The Government Procurement Regulatory Department at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has announced that it has issued over 6,000 certificates of registration to local companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that will be getting preference in public procurement and projects, said a senior official of the Ministry.
These companies are now part of a wide network that facilitates local firms to win billions of dollar worth of business opportunities and job contracts arising as part of the Law Number 24 of 2015 under which big foreign companies and contractors are obliged to engage local companies in implementing public projects.
Qatar, in November 2015, issued the said law (Law Number 24 of 2015) regulating government tenders and auctions in a transparent manner to ensure fair competition and avoid price fixing, bid rigging and other forms of possible collusions in public tenders.
“We have issued 6,000 certificates to companies that are now registered with us. This is an exercise that complements the Moushtarayat initiative (Government Procurement and Contracting Conference & Exhibition). These companies and SMEs are on the learning curve, and an increasing number of them are getting more matured as many of them had started from the scratch,” Abdulaziz Zeid Rashid Al Taleb (pictured), Director of Government Procurement Regulations, at the Ministry of Finance, told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the event (‘Moushtarayat 2019), which will be concluding today at the DECC.
Al Taleb added: “Now they (companies) are part of our network. The relevant information and other details of these registered companies are available online. So whenever any big international companies participate in a big tender in Qatar, they will now be able to know who to deal with.”
The department at the Ministry of Finance, which closely monitors the procurement process, also coordinates with the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) to facilitate them in winning job contracts directly.
He also said that many Qatari manufacturing companies, especially the SMEs, are now doing very well. They are attracting international companies and manufacturers who are coming here and forging partnership with local firms.
“The business environment is very encouraging. The investment opportunities in Qatar are growing day-by-day. The fast economic growth and robust macroeconomic fundamentals coupled with the rapidly growing infrastructure development and industrial diversification, which is part of the Qatar National Vision 2030, has brought the country under the spotlight of global investors,” noted Al Taleb.
He also mentioned about the upcoming logistics and industrial parks, economic zones and other comprehensive facilities which are being developed across the country.
“These state-of-the art industrial enclaves and facilities will allow business owners to take courageous steps and investment decisions in order to participate in Qatar’s journey to achieve of sustainable development.”
He said that initially a lot of SMEs and startups did not deal in many commodities required by the 58 government and semi-government entities (which are obliged to offer at least 30 percent of business contracts to local firms).
But eventually, when they realised that the nature of the public tenders cover a wide range of products and services related to the light, medium and heavy industries, they expanded their operations and product range and also accelerated the process of diversifying their business portfolio so that international companies could offer jobs to local firms as per the law.
Al Taleb noted that the number of companies and entities, which are obliged to the Law Number 24 of 2015 is expected to increase in the coming days as many non-governmental organisations are voluntarily coming forward and expressing their interests to be part of the law, which will serve them better and regulate their procurement.
Source from: The Peninsula