DOHA: The decks have been cleared for Qatar to set up an ambitious QR360bn ($98.9bn) health and education fund that aims to take care of the two key sectors during budgetary deficits caused by oil price volatilities in future.
A law (Number 6 of 2013) was issued by the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday paving the way for the establishment of the said corpus.
The law, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA), is to be effective from the date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette.
The capital for the fund is to be set aside from budgetary surpluses every year over the next 10 years as decided by the Emir.
The corpus will be a standby and would plough funds into the health and education sectors only if there are shortfalls in budgetary outlays for the two sectors due to budgetary deficits in future.
The funding is to not exceed 65 percent of returns on the invested assets of the corpus in a previous year, says the law. This is to ensure that the capital of the corpus doesn’t erode over time.
Qatar is the first country in the GCC to set up a permanent fund for health and education—the two basic sectors the country wants to be world class and manned largely by indigenous manpower, since they are crucial to the country’s social and economic development.
The Peninsula
