Foreign landowners bill passed

Manama : MPs yesterday passed a new bill making it mandatory for foreign landowners, including GCC nationals, to construct buildings on their land within five years of purchase. This comes as the majority of MPs voted during their meeting yesterday for the bill, despite reservations by some quarters. The proposed bill was previously approved by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee in the House of Representatives. The committee issued a report on the bill after discussing with the related authorities.

As reported by DT News on Saturday, Survey and Land Registration Bureau warned that passing the proposed bill will reduce large commercial and tourism projects, and will lead to hindering the investment flow, especially from Gulf investors. The bureau rejected that investors from GCC states are treated equally as foreign investors. Foreign Affairs shared a similar view. However, this did not stop the MPs from passing the bill yesterday.

Proposals withdrawn

During the session, chaired by Speaker Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Mulla, the MPs agreed to withdraw several parliamentary proposals for more study, after disagreeing on their validity.The withdrawn proposals included establishing a separate government firm for recruitment of domestic workers, such as housemaids, gardeners and drivers, and to scrap recruitment agencies.

According to the presenters of the proposal, the measure is expected to bring transparency, accountability and put an end to the exploitation of domestic workers by recruitment agents. But, several MPs rejected it as it included legal loopholes.

Another proposal that was withdrawn was criminalising posting stickers and logos on passports. The proposal introduced fines of BD50 to BD400.