hometown: Dubai

City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala

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Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.

The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.

Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.

However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.

Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.

Most F1 world titles

7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)

7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)

5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)

4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)

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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding