HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani has reaffirmed that the National Day of Qatar (December 18) is a glorious occasion to commemorate the founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani (May Allah bless him), an inspiration to instill the values of loyalty to the homeland and the wise leadership and a motive for deepening the pride and development of the country.
In exclusive statements to Qatar News Agency (QNA), HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior congratulated His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and all citizens and expatriates living in Qatar, on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day, asking Allah, to repeat the memory of this day and the nation with full of pride, delight and determination, and that everyone enjoys security, stability and tranquility.
The National Day is significant for all citizens and expatriate residents, the Prime Minister said, adding that the celebration of the National Day embodies the meaning of unity and truthful fraternity among the citizens of the homeland.
The Prime Minister underlined that among the most important lessons that can be drawn from this occasion is the embodiment of the values of loyalty to the homeland and the attachment of the citizens to the wise leadership, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as he puts the interest of the nation and citizens above all; so the barriers are dissolved and citizens' interaction with the leadership keeps increasing.
"We believe that this is a great occasion, and the celebration of it deepens and reinforces pure national feelings following in the footsteps of the founder who valued justice, dignity, hard work without boredom, and support for the oppressed, and upholding these at all times to achieve the desired goals in the renaissance and development.," the Prime Minister added.
HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani urged every citizen and resident to uphold the values established by the founder, stressing that the "solidarity, the commitment to fulfil our ambitions and duties, the moving towards the future of our State and instituting its values and proud ethics are our greatest challenge. Our State has been known for its values, ideals, its handling and dealing with various events and crises with all wisdom and sanity; the values by which we are moving toward the development of our dear homeland and the building of its promising future."
Regarding the progress of the achievements of the country in various fields, he said: "Thanks to God, the progress of the country's achievements is clear in all the fields - economic, political, social, security, cultural, sports and youth. Qatar has made great strides towards its renaissance. Doha is now hosting various political, economic and sports activities with many countries and organisations, which shows that Qatar enjoys security and safety and has a clear vision in dealing with various regional and international issues."
About the most prominent efforts in implementing Qatar National Vision 2030 and its current development strategy 2018-2022, he said that this year is the second year in the execution of the second national development strategy to implement Qatar National Vision 2030, noting that various ministries, bodies and institutions continued their projects and programmes, which were approved in 2018.
"This is through continuing infrastructure development, strengthening economic diversification programmes, private sector development, natural resource management, continuing work on human resources development through integrated training, practical and health systems, applying quality systems in education, and building an efficient and qualified workforce. All these are in addition to the development of social development through the application of integrated systems and programs and the provision of community requirements for care, security, justice, work programmes, cultural and sporting enrichment, all of which have been well advanced according to their time-frames and measurement indicators to ensure that the goals set in the plans are met," the Prime Minister added.
Regarding the Ministry of Interior, he said it has worked to translate the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy, which devoted a special sector to security and safety, indicating that the ministry's strategy (2018-2022) defines the mechanisms of action, plans, programmes and projects to achieve the sectoral results of the security and safety sector.
"The strategic objectives listed in the Ministry of Interior Strategy (2018-2022) were highly focused on securing the hosting of the FIFA World Cup2022, followed by many other objectives. The most important objectives include security stability and the reduction of crime rates as well as protecting lives and property and responding quickly to emergencies and achieving security and safety on roads and so on," he said.
The Prime Minister and Minister of Interior added that in this context, the Ministry of Interior continued to perform its security and service mission successfully and efficiently, noting that on the international indicators, Qatar has occupied advanced positions in the level of security and safety, in the global annual crime index report issued by the Encyclopedia of the World Database (Numbeo), as well as according to the Global Finance Index 2019 and in the World Peace Index Report. The Ministry of Interior also received international recognition in the Arab and the international awards, and has won more than 30 Arab and international awards since 2011 in various fields, he said.
In the security and police field, he affirmed that Qatar occupies a prominent position among the most secure countries in the world, and this was shown in its hosting of many political, sports and cultural events that would not have been possible without the security and sense of security of the international and regional bodies organising these various events.
He also stressed that many of security and police institutions in the country have achieved the best standards in the field of security and implementing modern systems and have received numerous international and regional awards, pointing out that police education institutions are making considerable move and development that have enabled them to hold up the society with police leaders with different specialisations that can meet the country's security and police needs in the coming years.
These achievements were not limited to the local level only, as Qatar has signed several memoranda of understanding and bilateral co-operation agreeements with friendly countries to exchange experiences through specialised security exhibitions, conferences, workshops and seminars, indicating the confidence of those international organisations in Qatar's security and police institutions.
With regard to the security field, the Prime Minister made clear that statistics indicate the stability of the security situation highly in the country, stressing that this is due to the development witnessed by all the security services of the Ministry of Interior in addition to the high level of adequacy and skill of the polices and the adoption of the latest international methods in the combating and preventing crime field.
"The diversity of activity, programmes and awareness initiatives presented by the various departments of the Ministry also had significant role in raising the sense of security among the citizens and expatriates alike. The most of the crimes in the country are non-criminal offenses," he underlined.
The Ministry of Interior has intensified the security patrols and checkpoints in densely populated and labour-intensive areas, he said, adding that the patrols are equipped with trained personnel and with the most advanced technologies such as surveillance cameras, tracking devices and scanners to be able to perform their tasks entirely, in addition to strengthening the night inspection campaigns in commercial streets and vital areas.
In terms of achieving public safety and civil defense, HE said that there are many services and great efforts to achieve public safety, and that the latest mechanisms and regulations are provided in the field of civil protection, pointing out that the average time of arrival for Civil Defence vehicles in 2018 was eight minutes.
In terms of traffic safety, the Prime Minister and Interior Minister said that the sector improved in 2018 compared to 2017 despite an increase in the number of vehicles, where the number of traffic accidents recorded in 2018 decreased by 7% compared to 2017, and the number of traffic deaths in 2018 decreased to 168 deaths, with an average of 4.9 per 100,000 persons, while it was recorded in 2017 as 177 with an average of 5.4 per 100,000 persons.
In the field of providing services to the public to save the time and the effort, the Ministry of Interior has endeavoured to create a system of electronic services, and to develop a decentralised system of services, in order to facilitate the procedures and access the service to the beneficiary's reach with ease, he said, pointing out that the Ministry of Interior provides more than 160 services to the public electronically through Metrash2 app and websites of the Ministry and Hukoomi and recently more services were made accessible through Metrash2 app, reaching to 96.
Within the framework of human resources development, as one of the objectives of the Ministry of Interior strategy (2018-2022), the Ministry of Interior has achieved in recent years significant leaps in the development of its various departments, and modernisation of the mechanisms of work, and upgrade the methods of the training system, as the ministry continued to open the door of grant to its personnel for specialised studies in the best military and civilian universities; in addition to that, training and development efforts are carried on at the Police Training Institute, HE said, noting that graduation of the first batch of officers' candidates was celebrated in January 2019.
This development, has promoted a better level of services for the public, many successes and a number of achievements in enhancing the security of all members of society, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani said, stressing that the achievements keep continue in the Ministry of Interior under the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who is keen to ensure peace and increase the sense of security and safety for the citizen and expatriate residing on this country.
