The Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has continued its active support for the companies and factories working in the food and health sectors and related complimentary industries across the country as key participants in stabilising the local market for such vital commodities.
QDB has been maintaining close cooperation with the relevant authorities to offer the due support and assistance through its ‘Situation Room’, offering these an effective package of financing and advisory programmes to help them expand production and enhance the local market in particular during these current circumstances, with the ongoing uncertainty regarding regional tensions.
Accordingly, QDB’s Situation Room, in cooperation with the entities concerned, has launched four financing and advisory programmes to support the private sector in the country, taking into consideration the current regional situation.
These include a finance programme of the supply chains of the priority products, finance programme of the raw materials stockpile, a logistic support programme for imports and programmes for specialised consultative and adversity services.
The finance programme of the supply chains of the priority products targets retail and wholesale companies to enhance the continuity of supply chains within the food and health sectors. This involves giving the companies concerned easy access to funding through their banks, as QDB offers partial guarantees.
The finance programme of the raw materials stockpile involves direct QDB financing for the targeted factories to enhance their raw material stock and make them ready to handle and address any potential disruption in the supply chain that could occur due to several factors in the light of the ongoing events.
The logistics support programme for imports targets the factories operating in the priority sector, offering them due support in the logistic operations related to the imports that keep them operational.
In the meantime, QDB will continue to constantly offer the necessary specialised business and financial advisory services for the factories operating in these priority sectors, which include preparing emergency plans, developing plans to maintain continuity of operations and an assessment of the operational risks and supply chain to help them maintain effective planning and enhance their business presence supporting durable production and growth.
QDB has noted that eligible beneficiaries of these programmes are the “Qatar-based wholesale and retail companies operating in the food and health sectors for priority products, and the Qatar-based factories operating in the food sector, health and medical sectors, and ancillary industries supporting them.”
The dedicated QDB Situation Room was activated to empower Qatar-based manufactures and private sector companies during such regional circumstances, where tension and uncertainties could negatively impact the normal operations of some sectors vital to maintaining the local market.
The number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar are estimated to be around 97% of the registered private sector companies in the country according to the official statistics. This translates into around 71,000 establishments working in various sectors, participating with around 15%-17% of the non-oil GDP.
Meanwhile, there are various initiatives that have been launched by the entities concerned to enhance the effective partnership of the public and private sectors, giving the private sector in the country more investment opportunities to explore and increase its participation in job creation and local production.
To benefit from these services, QDB explained that companies and factories on the designated list will be directly contacted, in coordination with relevant parties and in alignment with pre-defined sector priorities, and in line with the priorities of the targeted sectors that were previously identified under the current regional circumstances, Qatar News Agency has reported.