Qatar Development Bank (QDB) formally ushered in the first edition of the "Made at Home” exhibition at a joint press conference held today with organizing partner Qatar Chamber, strategic partner Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor & Social Affairs, and telecommunications sponsor Ooredoo. Scheduled to be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC) from 1 – 5 October 2017, the five-day expo is organized under the patronage of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

The upcoming exhibition is part of a broader small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) outreach program – the Home-based Business National Program (HBBNP) – 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. Importantly, the upcoming “Made at Home” expo shines a spotlight on homemade products and supports home-based entrepreneurs in their challenge to overcome traditional barriers to market entry, a feat that has traditionally been predominantly achievable by larger businesses.

With the launch of the latest expo, QDB aims to develop the capabilities of Qatari home-based entrepreneurs by offering them a unique opportunity 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 specialized fields. Notably, the “Made at Home” expo is also strategically aligned with the development bank’s basic organizational principles of promoting local products and encouraging new entrepreneurial pursuits.

Commenting during the press conference, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), QDB, Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa said: "We are delighted to organize an exhibition that focuses on a special group of SMEs in the private sector: the home-based business industry. Through ‘Made at Home’, we develop the skills of home-based entrepreneurs and strengthen their ability to formally introduce their products to the market.

"Our first-of-its-kind homemade products exhibition signals the beginning of a new era of prosperity for local home-based businesses in Qatar and ensures the success of hard-working, productive families who – in their own unique capacity – are actively contributing towards the social and economic development of the State of Qatar.”

Director General, Qatar Chamber, Saleh bin Hamad Al-Sharqi said: “Through our cooperation with Qatar Development Bank, we actively meet the cornerstone of our organizational strategy to support commercial productivity – be it by businesses or families – in Qatar. Through this exhibition, we aim to help home-based entrepreneurs develop their products further and introduce them formally to the local market.

"The idea of ​​this exhibition came from the successful participation of home-based businesses during our previous editions of the ‘Made in Qatar’ exhibition, when homemade products attracted a great number of visitors. Naturally, Qatar Chamber and Qatar Development Bank felt it our obligation to organize an exhibition that specialized in the showcase of products of this category. Through this expo, we jointly promote productive families, who are an important part of the national economy and a constituent element of the broader SME sector that we aim to develop in Qatar.”

In the past, Qatar Chamber also partook in other exhibitions that supported home-based business owners in their objective to introduce homemade products to the local market. Some of the exhibitions in which Qatar Chamber lent its support to home-based entrepreneurs included Made in Qatar, Made in China and Expo Turkey.

Head of Department for Family Affairs, Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, Najat Al-Abdullah said, “Today, the national development process is witnessing unprecedented progress in the country and we are delighted to contribute our part. Following the directives of Qatar Vision 2030 to transform Qatar into a sustainable economy, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs is actively promoting all programs, mechanisms and policies that contribute to the empowerment of the civil society as a whole.”

She highlighted the role of the Ministry in implementing a series of plans and policies on a nationwide scale that inclusively aimed to support diverse segments of the society, including families and home-based businesses involved in entrepreneurial pursuits on a local scale.

CEO, Ooredoo Qatar, Waleed Mohamed Al-Sayed said: "We are pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Qatar Development Bank and Qatar Chamber to support home-based entrepreneurs. As a nation, Qatar has always sought to promote entrepreneurship, increase economic diversification and create a self-sustaining economy. Resultantly, as a national company, we are firmly committed to supporting this initiative by leveraging our expertise to support this sector, and we are delighted to be part of the development process for home-based entrepreneurs.”

Participation in the exhibition "Made at Home" is subject to certain controls, such as the condition that home-based business owners hold a Qatari nationality as well as a valid business license or commercial registration for the production and sale of goods, such as garments, jewelry, handicrafts and food items.

The upcoming expo – jointly organized by partners QDB and Qatar Chamber, strategic partner Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor & Social Affairs, and telecommunications sponsor Ooredoo – first opened for registration to home-based entrepreneurs and businesses in May.

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About Qatar Development Bank (QDB)
In 1997, Qatar Development Bank (QDB) was first established as Qatar Industrial Development Bank (QIDB) in a fundamental step to expanding Qatar’s indigenous industrial infrastructure. The aim of the newly-created 100% government-owned developmental organization was to develop investments within local industries, thereby accelerating growth and economic diversification of the private sector in Qatar.

Since then, its portfolio has greatly expanded—today, QDB is a centerpiece to achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030.

To promote the private sector, QDB locally extends wide-ranging financial and non-financial support to entrepreneurs across a myriad of industries—the development organization runs a series of initiatives that promote the entrepreneurial spirit in the citizenry to create private startups on an ongoing basis. One case-in-point is Al-Fikra National Business Competition, whose fifth edition was launched in August 2016, and yet another is Global Entrepreneurship Week, the second edition of the Qatar-based instalment of the worldwide initiative, launched in November 2016. Other schemes, such as the eco-friendly Jahiz I and Jahiz II initiatives, seek to empower already-existing local SMEs that are operating across a diverse range of industries, including: chemicals, electronics, plastics, wood materials as well as food and beverage. Furthermore, Al Dhameen service proves critically important in the service of entrepreneurs because these indirect loan facilities are viable by both existing companies as well as completely new startups. The purpose of these initiatives is to strengthen the non-oil and gas product manufacturers in the private sector.

Through its Tasdeer export program, QDB aims to strengthen the presence of Qatari companies on prestigious global platforms, linking Qatari specialists to international experts across the world’s production industries. In 2016, QDB took part in a number of expos from across a broad spectrum of industries—to cite a few examples, the bank recently concluded the showcasing of over 20 local manufacturers from Qatar’s agri-food, plastics and rubber industries at globally-renowned expos like SIAL Paris and K2016 in Paris, France and Düsseldorf, Germany respectively. Most notably, QDB was the sole development agency nominated from amongst the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the 2016 Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Award, under the category of the best development agency in a developing country, in Marrakech, Morocco.

In the days to come, embracing its national responsibility, QDB will continue to empower the nation’s citizens to tap into the latest wave of economic globalization and evolve Qatar’s economy as outlined in National Development Strategy (NDS) 2017-2022.

For more information, please contact:
Ysa Chandna
Kalimat
E-mail: ysa@kalimat.qa
Mobile: +974.5017.0014

© Press Release 2017