Engineer Ali Abdul Lateef Al Misnad (right), Honorary Treasurer and Board Member of Qatar Chamber, and Remy Rowhani, CEO of Qatar Chamber, during the press conference. Abdul Basit
DOHA: In response to call by the Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar Chamber (QC), the country’s oldest and largest industry representative body, has announced to have doubled its efforts to control “unjustified” price rise, a senior official of the chamber said.
The chamber said its sectoral committees have “immediately started working” as part of their initiatives to control the rising inflation, and unjustified price rise in the country.
The Emir, in his opening address to the recent 42nd session of the Advisory Council, called on individuals, civil society organisations and QC to play their role and endeavour to avoid any unjustified price rise.
“The chamber is considering setting up a strategy in cooperation with the private sector to find solutions to the price rise,” said QC’s Director General, Remy Rowhani.
He was replying to a question asked by this newspaper during a press conference at the QC headquarters on Thursday to announce its support for the upcoming ‘Trans4’, the international transport and logistics industry exhibition, to be held by this month-end.
Also present at the conference was Ali Abdul Lateef Al Misnad, Honorary Treasure and Board Member of QC.
“We have doubled our efforts, and I assure you that the sectoral committees have immediately started working on it after His Highness’ speech on November 5, in which he mentioned twice about the chamber. It was a great honour for us,” he added.
Asked about details of the strategy and time-frame, he said: “We will soon get back to you to announce details of strategy and progresses made by the chamber in this regard. We take the issue of price rise as a major challenge. We are also encouraging the committees to get together and bring up such issues.”
Analysts, however, suggest that it is not appropriate to expect from industry chambers — usually the protectors of producers’ rights — to be able to do much in controlling price rise.
“Generally, industry chambers are mouthpieces of business communities in any country. They are normally expected to strive to protect the producer’s interests, not the consumer’s rights. It is the antitrust bodies or competition commissions that are entrusted to safeguard consumers from all kinds of market abuses,” said an expert in competition laws, not wanting his name in print.
He said in Qatar’s case, either the Consumer Protection Department, a market watchdog under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, should be provided with more powers or an independent competition commission be established to protect the interest of consumers and producers from all kinds of market dominance, including monopolies and cartels.
Some say inflation can be checked with effective implementation of people-centric monetary policies and a combination of other regulatory mechanisms.
The Emir, in his maiden address to the Council, also announced that a special committee had been set up to propose solutions to inflationary pressures and called for a study to find out the reasons behind the “unjustified rise” in the cost of some projects.
The Peninsula
