(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar seeks to deepen venture capital financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including startups, while looking to develop the regulatory framework to support capital market renminbi (RMB) and Islamic RMB products.
Moreover, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) seeks to facilitate the issuance of green bonds, enhance the cooperation with Qatar Development Bank to foster economic diversification through green financing and promote sustainable investment and devise incentives for the financial and manufacturing firms to promote such financing.
Promoting policies to encourage the listing of family-owned companies and introducing market regulations for closely-held private entities, amongst several other suggestions, were made at the Second Strategic Plan (SSP) 2017-22 for financial sector regulation, which was launched on Tuesday evening by QCB Governor HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani in the presence of the Finance Minister HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi.
The SSP for the financial sector is an extension of the first strategic plan for 2011-2016, which was prepared and implemented with the cooperation and coordination of supervision bodies of the financial sector in the country represented by the QCB, Qatar Financial Market Authority and Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority, Sheikh Abdulla said.
Within the QCB's goals of broadening and enhancing financial markets, including undertaking procedures and policies for the growth of the bond market, the aim is to develop policies to support growth of Islamic finance and develop a mechanism to facilitate access to funding through policies to develop alternative markets, according to the SSP.
The need for developing the regulatory framework for capital market RMB products comes in the wake of Qatar establishing the first RMB clearing and settlement centre in the Gulf region in April 2015 following a memorandum of understanding signed between the QCB and the People's Bank of China.
Seeking to develop and implement a fintech strategy, the SSP highlighted that while fintech is important and relevant, it needs no gainsaying that without robust cyber-defence mechanisms, the benefits of fintech might be lost. Qatar has been proactive in improving its cyber-defence mechanisms.
The Qatar Financial Sector Information Security Strategy, published by the QCB this June, comprises five concurrent and continuous functions and defines the development and functioning of security layers to address national interests, security objectives, security risks and challenges to the financial industry.
On green finance, the QCB highlighted that a leading commercial bank launched a 'green mortgage' home loan programme aimed at rewarding environmentally-conscious new homeowners with a concessional rate of interest and an extended repayment period.
Likewise, a leading development bank in the country has been proactive in funding SMEs involved in the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors with the twin objective of empowering local businesses and achieving self-sufficiency in the sector.
Based on the data of the International Finance Corporation, a private sector lending arm of the World Bank, Qatar has reported total green loans of $0.5bn, accounting for 0.3% of the total green loans of the developed and emerging economies.
Regarding the strengthening the payments infrastructure, the SSP said one of the aims is to develop international remittance instruments as well as modern retail payment services.
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