Khamis Al Mohannadi, Head of the Technical Committee for the Encouragement and Participation of the Private Sector in Economic Development Projects addressing the media at QNA headquarters.
DOHA: The combined value of private investments in Qatar reached QR26bn, announced the Technical Committee for the Encouragement and Participation of the Private Sector in Economic Development Projects.
Khamis Al Mohannadi, Head of the Committee said in a press conference on Sunday said that the private investments have achieved the main objectives of the Ministerial Committee, stressing that in the near future more initiatives, proposals and projects will be announced. He said that the Committee is currently preparing a database for the industrial sector in Qatar. The first phase of the database will be completed within the next six months. It will include the number of factories and highlight the gap in certain industries.
He pointed out that the industrial data will provide the investors and the private sector an idea about the sectors that need more investment. The objective is to offer needful information that may help reduce the risks involved. The database about the local market, on which the businesses and individuals take their investment decisions, is very important for both the Qatari industrialists as well as the foreign investors.
Al Mohannadi stressed that the efforts exerted by the Technical Committee and the Ministerial Committee were only guided by the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
He also noted that all the projects are being closely followed-up and monitored by the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is the Chairman of the Ministerial Committee that include eight key ministries.
Commenting on industry obstacles, Al Mohannadi pointed out that a working group has been formed to deal with the challenges faced by the various sectors to study them accurately. He pointed out that there are obstacles to procedures concerning the establishment, employment and visa related issues, in addition to legal and administrative obstacles. However, he also noted that many of these obstacles have already been resolved.
“For instance the establishment of a business and the issuance of the Commercial Registration now take just 10 minutes,” added Al Mohannadi.
He also added that the Qatar General Organisation for Standards and Metrology (QS) has re-established specifications and standards for Qatari products, and has already approved Qatari standard specifications for over 20,000 products.
He said that the Qatari Product Protection Law will soon be issued to protect Qatari investments in the long term, regardless of the current circumstances. He highlighted the importance of protecting the national products against dumping (of foreign products) and other illegal trade practices that may harm national products.
Al Mohannadi noted that that the Ministerial Committee is focusing on several key sector projects, especially those related to food security, the construction sector, and the projects related to healthcare, education, logistics, tourism sectors.
He pointed out that the Ministerial Committee has made great achievements during the siege period through some key projects which were executed immediately after the blockade but these projects were also part of a long-term strategy to support the private sector. A number of projects have been awarded to the local private sector, while other projects have already started production. There are also projects to be announced later, which are currently under various stages of study and discussion.
Al Mohannadi said that the most important sectors that have received more attention of the Ministerial Committee and the Technical Committee during the period were the food security sector projects, which have made tangible progress on the ground.
Providing further details about the achievements made in the food security projects, he pointed out that the fish farming projects are now able to meet nearly 65 percent of the local market demand. But once the projects are fully completed, they will achieve self-sufficiency of fish up to 80 percent by the first quarter of 2019. The size of the private sector investments in fish farming projects amounted to about QR50m.
The second food security project is the shrimp farming project, which aims to achieve self-sufficiency of about 90 percent of the needs of the local market. The project has been awarded to a Qatari company with an investment of up to QR50m, which is expected to complete by the third of quarter of this year.
Another project is to grow dry feed stock. The three plots of lands with an area of six million square metres have been allocated and the production on project has begun, pointing out that the project aims to achieve self-sufficiency of 52 or 54 percent of the country’s need for dry feed.
About greenhouse projects, he said that the Technical Committee has put forward the project of greenhouses, a project for the production of vegetables and fruits, with the aim of achieving 52 percent of the local market needs of vegetables and fruits. The size of the private sector investment in the project is in the range of QR700m to QR800m and the area of land allocated is 2 million square meters.
He also said that keeping in view the challenges faced by Qatari farmers in marketing their products, and other obstacles, a joint stock company as part of the ‘Qatar Agricultural Development Project’ will be established, which will also help solve the problems related to logistics and maintaining the quality of products.
