¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP

BRIEF

Qatar Country Program

October 12, 2016



Cooperation with Qatar began in 2003 with a Public Transport Sector Reform RAS followed by a manpower planning exercise.? ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP also provided technical assistance on payment systems to the Central ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP of Qatar and conducted a study on Knowledge Economy Development the results of which were discussed at several high-level workshops.?

The Government, represented by the Minister of Finance (MoF), signed a Framework Agreement for Reimbursable Advisory Services with the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP in 2011, which deepened our engagement. The ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP assisted the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics to prepare the mid-term review of the National Development Strategy (NDS 2011-16) and the second NDS (2017-22). The ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP also supported the Ministry of Environment to upgrade environmental rules and regulations following the WB-GCC Gulf Environmental Program (GEPAP), and the Pensions Authority to modernize its policies and systems. Significant assistance was provided to Qatar to help host COP-18 in 2012.

The Central ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP has also benefited from World ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP assistance to: (i) enhance payment systems, and (ii) develop macroeconomic stress-test instruments to strengthen banking sector supervision. The ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP completed an innovative assistance to Qatar Development ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP to enhance SME access to public sector contracts, as well as support to the Ministry of Economy and Commerce to prepare a business reform memorandum and action plan. An expanded engagement to implement business reforms and improve the overall investment climate was signed with the Ministry of Finance in June 2019, and the completion report was submitted to MOCI (spell out) and MOF March, 14 2022.

¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP is continuing its dialogue with the Authorities to identify key areas of support for future engagement.