The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP) recently issued a regulation to determine the “beneficial owner” of companies operating in Oman. This regulation is applicable to all types of companies except for public joint stock companies, which are instead regulated by the Capital Market Authority. The companies in question have until the end of this month to satisfy the provisions of this regulation. So what does this regulation mean for your business?
This guest blog post is contributed by Dr Saud Al-Farsi – Director of Legal Opinions and Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs.
The energy sector is one of the most critical industries in any country and is considered by many as the bloodline of new economies. This sector is not concerned only with the introduction of energy, but covers a variety of issues such as the exploration and extraction of fossil fuel, the transport, storage, and distribution of energy to both industrial and household consumers through pipelines or LNG ships, transport through transmission and distribution networks, and access by power generators and end-users. As the Sultanate of Oman, through the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and other stakeholders, plan for the energy transition and the future of the energy sector, it is important to reflect on what energy law means and the guiding principles that Oman should recognise when developing its energy policies and laws.
Just over a year ago, we launched the beta version of Decree to create a definitive English language resource for Omani royal decrees, laws, ministerial decisions, regulations, and treaties. This month, Decree has turned one, and to celebrate this occasion, I thought it would be appropriate to share a progress report that showcases the considerable amount of content we have made available during the course of 2022, as well as mentioning our ambitions for 2023.
The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs recently published last month in the Official Gazette a brand new Regulation on the Supervision of Lawyers, Law Offices, and Civil Law Firms regarding Anti-money Laundering and Counter-terrorist Financing. This regulation is part of a suite of regulations that the Omani government issued last month to comply with the latest recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). This particular regulation updates the regulation from 2021 covering the same topic. Failure to comply with the new regulation exposes lawyers, law offices, and civil law firms to penalties including fines up to 100,000 Rial Omani and the suspension of their licences.
This guest blog post is contributed by Amira Taqi – Group Legal Counsel at Minerals Development Oman.
The mining industry in the Sultanate of Oman is diversifying and developing at an appreciable pace. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) has deployed a new strategy to expand the mining sector by recently granting Minerals Development Oman (MDO), a strategic government-owned investor, concessionary exploration-to-mining rights over areas covering 21,5002km. This blog post aims to explain to readers the importance of the said concession agreements, their purpose, comparative advantage to the conventional licensing mechanism, and strategic importance to investors and to Oman.
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2022: The Year in Review
Instead of doing our usual monthly digest, we are starting the year 2023 with a reflection on the most significant royal decrees that were issued in the year 2022:
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP) published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a regulation governing the activities of marketing and promotion on internet websites and social media that requires social media influencers to register with the government and requires all companies using their service to verify the existence of a licence before dealing with them. The new regulation enters into force in 90 days and imposes fines of up to 1,000 Rial Omani.
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Decree Subscription Prices
As previously announced, starting January 2023, Decree will graduate out of its beta phase and will become available as a paid subscription service.
The TRA published on Sunday this week a brand new Regulation Governing Domain Names. This regulation makes a number of important changes that open up the domain name market by providing a mechanism for allowing companies with no connection to Oman to register <.om> domain names and permitting the transfer of the registration of domain names between registrants without any apparent restrictions. The regulation also attempts to make the WHOIS system for <.om> domain names compatible with the Personal Data Protection Law that is due to enter into force early next year. This post provides an overview of some key aspects of this new regulation.
Decree Monthly Digest is a summary of the most significant legislation issued in the previous month.
The month of November was busy with a number of important royal decrees and ministerial decisions issued.
In regard to royal decrees, Royal Decree 70/2022 appointed Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Hinai as Oman’s first-ever Ambassador-at-Large (Sheikh Abdulaziz was more recently known for being Oman’s ambassador to the UK before this role), Royal Decree 71/2022 declared areas in the Wilayat of Yanqul as having public benefit status to allow them to be expropriated by the government for a project to develop mines in Block A1-12, Royal Decree 72/2022 approved Oman’s accession to the Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation, while Royal Decree 73/2022 overhauled the organisational structure of the State Audit Institution.
In regard to ministerial decisions, many significant decisions were issued including CMA’s Decision 144/2022 on the Visitors Health Insurance Policy Form, MOCIIP’s Decision 574/2022 on the Governance Regulation for Foreign Investor Applications Approval Offices, MJLA’s Decision 113/2022 on the Code of Conduct for Experts, and TRA’s Decision 1152/2/3/2022-5 on the Regulation Governing Domain Names.