Doha, Qatar: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has held the strategic planning forum for 2026, over a period of three days, with the participation of supervisory leadership and employees from the Ministry’s various sectors.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry, the meeting focused on preparations for the forum, its key themes, and enhancing the readiness of the Ministry’s units to support the implementation of the Third National Development Strategy 2024–2030 and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Strategy (2024–2030).
The forum was chaired by H E Mohammed bin Hassan Al Malki, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with the participation of Assistant Undersecretaries and Department Directors. In his opening remarks, His Excellency affirmed that 2025 constituted an important phase, during which the Ministry achieved accomplishments that contributed to improving the business environment, developing services, and enhancing investment attractiveness. He commended the efforts of work teams and the level of integration among the Ministry’s sectors, which contributed to achieving these results and established a solid foundation for moving forward with the implementation of the 2026 plan.
Fatma Al Alamri, Director of the Planning, Quality, and Innovation Department, presented the Ministry’s strategic direction for 2026. She noted that the Ministry’s Strategy 2024–2030 was developed directly based on the objectives of the Third National Development Strategy and the relevant sectoral strategies, in line with the Ministry’s mandates.
The forum included presentations of the plans of all executive sector departments and shared services, comprising more than 200 projects, including 32 projects under the Third National Development Strategy and 173 operational projects. Discussions also addressed mechanisms for monitoring implementation and measuring performance, as well as ways to enhance integration across different sectors.
H E Saleh Majed Al Khulaifi, Assistant Undersecretary for Industry and Business Development, delivered a comprehensive presentation on the pivotal role played by the sector in supporting manufacturing industries and business development, confirming the sector’s contribution to six of the ten strategic outcomes of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
In 2025, the sector witnessed notable progress in developing the industrial environment through the launch of key initiatives, including: unifying industrial land management procedures under the umbrella of Manateq, improving environmental permitting procedures, assessing factory readiness to adopt Industry 4.0 tools (SIRI), launching the updated version of the Industrial Activities Guide, and introducing four Public–Private Partnership projects, one of which has already been signed.
The Assistant Undersecretary reviewed the main targets for 2026, including raising the compound annual growth rate of manufacturing GDP to 3.4%, increasing customer satisfaction with industrial services to 85% or higher, maintaining 100% digital transformation in industrial development services, and empowering national products by increasing the application of customs measures to combat harmful practices and increasing sales of national products during National Product Week.
H E Ayed Manahi Al-Qahtani, Assistant Undersecretary for Trade Affairs, delivered a comprehensive presentation addressing the achievements realized in 2025, which reflected significant progress in facilitating the business environment and improving service efficiency.
