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On 7 March 2025, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed and endorsed a three-year national programme to develop Uzbekistan's critical-minerals raw-material base, totalling USD 2.6 bn across 76 projects covering 28 rare-metal elements (tungsten, lithium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, magnesium, germanium, graphite, rare earths and others). The plan, presented by Minister of Mining Industry and Geology Bobur Islamov, structures the effort along a "raw materials → processing → science & technology → finished products" value chain, establishes technology parks in the Tashkent and Samarkand regions, and directs ministries to facilitate technology transfer, modern laboratories, and training centres. It is Uzbekistan's first programmatic critical-minerals push at this scale and the first Central-Asia upstream-capture filing in the IPTM register.

Peraturan Menteri Perdagangan Nomor 8 Tahun 2025 (Permendag 8/2025), signed 6 March 2025 and effective 10 March 2025, is the Third Amendment to Indonesia's Export-Prohibited Goods List (Permendag 22/2023), revising prohibited-export categories across seven commodity groups: forestry (wood, bamboo), agriculture (natural rubber, porang, rice, kratom), subsidised fertilisers (nitrogen-containing mineral/chemical fertilisers), mining (tin and minerals subject to general downstream-processing rules), cultural heritage, metal waste/scrap (iron and steel), and marine sedimentation products (sea sand, marine sludge). The regulation introduces a structured hilirisasi force-majeure relaxation pathway allowing companies that have completed construction of domestic mineral refining/smelting facilities — but cannot yet operate due to force majeure — to temporarily export copper concentrate with a minimum 15% Cu content, subject to Ministry of Trade approval. It is the direct predecessor to the Fourth Amendment (Permendag 6/2026, 26 March 2026).

On 27 February 2025, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted Law No. 33/2025 amending Law No. 174/2021 on the mechanism for examining investments of importance for state security. The law entered into force on 20 April 2025 after publication in Monitorul Oficial Nr. 144-147 of 20 March 2025 (promulgated by Presidential Decree No. 118-X of 17 March 2025). Key operative changes expand the protected-sector perimeter to explicitly enumerate 17 categories covering data processing and storage, AI, robotics, cybersecurity, semiconductors, quantum, nanotechnology and biotechnology alongside the pre-existing energy, transport, communications, defence and aerospace pillars; add new grounds for refusal (money-laundering suspicion, corruption convictions, foreign-government control, cybersecurity risk, access to personal data of citizens); introduce enhanced Council powers including retroactive review of previously approved investments and fines of up to 5% of annual turnover (capped at MDL 5 million); and carve out intra-group transactions, asset sales below EUR 1 million, and state-owned-enterprise dealings. The Screening Council became operational in July 2025.

The Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen) opened "Investeringsstøtten" (Investment Support), a DKK 1 billion grant pool running 2025-2030, targeting the CO2-intensive companies most exposed to Denmark's phased-in industrial CO2 tax. Eligible firms must emit on average at least 1,500 tonnes of CO2/year and see tax payments rise by at least 2.3% of gross value added under the new levy. In its first annual tranche (2025), the pool disbursed DKK 36 million, funding up to 60% of eligible costs at a rate of DKK 1,000 per tonne of CO2 abated for investments such as fossil-fuel boiler replacement with heat pumps or district heating. Qualifying sectors include general industrial processes, mineralogical processing, oil refining, domestic shipping ("indenrigssøfart" — including domestic ferries), and North Sea offshore activity. Legal basis is the "Aftale om Grøn skattereform for industri mv." (Green Tax Reform Agreement for Industry) of 22 June 2022, implemented via a Danish executive order (bekendtgørelse) on CO2-reduction subsidies for CO2-intensive enterprises, and notified to the European Commission under the General Block Exemption Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014.

At its regular session of 19 February 2025 the Mongolian Cabinet adopted Resolution No. 95, renaming the legacy state-owned enterprise "Mongolrostsvetmet" to "Erdenes Critical Minerals" and approving a revised operational charter that adds research, exploration, extraction, processing and utilisation of rare-earth elements to its mandate. The renamed SOE sits inside the Erdenes Mongol LLC group and becomes Mongolia's primary state vehicle for upstream critical- minerals activity, with funding for exploration, development and processing routed through the group's unified strategic-planning framework and dividends flowing to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

MOFCOM and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued Announcement No. 10 [2025] on 4 February 2025, imposing dual-use export-licence controls on items related to tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium under the Export Control Law and Dual-Use Items Export Control Regulations. The controls cover metals, alloys, powders, compounds and related processing technologies across roughly 25 listed item categories (41 HS 10-digit codes). The measure is global in scope but was issued the same day China announced 10-15% retaliatory tariffs on US LNG, coal, crude and farm equipment in response to the Trump administration's 10% fentanyl-tariff hike — extending the MOFCOM critical-minerals control regime beyond gallium/germanium/graphite/antimony/heavy-REEs.

After a comprehensive two-year mining ban (August 2023–April 2025), Wa State authorities formally opened new three-year licence applications for mining, processing, and prospecting in Man Maw in February 2025, with permits issued to operators from approximately April 2025. The restart regime imposes a 30% universal tax-in-kind on all tin concentrate exports plus an additional 5% first-batch concentrate levy to fund joint mine dewatering, materially re-pricing approximately 10% of global tin concentrate supply. Shipments recovered to ~1,300 tonnes contained tin per month by November–December 2025.

Naalakkersuisut (Government of Greenland), via the Mineral Resources Authority under Minister Naaja H. Nathanielsen, published the Mineral Resources Strategy 2025-2029 in January 2025. The strategy succeeds the 2020-2024 strategy and sets the operational priorities, licensing pipeline and investor-engagement framework for Greenland's mineral sector across the 2025-2029 window. Headline tracks: sustainability (social/environmental/ economic), targeted international marketing and export-import-bank cooperation to mobilise project finance, formal critical-minerals partnerships with the EU and the US (and Nordic regional cooperation), a certification system for small-scale licensees, and expanded geoscientific data availability. The 2021 Inatsisartut Act prohibiting uranium-bearing exploration and exploitation above 100 ppm is preserved.

On 29 January 2025 the Union Cabinet of India approved the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), a seven-year programme running FY2024-25 through FY2030-31 with a headline financial envelope of ₹34,300 crore (≈USD 4.0 bn). The structure is split: ₹16,300 crore of direct government outlay administered by the Ministry of Mines, plus an expected ₹18,000 crore of investment by central public-sector undertakings (PSUs) and other stakeholders. The mission was first announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2024-25 (23 July 2024) and the Cabinet approval gave it formal sanction. The NCMM covers the full critical-minerals value chain: domestic exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, recycling from end-of-life products, and acquisition of overseas mineral assets. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is tasked with executing 1,200 exploration projects over the seven-year window (vs. 368 projects over the prior three years), expanded to offshore polymetallic-nodule provinces containing cobalt, REE, nickel and manganese. More than 100 critical-mineral blocks are slated for auction. Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) — the JV of NALCO, HCL and MECL — is the designated vehicle for overseas acquisitions, with active Argentina lithium (CAMYEN SE, 15,703 ha) and Australia lithium/cobalt off-take pipelines. India's official critical-minerals list contains 30 commodities, of which 24 are inscribed in Part D of Schedule I of the MMDR Act 1957 (after the 2023 amendment), reserving central-government auction authority over them. The NCMM sets an explicit recycling target of 15-20% of domestic critical-mineral demand met from secondary sources (e-waste, battery scrap, industrial waste) by 2035. The mission also funds a National Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals and offers customs-duty waivers on 25 critical minerals (announced in the same FY24-25 budget) to lower import costs while domestic capacity scales. NCMM is India's pull-side complement to the US IRA, EU Critical Raw Materials Act, Canada Critical Minerals Strategy and Australia Critical Minerals Strategy — a coordinated allied response to Chinese dominance over refined cobalt, REE, graphite and gallium/germanium. For India specifically it is framed as the supply-chain underpinning for FAME-III (EV adoption), the Semicon India programme (gallium/germanium/silicon), and the National Solar Mission (silicon, indium, tellurium, gallium for thin-film PV).

Decree 38/2025 reduces Argentina's agricultural export duties (retenciones) across all major grains and oilseeds effective January 27, 2025, through June 30, 2025. Soybean duties fall from 33% to 26%, soy products from 31% to 24.5%, wheat/maize/barley/sorghum from 12% to 9.5%, and sunflower seed from 7% to 5.5%; regional-economy commodities including sugar, cotton, and rice receive a permanent zero-duty rate. The measures are designed to accelerate foreign exchange liquidation by improving exporter margins under the Milei administration's macroeconomic stabilisation program, and represent the most market-significant single Argentine agricultural trade action of 2025-Q1.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14154 "Unleashing American Energy" on 20 January 2025, his first day in office, declaring a national energy emergency and directing a sweeping reversal of Biden-era energy trade and production restrictions. The order directed the Department of Energy to immediately resume processing LNG export licence applications for non-Free Trade Agreement countries — reversing the Biden DOE pause in place since 26 January 2024 — and instructed DOE to weight allies' energy security in the "public interest" determination under the Natural Gas Act. It also rescinded multiple Biden executive orders including EO 14082 (advancing clean energy), EO 14037 (strengthening Buy American), EO 14072, and EO 14151, and reopened offshore drilling, federal coal leasing, and ANWR exploration under expedited permit timelines.

On 14 January 2025 in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide signed a bilateral Memorandum of Cooperation on High-Standard, Market-Oriented Trade of Critical Minerals. The instrument formalises an intergovernmental framework for cooperation on critical-minerals supply chains and embeds a Non-Market Policies and Practices (NMPP) analysis framework jointly developed by the US Department of Commerce and Norway's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries to identify and respond to non-market distortions in third countries. The MoC sits structurally alongside the parallel US bilateral track with Kazakhstan (Nov 2025), Uzbekistan, Guinea, Morocco, Peru and the Philippines (Feb 2026), extending the post-2024 US critical-minerals MoU architecture into a Western-aligned high-standards producer (Norway hosts the Fen Complex REE deposit and the Engebø rutile/garnet project).

Nepal's Federal Parliament ratified an omnibus statute on 20–31 March 2025 converting the 13 January 2025 Presidential Ordinance into permanent law, comprehensively amending 11 Acts including the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act 2019 (FITTA), the Industrial Enterprises Act 2020, and the Special Economic Zone Act 2016. The statute expands the scope of permissible foreign investment (replacing the positive-list "any industry" with the broader "any industry other than those in the Schedule"), broadens the "technology transfer" definition to include management/technical services, IT, marketing, finance, engineering, and digital-data-processing, mandates prior Department of Industry approval for foreign investor equity transfers to domestic parties, and for the first time authorises Nepali companies to invest abroad using income earned from technology exports. Repatriation approval windows are compressed to 7 days (15 days for appeals), and foreign investment in Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) units is enabled via SEBON approval.

On 9 January 2025, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani unveiled the Qatar National Manufacturing Strategy 2024–2030 alongside the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) sectoral strategy at the Qatar National Convention Centre. The manufacturing strategy targets raising sectoral value-add to QAR 70.5bn (~USD 19.4bn), lifting non-hydrocarbon industrial exports above QAR 49bn (~USD 13.5bn), attracting annual industrial investment of QAR 2.75bn (~USD 755m), and placing Qatar among the world's top 40 economies in the UNIDO Competitiveness Industrial Performance index by 2030. It is built on four transformative pillars: shift to smart and green manufacturing, R&D-led productivity uplift, alignment of education and training with industrial demand, and expansion of Qatari workforce participation (Qatarisation), delivered through 15 strategic initiatives and 60 projects.