Moushtarayat offers QR5.8bn business opportunities to SMEs

The 4th edition of Government Procurement and Contracting Conference & Exhibition (Moushtarayat 2019), which opened yesterday at DECC, is offering 2,600 business opportunities worth over QR5.8bn to local Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), announced a top official of the Qatar Development Bank (QDB).

Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of QDB, in his opening address at the event noted that this year’s ‘Moushtarayat’ has invited members of the private sector, particularly SMEs, to attend and participate in a wide range of public tenders.

The conference focuses on educating the local SMEs about the procedures involved in existing public tenders extended by big buyers, such as larger private sector companies, semi-governmental and governmental bodies. Some 40 of them are showcasing their job opportunities at the expo.

QDB, the state-backed development agency, which has been supporting and promoting the SMEs as part of its ongoing efforts to provide a poised platform to grow for Qatari SMEs to achieve economic diversification, flagged off the ‘Moushtarayat 2019’ yesterday.

The three-day event, which is being held under the patronage of the Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, was inaugurated by H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Governor of Qatar Central Bank, who is also the Vice-Chairman of QDB.

The event is being hosted in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, and in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MOCI) and the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), and sponsored by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

It will conclude on April 2 at Doha Exhibition & Convention Center (DECC). Commenting on the launch ceremony, the QDB CEO, said: “We are pleased to launch the Moushtarayat 2019 will usher in a wave of new opportunities for the government-private sector cooperation. The exhibition is an important platform for SMEs to communicate with government agencies and to identify tenders and contracts, thus opening the horizons of cooperation with government agencies and winning their tenders.”

He added: “I would like to express our gratitude towards our partners Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MOCI), Public Works Authority (Ashghal), and Ministry of Municipality and Environment who have supported this endeavor since inception and making this a huge success. We assure the SMEs of Qatar that QDB will keep on bringing newer paradigms of growth to channelize their success and build a sustainable future, and realizing the Qatar National Vision 2030.”

This year’s Moushtarayat conference and exhibition is the latest in a series of integrated programmes and initiatives offered by QDB to develop SMEs.

To promote the private sector, QDB locally extends wide-ranging financial and non-financial support to entrepreneurs across a myriad of industries so that SMEs may achieve higher scales of competitiveness in Qatar.

Source from: The Peninsula