H.E. the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al-Thani addressed businessmen and officials of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI) at the third consultative meeting held at the Sheraton Hotel. The meeting was held under the theme ‘the revitalization of the private sector's role in the development process’. 

The meeting, organised by the QCCI, was attended by Minister of State for Internal Affairs HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani, Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning HE Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Khalifa al-Thani, Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs HE Mohamed al-Sada and the Chairman of Qatari Businessmen Association, HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani. It was moderated by QCCI General Manager Dr. Khalid Klefeekh Al Hajri.
Speaking on the occasion, H.E. the Prime Minister expressed his pleasure in meeting the Qatari businessmen to discuss matters of common concern. He described the meeting as significant saying it would maintain contacts, bring the viewpoints closer and give a briefing on new related issues that would result in the unity of objectives and their implementation. He said the two previous meetings won great attention from all, adding that the outcome of discussions received due attention from the government.  

''We received 23 questions during the first consultative meeting and 25 questions during the second, Sheikh Hamad said adding "we responded to most of the questions and we even took some of them as a basis for attention and discussion at the cabinet.'' 

H.E. the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said in the light of the higher directives of H.H. the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and H.H. the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the government has been endeavouring to draw up mechanisms that would revitalize the private sector to enable it to carry out its missions competently and effectively in order to cope with the international developments and challenges.  

For this reason, many laws, legislations and regulations, that guarantee further rights and duties, and which are characterized by transparency and social justice have been enacted to provide an appropriate economic environment, H.E. the Prime Minister said.  

He said, ''we are about to finalize the restructuring of the government sector to ensure the effectiveness of the services delivered by those sectors, and to improve their supervision and control."

About the free trade talks between the GCC and European Union, he blamed the EU for the delay in reaching a joint free trade agreement between the two blocs, saying: “The products that the EU seeks to exclude from the agreement are the main products of the Gulf states. If they insist on excluding the petrochemicals and aluminium, then the agreement will be of no value for us,” he explained.     

The Premier said that the talks were on now for 17 years and were facing a number of hurdles. The major impediment was the issue involving hydrocarbons which was the region and Qatar’s main product. He said that even while free trade talks were not being finalised between the two sides, trade was on, so there was no hurry to negotiate the deal.

The Prime Minister added that the talks were facing some difficulties but said that he hoped that the end result would be heartening. “We don’t expect every member country to benefit from the common currency in all sectors. There will be some sectors wherein a country will benefit, whereas in some other sectors it might not,” the Premier said.

He stressed that if the common currency was left floating and not pegged to any major world currency the region with a population estimated at 35 million (including citizens and expatriates) would emerge stronger economically and would play a major role in the world economy.

On the disparities which resulted from the new Human Resource Development Law in payment package of government employees, especially in the government sector and the newly set up authorities, he said that studies were conducted for two years before implementing the law.

"Its objective was to ensure justice and pay parity. Salaries in the authorities are decided by their directors. There is no system. And such is the situation that if a typist gets QR2,000 in the state sector, for instance, in an authority his counterpart’s pay packet would be QR6,000."

"Imagine that a minister’s monthly pay package is QR60,000, the head of an authority gets about QR75,000. Employees of an authority get additional perks and they are quite lucrative. For instance, they can go on a round trip to London (Doha-London-Doha) at official expense, while in a government department a staff member may even not get a one-way Doha-Makkah air ticket."

"I am quite sure that a vast majority of Qatari employees are happy about the new law because they are the beneficiaries. I would say that 95 percent of them are happy because they got a raise via the new legislation. Pay packets of three percent of the employees remain the same while only two percent have somewhat reduced salaries. And I know who they are."

On a question about losses in overseas investments in the wake of the world financial crisis and Qatari investments being concentrated in the West, the Premier said that Qatari investments were evenly distributed among regions around the world, including Europe and Asia.

Qatar remains one of the least affected countries. A famous global agency has said in a report that the country has the capability to withstand such a crisis over the long-term. However, to answer the question straight, the loss has been due to a decline in asset value of about $4bn. But during the same period the country made profits from other sources amounting to $7bn, so in the end there has been no loss, he said.  

Asked about Qatar’s bidding for a 25 percent stake in the German luxury carmaker Porsche, he said: “We cannot disclose any details about the negotiations at this stage because it has been agreed between the two parties not to make details public while negotiations are on. But I can tell you that the figure you are suggesting is not correct.

To questions reflecting fears that if foreign investors are given a free hand, local companies would suffer, the Premier replied:

Some sectors have been thrown open to foreign investment. We are not ready at this juncture to open the economy to overseas capital in full measure. Generally, Qatar’s policy as regards attracting foreign investment is to focus on areas where large workforce is not needed and there is more thrust on technology.

When asked why the state is not protecting local consumer products against the products being imported from some neighbouring countries, he said: “Our products cannot compete with those from the neighbouring countries in quality, so protecting a bad product does not make any sense. The overall economy will be harmed if we do this.”

Regarding a question on why the state is not encouraging Qatari companies, especially as they are quite capable in real estate, construction and services sectors, he replied: “Until now Qatari companies have been accorded priority by the tenders’ committee but sometimes the volume of the ongoing work is so much large that foreign players are to be roped in. We have to also take into consideration that local companies have not improved with time to cope with mega projects. Only three to four companies have grown to that stature. On some occasions we invite foreign companies to undertake urgent construction projects. You are aware that due to delays in certain key projects, we are facing difficulties.”

Local contracting companies have to mature and keep pace with the changing times. The conventional sub-contracting method cannot continue as the country’s developmental needs are different now, he added.

On proxy business he said: “We know of businesses that are 100 percent owned by citizens but run by others (on proxy). Citizens sign a number of documents, others (expatriates) run these businesses. At the end there are disputes with the ‘real partner’ fleeing the country. This way we have created a number of problems. This is not the practical way of doing business. This is laziness.”

In response to complaints from businessmen that since the new foreign investment law allows foreigners to own businesses up to 100 percent, foreign partners in many local companies were splitting and trying to set up their businesses independently, the Premier said specific cases can be brought to the notice of the government for an open discussion.

He, however, did not agree to a demand that foreign partners of local businessmen should be barred from splitting for the initial two years, and said let the contract between two partners be the basis of taking any decision in this regard.

In reply to a question about the Qatar Financial Centre, he while lauding the Centre said big foreign companies providing specialised financial, legal and insurance related services were needed as the capital requirement for the country’s development could not be met through local operators (banks and financial services) alone. Additionally, these companies are needed for Qatar to become a knowledge-based economy.