In a session Wednesday, the HOD adopted the committee report endorsing the bill’s passage.
The piece of legislation will prescribe a new framework for foreign investment in Palau and to repeal the existing Foreign Investment Act.President Johnson Toribiong said there is a need to change the foreign investment law because of the flailing economy.Toribiong said that the current foreign investment law is not only “burdensome but intrusive.”The measure repeals the current laws but still retains the one-stop licensing procedure for non-citizens to invest in Palau.He said under the proposed measure, the approach will be a “transparent, free market approach where the success of any particular investment will be determined by the market.”The measure also creates an advisory board to assist the president and the OEK going forward with the investment policy. The board however will not be directly involved in proposed investments.The measure will also require all other non-citizen investors to do business in Palau in the form of a corporation and it will not restrict non-citizens from conducting some business activities but will not totally exclude non-citizens as what the current law does.This measure was the first bill introduced by Toribiong. The president said the bill is also in preparation of the expiration of the Compact of Free Association funding to Palau from the United States.
