Economic Development
The QNFSP policy aims to achieve economic diversification by creating multipliers through the development of industries in renewable energy, water, agriculture, and food processing. By using solar power for desalination, Qatar will be guaranteed a sustainable energy source for its agricultural needs. The QNV states:
"Sustaining prosperity over the long term requires wise management of exhaustible resources to ensure that future generations inherit ample means to meet their aspirations. This management must secure optimum utilization of these resources and create a balance between reserves and production, and between economic diversification and the depletion of non-renewable hydrocarbon resources."
Rather than lag behind other countries, Qatar can take up a leading role in developing and devising the future technologies and solutions which the MENA region will need. This too matches the QNV:
"Qatar's bountiful hydrocarbon resources can be leveraged to make sustainable development a reality for all its people. Converting these natural assets into financial wealth provides a means to invest in world-class infrastructure; build efficient delivery mechanisms for public services; create a highly skilled and productive labour force; and support the development of entrepreneurship and innovation capabilities. If attained, these achievements would in turn provide a broader platform for the diversification of Qatar's economy and its positioning as a regional hub for knowledge and for high value industrial and service activities."
The QNFSP will ensure that the State's hydrocarbon resources have been wisely invested as a result of "a vigorous oil and gas sector that generates advanced technological innovations and contributes to the development of human resources and economic capacities throughout Qatar." As food security is considered a matter of national security, the QNFSP will lead to "the long term maintenance of strategic reserves of oil and gas to meet the needs of national security and sustainable development" through the initiation of industrial-scale renewable power for its future energy needs.
The QNFSP policy will endorse a Public-Private Partnership scheme to boost private sector participation. Farmers will be given incentives to develop and upgrade their farms through the issuance of favourable loans and the creation of an Agricultural Technical Agency that will provide them with the assistance and the technical know-how which they will need. This will enable the farmers to build efficient, successful, and profitable ventures, and like the QNV stipulates, will enable the private sector to play an important role in Qatar's economic development:
"The first challenge is to enable the private sector to play an essential role in achieving sustainable development. Training and support for entrepreneurs is a basic precondition for enabling the private sector to carry out its required role, besides providing financial and non-financial support mechanisms that will help incubate and grow small and medium-scale enterprises."
The creation of an Agro-Industrial Park for food processing will initiate "a stimulating business climate capable of attracting foreign funds and technologies and of encouraging national investments." The food safety standards which Qatar will abide to will enable it to develop its food processing industry and export its products abroad. The development of the agricultural sector, of renewable industries, and the formation of a processing industry will enable "open and flexible economic structures capable of competing in a changing world" and contribute to "reasonable and sustained rates of economic growth that secure a high standard of living for future generations." The QNFSP will in this manner play an important role for Qatar to become "a diversified economy that gradually reduces its dependence on hydrocarbon industries, enhances the role of the private sector and maintains its competitiveness through:
- Expansion of industries and services with competitive advantages derived from hydrocarbon industries
- Design and development of economic activities in which Qatar can specialize, including the technical and human requirements of these activities
- A knowledge-based economy characterized by innovation; entrepreneurship; excellence in education; a world-class infrastructural backbone; the efficient delivery of public services; and transparent and accountable government"
Moreover, Qatar's initiation to tackle the problem of food security for the MENA region will lead to "coordination with Gulf Cooperation Council states and with Arab and regional economic organizations to establish trade, investment and financial ties" as part of the economic dimension of the programme.
