Qatar seeks diversification from energy wealth
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Yousef Hussein Kamal: working against inflation |
Yousef Hussein Kamal is a busy man. Not only is he Qatar’s finance minister; he is also acting minister of economy and commerce, chairman of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority, chairman of Qatar National Bank, chairman of Doha Securities Market, chairman of Ras Laffan Liquified Natural Gas, chairman of RasGas, deputy chairman of Qatar Petroleum, a director of Qatar Telecommunications, a director of Qatar Central Bank, general-secretary of the supreme council on economic affairs and investment (which oversees Qatar Investment Authority), as well as a director or vice-chairman of many other local institutions.
Not that he believes he has too much on his plate. "It depends on how you manage your responsibilities," he says when asked about his multiple roles. One of the benefits, he says, is that if a decision needs to be made by one of the companies that he serves, he can consider it from different perspectives. When QNB, for example, decided to increase its capital, Kamal was able to approve the decision directly.
But isn’t there a conflict of interest in a finance minister also acting as chairman of the country’s biggest bank? It’s an accusation that Kamal rejects.
He says that the key to his success lies in delegating. "My job is to choose the right people for the right position to make the right decisions so they are able to implement the vision of the state."
As one of the five most powerful people in Qatar, Kamal is directly involved in drawing up that vision. This involves Qatar becoming a country in which all financial services are conducted according to international best practice; emphasis is given to developing world-class educational and healthcare facilities; and the capital markets infrastructure is of the highest standard.
One of the government’s ambitions is for the national budget to have zero reliance on revenues from hydrocarbons by 2020. That means that the income derived from investments in mostly external activities will generate surplus revenues of $250 billion to meet the country’s needs by 2020. As part of this zero dependence strategy, the government will lower taxes on foreign firms in Qatar to 12% from about 35% and levy tax, in stages, on local firms (but not on individuals).
In the short term, from a macroeconomic perspective, the biggest issue facing the Gulf state is inflation, which is running at about 10%. Consistently strong growth rates, a surge in rental prices and a weakening dollar (to which the riyal is pegged) are the main reasons for the relatively high inflation rate.
Kamal reckons the rate will end the year at 4% to 5% as bottlenecks are removed, especially in the housing and construction sectors. The government, for example, is providing supplies of sand and cement to help ease the pressure on construction companies. "We are taking steps, both monetary and fiscal policies, to cool [inflation] down," says Kamal.