Within the framework of the efforts of the Ministry of Business and Trade represented by the Department of Business Development to develop a business environment in line with the objectives of the National Development Strategy 2011-2016, and specifically the implementation of the Program of the Business Legislations’ Development that adjusts the processes related to business and trade regulations,
And in order to maximize the benefit of such reports, the Ministry of Business and Trade represented by the Department of Business Development, and collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (the issuer of the Doing Business 2012 report) held a seminar on 7/3/2012 to discuss the Doing Business in a More Transparent World 2012 report and how to take advantage of these international indicators in addition to the means of improving the order of the State of Qatar on the international level in the coming years.
This seminar had a number of goals including:
1.     Work closely with the International Finance Corporation, which contributes to the development of the business environment in accordance with the international standards.
2.     Assure a communication between the Ministry and the business community and the private sector, and exchange views on the ways to develop and facilitate systems and procedures related to investment.
3.     Participation of the government agencies concerned with investment and business in this seminar, which contributes to closer cooperation between the ministry and those agencies on one hand, and between those authorities and the International Finance Corporation on the other hand, which will have a positive impact on the business environment.
This workshop represents an extension of the efforts of the Ministry of Business and Trade in cooperation with the international institutions to strengthen and develop a good business environment, and the efforts of the ministry to establish communication with the business community in general and the private sector in particular, where the private sector is considered as the nucleus of the economic diversification strategy which was supervised by the ministry as one of the sectorial strategies emanating from the National Development Strategy 2011-2016.
This economic diversification strategy related to the private sector development had designated four areas of concentration, which are:
1.     Strengthening the institutional role of the concerned governmental authorities and the development of the private sector in order to increase the proportion of the private sector participation in the national economy and promote competition.
2.     Developing and increasing the productivity of the various production factors in order to improve the level of competitiveness.
3.     Development of the capacity of invention and innovation in order to create a national economy based on knowledge.
4.     Deepening the economic integration on the regional and international levels in order to increase the local products’ market’s size and promote technology transfer to and from the State of Qatar.
In light of these areas of importance, the Doing Business Report 2012, released by the International Finance Corporation, possesses a high importance due to the following reasons:
•        It identifies the investment environment and thus determines the strong and weak points of the State in this field.
•        It gives suggestions and programs to work on the weaknesses and strengthen the strong points through the legislative and institutional tools and policies.
•        It reviews the experiences of the countries and identifies the best international and regional practices, and thus take advantage of them.
The discussions that took place in this workshop had highlighted the importance of developing a business environment in line with the international standards and in a way that improves the competitiveness of the State of Qatar on the international level. It showed also that the Ministry of Business and Trade plays a pivotal role in cooperation with various government agencies in assuring a competitive business environment that facilitates business establishment in the State of Qatar, encourages the national and foreign investors and supports the various initiatives of the private sector, and thus contributes to the economic diversification and the implementation of the Qatar National Vision 2030.