Doha
06 April 2017 (QNA)

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, on Thursday inaugurated the Second Edition of the three-day Procurement and Contracting Conference & Exhibition, 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017' held at the Doha Convention and Exhibition Center.

AlMahmoud honored five companies who won the First Edition of the 'National Purchasing Award' launched for the first time in appreciation of the role being played by government and semi-government agencies in supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and providing them with the opportunity to showcase their services and products.

Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi in his opening speech said entities under the Tenders and Auction Law have spent QAR 39 billion over the past nine months on public projects, which have been awarded to private companies and institutions, including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), according to the results of initiatives launched by the State and contracts concluded during the past year, he was addressing on the occasion of 2nd edition of the Contracting Conference & Exhibition 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017.

Al Emadi said the Government has taken several initiatives to establish an appropriate environment for expanding SMEs' contribution to infrastructure, services and public utilities as part of its strategy to encourage and increase the participation of the private sector in the public economic development plan at all levels.

The event is an important opportunity to support communication between ministries, government agencies and private sector companies, including SMEs, to exchange views on cooperation between the public and private sectors in providing a competitive environment for business and to learn about successful experiences in this field, Al Emadi said.

Qatar is moving towards supporting economic activities in non-oil sectors while enhancing the private sector's role in implementing a wide range of development projects, he added. He stressed Qatar's keenness through issuing the new Tenders and Auctions Law in order to enhance competition's opportunities, transparency and efficiency in contracting procedures concluded by the government agencies.

The current stage of the development of the Qatari economy is witnessing a significant momentum in the implementation of development projects, which clearly shows the continued increase in allocations of major projects in the Public State Budget generating further opportunities for cooperation between the public and private sectors in the implementation of these projects and increasing the role of the private sector in the process of development, the Finance Minister went on saying.

Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa, CEO, Qatar Development Bank (QDB) in his speech said 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017' aims at spreading a culture of cooperation among exhibitors from the government and semi-government sectors, private companies as well as SMEs, that face great difficulties in accessing bid opportunities.

He told that an increase in number of exhibitors this year from 25 to 30 offering at least 2000 opportunities worth more than QAR 2,500,000,000 compared to 450 opportunities only last year amounting to QAR 3,000,000,000.

This increase is an evidence of the great interest of exhibitors, he said, stressing that the increase of the number of less value opportunities would enable SMEs to easy access to them.