Driving growth, job creation in Qatar through SMEs

Qatar is launching a five-year plan to drive economic diversification and job creation in the country, in particular by working with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Representatives of the business community gathered for a workshop in Doha on 20-21 April to start work on the country’s Strategic Trade Development Roadmap, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.

With the support of the Qatar Development Bank, the International Trade Centre (ITC) will consult with different ministries – including the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the Ministry of Energy and Industry – as well as the Qatar Tourism Authority and the General Authority of Customs. Following these meetings, ITC experts will organize a workshop with representatives of the business community to identify promising sectors as part of the inception phase of the five-year trade development roadmap.

‘We look forward to working closely with our partners in Qatar,’ said ITC project manager Eman Beseiso. ‘We are confident that we will be able to jointly identify a plan of actions and interventions to enhance SME competitiveness and capacity to satisfy the local market demand and to access new markets.’

The consultations with the Qatari private sector follow a workshop planned under the ITC Certified Trade Advisers Programme (CTAP) held on 10 April, the first in a series of workshops designed to create and mobilize an existing network of national advisers to engage directly with SMEs to accelerate their export readiness. The programme is designed to train and accredit a team of trade advisers to assess SMEs’ growth potential and advise them on ways to develop business strategies.