Qatar is well on its course to formulate the next National Development Strategy (2017-22), which not only aims at creating conducive conditions for more private sector participation but also better manage financial resources and plan state spending within "hard" budgetary constraints in view of lower oil price levels.

"With oil prices now at lower levels than previously anticipated, there will need to be a focus on how to better manage our financial resources and plan state spending," HE Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit told Oxford Business Group in an interview.

There are several key issues that will be considered in the process of creating the next NDS, for 2017-22, he said, adding it will take stock of how well the country has been confronting challenges that were set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030.

The next NDS will have to build on the lessons learnt from the first one, and will need to recognise the changing economic context the state is now operating in, he him.

Although there is a tendency to speak about diversification only in terms of the composition of economic activity, al-Nabit said the NDS makes it clear that diversification is much more than the balance of activity in the hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons sectors.

"One of the biggest challenges is creating conditions in which private sector activity can play a more active role in economic development, and this is a topic which will receive renewed attention in the second NDS," he asserted.

Some limited progress has been made to date, and there are in fact more citizens employed in the private sector than before, but much more needs to be done to rebalance the economy, he said.

The first NDS set out parameters for a fiscal reform programme that is now being implemented by the Ministry of Finance.

As part of this wider reform effort, al-Nabit said it will be vital for the next NDS to identify the aggregate resource envelope within which national development efforts will have to proceed to 2022, and the strategic considerations that ought to influence the allocation of those resources.

The NDS is also likely to lay much greater stress on the need for government ministries and agencies to plan within "hard" budgetary constraints, he said.

"However, the NDS is unlikely to come up with a physical investment programme that will require financing," he added.

The scrutiny of physical project proposals and decisions about their financing will remain under the oversight of the Ministry of Finance, as the NDS moves forward, al-Nabit highlighted.

As part of its efforts to better assist investors and enhance foreign direct investment, the economic statistics department in the ministry has been continuously engaged in strengthening the process of data collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination, he added.