10/5/2017
Qatar Development Bank (QDB), in cooperation with Qatar Chamber (QC), announced the launch of its first edition of the “Made at Home” exhibition, during the period 1-5 October 2017 at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center under the patronage of HE. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani.
This came during the press conference held at the headquarter of QDB in the presence of Director General of Qatar Chamber, Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), QDB, Abdul-Aziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa.
“Made at Home” – aims to develop the capabilities of Qatari home entrepreneurs by offering them a unique opportunity to display and sell their products, create new marketing windows, exchange experiences with other home-based entrepreneurs involved in a wide range of specialized fields, promote local products, and encourage new entrepreneurial pursuits.
Speaking at the conference, Saleh Al Sharqi said: “The cooperation between Qatar Chamber and Qatar Development Bank is a testament of our commitment to support home-based businesses and their products. At Qatar Chamber, it is part of our strategy to support hard-working, productive families, who wish to make the most of their natural talents and contribute positively to the national economy.
“Through this exhibition, we help home-based business owners introduce their products to the local market. In the past, we have successfully helped many other SMEs participate in a number of exhibitions, such as Made in Qatar, Made in China and Expo Turkey.”, he added.
He added: “The idea of this exhibition stems from the successful participation of home-based business owners in the last edition of Made in Qatar.
Productive families are an important part of the national economy and a true starting point and nucleus for the indigenous SME industry that we aim to develop.”
He said the exhibition would be held in an area of 5000 sqm to display products of nearly 300 exhibitors, expressing his hope that it would help inform the domestic market on the products of productive families.
Commenting on the event, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), QDB, Abdul-Aziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa said: “Through our latest exhibition for home-based businesses, we now reach a more diverse range of SMEs than ever before. Our ‘Made at Home’ exhibition introduces the public to an important group of businesses – the home-based business industry – with whom they previously may have had only limited contact.” He went on saying: “Around the world, home-based businesses are active contributors to economies, and at QDB, we believe that we can help Qatari home-based businesses overcome the typical challenges entrepreneurs face while entering the market by arranging promotional exhibitions that highlight their products and services. We are confident that our maiden home-based industry exhibition signals the beginning of a new era of prosperity for local home-based businesses in Qatar.”
“Made at Home” exhibition which was announced at a joint QDB-QC press conference, is part of a broader SME outreach program, the Home-based Business National Program (HBBNP), which 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.
The upcoming expo to promote home-based business projects comes as the latest in a series of initiatives that QDB has undertaken to promote an ever-widening range of SMEs. In 2015, QDB had initiated a research project entitled “Home-based Business Projects: Realities and Improvement Mechanisms,” in cooperation with Social Development Center (SDC) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA). The study explored alternative feasible policies to improve the quality of homemade products and services and searched for methods to achieve greater promotion of home-based business projects in Qatar, in line with the private sector objectives stated in Qatar National Vision 2030.
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.
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