Deputy Prime Minister Inaugurates Contracting Conference & Exhibition 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017'

Doha, April 06 (QNA) - Under the Patronage of HE Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani, HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, on Thursday inaugurated the Second Edition of the three-day Procurement and Contracting Conference & Exhibition, 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017' held at the Doha Convention and Exhibition Center. HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs honored five companies who won the First Edition of the 'National Purchasing Award' launched for the first time in appreciation of the role being played by government and semi-government agencies in supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and providing them with the opportunity to showcase their services and products. The Government Procurement and Contracting Conference & Exhibition aims to demonstrate the ability of national SMEs to compete in a highly professional way to execute local market tenders, while ensuring high standards of performance and providing companies with opportunities to network with a large number of buyers from government, semi-government and private sector companies. In an opening speech, CEO of Qatar Development Bank (QDB), Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa, said 'MOUSHTARAYAT 2017' aims at spreading a culture of cooperation among exhibitors from the government and semi-government sectors, private companies as well as SMEs, that face great difficulties in accessing bid opportunities. The Conference and Exhibition seek to complement the efforts being exerted by the Ministry of Finance in this level to open the way for SMEs to communicate directly with requester of services or products, he added. He stressed that this year's edition witnessed an increase in terms of number of exhibitors, who raised from 25 to 30 offering at least 2000 opportunities worth more than QAR 2,500,000,000 compared to 450 opportunities only last year amounting to QAR 3,000,000,000. This increase is an evidence of the great interest of exhibitors, he said, stressing that the increase of the number of less value opportunities would enable SMEs to easy access to them. (QNA)