A Slight Amendment to the Committee

Under the framework of the economic reform program that was adopted at the end of 2016, a Prime Ministerial decree was issued more than a year and a half ago to reorganize the mechanisms and procedures according to which state-owned shares are offered[1] (the “privatization program”). Passed in an attempt to revitalize this program that has practically come to a halt more than a decade ago, the decree reconstituted the ministerial committee in charge of developing the program and supervising its implementation in addition to stipulating the mechanisms for selecting the companies for the offering, the means for evaluating their shares, and the mechanisms for sale and the distribution of the proceeds (the “Committee”). In particular, the aforementioned decree specified that the Committee is to include the membership of the ministers of investment, petroleum, trade and industry, finance, planning, and public business sector as well as the head of the legislative affairs secretariat of the Cabinet; the minister of finance is to head this Committee. However, following the recent cabinet reshuffle late last year that saw the dissolving of the Ministry of Investment and the reassignment of the investment portfolio directly to the Prime Minister, another Prime Ministerial Decree No. 83 of 2020[2] was issued to reconstitute the Committee once again to reflect these changes. According to the latest amendment, the minister of investment has been replaced by the CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, with the minister of finance still heading the Committee. Although this change is merely a necessary substitution of one official with another, it remains significant given the government’s recent interest in revitalizing the privatization program and the circulating speculation over the possible amendment of the main law regulating the companies that are likely to be privatized – the Public  Business Sector Companies Law No. 203 of 1991 – in preparation for the offering of the shares of some state-owned companies or companies in which the state is a shareholder.   [1] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 926/2018 on the new regulations for the government’s program of offering state-owned company shares or expanding the equity structure in said companies, Official Gazette, Issue No. 19 (bis) (c), 14 May 2018. [2] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 83/2020 amending Prime Ministerial Decree No. 926/2018 on the new regulations for the government’s program of offering state-owned company shares or expanding the equity structure in said companies, Official Gazette, Issue No. 2 (bis) (b), 14 January 2020.