Qatar’s population growth stabilising, says minister

Qatar’s population growth rates are gradually stabilising, HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit, Chairman of Permanent Population Committee (PPC) has said.
Speaking at Qatar Population Day organised by the PPC, the minister said that the improvement of the workforce structure in terms of skills and balance between nationalities and an increase in economic activity will lead to a more balanced demographic composition and a more sustainable growth rate.
The minister highlighted that the event comes after a year since the launch of the Qatar Second Population Policy 2017-2022, which saw many achievements in terms of manpower and paying attention to foreign labour.
Achievements were also witnessed in education, health and women’s participation in the economy, as well as achievements in other areas, the minister added.
With regard to issues related to population and the labour force, the minister said that PPC confirmed that all companies and institutions commit to the regulations of labour recruitment in terms of number and quality, through promoting the follow-up procedures and establishment of specialised databases and their integration.
The minister highlighted the success of specialised entities in achieving a number of comprehensive labour villages with facilities that provides a decent living for expatriate labour as well as establishing the workers’ support and insurance fund to support labour rights.
In the field of education HE Dr al-Nabit said Qatar has achieved the goals of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
With regards to economic participation, the minister highlighted that Qatar has adopted several procedures to increase the number of women participating in the economy, in turn increasing the rate of nationals in the work force.
He praised the ongoing co-operation between the PPC and United Nations Population Fund.
Qatar Population Day 2018 was held under the theme “One year after the Launch of Qatar Second Population Policy 2017-2022” with the attendance of a large number of officials in Qatar and representatives from entities that are implementing the policy.
Two panel discussions were held on the sidelines of the event, the first on the possible mechanisms to achieve proportional balance between population and development.
The second panel discussed the highest priorities for phase two of following up the implementation of the population policy by the work groups.
On the sidelines of the event, the PPC held its first preparatory meeting on exchanging ideas and opinions for the population and development conference which will be held in 2019.