Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 28 December 2023 the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved Resolution No. 1221 (Adilet ID P2300001221) adopting the Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the Rare and Rare-Earth Metals Industry for 2024-2028. The plan is the umbrella industrial- policy instrument for Kazakhstan's critical-minerals sector and was developed to fulfil the priorities set out in President Tokayev's 1 September 2023 Address to the Nation ("Economic Course of Fair Kazakhstan"). The plan is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development (MIID) and brings together the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, Tau-Ken Samruk JSC, the Bank for Development of Kazakhstan (BDK) and KAZNEDRA (the geological-information operator). It identifies four sectoral problems — low geological-exploration coverage, weak commercial exploitation of technogenic mineral formations (mine tailings / slags), depreciated enterprise capital, and an underdeveloped regulatory framework — and pledges roughly USD 25m of state seed-investment to attract foreign direct investment, targets a 40% increase in production volume of rare and rare-earth metals by 2028, and commits to launch at least five new production facilities (including modernisation of the Zhezkazganredmet RSE workshop). It is paired with the launch of the public mineral.gov.kz geological-information portal as part of the government's broader subsoil-use digitisation programme.

Tunisia's Finance Law for 2024 (Loi Nº 2023-52, promulgated 22 December 2023) introduces a 4-year full exemption from corporate income tax (IS) and personal income tax (IR) for newly created enterprises that obtain an investment declaration certificate during 2024 or 2025. Qualifying enterprises must commence effective operations within 2 years of the declaration date and maintain Tunisian-standard accounts; excluded sectors include financial services, conventional energy, mining, real-estate promotion, commerce, and telecoms operators. The measure is Tunisia's principal post-Loi 2016-71 targeted investment-attraction instrument and opens the IPTM register's first Tunisia-issuer action, closing a full-geographic blank in MENA/Maghreb coverage.

Signed by President Javier Milei and the entire cabinet on 20 December 2023 and published in the Boletín Oficial extraordinario on 21 December 2023, Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 70/2023 declares a public emergency across economic, financial, fiscal, administrative, pension, tariff, sanitary, and social matters until 31 December 2025 (Article 1) and enacts 366 articles across 16 titles that fundamentally restructure Argentina's regulatory framework. The DNU repeals or amends dozens of statutes to deregulate foreign trade (repealing the Compre Nacional buy-preference law Ley 18.875 and the price-control framework Ley 27.345), opens privatisation of state enterprises (Aerolíneas Argentinas, ENARSA, Banco Nación, Correo Argentino, Trenes Argentinos), dismantles the Ley de Abastecimiento price-control regime, liberalises civil aviation cabotage to foreign carriers, deregulates hydrocarbons export and mining permitting, and replaces the severance-pay regime with a capitalisation-fund system. It is the foundational enabling framework for all subsequent Milei-administration deregulatory instruments filed on the IPTM register, including RIGI (Law 27.742), Decreto 38/2025, Decreto 449/2025, and Decreto 563/2025.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) removed four Chinese entities from the Unverified List (UVL) effective 15 December 2023, after successfully verifying their bona fides pursuant to § 744.15(c)(2) of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The four entities span oscillator electronics (Chengde), heavy industrial machinery (Erzhong), laser systems (Ningbo), and new-energy manufacturing (Xinjiang). Removal restores eligibility for EAR license exceptions and eliminates the requirement for a signed UVL Statement before US exporters ship EAR-subject items to these parties.

Colombia's National Mining Agency (ANM) issued Resolution 1006 of November 30, 2023, formally designating 17 mineral groups as "strategic" for the country under the authority of Law 1753/2015 Article 20. The designated list — Cu, Ni, Zn, platinum group elements, Fe, Mn, metallurgical coal, phosphates, Mg, Al, Au, emeralds, construction materials, silica sands, limestone, gypsum, and Cr — enables ANM to declare Strategic Mining Reserve Areas (AME) and organise special licensing rounds under preferential procedures. The resolution reframes Colombia's mineral priorities around energy transition, food security, reindustrialisation, and public infrastructure rather than the prior coal/precious-metals export emphasis.

Ireland's Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (Act No. 28 of 2023), signed into law on 31 October 2023 and commenced on 6 January 2025 via S.I. No. 651 of 2024, establishes Ireland's first-ever mandatory inbound FDI screening regime. The Act empowers the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to assess, condition, or prohibit transactions by third-country investors (non-EU/EEA/Switzerland) exceeding a EUR 2 million cumulative threshold in targets operating across critical infrastructure, critical technologies, dual-use items, supply of critical inputs, sensitive personal data, and media freedom. A 90-day standstill period applies during Ministerial determination, with criminal sanctions and transaction-voiding powers available for non-compliance.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly announced (Announcement No. 33 of 2023) export-licensing controls on graphite products, effective 1 December 2023. The regime covers natural flake graphite and products thereof (including spherical graphite and graphite powder used in lithium-ion battery anodes) as well as high-purity, high-hardness, and high-strength synthetic graphite materials. Exporters must obtain dual-use-item licences from MOFCOM citing end-user and end-use; licences are granted at MOFCOM's discretion. The announcement came three days after the 17 October 2023 BIS advanced-chip-controls expansion, continuing the proportional-response pattern established with Ga/Ge in July.

In October 2023 Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) formally presented a National Mining Sector Strategy 2023-2033, accompanied by an Implementation Roadmap; the Council of Ministers Cabinet-approved and publicly launched the package in April 2024. The strategy sets headline targets of tripling mining-sector GDP from approximately JD 700 million to JD 2.1 billion and doubling mining exports from JD 1.2 billion to JD 3.5 billion by 2033. Policy instruments include a streamlined exploration-to-exploitation licensing regime under the Natural Resources Law (Law No. 12 of 1968 as amended), transparent royalty and community-benefit-sharing provisions, and catalytic foreign and domestic investment in phosphate (via state-majority Jordan Phosphate Mines Company — JPMC, a top-5 global exporter), potash (Arab Potash Company — APC, Dead Sea brine extraction), Wadi Araba copper prospects, REE deposits (MEMR exploration surveys), Central Jordan Uranium Project, and oil-shale resources, positioning Jordan as an upstream critical-minerals and fertilizer-feedstock supplier for India, China, Brazil, EU, and US offtake markets.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr. Dele Alake unveiled a Seven-Point Agenda in September 2023 to transform Nigeria's solid-minerals sector — later operationalised as the Energy Transition and Critical Minerals (ETCM) Roadmap framework. The agenda mandates joint ventures between mining multinationals and Nigerian partners, formalises artisanal miners, establishes the Mines Surveillance Task Force, audits all mining licences, builds big-data inventories on seven priority minerals, and authorises six domestic Mineral Processing Centres. In 2024 President Tinubu directed that mining licences be issued only to firms that build in-country processing capacity — effectively banning raw-ore export of lithium and other critical minerals — and the Federal Government revoked 924 dormant licences in April 2024. It is the first Nigerian framework explicitly tying raw-mineral export curbs to downstream-processing mandates, paralleling Indonesia hilirisasi, DRC ARECOMS and Zimbabwe lithium- concentrate regimes.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a determination pursuant to Section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order 14014 identifying the jet fuel sector of the Burmese economy as a sanctions-eligible sector. The determination means that foreign persons who operate in Burma's jet fuel sector — including activities related to importation, exportation, reexportation, sale, supply, or transport of jet fuel in or involving Burma — may be designated and sanctioned by OFAC. Issued on the OFAC website on August 23, 2023 and formally published in the Federal Register on September 25, 2023 (FR Doc 2023-20713), the action was accompanied by concurrent SDN designations targeting key figures in the SAC junta's jet-fuel supply network.

BIS published a final rule on August 18, 2023, amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement decisions reached at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary meetings in Nur-Sultan (June 2019) and Warsaw (June 2022). The rule revises five existing Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to align with multilateral commitments made by NSG participating governments. Changes include decontrolling water-hydrogen sulfide exchange tray columns from ECCN 1B22, clarifying isotope purification scope in ECCN 1B231, and updating mass-unit terminology in ECCN 3A233. The rule takes effect immediately upon publication.

Effective August 11, 2023, BIS amended 15 CFR Parts 738 and 742 to add the People's Republic of China and Macau to Nuclear Nonproliferation (NP2) licensing requirements under the Export Administration Regulations. The rule inserts NP2 "X" column markings for China and Macau in the Commerce Country Chart, subjecting exports of eight ECCN families (1A290, 1C298, 2A290, 2A291, 2D290, 2E001, 2E002, 2E290) to a BIS licence requirement. The measure was motivated by China's military modernisation, military-civil fusion strategy, and nuclear force expansion; prior to this rule, neither China nor Macau was subject to NP2 controls in the EAR.

Decree-Law No. 104 of 10 August 2023 ("Decreto Asset" / Omnibus Decree, GU n.186 of 10 Aug 2023, in force 11 Aug 2023) was converted with amendments into Law No. 136 of 9 October 2023 (GU n.236 of 9 Oct 2023). The conversion law materially expanded Italy's "Golden Power" foreign-direct-investment screening regime (DL 21/2012). Two key extensions: (i) intra-group transactions involving entities outside the EU are no longer exempt from the exercise of special powers — only the prior notification carve-out was preserved; (ii) acts, resolutions and operations concerning intellectual-property rights in artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, cybersecurity, aerospace, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies, and food production technologies fall within scope when one or more counter-parties sit outside the EU. The Prime Minister also obtained an explicit veto power over transactions creating "exceptional situations" not already covered by sectoral or EU prudential / merger rules, including those touching qualifying holdings in the financial sector.

On 9 August 2023 the German Federal Cabinet adopted the government draft Wirtschaftsplan 2024 of the Climate and Transformation Fund (Klima- und Transformationsfonds, KTF) and the accompanying 2024–2027 financial plan. The plan envisaged ca. EUR 211.8 bn of programme spending across 2024–2027 (EUR 57.6 bn in 2024 alone), funded by national and European emissions-trading revenues plus federal grants, with major lines for semiconductor production (~EUR 4.0 bn in 2024), hydrogen industry build-out (~EUR 3.8 bn), building renovation (~EUR 18.9 bn), EEG renewables support (~EUR 12.6 bn) and electric mobility. The KTF is the principal German federal vehicle for co-financing the EU Chips Act state-aid envelope, IPCEI Hydrogen, decarbonisation contracts (Klimaschutzverträge) and other net-zero-aligned industrial-policy subsidies.

Pakistan's Cabinet Committee on Energy approved the Oil Refining Policy 2023 for Upgradation of Existing/Brownfield Refineries on 7 August 2023, with Federal Cabinet ratification on 9 August 2023 and Petroleum Division notification to OGRA and refineries shortly thereafter. The policy provides a 7.5% deemed-duty incentive on locally-refined motor spirit (petrol) and high-speed diesel (with an additional 2.5% incremental incentive on HSD during the upgrade period) deposited into OGRA-managed escrow accounts to fund up to 27.5% of upgradation project cost, against a commitment by Pakistan's five brownfield refineries (PRL, NRL, ARL, PARCO, Cnergyico) to invest an estimated USD 4.5-6 billion to produce Euro-V compliant fuels. CCoE-approved amendments on 6 February 2024 extended the deemed-duty horizon to 20 years (or until petroleum-product price deregulation, whichever comes first) and tightened the framework for refineries that decline to sign Upgrade Agreements.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 establishes a comprehensive EU statutory framework for all battery categories (portable, SLI, LMT, EV, industrial), imposing supply-chain due-diligence obligations for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and natural graphite; mandatory recycled-content thresholds; carbon-footprint declarations; a digital battery passport; and ambitious collection and recycling-efficiency targets, with rolling application dates running from February 2024 through August 2036. It repeals Battery Directive 2006/66/EC and applies to every economic operator placing batteries on the EU market, binding every EV, consumer-electronics, and stationary-storage supply chain that relies on DRC cobalt, Australian/Chilean lithium, Indonesian/Philippine nickel, and Chinese/Mozambican graphite.

The German Federal Cabinet adopted the Fortschreibung (update) of the 2020 Nationale Wasserstoffstrategie on 26 July 2023, led by BMWK (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action). The update doubles Germany's domestic electrolyser-capacity target from 5 GW to at least 10 GW by 2030, sets a hydrogen-demand target of 95–130 TWh/year by 2030 (rising to 360–500 TWh by 2045), and lays out a four-pillar framework covering supply (domestic + import diversification), infrastructure (H2-Kernnetz core network), demand (industrial decarbonisation + heavy-mobility), and the action framework (€18 bn KTF allocation, IPCEI Hy2Tech/Hy2Use, H2Global double-auction import mechanism, Klimaschutzverträge/carbon contracts for difference). It is the parent authority for subsequent instruments including the H2-Beschleunigungsgesetz and the Oct 2024 Bundesnetzagentur approval of the Wasserstoff-Kernnetz.

On 25 July 2023 Egypt published Law No. 160 of 2023 in the Official Gazette, amending Investment Law No. 72 of 2017 to expand and modernise the country's foreign-direct-investment incentive architecture. The law universalises General Incentives (stamp-duty exemptions, land-registration-fee relief, reduced customs duties on capital goods) to all investment projects regardless of establishment date, broadens the Golden License single-permit regime to strategic/national projects and PPP infrastructure, and unlocks the Free Zones system for previously excluded energy-intensive sectors — petroleum manufacturing, fertilizers, iron and steel, LNG liquefaction and transportation — subject to Supreme Council of Energy approval. A Special Incentive of 33–55% tax credit on income from qualifying new industrial investment projects was introduced; the Special Incentives establishment window was subsequently extended three years to October 2026 by Cabinet Decree No. 1203 of 2024. As of December 2025 GAFI had approved 44 Golden Licenses under this architecture.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act 11954, the Maharlika Investment Fund Act of 2023, on 18 July 2023, establishing the Philippines' first sovereign wealth fund. The Act creates the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) with PHP 500 billion target authorised capital and PHP 125 billion paid-in capital sourced from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas dividends, Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, and national-government appropriations. The Bureau of the Treasury initially issued IRR on 28 August 2023; following a presidential suspension on 12 October 2023, the revised IRR was finalised and published in the Official Gazette on 10 November 2023. The MIC's first major strategic-stake deployment took place in January 2025 with a USD 350 million acquisition of a 20% stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), previously partly owned via State Grid Corporation of China.

Luxembourg's Chambre des Députés adopted the first-ever national FDI-screening statute on 14 July 2023 (promulgated by the Grand Duke and published in Mémorial A n° 411 on 18 July 2023), entering into force 1 September 2023. The law requires non-EU investors to notify the Ministre de l'Économie before completing direct or indirect acquisitions of ≥25% voting rights / equity in Luxembourg entities engaged in "critical activities" across twelve sectors. The Minister can approve, conditionally approve, or prohibit transactions within a two-month initial screening window, with a further 60-day deep-review phase available; an inter-ministerial Comité de filtrage (Economy + Foreign Affairs + Finance + SREL intelligence service) advises on security and public-order grounds consistent with EU Regulation 2019/452.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market — the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) — entered into force on 12 July 2023, with notification obligations becoming applicable from 12 October 2023. The FSR gives the European Commission powers to investigate financial contributions granted by non-EU governments to companies active in the EU, and to impose remedies (commitments, redressive measures, prohibitions) where such subsidies are found to distort competition. Three review tools: (i) notifiable concentrations (M&A above €500m EU turnover + €50m foreign financial contributions); (ii) notifiable public procurement bids (€250m+ contract value + €4m foreign contributions); (iii) ex-officio investigations of any other market situation. Although neutral on its face, the regime has been used predominantly against Chinese-state-backed bidders + investors.

Poland's Minister of Development and Technology, Waldemar Buda, established a temporary compulsory administrator (tymczasowy zarządca przymusowy) over the Grupa Azoty S.A. shares held by sanctioned Russian oligarch Vyacheslav Kantor through three holding vehicles — Norica Holding S.à r.l. (Luxembourg), Opansa Enterprises Limited and Rainbee Holdings Limited (both Cyprus) — which together controlled 19.82% of the state-linked fertiliser and chemicals group, worth over PLN 0.5bn. The ministry cited Kantor's inclusion on Poland's sanctions list and the protection of the country's economic and energy security, and stated its intent to find a buyer for the stake and compensate Kantor. The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw (WSA) later overturned the decision establishing the administration; the ministry did not appeal, and the ruling became final around 30 July 2024, ending the administrator's mandate — though the underlying EU/Polish sanctions on Kantor continue to freeze his ability to exercise any rights attached to the shares.

Guyana's National Assembly passed the Petroleum Activities Act, No. 17 of 2023 (PAA), which received presidential assent and was published in the Extraordinary Official Gazette on 16 August 2023, replacing the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 1986 (Chapter 65:10) in its entirety. The PAA establishes a modern upstream regulatory architecture including a 10% gross royalty, a 65% cost-recovery ceiling under new Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs), a 10% corporate income tax on petroleum activities, and an updated licensing, local-content, decommissioning, and environment-compliance framework. Existing agreements — including the 2016 Stabroek Block PSA (ExxonMobil/Hess/CNOOC consortium, 2% royalty, 75% cost-recovery ceiling) — are grandfathered under their original terms; the PAA governs all new licensing rounds and agreements.

Lov 2023-06-20 nr. 77 (Lov om endringer i sikkerhetsloven — eierskapskontroll og lovens virkeområde), adopted by the Storting on 9 June 2023, signed 20 June 2023, in force 1 July 2023, is Norway's first substantive overhaul of Chapter 10 (Eierskapskontroll / ownership control) of the 2018 Security Act (Sikkerhetsloven). The amendment widens the scope of undertakings that can be brought under ownership control beyond entities directly linked to a "grunnleggende nasjonal funksjon" (fundamental national function) to include businesses of vital importance to national-security interests and businesses of significant importance to fundamental national functions, lowers and adds notification thresholds, and equips the King in Council with enhanced powers to block, condition, or unwind qualifying acquisitions. The reform converts a narrow security-classified regime into a broad horizontal FDI-screening architecture for Norway, the host of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and a NATO frontline state.

On 9 January 2024 the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) endorsed the government's White Paper Meld. St. 25 (2022–2023) by an 80–20 vote, authorising the opening of approximately 281,000 km² of Arctic continental-shelf area between mainland Norway, Jan Mayen and Svalbard for commercial seabed-mineral exploration. The decision operates under the 2019 Seabed Minerals Act (havbunnsmineralloven) and made Norway the first Western/NATO sovereign jurisdiction to authorise large-scale deep-sea mining for energy-transition critical minerals (polymetallic sulphides, manganese crusts containing copper, cobalt, lithium, zinc and rare earths). The Energy Ministry prepared a first licensing round in 2024 but the Støre government postponed it in December 2024 after budget-negotiation pressure from the Socialist Left (SV) party; the statutory authorisation remains in force.

On 17 June 2023, the Prime Minister's Office issued a formal notification establishing the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), an apex civil-military body chaired by the Prime Minister with the Chief of Army Staff and federal/ provincial leadership as members. SIFC operates as a "single window" to fast-track foreign direct investment in five strategic sectors: Defence Production, Agriculture and Livestock, Minerals, IT and Telecommunication, and Energy. The council is the principal vehicle through which Pakistan is channelling Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sovereign capital — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain — into headline projects including the Reko Diq copper-gold restart, Saudi/UAE minerals MoUs, and the 2025 Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum. SIFC received statutory backing on 18 August 2023 via the Board of Investment (Amendment) Act, 2023, which inserted Chapter II-A giving SIFC overriding authority over other laws.

Poland enacted the Act of 16 June 2023 amending the Geological and Mining Law (Dz.U. 2023 poz. 2029), which introduced the foundational "strategic deposit" (złoże strategiczne) concept into Polish law. The amendment empowers the Minister of Climate and Environment to designate, by administrative decision, any deposit of hydrocarbons, hard coal, lignite, metal ores, radioactive ores, native sulphur, rock salt, rare-earth elements, or noble gases as a strategic deposit on grounds of economic significance or national security. A designated strategic-deposit decision may direct the relevant municipality to prohibit permanent surface development or any land use that would exclude future extraction, effectively granting central government override authority over municipal spatial planning (uchwała studium / miejscowy plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego). A 2-year mandatory ex-officio review window was established, requiring the Minister to initiate proceedings for all mineral deposits documented before the amendment's effective date of 28 October 2023.

The Act on Promotion of a Smooth Transition to a Decarbonized Growth-Oriented Economic Structure (Law No. 46 of 2023), passed by the Diet on 12 May 2023 and promulgated 19 May 2023, establishes Japan's Green Transformation (GX) financing and carbon pricing framework. The government will issue 20 trillion yen in GX Economy Transition Bonds (the world's first sovereign transition bonds) to catalyze 150 trillion yen of public-private decarbonization investment over ten years (2023-2032). Bonds are repaid through a two-pillar carbon pricing system: a GX Emissions Trading Scheme (GX-ETS) launching voluntarily in FY2023, becoming mandatory for emitters >100,000 tCO2/year from FY2026; and a GX-surcharge on fossil fuel importers phased in from FY2028.

France's first dedicated critical-minerals industrial-finance instrument: a €500m state contribution to a critical metals and rare materials investment fund, jointly announced by the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Ecological Transition on 11 May 2023, targeting €2bn total fundraising including private capital. Managed by InfraVia Capital Partners with Caisse des Dépôts as state operator, the fund invests as minority partner across extraction, processing and recycling — in France, Europe and globally — prioritising off-take agreements for French and European industry. The fund operationalises the Stratégie Nationale Métaux Critiques framework (Varin Report delivered 10 January 2022) alongside the OFREMI critical-minerals observatory at BRGM and the inter-ministerial delegate for strategic-metals supply security.

Loi n° 2023-973 du 23 octobre 2023 relative à l'industrie verte (the Green Industry Law) is France's first comprehensive industrial-policy framework since France 2030 (2021). Published in the Journal officiel on 24 October 2023, it pursues three objectives: (i) accelerate the siting of strategic industrial projects on French territory, (ii) channel public procurement toward "virtuous" companies, and (iii) mobilise private savings for green-industrial CapEx. Its centrepiece is the new "Projet d'intérêt national majeur" (PINM) status, an exceptional procedure that fast-tracks urban planning, environmental permitting, and grid connection for projects deemed strategic for ecological transition or national sovereignty (gigafactories, hydrogen electrolysers, advanced semiconductor fabs). The law also creates the Plan d'épargne avenir climat (PEAC), a long-duration retail savings product reserved for under-21s and earmarked for European green-industrial financing, and codifies a 2023-2030 national green-industry strategy.

MOTIE finalised the 31st amendment of the Public Notice on Trade of Strategic Items on 24 April 2023, effective 28 April 2023, adding 741 items to the Russia/Belarus situational-licence (상황허가) list. The added items span industrial machinery, petroleum and gas refining equipment, steel, chemicals, automotive goods and quantum computers judged to have high military-diversion potential. MOTIE stated the amendment brings Korea's export-control coverage of Russia/Belarus closer to that of the US, EU and Japan, incorporating 2022 international export-control-regime agreements and reflecting the US's 2nd-6th Russia sanctions rounds and a substantial part of the EU's measures.

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Act 2023 (Act No. 12 of 2023, Cth) received royal assent on 11 April 2023 and established the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) as a corporate Commonwealth entity under the PGPA Act 2013, formally constituted on 18 September 2023. The Act commits A$15 billion of concessional finance (loans, equity and guarantees) to projects in seven declared priority areas: renewables and low-emission technologies; medical science; transport; value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; value-add in resources; defence capability; and enabling capabilities (advanced manufacturing, AI, robotics, quantum). The NRFC predates and underpins the 2024 Future Made in Australia package -- it is the equity/loan-finance instrument of the Australian industrial-policy stack, distinct from the FMIA umbrella framework and from the FMIA Production Tax Credits Act 2024 (the tax-credit instrument).

On 25 February 2023, one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/427, the 10th package of sanctions, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (26 February 2023). The package bans imports of asphalt and synthetic rubber from Russia (with a temporary transitional import quota for rubber products running to 30 June 2024), expands the export ban on dual-use and advanced-technology goods, suspends further Russian media broadcasting licences in the EU, and designates 87 individuals and 34 entities — including Iranian persons and entities involved in drone manufacture and supply, and 96 entities tied to Russia's defence-industrial base — to the EU asset-freeze/travel-ban list.

The Foreign Investment Reliability Assessment Act (välismaise investori usaldusväärsuse hindamise seadus, VUHS), adopted by the Riigikogu on 25 January 2023 and in force from 1 September 2023, establishes Estonia's first horizontal ex-ante foreign direct-investment screening regime. The Act transposes EU Regulation 2019/452 into Estonian law and designates the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve Amet — TTJA) as the screening authority. It covers acquisitions of qualifying holdings or material influence in target undertakings operating in defence, dual-use, vital services, energy and communications infrastructure, transport, financial services, media, critical raw materials extraction and other strategic sectors. TTJA can prohibit, condition or unwind non-compliant transactions and impose administrative non-compliance levies.

Statutory Instrument 5 of 2023, gazetted by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, banned the export of unbeneficiated ("raw" / unprocessed) base mineral ores from Zimbabwe, widening the December 2022 lithium-only export ban (SI 213 of 2022) into a horizontal ban covering the entire base-minerals category — including lithium, chrome, copper, nickel and coal — while excluding precious metals, precious stones, oil and natural gas. Exporters need a written ministerial permit, granted only where compelling reasons show the ore cannot be beneficiated inside Zimbabwe, or for small assay samples. Non-compliance carries a level-9 fine or twice the mineral's value (whichever is greater), up to two years' imprisonment, or both. SI 5 was itself amended three months later by SI 57 of 2023, which layered lithium-specific citizenship and beneficiation-plant conditions onto this base order.

On 4 January 2023 the Union Cabinet of India, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial financial outlay of ₹19,744 crore (≈USD 2.3 bn) covering FY2023-24 through FY2029-30. The bulk of the outlay — ₹17,490 crore — funds the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme for electrolyser-manufacturing incentives and green-hydrogen production incentives. ₹1,466 crore is allocated to pilot projects (steel, mobility, shipping, ports, decentralised hydrogen), ₹400 crore to R&D, and ₹388 crore to other Mission components (skilling, regulatory framework, certification). The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the lead implementing agency. Headline targets by 2030: at least 5 MMT/year of domestic green-hydrogen production capacity, with ≈125 GW of associated additional renewable- energy capacity, mobilisation of >₹8 lakh crore (≈USD 100 bn) of total investment, creation of >600,000 jobs, and avoidance of ≈50 MMT/year of CO₂ emissions. The Mission is positioned as the supply-chain underpinning for India's hard-to-abate decarbonisation (refining, fertilisers, steel) and as the basis for a green-hydrogen export industry leveraging India's low-cost solar resource. MNRE notified the SIGHT scheme guidelines on 28 June 2023, splitting the programme into Component I (Electrolyser Manufacturing Incentive, ₹4,440 crore) and Component II (Green Hydrogen Production Incentive, ₹13,050 crore for Mode-1; subsequent Mode-2A and Mode-2B tranches added for sector-specific tenders). Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is the implementing agency for both components and runs the competitive reverse-auction tenders.