In the name of Allah and relying on His blessing, I declare open the 38th Session of the Shura Council of Qatar.
Dear Shura Council Members,
I am pleased on this occasion to express my appreciation and pride of your revered Council. The course of achievements we are witnessing today undoubtedly requires your sincere efforts and fruitful cooperation with the Government to build together the future of the coming generations, achieve comprehensive development for our country, and reach our intended goals of the welfare of Qataris and securing for Qatar the place it deserves among the most developed countries and peoples in our modern world.
In my last year’s speech, I touched upon Qatar National Vision for the next twenty years and its importance in developing our policies on the different domains of life in Qatar. Today, your new session starts with large part of the planned interim goals having been accomplished through which we have added a lot to our achievements in previous years.
In this context, we have started to take many steps to administratively organize State agencies, most importantly the restructuring of governmental bodies under a comprehensive review of the organizational and institutional structure of the Government, including ministries, bodies, institutions and other agencies in order to improve their efficiency, avoid overlapping tasks, reduce costs without compromising the quality and speed of activities and services, and optimally use financial and human resources.
Qataris have always been on the top of our priorities so as to develop and qualify them and ensure a decent life for them, as we believe that comprehensive and sustainable development can only be achieved through mainly investing in human development and promoting human capacity based on implementing and managing the different aspects of comprehensive development.
That is evident in the many measures we have taken which target the different aspects of citizens’ life, including establishing the Supreme Council of Health to provide the best healthcare possible and provide health services which match those provided in developed countries. The Supreme Education Council and the Supreme Council of Family Affairs have been reorganized to develop and promote education so as to meet the country’s needs of distinguished human resources and capacities in different fields, enhance the family’s status and role in society and maintain a strong, consolidated and unified family which takes care of its members and abide by moral and religious values and ideals.
Currently, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development focuses on postgraduate programs and scientific research which are connected to Qatar National Research Strategy and also on the priorities of such research. QNRS has started to launch programs on biomedical research, design arts and engineering. QF has launched an aspiring project through cooperating with Arab scientists abroad to establish quality Qatari institutes for research on biomedical science, information and communications technology, energy and environment.
Dear Shura Council Members,
As you know, sustainable development as well as developing our national economy and diversifying its sources have always been among our top priorities. In this context, we keep on expanding and diversifying our international investments through establishing strategic partnerships and commercial investments with a number of countries in petrochemicals, gas, energy, refinement plants and liquid natural gas terminals.
After two decades of continuous and intensive efforts in producing and developing our gas reserves, Qatar, thanks Allah, has become a leading country in gas industry and the world’s largest LNG exporter and transporter.
These efforts have recently culminated in the opening of the Adriatic LNG Terminal, which is indeed a distinguished, pioneering and first-of-its-kind energy project that represents a quantum leap in this domain. Prior to this, we opened the Qatargas-2 Project which is the first integrated venture in the world. LNG has also been exported to Britain through the South Hook LNG Terminal. And recently, we opened the sixth production line in RasGas, one of our pioneering projects and the world’s largest production line in terms of LNG productive capacity.
I would also like to stress that we are not only keen on maintaining the gains we have made over the previous years, but we will also keep building on our achievements, since development and modernization are a continuous and integrated process under sustainable development which has, along with scientific and human progress, have become limitless.
We are still feeling the negative impacts of the global financial crisis in all economic fields, particularly in developing countries. Although this crisis started in developed countries, it has expanded to reach the whole world.
In my last years’ speech, I called for restructuring the world financial system with new regulatory measures to observe developing countries’ interests. I believe that the world, especially developed countries, has a lot to do and should learn lessons from this unprecedented crisis in terms of range and impact on the entire world. Major events in the history of global economy should never pass without learning lessons and taking appropriate measures to avoid such crises in the future.
In fact, we, like the other countries of the world, have never been safe from the crisis’ negative impacts. Therefore, we have had to continue implementing our programs as planned and achieve our intended growth rates. To that end, we have taken many measures and steps to reduce the crisis’ repercussions.
We have subsidized our financial institutions through increasing their capitals, buying their investment portfolios in the real estate sector and shares in local companies. This has provided them with the liquidity needed to support local economic activities and assure local financial markets and dealers that our economy is able to recover from this crisis.
We have always been keen on diversifying and stabilizing our investments and benefiting from the promising investment opportunities at the local and international levels, which positively impacts the non-oil State revenues in the future.
I thank Allah that the measures we have taken have contributed effectively to mitigating the negative impacts of the global financial crisis on our economic and development plans, which has been evident in some indicators, including the following:
- Although international financial institutions expected low growth rates in most countries, developing and developed ones alike, Qatar’s growth rate for the current and next fiscal year is estimated at 9% and 16% respectively, which are high rates compared to the international ones. This indicates that Qatar has been successful in handling the global financial crisis through effectively using the instruments of financial and monetary policies.
- Qatar’s economic activities and growth have not stopped, which has greatly helped overcome the financial crisis’ repercussions through maintaining the same level of employment and rebalancing the real estate sector, which was a reason of inflation in the previous period. Moreover, the stable economic performance and the government monitoring of prices have kept prices stable and thus maintained living standards.
- Keep on financing and implementing the current general budget; maintaining the same level of public expenditure in the social, educational and health sectors; and implementing all major projects in oil and gas, infrastructure, investment, while balancing supply and demand to avoid inflation.
Despite these positive indicators and Qatar’s distinguished economic and financial position, we should not forget the importance of using our financial resources efficiently, rationing expenditure, increasing revenues, and making more long-run local and international investments as the key pillar of sustainable development in our country.
Dear Shura Council Members,
With respect to our foreign policies, we are always working on consolidating our relations and cooperation with all countries and peoples on the basis of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and common interests. As a Gulf, Arab and Muslim country, we are keen on actively participating in the issues and concerns of our Arab and Islamic nations.
Looking forward to the next summit meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Kuwait, we are confident that the sponsorship of our brother his Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah will make it a success and lead to positive results to enhance GCC progress and achieve integration among its countries.
We are also keen on enhancing Arab solidarity and developing Arab synergy. And we spare no efforts to seriously tackle the challenges faced by our Arab nation. During its chairmanship of the Arab Summit, Qatar worked on unifying the Arab stance to reach a common vision on many important Arab issues which could hinder Arab synergy.
Dear brothers,
The countries of our Gulf region, which is very vital for the whole world and which has witnessed over the last two decades many conflicts with negative impacts on its security and stability, need to build good neighborly relations based on mutual respect while avoiding interference in internal affairs. They should work collectively to make the Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction, which have become a security concern for the region.
We are doing our best to strengthen security and stability in our region. We are working on creating the appropriate conditions for positive cooperation among its countries. We underline the need to cooperate to solve the conflicts between the region’s countries peacefully through dialogue, mediation and reconciliation, or, if necessary, international arbitration as a last resort. This enhances stability and cooperation in our region.
Concerning the Palestinian Issue’s developments, the Extraordinary Summit in Doha on the Israeli aggression against Gaza has condemned the persistent Israeli practices against Palestinians and called on the Arab nation and all the peace-loving forces in the world to do their best to stop this criminal aggression. We have demanded that the international community prevent these repeated attacks and lift this unjust siege on the Palestinians who, besides the occupation of their land and country, suffer from tragic living and human conditions. We would like to remind everyone, including the countries that met after the war in Sharm El-Sheikh that the siege is still there and that the reconstruction is still just ink on paper. Neither international nor religious laws allow this siege to continue.
The State of Qatar has always supported the Palestinians in their legitimate struggle to get their national rights and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. In addition, Qatar has always underscored from an Arab, Islamic and human perspective, that peace may only be achieved when the Arabs and Palestinians have access to justice.
We support the Palestinian national unity and are working on creating the appropriate conditions to achieve it through dialogue among different Palestinian forces and factions. However, we call for non-interference in this internal matter to avoid outweighing the interest of one party at the expense of the other and also avoid deepening differences among the Palestinians lest it should become impossible to find a solution. The failure of many countries to recognize the results of the democratic elections in Palestine and punishing its people by besieging them have undermined their credibility when they speak about democracy and elections under occupation and siege.
We are extremely worried about the latest dangerous developments in occupied Jerusalem and we strongly condemn judaization practices through confiscating and destroying houses and harassing the city’s Arabs. We denounce continued Israeli attacks on the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic sacred places.
We warn that these practices are not only inhuman but also involving dangerous political agendas to annex and Judaize Jerusalem. We call for a unified Arab and Islamic stance to end the Israeli aggressions on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic sacred places. The apathy and laziness in this regard have become intolerable and unjustified. The leaders and peoples of the Arab nation can do a lot when they have the will. We also demand that the international community assume responsibility in this regard.
On the other hand, we are concerned about the security developments in Iraq which has claimed the lives of many, led to great loss in property and undermined the efforts made to restore security and stability. We call on major forces in Iraq to work together to reach a compromise, prioritize Iraq’s interests and discard narrow sectarian and regional interests in order to enhance Iraq’s unity, Arab identity, sovereignty and stability.
Once again, the Arab countries cannot keep complaining against other players, while they are doing nothing to reach a unified Arab position and strategy based on a unified concept of the Arab national security which, undoubtedly, includes Iraq.
Dear Shura Council Members,
Yemen’s unity and stability are very vital not only for Yemen, but also for the whole region. We reiterate our unchanging and long-standing stance which we have already proved through being keen on Yemen’s stability and unity as well as the integrity of its territories. We call on all factions to immediately stop fighting and facilitate human aids to the affected areas. I am quite confident that the vision and wisdom of our brother Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will provide the means necessary to find a way out of this crisis and save the Yemeni people more suffering and division.
As for Lebanon, we are really satisfied with the steps taken to implement the Doha Agreement which has been entrenched through the commitment and compliance of all Lebanese parties. We call on all Lebanese parties to champion the national interest and work diligently to form a national unity government as soon as possible to restore normal life and enhance stability.
Regarding Sudan, we are satisfied with its cooperation with the international community to resolve the conflict in Darfur. We hope that all parties will respond to the Qatari-brokered Arab-African Initiative that has made great strides to find a way out of the crisis. We demand that the international community support this initiative to peacefully resolve the conflict.
We are really concerned about the continuing instability in Somalia. We call on all Somali factions to stop fighting and we also call for the engagement of all segments and groups of Somali people in the efforts made to achieve national reconciliation and build national unity.
All indicators show that the challenges the region faces become trivial problems when the Arab situation get orderly and organized. The current deteriorated Arab situation is the key to understanding how the different issues are being aggravated in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia and others.
Dear Shura Council Members,
In conclusion, I wish you a successful legislative term in which you keep working diligently to serve your country.
May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be with you.