By Feyza Gumusluoglu
Doha: The falling oil prices will not affect Qatar’s ongoing preparations for the FIFA 2022 World Cup as a host country, the economic adviser to Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim stated.
Sharing his views on declining oil prices and its possible impact on local economy to The Peninsula, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim said the government is taking all necessary measures to make sure the proposed budget for the new fiscal is going to be well-balanced and ‘efficient’.
“We are doing a lot of things as a government, taking all necessary measures to make sure there will be no waste of resources, the budget is going to be efficient. We are going to look at any project in terms of its value versus its cost. We have a problem. Oil prices are going down. We cannot afford what we have been doing before. We will work, but at the same time we ask you to help us,” he said.
For the short term measures to be taken, Ibrahim noted the first measure will be regarding the support for electricity and water. “We need to remove all the fat. For instance, regarding electricity and water it is now very cheap. Whether it is for Qataris who do not pay anything, or others who pays very little. The government support brings waste. People have air-conditioning, they keep it open all the time. Even when they leave their houses for three months, they keep it open. This has a negative impact. Now we want to make sure we avoid this,” he said.
Answering a question about Qatar’s dependence on oil, Ibrahim Ibrahim said economic diversification is key to the national strategy. “If you look at our Qatar National Vision, economic diversification is the key pillar of the vision. We have national development strategy. It is sort of a map for how to get to this. In this strategy we have a lot of projects that will help to achieve diversification”.
“We are spending so much on education in our efforts to boost the country’s knowledge economy. 2.8 percent of the government revenues allocated to research and development. In QSTP, many global companies like GE, Exxon Mobil, Shell, are doing researches relevant to the area, with the participation of the Qataris. We already have national strategy for research and development. We have many research institutes that tries to find a way to reach knowledge based economy and reduce our dependence on oil,” he explained.
On the government’s commitment to further bolster the country’s private sector, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim said only very few Qataris are currently working in the private sector. “We are keen on strengthening the private sector. We have Qatar Development Bank, giving assistance to Qataris to go into small and medium services,” he stated.
On the question of ‘rightsizing’ of expatriate population, he said reduction is inevitable during what he calls as ‘the energy revolution’, but only in certain areas, especially where there is an inflation in terms of the number of people. Yet, he made it clear that the main goal is not to decrease the number of expatriate population, but to make them more competitive and efficient.
The Peninsula
