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QNA
Doha
The limited liability companies, which represent 82 percent of Qatar's total trade activity, registered a growth of 12 percent in 2016, Minister of Economy and Commerce HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed al Thani has said.
The minister was speaking at the opening of the fourth International Conference on Entrepreneurship in Economic Development, which began at Qatar University on Sunday.
While private sector has been playing a bigger role in the national economy, Sheikh Ahmed said the small and medium enterprises (SME) were also contributing significantly to Qatar's sustainable development.
Qatar, he said, has managed to gradually move from an economy relying on oil to a diversified one where non-oil sector contributed 61 percent to the GDP, up from 21 percent in previous years.
This improvement cames despite the falling oil and gas prices over the past two years, he noted.
Entrepreneurship, the minister said, is ranked as one of the most important mechanisms in the country's strategy towards diversifying the economy.
Sheikh Ahmed called on entrepreneurs to establish innovative projects that would provide added value to the national economy, in order to contribute to raising non-oil exports and realising Qatar National Vision 2030.
He also reviewed the policies and programmes initiated by Qatar to enhance the role of entrepreneurship in economic development and discussed the legislative and legal framework, which have enhanced the business environment.
He pointed out that Qatar is making a lot of efforts to improve laws on protection of intellectual property rights, with the aim of promoting the values of entrepreneurship for young innovators.
During the opening session, Qatar University Dean of College of Business and Economics Dr Khalid Shams Abdulqader highlighted the importance of the conference and the university's efforts to develop entrepreneurship.
Abdulqader said Qatar University's Centre for Entrepreneurship is considered one of the best entrepreneurship programmes in the world, according to Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
Qatar University College of Business and Economics was one of the 35 colleges honoured as the best colleges in the entrepreneurship programme out of 120 certified institutions that applied for the competition.
The conference is scheduled to include a number of sessions and workshops over two days to discuss the main topics on entrepreneurship, education and the present successful local, regional and international case studies in the field.
