Senior officials and representatives from various ministries and private businesses at a workshop on 'easing business environment' held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in Lusail City, yesterday. Pics: Salim Matramkot/The Peni
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) organised a special workshop yesterday in which representatives from other concerned departments from other Ministries highlighted the reforms related to facilitating business environment procedures in Qatar at the various legislative, organisational and administrative levels that would further help enhance the ease of doing business and competitiveness of the Qatari economy.
The workshop, which was attended by nearly 200 people, including representatives of various business sectors of the local economy, focused on the systems that have been adopted to develop the business environment according to an integrative perspective, as well as highlighting new reforms and future changes in this regard.
Nasser Al Taweel, Adviser to the Minister of Finance (MoF), made a presentation on doing business in Qatar 2020, in light of the reforms that the country has witnessed and the facilities it granted to business owners in its efforts to attract more direct investments and support the private sector.
He reviewed a number of indicators in this regard.
When reviewing the index of obtaining credit as one of the indicators of facilitating the business environment, he pointed to a new law that would allow companies to mortgage their movable assets, which would enable them (especially small and medium enterprises, SMEs) to obtain financing from banks, and work to create an electronic record based on electronic notices, managed by Qatar Central Securities Depository.
He explained that this system also depends on international best practices and will enable the current person to register mortgages electronically via the Internet without the need to visit the mentioned company, and the system will also be available to the public for research.
He also touched on the index of obtaining electricity for companies and facilities witnessed by this sector, such as reducing the number of procedures to only one procedure instead of four and other reforms in this regard so that the investor can obtain the service in a short time.
When introducing the contract enforcement index, he said that a new commercial court specialising in commercial matters is being established with the aim of providing costs and time for litigants and expediting the resolution of disputes, in addition to working to develop a new law on mediation to resolve disputes amicably to motivate parties to resolve their commercial and civil disputes in an amicable manner.
Bakhit Alabhaq, from the General Authority of Customs, gave a presentation on “Al-Nadeeb” system, stressing that this system is a leap for Qatari customs in terms of using the best of what has been achieved in modern technology, whether in hardware, software, systems and databases.
Sarah Al Obaidly from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry also made a presentation on the single window system for establishing companies and its role in facilitating registration and licensing procedures for businesses in Qatar and encouraging domestic and foreign investments.
For his part, Khaled Al Marzouqi from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment gave a presentation on the system of obtaining building permits and facilities provided in this regard.
