The Ministry of Business and Trade (MBT) yesterday launched a comprehensive online services package that will give both the business community and consumers easy access to a wide range of public services on one platform.
The launch took place during a ceremony attended by HE the Minister of Business and Trade Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim al-Thani, senior ministry officials, businesspeople and investors.
“We are gathering today on the doorstep of a new stage in the progress of the Ministry of Business and Trade to respond to the aspirations of the business community in our country,” the minister told the gathering.
“The business community gains new grounds every day and our role in the ministry is to keep up pace with such progress,” he said.
“We should be several steps ahead to provide the business community with a suitable environment that enables them to attain the maximum benefit.”
The MBT aims at improving the national economy and give it the required diversity and competitiveness to secure the best living standards in the country.
Sheikh Ahmed pointed out that the ministry had been working for long to determine the challenges that faced the business community and traders in Qatar and to find out solutions for them.
Accordingly, the launch of the comprehensive services package would be “a pioneering initiative that aims at attaining a quantum leap in making related services easily accessible and hassle free”.
The MBT will hold training workshops to train users and beneficiaries of the services on how to best use them.
A brief presentation of the services of the new package was given at the ceremony by MBT public relations and communication director Tariq al-Sada and MBT IT Department director Mashael al-Hammadi.
Al-Sada said that besides giving easy and round-the-clock access to the MBT and related entities’ services, the initiative aims at achieving the desired transparency and fairness, in addition to the mobility of services.
It also aims at attaining a speedy response for inquiries and complaints of users, besides authenticity and flexibility based on direct interaction with the service providers.
Al-Hammadi pointed out that the new initiative would improve the ranking of Qatar in the World Bank regarding the practices of businesses.
She said that an internal committee of MBT had been formed to steer the project that would gradually expand to include representatives from different government entities.
“More than 100 services will be operational within 18 months. The new services will be offered through the Internet and other mobile applications where investors and all other users can access them within and outside Qatar. Users will be able to get the necessary approvals on their applications and requests through one website within one hour though these demand the work of different ministries and government authorities.”
