Qatar- Cabinet Holds Regular Weekly Session

After the meeting, HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, said the cabinet reviewed topics on the agenda and took a set of decisions and measures.

The cabinet took the necessary measures to issue a draft law on psychological health, after examining the recommendation of the Advisory Council on the draft law.

The bill included provisions related to the care for and rights of psychiatric patients; administrative and compulsory admission to psychiatric treatment institutions that are legally licensed to provide psychiatric services such as examination, treatment and care; judicial placement of defendants at a government facility; and treating and caring for psychiatric patients.

According to provisions of the law, existing institutions at the time of the application of the law are to adjust their status in line with its provisions within six months of its implementation.

Meanwhile, the cabinet took the necessary measures to issue a draft law amending some provisions of the military service law, which was issued as Law No. 31 of 2006, after the cabinet reviewed the Advisory Council''s recommendation on the bill. The draft law specifies cases in which a military personnel can be given a special leave.

The session endorsed a draft law on economic zones and referred it to the Advisory Council. Provisions of the bill stipulate that the cabinet, based on a proposal from the board of the Economic Zones Company, can establish an economic zone or more for the purpose of executing projects and stimulating and attracting investments. The decision to establish the zone shall specify its area and borders, and can also include the establishment or attachment of one or more ports to the economic zone, whether a sea, an air or a land port.

All types of companies, sharing contracts or other legal entities can be created or established at the economic zone whether owned by one or more normal or legal persons whether citizens or others.

The project is exempted from obtaining another license, approval, permission, or registration to practice that business, and enjoys unrestricted transfer of capital, revenues or investments out of the country.

The company is to be granted a 50-year concession from the date of application of the law, during which it solely becomes in charge of the management, development, operation, and maintenance of the zone as per the law and the company''s statute. .

The cabinet approved a draft law on the regulation of dealing in subsidized commodities, with the bill defining subsidized commodities as food supply and fodder that are subsidized by the state. No natural or legal person is allowed to deal in these commodities without being granted a permit from the authorized department. The bill specified conditions for those that can be licensed to deal in the commodities and drew the mechanism of submitting a request for a permit and its duration.

A cabinet decision shall specify the subsidized commodities, their maximum prices, and beneficiaries of the subsidy. The minister of economy and commerce shall specify, via a decision, regulations of licensing the selling of these commodities, with or without the subsidy, to non-beneficiary segments and setting a maximum price on them.

In addition, the cabinet endorsed a draft air services agreement between the governments of Qatar and Uganda.

The cabinet also reviewed a draft law on State Audit Bureau and took the necessary measures in that regard. It additionally reviewed and took the necessary measures regarding a memo by HE the minister of administrative development, labor and social affairs in relation to the outcome of the 43rd session of the Arab Labor Conference and the 51st coordination meeting of GCC labor ministers'' council on the sidelines of that conference (Cairo, April 2016). (END)