The Legislative Reform Committee agreed on Saturday on a number of draft laws, including the law on the national committee for retrieving money and assets from abroad and the draft amendment of some provisions of the intellectual property protection law, according to Minister of Transitional Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ibrahim El-Heneidi. The committee also approved draft amendment to some attorney law provisions, amendments to some agriculture law provisions, and the amendment of the draft on demolition of dilapidated buildings. El-Heneidi added, after the committee meeting on Saturday at the cabinet headquarters, that discussions over the unjust enrichment draft laws, money laundering amendment draft and amendments of the criminal code were postponed. The minister noted that the committee agreed, in the presence of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, on forming a committee to draft the final version of the investment law, determining money values and deciding on whether or not the tax incentives will be included in the investment law. El-Heneidi clarified that the committee comprises of representatives from the Finance, Investment, Transitional Justice, and Trade and Industry Ministries, in addition to three State Council judges. The committee's head is Judge Hassan Bassiouni, Chairman of the Economic Legislation Committee affiliated to the Supreme Committee for Legislative Reform. However, an official at the Ministry of Investment said that the draft investment law prepared by leaders of the ministry did not include any new tax incentives. "The relative weight of tax and customs exemptions in attracting investments and localising the immigrant capitals became weak," he added. He told Daily News Egypt that more important is improving the environment of business practices and reforming the investment climate by accelerating the procedures and eliminating bureaucracy, accompanied by administrative reform to protect new investments from the corruption of the administrative bodies, in order to attract a larger segment of international capital that a lot of countries compete over. El-Heneidi said that general meeting of the committee will be held next Tuesday in order to discuss the investment law after completing the final draft, noting that the committee has agreed today on draft law amendments on economic zones of special nature, except for some points that were left for the cabinet to decide on.
