HH the Emir Inaugurates New Session of Advisory Council

Nov. 7, 2012 Qatar News Agency Doha, November 06 (QNA) - HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurated on Tuesday morning the 41st ordinary session of the Advisory Council at its premises. The inaugural ceremony was attended by HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and HH the Special Adviser to HH the Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani. The event was also attended by HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani and a number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs, the Ministers, Heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the state and the state's dignitaries. After reciting verses from the Holy Qur'an, HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani delivered a speech to mark the occasion. HH the Emir declared the opening of the 41st session of the Advisory Council, saying: "At the outset of your legislative session, and in line with our annual customary procedure, we meet to review together the development march of the State of Qatar during last year and to talk to you about our efforts to serve our country and to achieve more progress and prosperity for our people. "In circumstances similar to those of the State of Qatar, and the Arab world in general, there is no way to count on habit and repetition. Our society and economy undergo accelerated growth thanks to God, and accordingly the people requirements are varied and the need arises for the rapid growth to be coupled with human development compatible with its pace, especially as we are living amidst historic transformations and a stormy international and Arab situation. These circumstances that characterise our economy impose on us a fast rhythm at work, in creative thinking, and in the legislation and management tools," HH the Emir stated. "We work bearing in mind the interests of the community and the Qatari citizen, and realize at the same time that the function of the State leadership is to discharge the affairs of the country at present, and consider the long-term interests and reflect on the future of the coming generations out of our vision, that comprehensive development must not be limited to the economic aspect," HH the Emir underlined. HH the Emir stressed that although economic growth is its surest condition, yet the comprehensive development could only be achieved by serious investment in education that is compatible with the needs of the era, and taking care of the environment, human and social health and diversifying the sources of income, and other things without which economic growth would not last.

"On the other hand, the ambitious planning of a modern productive and creative society requires political stability and necessitates fruitful interaction with the genuine values and traditions of our country and with the Arab culture that combines us with our surroundings, and the Islamic and human values that are inherent in us, and which combine us with the wider humanitarian circles," HH the Emir noted. "In the last year, Qatar has maintained the excellent economic growth rates it has achieved in the past few years to top the list of the countries recording the highest growth rate in the world. In the circumstances of the repercussions of the financial crisis that continues to impact economic performance in a number of regions around the world, the performance of Qatar has surpassed these repercussions with calculated and firm steps. The real GDP growth for the year 2011 was (14.1%). And the nominal GDP increased by (36.3%), driven by increases in hydrocarbon products prices," HH the Emir said. "Several oil, gas, and petrochemicals projects started to generate revenues due to the high value-added of these industries, while the service sector contributed the remainder. Once again Qatar ranked first among Arab and Middle East countries, for the third year in a row, by racking up the eleventh position in the Global Competitiveness Rating 2012, which reflects the investors' confidence in the national economy," HH the Emir added. As for Qatar's financial position, HH the Emir stressed that global economic developments reflected by the problems of the Euro zone, regional changes, global economic slowdown and lower growth prospects in emerging states have been taken into account. HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani noted: "We are fully prepared to deal with all possible results of these developments, including their impacts on oil prices. Qatar has prepared its budget on the basis of oil price of $65 per barrel. Accordingly, the government investment spending has increased to 61.8 billion riyals, which represents 35% of total public expenditure. This is for the purpose of investing in long-term major projects related to the country's infrastructure such as the port, the airport and other projects. These projects will play a role in raising the growth rates of the economy and stimulating investment. Both the general inflation and basic inflation dropped in the first four months of this year: the overall annual rate of inflation has reached (1.1%) at the end of April this year, while basic inflation fell to 3.7%." HH the Emir said "The 2012 - 2013 Qatar's budget also includes investments in health and education sectors, with an increase of (114%) in health allocations and (35%) in education allocations over the next three years, which we hope would achieve a quantum leap in the level of services provided by the State in these two sectors. We realize the growing needs for better and wider services; however, I would like to remind you that the rapid economic growth and development needs of the State of Qatar had required a population increase that amounted to about four times the population size of the State of Qatar fifteen

years ago." "You know what this means in terms of the need for hospitals, schools, roads and infrastructure," HH the Emir said, adding "It is not possible to build Qatar society, economy and institutions without this population growth, which include expertise, jobs, workers, services etc. This is normal. While it was difficult to develop services in the same pace of the exceptional population increase, we have done a lot. However, the quality of services must be raised and its range extended. I do not think that the population growth will continue with the same rate in the future. That is why the last decade was the decade of construction and the decade of the economic and development leap. I have reviewed with you in last year's opening session the milestones on this historic track since the midnineties of the last century." "We are aware of the increasing needs for better services in quantity and quality, we are also aware of the need to take the institutional and safety standards, quality, feasibility and environmental specifications into account," HH the Emir said. "The lessons must be learned from the mistakes, such as what happened earlier this year in the Villagio Mall, since human errors and accidents cannot be prevented, but necessary precautions and preventive measures could be taken to avoid them or at least mitigate the damage caused by unavoidable occurrences," HH the Emir noted. HH the Emir stressed that to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 an advanced and sound management of the economic and social policies is a must that should be adhered to by all sectors of the State, so as to ensure high and sustainable rates of growth, and at the same time to preempt and deal with changes not only to cushion the national economy against the negative effects, but also to achieve the maximum possible benefit. "This requires an institutional comprehensive work that coordinates various economic branches to promote macroeconomic stability, and the growth of nonhydrocarbon economic sectors, and to prevent duplication, repetition and intermediate red tape that hinders planning and implementation. Efforts must also be doubled to achieve the best investments in the hydrocarbon and other sectors in the country and abroad for the benefit of the future generations, so that the revenue proportion from our investments in the State budget be increased," HH the Emir added. "What applies to our economic activity also applies to the structuring of the State administrative apparatus. Inconsistencies and duplication between various government departments must be removed. Inconsistencies and duplication mean waste of money and overstaffing. It also means complicating procedures for the investor and the citizen. There should not be duplication in some fields, and at the same time there should not be important and major domains without government institutions to cover them. These obstacles must be overcome and even if they necessitate the public sector to be restructured. The private sector

activity and its role in the economy must also be supported and activated, and monopoly that hampers its work must be prevented because it is antithetical to the competitive economy," HH the Emir said. "It's true that we are a rich country in its revenues, aspirations and the capabilities of its people, but we are also a country with a vision, and this fact is rooted in our history and our society. Qatar has always been a country of Arab affiliation, as it has always been a mecca for those who suffered from injustice," HH the Emir said. Qatari society has maintained these values and traditions after the Almighty God has blessed us with more boons and after Qatar became a top country in terms of growth rates globally, our society has not forgotten its roots, heritage and the values it embodied over its long history," HH the Emir added. HH the Emir underlined that it was not possible for the Arab spring countries to set out towards the rule of law, citizens' rights, prosperity and good governance without surpassing the despotic stage, whatever the complexities of the transition period they undergo, adding that this is the core issue. "The State of Qatar has no political, economic or social agendas in any other country, whether Arab or non-Arab. We do not have any pre-conceived notion at all about what should be the system of government in any other country, but what triggered the ire of some of the voices of the past are two essential things. The first is that we have stood beside the oppressed peoples when they were subjected to brutal repression to a degree that is intolerable, and silence should not be kept about, and secondly, that in the State of Qatar there is a vision and independent Arab media that could only cover events objectively," HH the Emir said. Regarding to Egypt, HH the Emir said "The sisterly Egypt has changed and now it has an elected regime and is on its way towards democratic transformation and economic development. When Egypt rises the entire Arab nation will rise with it. And here I have to commend the efforts of the new administration in Egypt led by Dr. Mohamed Morsi to break the siege imposed on the Gaza strip. And these efforts must encourage the Arab brothers to take steps that would contribute to mitigate the sufferings of our kins in the strip and honour their pledges to its reconstruction." In sisterly Tunisia, HH the Emir said that there is a representative democratic system that has gone a long way in preparing a new constitution, and in building a mainstream trend that lays emphasis on the citizenship as a social contract. "That also applies to Libya, which we backed to achieve the ambitions of the Libyan people," HH the Emir added. As for the brotherly Yemen, HH the Emir stressed "we declare our solidarity with the Yemeni people and their efforts to move to democracy, as we are aware of the complexities of the situations there and have confidence in the ability of the

Yemeni people and their political forces and the wisdom of their citizens to overcome difficulties." "I do not need to remind you of the difficult situations in Syria, where the brotherly Syrian people suffer from a regime choosing to respond to the legitimate demands with force, when the people took to streets to defend their dignity in a peaceful manner. Brothers, the suffering of the Syrian people has dragged on for long, although the whole world supports their just demands. In this context we emphasize the responsibility of the Security Council on the continuation of their suffering, we also place a similar or even greater responsibility on the Arab League," HH the Emir said, adding "Isn't our nation, as mentioned in the saying of the Prophet, like one body, if one organ is in pain then the whole body is in pain." "So, what about Syria, which is in the heart of the Arab body? Hasn't the echo of the screaming orphans, bereaved mothers and widows of Syria, who are shaking the Arab world reached the Arab League states?" HH the Emir said. "On this occasion we would like to express our appreciation to the countries that harbored Syrian refugees, but at the same time we express our regret and surprise at the suffering they are subjected to because of degrading practices committed against them in places where they have been forced to take refuge due to the bonds of blood and neighbourhood. In such circumstances the hosting country is supposed to mitigate and ease the humiliation of refuge and make the Syrian citizen arriving in any Arab country feels that he is in his own homeland," HH the Emir noted. Regarding the Palestinian issue, HH the Emir said "In these intricate Arab circumstances the Palestinian cause remains the central Arab issue; even it seemed to be pushed aside due to the preoccupation of the Arab peoples with their situations and rights. But we have to mention that Palestine was in the hearts of the Arab peoples when they took to the streets demanding for change, and that the slackness of the Arab regimes regarding the Palestine cause is one of the reasons for public wrath." HH the Emir added "The government of Israel, which acts short-sightedly when it takes advantage of this situation to intensify the settlement activities, shouldn't forget that. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has even thought to propose changing the status of the West Bank to a non-occupied territory so that settlement activities are formally subject to the Israeli law without taking into account its international status as an occupied territory. The fact is that the peoples' destiny is not determined by an Israeli decision, and Israel has no right to determine the destiny of the territories it occupies. All the Israeli settlements are illegal regardless of the labels used by the Israeli government. This applies to Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and to the Shebaa Farms." "This right will not be lost, and will not be abandoned by the Arab states, but will be called for with vigor and determination more than ever before," HH the Emir said, adding "We have no doubt that their potential and growing international

stature would enable it to regain that right. I take this opportunity to call on our Palestinian brothers to join forces for rebuilding the Liberation Organization, and uniting the Palestinian Authority institutions in this particular stage. In fact, the state of division is no longer comprehendible to any one, and must be surpassed." "There is neither a peace process nor a struggling liberation strategy that may cause division over them. The issue now is to maintain Palestinian national unity and preserve the centrality of the Palestine cause both at the Arab and international levels, and to prevent Israel from exploiting the existing vacuum. On this the Palestinians should get united, and here we only see theoretical differences compared to the condition of the Palestinian people, and do not justify division, HH the Emir noted. HH the Emir stressed that Qatar continues its efforts to strengthen cooperation with our brothers in the Gulf at the political and economic levels, and in developing mechanisms of action of the Gulf Cooperation Council, saying "We have recently supported the initiative of my brother, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in achieving unity that is based on brotherly bonds and common denominators linking us. While we commend this kind initiative and thank the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for it, we see that it is possible to actually start with the single Gulf currency and coordination on the common security issues. As for the free movement of citizens between our states, we have accomplished a lot so far." "We believe that the goals I am talking about are tenable and realistic goals if there is a sincere will to achieve them. As for the security of the Gulf in general, you also know that we oppose resolving disputes by force, and always demand solving them through dialogue. This is in our interest and also our principles and we believe that the way to resolve any dispute with Iran must be through dialogue and by peaceful means," HH the Emir said. Concluding, HH the Emir said "A new era begins in the Arab world from the Ocean to the Gulf. Qatar which looks forward to the future and which is always developing is reconciled with itself and with its values and is in harmony in its march with the movement of history towards a better future and the interests of the community and the Qatari citizen remain at the top of our priorities and concerns." (QNA)