Qatar fine-tunes tender, auction laws to support small, medium firms

In an overhaul of the tender and auction laws, Qatar has incorporated in-country value (ICV) into the purchase and procurement process, especially financial assessment, as part of efforts to support the small and medium companies.
This has been done through amendments with a view to enhance governance and procurement processes. The amendments to the executive provisions of Law No. 24 of 2015, regulating tenders and auctions, were highlighted by the top officials of the Ministry of Finance at a press conference Tuesday.
The amendments come within the continuous efforts of Qatar to support economic activities in the non-oil sectors with increasing trend towards enhancing the role of the private sector in implementing a wide range of development projects, said the ministry officials.
One of the most prominent of these amendments is the addition of a definition of ICV, defining it as the total expenses incurred by the contractor, supplier, or service provider within the country to develop national businesses, services or human resources to stimulate productivity in the local economy.
The ICV will also provide valuable business opportunities for local business owners or attract investors who are planning to set up their businesses in the country.
The amendments aim to facilitate not only the completion of procurement processes in relation to the ICV programme in Qatar but also the implementation of ICV procedures in procurement processes, in order to contribute to the sustainable economic growth.
Through the amendments, the country aims to give preference to national products and the ICV and award bids to those who submit the least expensive monetary bids after calculating the local value ratio.
The amendments provide opportunities that allow national micro, small and medium-sized firms to grow; increase the number of tenders available to them and facilitate their cooperation with the public sector.
It seeks to exempt national micro companies as well as small and medium companies from providing temporary and insurance, and from paying for tender documents valued at less than QR1mn.
The amendments seek to permit limited participation in tenders valued at less than QR5mn to micro, small or medium-sized companies.
The amendments included the development and acceleration of procurement in government agencies by introducing a specific timeframe to organise transactions and complete them within 60 working days, setting a deadline of 20 working days from the date of submitting the final insurance to sign the contract and setting a deadline of 90 working days to start the execution of the contract after signing.
In 2021, the Ministry of Finance launched the stimulus programme, which included three main pillars as Qatar ICV programme, the promotion of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the environmental, social, and general governance for the financial sector (ESG) to achieve Qatar Vision 2030.
The "stimulus" programme targets the development of the private sector and its important role in economic growth, and its contribution to a sustainable economy through production, job creation and industrialisation as well as increased exports and gross domestic product.