With the availability of more suppliers from outside the GCC region, the local market has become healthier and competitive across all sectors and industries, an official of Ashghal has said.
Citing reduced prices, more variety, and accessibility of some products needed across all industrial and commercial sectors of Qatar, Public Works Authority (Ashghal) Planning & Quality Department manager Jamal Sharida al-Kaabi underscored the role of local suppliers “in providing the needed materials.”
Al-Kaabi said he believes the economic blockade imposed by four Arab countries in June 2017 “had worked in favour of Qatar” because it had opened new channels and new markets.
“Basically, there is new variety in every industry that had opened new lines. I think this has created more competition in the local market, and it has created a healthier situation in the market. Now, we’ve seen new products in the market that were never seen before,” al-Kaabi told Gulf Times on the sidelines of a launch event.
According to al-Kaabi, opening Qatar to international markets had helped break the supply monopoly of some suppliers in the GCC.
“We were put under the approach to cater only to ‘GGC specs’, which, by the way, controlled the supply-demand internationally. When you went out of that scale, it became an open market because we are no longer dictated by the GCC specs, and we’re now looking at international standards and specifications.
“We also started looking at creating our own standards and specifications by looking at different sources of how we can get better quality material with better specifications by looking at other international specifications,” al-Kaabi explained.
Al-Kaabi also lauded the “fast action” taken by the government under the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah.
“While the economic blockade created a stir in the beginning, it has never affected the country because there has always been availability of supplies in the storage facility. And the approach that the government has taken was to think outside of the box and tapped other facilitators – countries that would assist Qatar into looking at other sources,” he said.
He added: “The obstacle is over now and I think we have proven this not only to Qatar but also to the international community. Supply of materials in the country is fully reliable and sustainable.”
