The Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities is seeking to expand its authority in offering lands through the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), as well as a greater role for the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) in the upcoming investment law currently being drafted, unnamed government sources told Al Borsa on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Investment is set to rename the one-window investment system to the Investment Window. Moreover, housing ministry officials have demanded radical adjustments to the one-window system, to avoid previous hurdles.

The expanded authorities being demanded for NUCA include the technical and financial evaluations of offers from private companies, and the authority to decide on their financial feasibility, with the sources claiming that the lack of specialized experts in GAFI cause major bureaucratic delays in the approval of projects.

The two ministries reportedly agreed on the formation of a team of officials from both sides to draft the terms concerning the Ministry of Housing in the new law, and to specify swift mechanisms to address lands allocated for investment, as well as methods for acquiring licenses and ministerial decrees.