(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Sachin Kumar / The Peninsula
Home businesses in Qatar got a big push yesterday as Qatar Central Bank Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani opened the first edition of the ‘Made at Home' exhibition which aims to empower home-based industry and support small-scale entrepreneurs in the country.
Over 144 local home businesses are showcasing a wide range of domestically-produced items, including homespun textiles, home-baked food items, handcrafted jewellery and other handicrafts.
The five-day expo is being organised under the patronage of Chairperson of Qatar Museums Board of Trustees,
H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The exhibition, being held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), is the collaborative result of Qatar Development Bank's (QDB) organising partnership with Qatar Chamber, strategic partnership with Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor & Social Affairs, and support of telecommunications sponsor Ooredoo.
'In addition to serving a critical economic function, home-based businesses are also important because they also play an equally important role in social development. In recent times, due to the dynamic growth of Qatar on a large scale, micro-businesses have faced a considerable challenge competing with the many formally organised local companies and multinational corporations that have entered the market, said Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer, QDB. 'However, by arranging this promotional exhibition that highlights their products and services, we wish to usher in a new era of prosperity for local home-based businesses in Qatar, he added.
The exhibition offers a special opportunity to commercially productive licensed home-businesses to display and sell their products, create new marketing windows for their commodities, and exchange experiences with other similar businesses involved in a wide range of specialised fields.
'The cooperation between Qatar Chamber and Qatar Development Bank is a testament of our joint commitment to pool together our collective brainpower and harness our collective resources for the benefit of the State of Qatar. Around the world, home-based businesses are active contributors to their respective economies. At Qatar Chamber, we firmly believe that Qatari home-based businesses can positively contribute to the diversity of our market and self-sustainability of our economy as well, said Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Director General, Qatar Chamber.
'The State of Qatar values the support and talent of its commercially active homes, families and micro-businesses. Through our strategic partnership in the ‘Made at Home' exhibition, we lend our support to hard-working, productive families across Qatar that wish to create a window of opportunity for themselves and bring new homemade products into the market, said Najat Al Abdullah, Head of Department for Family Affairs, Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs.
'At Ooredoo, we embrace our responsibility of supporting our local industries because we believe that every Qatari business however big or small plays a critical role in contributing towards the self-sustainability of our national economy. We are pleased to partake in the ongoing ‘Made at Home' exhibition and promote a culture that celebrates local entrepreneurial pursuits undertaken by productive families, said Waleed Mohamed Al Sayed, Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar.
The ongoing exhibition is part of QDB's broader SME outreach program the Home-based Business National Program that was launched by the development bank in 2015 to stimulate the private sector through facilitating the entry of a greater
variety of SMEs into the local economy.
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