The UAE is at an advanced stage of drafting a foreign investment law that would allow 100 percent foreign ownership of businesses in some sectors, the economy minister said on Monday.
Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, speaking at an international investment conference in Dubai, did not specify the sectors or say when the law might be passed. The process of drafting and enacting major laws in the UAE often takes years.
But the initiative may mark a more aggressive push by the Arab world's second biggest economy to attract investment. At present, foreigners generally cannot own more than 49 percent of any UAE firm unless it is incorporated in a special "free zone".
A new companies law, anticipated to take effect within months, was originally expected to relax this restriction, but that reform...