Shura Council Holds Regular Weekly Meeting
28 December 2020
The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting on Monday under the chairmanship of HE Speaker Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud.
During the meeting, the Council discussed a draft law amending some provisions of the Commercial Companies Law issued under Law No. 11 of 2015.
The draft law included the amendment of some provisions of the aforementioned law in order to enhance the ease of capital flow, remove obstacles, reduce time and cost, diversify non-oil income, develop market movement, and enhance international competitiveness in the field of establishing and operating companies.
The draft law also added new provisions for the purposes of achieving the requirements of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism stipulated in the Law No. 20 of 2019 on combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
The amendments stipulated that the Minister of Commerce and Industry shall issue decisions regulating governance for private joint-stock companies. As for companies listed in the financial market, the authority shall issue decisions regulating their own governance, provided that the Board of Directors of the company is committed to implementing the aforementioned governance decisions, taking into account that the companies' incorporation documents do not contain anything that contradicts with those decisions.
The amendments in the draft law specified how the members of the companys board of directors should be elected and the requirements that must be met by a member of the board of directors.
The amendments included replacing some phrases and introducing definitions, in addition to the procedures for the meetings of the boards of directors of companies and their general assemblies. They also stipulated the possibility of holding the general assembly of the company through modern technology means in accordance with the rules determined by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
After the discussion, the Council decided to refer the aforementioned Draft Law to the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee to study it and submit a report thereon to the Council.