It gives me pleasure to meet with you today, and to declare open the Thirty Sixth Session of your esteemed Council.

Honorable Brothers,

      TBefore talking to you about the results of our efforts in the spheres of economic and social development achieved last year, I would like to point out some matters which we consider necessary not only for completion of the organizational and legislative structure of the State but also for providing the integrated context in which the development efforts can proceed along their planned course and achieve their desired fruits.

      I have spoken to you several times, about establishing the State of institutions and the rule of law, and of our efforts to promote the State’s executive work and free it from hindrances and of the importance of the private sector and its effective participation in building the modern State to which we aspire. We took several basic steps in this direction last year.

      A constitutional court has been established whose function is to review the provisions of laws to ensure their conformity with the constitution. The administrative court was also established to bring all administrative legal relations under the jurisdiction of the judiciary, which means the rule of law and the realization of true justice. This was complementary not only to the structures of the judicial authority but also to the necessary elements that guarantee the stability of civil and commercial transactions, both public and private, which would greatly affect the activation of those transactions and expand the development efforts.

      The Ministry of Civil Service and Housing was abolished in line with the principle of decentralization in administrative and personnel affairs by granting the ministries and the State public organs administrative autonomy in organizing and running their affairs in such manner as to achieve effective, speedy performance, and adopt non-stereotyped administrative methods coping with modern systems of administration. A new law on the regulation of housing was issued where the principle of citizenship rather than the job status is applied for benefiting from the housing units.

      On the other hand, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has been re-established to regulate the work relations in the private sector to underscore its key role in development and the big growth in the number of workers in that sector, and to be in charge of social care in general.

      In the same context, the law of private corporations of public benefit has been issued to allow for the participation of the civil society in public affairs by enabling it to form private corporations that contribute to activities of public benefit and do not depend on State funding.

      These matters and others are in the context of an integrated vision drawn by the State for the course of comprehensive development in the coming years, and the objectives it aims at accomplishing.

Honorable Brothers,

      Our economy has continued its strong performance which is reflected by various date and macro indexes. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew last year at the rate of about 25% and continued its high growth in the second half of this year. The growth was accompanied with the realization of positive results in most of the other macro economic indexes.

      As regards the inflation problem that appeared in our national economy in recent years where I had promised in my last address to your esteemed Council to intensify the efforts to overcome it, we have directed the government to give top priority to dealing with the internal causes of this phenomenon, and set up a committee to study it and propose practical solutions and the proper policies.

      In the context of fast effective solutions, especially in the real estate sector, including the building materials, as being the active factor and the most important component in the inflation phenomenon, practical coordinatory steps have been taken in the administrative and executive spheres which covered all the authorities involved in providing office and housing buildings, starting with the licensing phase and up to providing the raw materials for the construction sector. The coordination process included the bodies concerned with local production and importation of those materials, including raising the storage capacity of the ports and not to increase the construction fees.

      These measures have started to bear some fruit, where we notice an increase in the supply of a number of building materials, while in the second quarter of this year, a phase marked with a slow down in the increase of rents and the average level of prices has started. We expect that the measures taken and those to be taken will lead to the receding of inflation and its domestic causes and the start of a new phase characterized by stability of prices in general, and the balance of supply and demand in the real estate market in particular.

      In the context of addressing inflation on the long term, studies of a practical nature are being carried out to promote and issue the laws relating to regulating the economy in the production and distribution aspects and pursue the necessary measures for coordination between the financial and the monetary authorities to control the monetary liquidity and issue the tools that help with such control, if needed. We will continue monitoring the phenomenon of inflation and exert all efforts to control it.

Brothers,

      The local investments, with the participation of significant foreign investment, have maintained their high rates in the oil, gas, petrochemicals and real estate sectors. Last year and this year as well witnessed several developments that can be considered as major landmarks in Qatar’s hydro-carbon industry. These can be summed up as follows:-

      • Qatar has become the world biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas with the launching of the fifth train of RasGas company, where our production capacity rose to more than 30 million tons per annum.

      •The cornerstone has been laid for the biggest industrial project in the world for gas-to-liquids under a production sharing agreement. This project will produce 120,000 barrels daily of oil equivalent of condensates, gas liquids and methane and 140,000 barrels daily of clean liquid fuel.

      •The exportation of Qatari gas by pipeline to the sisterly United Arab Emirates has started. Through this project, two billion cubic feet of gas per day will be exported for 25 years.

      On the other hand, Qatar has managed to attract a number of international financial institutions and world banks to increase the capacity of financing local investments. Work is underway to activate the Financial Regulatory Authority which aims at coordinating between all financial centers in the State, such as Qatar Central Bank, Qatar Financial Center, The Securities Authority and Doha Securities Market to enhance efficiency of the financial and monetary sector and ensure proper performance.

      There are ambitious plans and works under way to complete upgrading the infrastructure, including the airport, the ports, roads, industrial cities and economic zones, with the objective of encouraging investment and enhancing flexibility of the economy.

      Our economic activities have not been confined to local investments; they also included foreign investments. Qatar has intensified its efforts abroad to expand investments in the hydro-carbon and associated industries to increase benefiting from the international integration in this industry. We also intensified our efforts to widen the base of non-hydrocarbon investments to diversify the sources of income and reduce the risks of dependency on limited sources of revenues.

Honorable Brothers,

      Our options in the economic sphere were limited in the past. They were confined to development of our hydrocarbon industries and to optimal utilization of our depletable natural resources. Today, however, we have several options, and we must choose the best course that suits our new potentials and the prospective requirements of our people. We are now in an advanced stage of crystallizing a clear-cut vision for what we envisage for Qatar’s future. This vision will be the structure and the base for the future strategies we will adopt and have started working on developing them. They aim at preparing the Qatari citizen to be capable of coping with the requirements of his time competently and on an equal footing, and building an economy based on knowledge, that can continue to grow and compete. This will be achieved by continuing to develop our human resources and economic potentials to gain new competitive advantages in various fields in the future. We will do so by encouraging the industries and services that complement and support our main industries, while concentrating on continuing activation of the private sector role in these fields and by encouraging the economic activities that are based on knowledge, along with intensification of efforts to upgrade the standard of education and training and building capacities that we lack in research and development.

      We gave instructions to start preparing a mechanism to provide various types of support and facilities for our young men and women who have constructive personal initiatives in the field of private business to encourage them and secure opportunities for the success of their projects and promote the spirit of initiative for them.

      As you are aware, we are working in this direction on diversifying the opportunities of basic education and focusing on its quality, and expanding applied and technological education, upgrading university education with special attention in this area to establishing partnerships with higher education institutions in developed countries, while preserving the national identity and cultural basic principles

      On the other hand, we pay great attention to scientific research in our endeavour to make Qatar a knowledge producing country and not merely consuming it, by giving attention to establishing distinctive research centers, strengthening cooperation with scientific research centers in the world and establishing the national fund for supporting researches and financing them on the basis of competitive standards that encourage innovation and creativity.

Honorable Brothers,

      Among our priorities in our foreign policy is supporting the Cooperation Council of the Gulf Arab States and strengthening and promoting the relations among our sisterly States to attain our common objectives of realizing our integration in various spheres. While we welcome our brothers, the leaders of the GCC States to their Summit which will be hosted by the State of Qatar – God Willing - next December, we hope to come out of this Summit with resolutions that would realize the hopes, expectations and ambitions of the Gulf citizen, and contribute to reinforcing security and stability in our Arab World and Gulf region.

      Security and stability in our region are closely tied to political and economic stability. Both are complementary to one another. Therefore, the continuity of conflicts, and the regional ones in particular, does not provide the proper climate and environment for progress and stability. Moreover, the issue of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East has become a security apprehension that requires effective collective action by making the whole area free of such weapons.

      In this same context, we seek to strengthen Arab solidarity, promote the system of joint Arab action, concentrate on the interests of our Arab nation, and deal effectively with the political, economic and social challenges it faces to realize for its peoples their aspirations for security, stability and sustained development. Therefore, we will back every effort aimed at accomplishing just, comprehensive and durable peace in the region, and resuming the peace process on the basis of the resolutions of the international legality and the principle of land for peace. We call upon the international community to act for lifting the unjust siege on the Palestinian people. On the other hand, we express our deep regret for what has happened between the Palestinian brothers, and call on all parties – in realization of the higher Palestinian interests – to resort to dialogue and abide by the execution of Mecca Accord and respect the legitimate Palestinian institutions.

      We also look forward to see brotherly Iraq surpassing its painful ordeal, and call upon various forces and major sects there to agree, discard differences and uphold the principle of balanced and effective participation in the political process to preserve the rights and interests of the Iraqi people.

      Concerning the situation in Lebanon, we think that constructive and purposeful dialogue and giving priority to the national interests, is the ideal way to solving the political crisis in this brotherly country.

      On the other hand, we express our satisfaction with the commitment of the Republic of Sudan to cooperate with the international community for settling the conflict in Darfur region, and ask the international community to put pressure on the parties that have not signed Abuja Agreement to reach a comprehensive political settlement.

      As for the situation in Somalia, we stress on the unity of this fraternal country and its independence, as well as bringing about security and stability, one condition of which is the evacuation of foreign troops and sincere endeavour for national reconciliation that includes all categories and sectors of the Somali people.

      We also call for the rallying of Arab regional and international efforts to provide various sorts of support to the Somali people to help them set up their institutions and rebuild their country.

Honorable Brothers, Members of the Advisory Council,

      We look forward to the future with all content and trust, confident that we, with the help of God, shall achieve for our dear country all the progress and high status it deserves. We will also work on pursuing our development efforts in the social, scientific and urban fields as well as in the spheres of culture and art and other aspects of human activity to go hand in hand with the continuous progress we achieve in the economic field so that comprehensive sustainable development is attained for a homeland which we are proud to belong to, and have pride in its accomplishments.

      I thank you for your invaluable efforts. We are confident that this legislative session will be rich with your contribution as you have always done.

      Thank you all for your sincere efforts in serving your country and I wish you continued success and well-being.

May the peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.