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.

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.

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.

Sweden's first horizontal foreign-direct-investment screening regime. Lag (2023:560) om granskning av utländska direktinvesteringar — promulgated (utfärdad) by the Ministry of Justice on 21 September 2023 on the basis of Government Bill 2022/23:116, and entered into force on 1 December 2023 — establishes mandatory ex-ante notification to Inspektionen för strategiska produkter (ISP) for direct or indirect acquisitions of voting rights of ≥10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 65%, or 90% in Swedish entities conducting "skyddsvärd verksamhet" (protected business activities). The protected-activity perimeter is defined by Förordning (2023:624) and the ISP listing across seven sub-categories: essential services, security-sensitive activities, critical raw materials/metals/ minerals, sensitive location and personal data, military equipment, dual-use goods, and emerging or strategically protected technologies. Both EU and non-EU investors are within scope. Unnotified transactions are void by operation of law and may carry administrative fines of SEK 25,000 to SEK 100 million. From 1 Dec 2023 to 29 Nov 2024 ISP processed 1,206 notifications, opened 24 deeper screenings, approved 11, approved 5 with conditions, and prohibited 1 transaction.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1781, published in the Official Journal on 18 September 2023 and in force from 8 October 2023, establishes the EU Chips Act: a three-pillar framework targeting 20% of global semiconductor production by 2030 (up from approximately 9% in 2022) by mobilising EUR 43bn in public and private investment. Pillar 1 (Chips for Europe Initiative, EUR 3.3bn committed from EU budget) funds R&D, pilot production lines, and design infrastructure. Pillar 2 creates a fast-track permitting regime for "Integrated Production Facilities" (IPFs) and "Open EU Foundries" (OEFs) that qualify as being in the Union's interest. Pillar 3 establishes a supply-chain monitoring mechanism and grants the Commission power to mandate priority orders from designated facilities during a declared semiconductor crisis.

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.

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.

Spain's comprehensive 2023 implementing regulation of Law 19/2003, of 4 July, on the legal regime of capital movements and economic transactions with the exterior. Adopted as Real Decreto 571/2023 of 4 July 2023, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 5 July 2023 (BOE-A-2023-15549), and in force from 1 September 2023. The Decree repeals the predecessor Royal Decree 664/1999 of 23 April on foreign investments, updates the declaration regime to reflect twenty years of practice and capital-market innovation, and operationalises the Article 7-bis horizontal FDI-screening mechanism that the 2020 COVID-emergency reforms (RDL 8/2020 and RDL 11/2020) inserted into Law 19/2003. It introduces a binding consultation regime (consulta vinculante), reduces the screening review period to three months, refines the catalogue of sensitive sectors (defence, dual-use, critical technologies, critical infrastructure, critical inputs, media, electoral process, access to sensitive information, and activities affecting public security, health and order), and codifies notification thresholds for non-EU/EFTA investors (>10% control or material influence; minimum transaction values of EUR 5 million / EUR 1 million for certain sectors).

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 June 2023 the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o spodbujanju investicij — ZSInv-C (Act on Amendments to the Investment Promotion Act), published in Uradni list RS No. 65/23 on 17 June 2023 and entering into force on 1 July 2023. The amendment converts Slovenia's temporary COVID-era inward FDI screening regime (originally introduced under ZIUOPDVE in 2020 and set to expire June 2023) into a permanent, horizontal screening framework administered by the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport (MGTŠ). Non-EU (third-country) investors acquiring ≥10% voting rights or control in Slovenian entities operating in sectors listed under EU Regulation 2019/452 — including critical infrastructure, critical technology and dual-use goods, critical inputs, sensitive data, media, and health/AI/robotics — must submit a mandatory pre-closing notification; the ministry has suspensory power and may block, condition, or unwind transactions on grounds of security or public order. A subsequent 2024 amendment (Uradni list RS No. 31/24) broadened scope by redefining "corporate entity" to capture indirect investments channelled via branches of foreign entities established in other EU member states.

Law no. 164/2023, adopted by the Parliament of Romania on 31 May 2023 and published in Monitorul Oficial Partea I nr. 495 of 7 June 2023, approves and amends Emergency Government Ordinance 46/2022 implementing EU Regulation 2019/452 on screening of foreign direct investments. The law extends Romania's mandatory ex-ante FDI screening to investors established within the European Union (previously only non-EU investments were captured), sets a EUR 2 million de minimis transaction threshold for sensitive-sector deals, formally establishes the Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments (CEISD) chaired by the Prime Minister with multi-ministry composition, and empowers the Government to unwind transactions that breach the regime. Gun-jumping penalties reach up to 10 % of the investor's worldwide turnover. In force 10 June 2023.

The UK government published its National Semiconductor Strategy on 19 May 2023, under Secretary of State Michelle Donelan at the newly established Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). The strategy commits GBP 1 billion in long-run support to the UK semiconductor sector, explicitly focusing on the UK's identified strengths: chip design (Arm, Imagination Technologies, Dialog), compound and wide-bandgap semiconductors (III-V, SiC, GaN -- centred on the Cardiff/Newport cluster and IQE plc), and upstream academic R&D. Unlike the US CHIPS Act or EU Chips Act, the strategy explicitly declined to fund advanced silicon wafer fabrication at scale, acknowledging the prohibitive capital cost and the UK's lack of existing fab infrastructure at leading nodes. A UK Semiconductor Advisory Panel was established to guide delivery and assess emerging requirements. The strategy is enabled by the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022 (in force January 2023), which freed UK public authorities to grant large technology subsidies without prior EU Commission approval.

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.

FinCEN issued an order on 18 January 2023, published in the Federal Register on 23 January 2023 (FR Doc 2023-01189), prohibiting US covered financial institutions from transmitting funds to, from, or through Bitzlato Limited, a virtual-currency exchange incorporated in Hong Kong and identified as a primary money-laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance. The order invokes Section 9714(a) of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act, as amended by Section 6106 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (31 U.S.C. 5323). The action was coordinated with a DOJ criminal arrest of Bitzlato co-founder Anatoly Legkodymov and a parallel Europol/Eurojust-supported disruption of Bitzlato's infrastructure, effective 18 January 2023.