More than two and a half years in an economic blockade, Qatar has been able to maintain its leading position among global rankings and economic competitiveness reports.
Despite the June 2017 blockade, Qatar has been successful in establishing itself as “one of the strongest” regional economies, according to Khamis al-Mohannadi, the chairman of the Technical Committee for the Motivation and Participation of the Private Sector in Economic Development Projects.
Speaking at a forum held in December 2019, al-Mohannadi had also emphasised that Qatar was also able to position itself as “among the most promising” economies in the world in terms of competitiveness and growth.
In the next five years, Qatar is also seeking to be among the top 20 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report (DB), said al-Mohannadi, who is also chairman of the Ease of Doing Business Committee for World Bank Indicators.
During the forum, al-Mohannadi said the government has undertaken several legal reforms and policies to streamline procedures and regulations to ensure further ease of doing business in Qatar.
Citing the 2020 World Bank report in the ease of doing business, al-Mohannadi said Qatar ranked 77th globally. He said Qatar rose in a number of key indicators, ranking first globally in the property registration index, and third in the world in the tax payment index, and 13th in the building permits index. The state’s index on obtaining electricity and obtaining credit witnessed a significant increase.
In a forum organised last Monday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), Nasser al-Taweel, adviser to the Minister of Finance, delivered a presentation on “Doing Business in Qatar 2020”, which discussed reforms the country has witnessed and the facilities it granted to business owners to attract more direct investments and support the private sector.
On the index of obtaining credit as one of the indicators of facilitating the business environment, al-Taweel said a new law would allow companies to mortgage their transferred assets, which would enable them, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to obtain financing from banks, and work to create an electronic record based on electronic notices, managed by the Qatar Central Securities Depository.
Al-Taweel said the system also depends on international best practices and will enable the current person to register mortgages online without the need to visit the company concerned. The system will also be available to the public for research.
He also discussed the index of obtaining electricity for companies and facilities witnessed by this sector, such as reducing the number of procedures to only one procedure instead of four and other reforms in this regard so that the investor can obtain the service in a short time.
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