Law on the Encouragement of Investment in Palestine of 1998 and its amendments.

This Law, consisting of 43 articles, aims to achieve the development objectives and priorities in Palestine by promoting investment through the following: (i) establishing the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency, responsible for encouraging and promoting investment; (ii) providing guarantees to all investors and investments operating in Palestine; (iii) granting the incentives to investors; and (iv) providing the appropriate environment for encouraging investment in Palestine. Article 5 states that to be eligible under this Law, all investments in Palestine, including those of non-Palestinian investors, must be registered. Nationalization of any investment in Palestine is prohibited (art.7) as well as expropriation of an investment or part of it (art.8). Free transfer of all financial resources out of Palestine is guaranteed by article 9.
The Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency is chaired by the Minister of National Economy and managed by a Board of Directors with the following main tasks (i) oversee the assessment and preparation of the investment policies; (ii) approve the incentive package contracts prepared by the Agency; (iii) issue approval for investments; (iv) approve the organizational structure and operating system of the Agency; (v) supervise the implementation of this Law; (vi) review laws and regulations related to this Law; (vii) evaluate the Agency’s performance, and prepare an annual report on its activities; (viii) adopt the annual budget of the Authority; (ix) supervise the creation of an investment registry and maintain it; (x) adopt plans and programs that contribute to creating an appropriate investment environment; (xi) create an investment one stop shop to be responsible for licensing investment projects; (xii) supervise funds granted to the agency and decide on spending modalities.
Confidential information are protected under article 21. Investment incentives promoted by the Law include: (i) exemptions from customs duties; (ii) income tax of zero (0%) for the agricultural projects whose income is being directly generated from land cultivation or livestock; income tax of (5%) and (10%) for specific projects. The duties of the investor are provided in article 25. The merged companies, companies that have been split or whose legal structure is altered, the ones moved from one area to another during the period of the exemption, etc., shall enjoy the provided exemptions.