New law on foreign investment in QFC

A law governing the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), aimed at simplifying procedures for foreign investors, will hopefully be introduced by year end, an official said last month as reported by Reuters. The draft QFC law aims to streamline different aspects of existing regulation, including how companies registered in the zone access financial products and services.

The QFC has its own legal, regulatory, tax and business infrastructure, which allows for 100 percent foreign ownership and full repatriation of profits in a country where local law demands Qataris retain at least a majority holding.

“The law is being debated with the council of ministers. We don’t have a timeline but, hopefully, it’ll be some time this year,” Kamal Nagi, chief strategic and business development officer at the QFC, told Reuters in an interview.

Steps are being taken to try remove some of these obstacles to boost foreign investment and aid the diversification of national economies away from hydrocarbons, something which has gained greater prominence given lower oil prices.

Nagi, who started in the role last month after a stint at Qatar’s central bank, said the centre was continuing to grow in spite of low oil prices, licensing 24 firms so far in 2016, compared with 68 in the whole of 2015.

Most of these are non-regulated entities, such as business support firms and technology companies, although Italian Bank Intesa Sanpaolo was registered in April, according to the QFC website.

“Asset management is something that we see growth coming from in the future, but we’re also focusing on the business services sector as well,” said Nagi, noting around three-quarters of firms registered in the QFC are now entities which wouldn’t be regulated.

QFC houses the Qatari offices of international banks including Citi , Deutsche Bank and UBS , although most choose to base their regional headquarters in Dubai’s more established financial free zone.