Docking at fishing ports to be limited to Qatari ships

DOHA: The Cabinet which met with Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani in the chair yesterday approved a draft law on the regulation of fishing ports under which docking at fishing ports shall be limited to Qatari ships that have a permit from the competent department.

Under the terms of the draft law, the provisions of the law apply to fishing ports only, and the Ministry of Municipality and Environment shall manage, maintain and develop fishing ports in the State.

In addition, docking at fishing ports shall be limited to Qatari ships that have a permit from the competent department. Ship-owners or employees shall not engage in business within the boundaries of fishing ports.

Following the meeting, Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Dr Hassan bin Lahdan Al Hassan Al Mohannadi stated that the Cabinet reviewed topics on its meeting’s agenda.

The Cabinet took the necessary measures to ratify the following agreements between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Government of the Republic of Togo.

They include an agreement on cancellation of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and private passports; an agreement on the promotion and protection of mutual investments; an agreement on economic, trade and technical cooperation; and an agreement on legal cooperation.

The Cabinet also approved the first executive program of the agreement on cooperation in the field of culture and art between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Government of the State of Kuwait for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. It also approved a draft agreement for cooperation in the field of environment between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Government of the Republic of Mali.

The Cabinet reviewed the following topics and took the appropriate decision, including the views of the concerned parties on the annual report of the work of the National Traffic Safety Committee and its recommendations in this regard. This committee, which is established within the Ministry of Interior, is responsible for developing policies and plans in the field of traffic, solving traffic problems.

The committee is also responsible for proposing methods of addressing coordinating and cooperating between different bodies whose work affects the proper regularity of traffic and proposing the development of legislation related to traffic, roads and transport engineering in accordance with international standards and commensurate with the requirements of the continuous development of roads and transportation.

The topics also included a letter of the head of the complaints committee of the Qatar Financial Market Authority (QFMA) on the report of the committee for the period from July to December 2017.

The committee is established with QFMA, is chaired by one of the presidents of the Court of Appeal with the membership of two judges from the Court of Appeal and two experts in securities trading to look into grievances and requests issued by the QFMA.

During the period mentioned, the committee considered a number of grievances and requests for suspension and issued its decisions in this regard.