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Emir issues law to set up health, education fund
| Date: | May 23, 2013 |
|---|---|
| Category: | News |
| Source: | Al Arab Newspaper, Qatar Tribune |
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 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.
