Doha, Qatar: MEED’s Qatar Projects Conference was opened on March 15 by His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar’s Minister of Economy and Commerce, at The St Regis Hotel in Doha, MEED Events has announced.

The two-day Qatar Projects Conference, the announcement elaborated, organised under the patronage of H.E. Al Thani, endorsed by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and supported by ASHGHAL, is themed around the plan to deliver Qatar’s National Vision 2030 – a USD 200 billion project.

In his opening address, H.E. Al-Thani said that growth of Qatar’s non-oil economy had been expedited, and that the country was well-placed to meet its 2030 vision, in which economic diversification is a key component, the announcement revealed.

The Minister, highlighting that Qatar has been successful in introducing new legislative reforms that have been established to increase private investment in its economy, said, “State legislation, such as the New Companies Law has been put in place to create an investment environment to allow investors to participate in all aspects of Qatar’s economy.”

He added that the Ministry was working on a number of other initiatives to boost private investment, including establishing a PPP framework, and that the plan for new free zones to be implemented by 2019 would “plug the gap in logistics”.

Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari, Group CEO of Qatar National Bank (QNB), reportedly informed the conference that Qatar’s economy was continuing to experience growth due to economic diversification efforts, which have been driven by government investment, and added that as per QNB’s forecast, USD 70-80 billion a year would be invested in development projects in Qatar between 2015 and 2017.