Chairman of Qatar Chamber Highlights Importance of Private Sector

Doha, January 17 (QNA) - HE Chairman of Qatar Chamber Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al-Thani, who is also Chairman of the board of Directors of ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Qatar, highlighted the importance of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's instruction to strengthen the Qatari private sector and his continuous support to maintain the path of economic development achieved in Qatar. HE added, during the opening session at Second Qatar Chamber SMEs conference, that the small and medium enterprises play a major role in many of the leading global economies and is considered vital due to providing job opportunities, new innovations, in addition they are a model for future global companies and a catalyst for GDP growth. The Chairman of Qatar Chamber said that the State of Qatar realized the importance of this sector by modernizing the legislations and initiatives to protect and develop such enterprises, and increase its contribution to the GDP. The government has launched several programs to enable the role of the SMEs, increase its contribution to achieve economic diversification and provide a supportive environment for these projects to execute Qatar national vision 2030. He further added that the methods to support these projects are variant including modifying the needed legislations and supportive laws, providing information and necessary services, establishing economic zones and finding funding solutions. He pointed to Qatar Development Bank's (QDB) initiatives in providing funding programs and its strategies to help the youth and entrepreneurs to pursue the idea of SMEs, and increasing the competitiveness in creating ideas and setting up of innovative projects. He praised the efforts of ENTERPRISE QATAR, Social Development Center, and Qatar Business Incubation in supporting SMEs, which are committed to develop the business culture in Qatar, through providing funding and training programs, in addition to facilitating entrepreneurship and development. The Chairman of Qatar Chamber added that he hopes the conference would create a communication platform and closer economic ties between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey. He said that the Qatar Chamber hopes to increase the contribution of the private sector to the economic development by organizing the 2nd SMEs conference, adding that Turkish economic experience, in general and in the SMEs sector particularly, is a unique model that should be studied as it greatly contributed to its economy in the past decades. (QNA)