Minister of Finance H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi said that the proportion of the assistance provided by Qatar has exceeded the official development assistance (ODA) of the developed countries, where the Qatari foreign and non-governmental assistance is almost $2bn a year on average.
He said Qatar is not legally obliged to pay this proportion, but it fulfills it out of its belief in the importance of supporting the agenda of South-South cooperation, triangular cooperation and the financing for development agenda, reported QNA.
He was addressing the opening session of the high-level meeting to prepare for the Economic and Social Council Forum on Follow-up to Financing for Development in 2018 held in Doha yesterday.
The Minister said that the provision of such assistance is positively reflected on the achievement of international peace and security, human rights and development for all, in order to achieve peaceful, integrated and non-marginalised societies, based on strong institutions that are more accountable and efficient and more resilient to addressing the scourge of extremism and the threat of terrorism, in accordance with Millennium Development Goals 11 and 16, which are the focus of Qatar’s development policy.
He stressed that Qatar, based on its responsibility and commitment to strengthening its regional and international partnerships, will continue to play a prominent and increasingly important role in providing development and relief assistance to many countries in the world facing economic and humanitarian crises and natural disasters. This will be in addition to the official development assistance provided by Qatar voluntarily.
In this regard, he said that Qatar has provided international assistance to friendly countries in 13 sectors for various humanitarian and development initiatives around the world. Government support for aid reaches more than 70 percent of foreign aid compared with non-governmental assistance.
It indicates the political will towards fulfilling Qatar’s external commitments in line with its role as an active and responsible member of the international community.
He pointed out that 30 percent of the aid comes from external support, in the form of donations from charitable organisations, humanitarian organisations and Qatari donor institutions, which are often working to deliver various kinds of assistance to the beneficiaries, according to the best international standards and in partnership with specialised international agencies as well as institutions at regional and sub-regional levels and counterparts from around the world.
Al Emadi said that the relief sector has been the largest recipient of aid to the humanitarian sector, where Aid in the relief sector had seen a marked double-digit increase since the beginning of the second decade of the millennium in the face of natural disasters and man-made disasters. He underscored that the hosting of this high level meeting by Qatar was part of its constant commitment to be present to work with the partners of the international community to achieve the objectives of the United Nations.
The Minister noted that the high-level meeting is taking place at a time when efforts to achieve sustainable development are facing many challenges that undermine the ability of countries to make progress at the developmental level, such as extreme poverty, resource scarcity, hunger, unemployment, climate change, frequency of natural disasters, forced displacement, violent extremism and escalating conflicts.
He stressed that Qatar will continue its efforts as an active partner in the international community despite regional and global challenges in order to achieve the common objectives desired by all and meet the challenges in all areas of common interest.
