************* All MENA countries, except Syria, have obtained IMF Article VIII status

All MENA countries, except Syria, have obtained IMF Article VIII status
MENA ( Middle East And North Africa ) countries have been following this trend. In particular, all the MENA countries except Syria have obtained IMF Article VIII status, indicating that they have removed restrictions on payments and transfers relating to current transactions, including repatriation of profits. (the IMF told us over 6 months ago that Iraq would have all restrictions removed by the end of 2016, early 2017. Well….here it is in black and white…What more do you want….lol…lol WOW! They are heading towards the “project to delete the zeros” and we DO NOT see any news telling us it is going to be delayed this time)

The Recommendations of the MENA-OECD Investment Programme‟s Working Groups referred to above ask to liberalise “existing restrictions to repatriation of capital, establish timely and unrestricted transfers of the proceeds of the investment and guarantee for the repatriation of the capital when the investment is terminated”. (investors need to be able to take their profits or proceeds out of the country once realized. Also when they terminate their business in Iraq they need to be able to take their capital investment with them. Does the Investment law sound familiar?)

Generally, MENA countries vary in the degree to which foreign investors may freely repatriate capital. Several MENA countries also allow unhindered repatriation of capital without restriction.

Thirteen of the MENA countries (Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Libya) report that they allow repatriation of capital without restriction. Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Yemen, operate restrictions of varying depth. (note Iran is not even talked about? Why? They along with Syria are still under heavy sanctions. But why they do not mention Iran is very peculiar. So now we know for sure Iraq is under Article 8 and migrated from Article 14.. The training wheels are off. When do they pop the currency? They told us it is coming EARLY 2017)

Transparency45. Most MENA countries have made serious efforts to increase transparency of their foreign investment regimes, however for foreign investors in the region transparency still remains an issue of concern. The transparency of foreign investment regimes varies widely among MENA countries.

One reason of this is the relative lack of information made available to foreign parties by some MENA countries. Indeed, while some countries provide detailed reports in response to a survey on investment restrictions conducted by the IMF, others supply only cursory responses.

Similarly, a range of national government websites providing information of use to foreign investors extends from sophisticated sites containing relevant laws and regulations, details of establishment procedures and other useful content (usually in English or French as well as in Arabic) to sites with virtually no relevant information.


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