HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani inaugurated yesterday the 38th ordinary session of the Advisory Council. HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Special Adviser to the Emir HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani attended the inaugural ceremony. Members of the Advisory Council attending the 38th session yesterday The event was also attended by a number of Sheikhs, ministers, heads of the diplomatic missions accredited to Qatar and other dignitaries. Delivering a speech to mark the occasion HH the Emir expressed his appreciation and pride of the Advisory Council, saying: “The progress that we seek to achieve needs your sincere effort and fruitful collaboration with the government, to build together the generations’ future, and accomplish the comprehensive development for our homeland, to reach the purpose that we pursue, which is the happiness of the Qatari citizen and the assumption of Qatar the status that it deserves among the states and peoples in our contemporary world.” HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Special Adviser to the Emir HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani along with other dignitaries at the Advisory Council session The Emir added: “In my address to you last year I referred to the national vision of the State for the next 20 years, and its significance in drawing up our policies from the various aspects of life. Today your new session begins, after the completion of a large part of the planned transitional targets, in which we have added a lot to what we accomplished in the previous years. “In this context, we have started to take a number of steps regarding the administrative organisation of State organs; foremost among these are the restructuring of the State authorities, as part of a comprehensive appraisal process of the organisational and institutional structure of the government apparatus, the Emir said. “That process, which encompassed the ministries, authorities, institutions and other government organs, had aimed at upgrading the efficiency of these bodies, to avoid duplication and reduce cost, without any negative effect on the performance of activities and services or on the speed of executing them and achieving the optimal utilisation of financial and human resources,” the Emir noted. The Emir underlined that the Qatari citizen has always been our top priority, to help him qualify and secure decent livelihood, out of our belief that the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable development is attainable through the investment in human development and upgrading the abilities of man assigned to implement and manage the various aspects of comprehensive development. The Emir noted: “This has been manifested in a number of procedures taken by us, for the benefit of the citizen in various aspects of life, namely the establishment of the Supreme Council of Health, to provide the best level of health care, and to provide health services at a level similar to that in developed countries. “Also, the Supreme Education Council and the Supreme Council for Family Affairs have been reorganised, to develop education and upgrade its level, to fulfil the needs of the State for outstanding and competent human resources in various spheres, and to pursue strengthening the status of family and its role in society and to support it and its members, and maintain a strong, integrated and coherent family that takes good care of its offspring and adheres to the ethical and religious values as well as the high ideals. “The continuation and growth of economic activity in Qatar has assisted, to a greater degree, in overcoming the fallout of the economic crisis, by maintaining employment levels, restoring the equilibrium to the real estate sector, which was one of the causes of inflation in the previous phase, the Emir added. “The stability of the economic performance of the State, and the continuation of price control in the market by the government, have positively contributed to stabilising prices, and eventually maintaining the living standards of the community,” the Emir noted. “The continuation with funding and executing the current general budget and maintaining the level of public expenditure in all social, educational and health sectors as well as implementing all major programmes in the field of oil, gas, infrastructure and investment, in line with the keenness to keep supply and demand in equilibrium, to avert recurrence of the inflation”. The Emir asserted that despite these positive indicators, the solid economic and financial standing of Qatar should not make us forget the importance of efficiency in utilising our financial resources, continuation of work to rationalise costs, increasing revenues, and moving forward towards achieving long-term economic investments, locally and globally, being the basic pillar to pursue the sustainable development for our country. Concerning Qatar’s foreign policy, the Emir said it always aims at deepening the bonds and co-operation with all countries and peoples, on the basis of peaceful co-existence principles, mutual respect and promotion of joint interests, as well as the effective participation in the causes and concerns of our Arab and Islamic nations, out of the dedication to our Gulf, Arab and Islamic belonging. “And as we look forward to the forthcoming summit meeting of the leaders of the GCC countries in Kuwait, we are confident that the patronage of the summit by our brother Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, would contribute to its success, to yield results that would consolidate the drive of the Council and achieve integration among its countries,” the Emir said. “Also, as we are keen to strengthen Arab solidarity, develop joint Arab action, we spare no effort in dealing seriously with the challenges encountering our Arab nation,” the Emir added. The Emir noted that Qatar, during its chairmanship of the Arab summit, has acted to unify Arab ranks, to reach a common vision for many fundamental issues on the Arab arena that may obstruct the course of joint Arab action. QNA

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