Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has announced the staging of the ‘3rd Government Procurement & Contracting Conference and Exhibition – Moushtarayat 2018’ from April 23 to 25 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre.
In a press conference yesterday, QDB executive director of Advisory Services Ibrahim Abdulaziz al-Mannai said Moushtarayat 2018 will be held in partnership with the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
With the support of the MoF’s Specialist Procurement Regulation Department, the MoF helped frame and support the popular expo series since it was launched in 2015. Building on the momentum of previous editions, ‘Moushtarayat 2018’ “will usher in a wave of new opportunities for the government-private sector cooperation.” 
The expo welcomes members of the local private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to attend and participate in a wide range of public tenders announced publicly throughout the year. 
Notably, a key aspect of the conference is to educate local SMEs about the procedures involved in partaking in existing public tenders extended by big buyers, such as larger private sector companies, semi-governmental, and governmental bodies.
Al-Mannai said: “The launching of the ‘3rd Government Procurement & Contracting Conference and Exhibition – Moushtarayat 2018’ is a testament to the expansive achievements of the expo’s first two editions. 
“Moreover, it also speaks volumes about the quality of the cooperative relationship that QDB and the Ministry of Finance enjoys. This project is in line with our organisational objective at QDB of getting SMEs to widen their engagement with big buyers in the nation’s marketplace.”
He added: “Last year’s edition, which attracted 2,212 visitors and 30 exhibitors, opened 2,022 job opportunities for SMEs with an estimated cumulative value worth up to QR2.5bn. 
“Given the vast popularity and success that this expo series enjoyed in the past, we are confident that our upcoming edition will see an even more widespread attendance besides going a long way in cementing the bond between public corporations and the private sector.”
The first edition of the expo gathered 25 exhibitors, who made nearly 450 contract opportunities available with an approximate value of QR3bn to the local private sector. Out of these opportunities, 102 contracts were eventually awarded as a result of the facilitation that businesses enjoyed during Moushtarayat 2016. 
QDB said the upcoming Moushtarayat conference and exhibition is the latest in a series of integrated programmes and initiatives offered by QDB to develop SMEs. For instance, QDB recently announced the launch of its first nationwide entrepreneurship award in July, as well as introduced the ‘Buy Local Products’ expo series.