(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) The Ministry of Economy and Finance has made several achievements throughout the year and was able to develop its sectors benefiting from modern technology and qualified manpower.
The Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management has implemented the overall restructuring process during the period from October 2010 to June 2012 in operational, administrative and technical areas.
The process has achieved its goals by providing the ministry with the sources, skills and tools necessary to continue its vital and essential role in promoting and encouraging sustainable economic growth in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, and in introducing new draft laws relating to public finance and tenders, designed to keep pace with the underway economic development in the country, as well as assisting other departments in the ministry in formulating, monitoring and executing the tenders which have distinctive character in terms of technology or its recurrence such as the application of the tax administration and government finance systems and others.
Another achievement was in the staff training that started from grasping the motives and methods of transformation and ending with taking the development responsibility from the foreign experience houses and proceeding with the development process that includes training programmes designed for the areas of revenue, revenue policies and tax management, human resources, accounts, public treasury, purchases, budget preparation and execution, and government auditing.
The General Administration of Qatar Customs assumed the implementation of the project of the Single Window for customs clearance at all the country's sea ports in addition to the creation of a customs free zone for Science and Technology Park as well as operating the agricultural and veterinary quarry with its full customs documentation and operating the new shipping project, opening an Office of Legal Affairs in Abu Samra land port and opening an office for currency declaration and an office for transit deposits in the departure hall at Doha International Airport. The Customs has been checking the containers with the X-Ray device at Doha port. It has also formed a permanent task group, for performance follow-up and evaluation, that submits a monthly report aiming to reduce aberrations rather than handling them after they occur, that the administration has been focusing on preventive control rather than remedial control.
In the Information Technology field, the database servers were updated and linkage was completed for all the customs centres with the government electronic network (GN) in preparation for activating the Single Window system.
The Custom's website was awarded the Creative Design Prize in the category of Qatar's Security institutions, by the Arab League's Web Awards Academy. The Administration and Finance system was launched covering personal services, human resources, finance, administration, procurement and stock. Moreover, the programming was completed for the electronic clearance audit system of the Customs Information Center at the GCC General Secretariat.
The Customs has started the project of developing the backup data centre (DR), activating the Science and Technology Park Centre, activating the electronic attendance devices and the project of the link with Saudi Customs in addition to developing the e-mailing service.
The Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation, in coordination with international organizations and bodies, prepares reports on the macroeconomic and financial rating of the country in the light of the general budget's and other economic indicators. It, as well, studies the State's financial contribution to the Islamic Development Bank and its institutions and the economic and social development funds.
The Department Administration undertakes the capacity building for the national cadres in the ministries and government agencies by organizing workshops and specialized courses abroad in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Monetary Fund and the Center for International Monetary Fund for the economy and finance in the Middle East. It follows up the current economic developments and its challenges at the levels of short, medium and long term to measure the annual economic and financial situation state.
The Department of Economic Policies, in the context of continued development, provides economic consultations on the topics referred be HE the Minister and provides periodical economic statistics the International Monetary Fund, Statistics Authority and Qatar Central Bank. It also, provides training, to its staff, in cooperation with the Statistics Authority, on the criteria for data dissemination.
The Central Tenders Committee undertakes setting the detailed design and establishing the central procurement policies unit, the preparation of the draft Regulations and the Procurement Manual and application instructions in addition to developing and formulating the project models and standard contracts and preparing the models for approval. It, as well, sets the functional and technical requirements for the central vendors' performance database and the modifications to its website in addition to preparing the quality control report of implementing the new systems.
