Gulf Times

Wednesday, June 23, 2021 3

QATAR

Qatar maintains
top Mena ranking in
Global Peace Index
 For 13th year in a row, Qatar continues its lead
QNA
Doha

Q
atar has been ranked the
first in Middle East and
North Africa (Mena) and
HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari with other officials during the visit to the new Qatar Vaccination 29th globally in the Global Peace
Centre – for Business and Industry Sector yesterday. Index (GPI) for the year 2021.
Issued by the Institute of Eco-
nomics and Peace in Australia,
the 2021 report covered 163
countries. The report measures
the state of peace across three
domains: the level of Societal
Safety and Security, the extent
of Ongoing Domestic and Inter-
national Conflict, and the degree
of Militarisation.
For the 13th year in a row, Qa-
tar maintained its first rank in
the Mena region, and occupied
advanced positions at the glo-
bal level during the same pe-
riod, by achieving high ratings
that surpassed many developed
countries in low crime rates,
and achieved advance ranks at
the global level in the GPI as it
scored high ranks in different
quantitative and qualitative in-
dicators of peacefulness.
The countries are ranked in
the Index on a scale of 1-5 so
that the most stable countries
are those who achieve 1, while
the least stable receive 5. This
year Qatar scored 1.605 points
The new facility has more than 300 vaccination stations and 700 staff members, with the capacity to with high ranks in many indica-
administer more than 25,000 doses a day. tors such as level of criminality,
terrorist activities, number of
homicides and level of organised
internal conflict.

‘World’s biggest’ The Global Peace Index is an

attempt to measure the relative
peacefulness of countries and
regions.
It is produced by the Institute
the Reliance on Police Services
Index, and the Global Terrorism

vaccination centre for Economic and Peace in con-

sultation with an international
team of experts from institutes
and research centres.
Index, which ranked Qatar in the
first rank in the Middle East and
North Africa in terms of secu-
rity and safety and freedom from

opened in Mesaimeer Qatar continues to achieve

From Page 1
He said the Covid-19 Vacci-
nation Scheduling Unit is set up
to support the booking and ap-
pointment process at the new
vaccination centre. Businesses
can schedule vaccination ap-
pointments for their staff by
emailing QVC@hamad.qa
With the opening of the new
Qatar Vaccination Centre – for
Business and Industry Sector
significantly boosting capac-
ity of the National Covid-19
Vaccination Programme, the
two drive-through vaccination
centres and the vaccination
centre at Qatar National Con-
vention Centre (QNCC) will
close over the next two weeks,
it was announced yesterday.
More than 320,000 people
have visited the drive-through
centres for their second dose
vaccines, but with summer
temperatures continuing to
rise, conditions have become
very challenging for staff and
service users.
The last day of operation
will be today for the Lusail
Covid-19 drive-through vac-
cination centre, June 30 for the
Al Wakra drive-through facility
and June 29 for the vaccination
centre at QNCC.
Dr Mariam Abdulmalik,
managing director of PHCC,
said: “The vaccination centre
at the Qatar National Conven-
tion Centre was initially set up
to prioritise the vaccination of
teachers and school staff. Since
opening in February, more than
600,000 people – teachers,
school staff and many other
eligible members of the com-
munity - have been vaccinated
at the centre.”
“With the new Qatar Vac-
cination Centre – for Business
and Industry Sector providing
capacity for more than 25,000
doses a day, and continuing
capacity for 15,000 doses a day
across our 27 health centres,
the National Covid-19 Vacci-
nation Programme maintains
capacity for up to 40,000 doses
a day,” explained Dr Abdulma-
lik.
Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, chair
of the National Health Stra-
tegic Group on Covid-19 and
head of Infectious Diseases at
HMC, encouraged anyone not
yet vaccinated to play their part
in getting back towards nor-
mality by accepting their vac-
cine appointment invitation
when eligible.
“The efficacy of the Pfizer-
BioNTech and Moderna vac-
cines is exceptional – beyond
what we could realistically have
hoped for this time last year.
Real-world clinical evidence
shows the vaccines to be more
than 95% effective at prevent-
ing severe sickness due to Cov-
id-19. For the small minority of
people who have been offered
a vaccination appointment,
but not yet accepted the offer, I
encourage you to do so as soon
as possible. It is important that
you protect yourself; protect
your loved ones; and help us get
back to normal.”
advanced positions in peace
and security indicators at the
regional and global levels. The
State ranked 25th globally in the
Global Competitiveness Index
2017-2018, issued by the World
Economic Forum.
This ranking confirms econom-
ic diversification, infrastructure
development, openness and ef-
fectiveness of the labour market,
and the tangible progress in terms
of innovation and technology.
All these indicators reflect the
level of security and safety that
the country enjoys.
In this context, the Ministry
of Interior (MoI) underlined that
the state of security and safety in
Qatar, which is reflected in inter-
national reports, was the fruit of
tireless efforts exerted by various
departments to ensure achieving
the best rates of security perform-
ance, combating crime and pro-
tecting lives and property, in line
with its vision and strategy.
The ministry said Qatar’s su-
periority affirms its leadership
according to many indicators
concerned with measuring the
levels of security and public and
personal safety, such as the Glo-
bal Peace Index, Numbeo index,
terrorism.These global indica-
tors measure, among others, the
state of security and peace, in-
cluding the rate of major crimes,
extent of safety measures and
community partnership, qual-
ity of services provided to the
public and the reach of security
awareness in the community.
The MoI stressed that its vi-
sion to achieve the highest lev-
els of security and stability in
the society stems from its com-
prehensive strategy that seeks
to build an integrated security
system supported by the devel-
opment it is witnessing in its
various facilities, and reflects the
extent to which the ministry’s
employees understand their du-
ties, tasks and powers, guaran-
teed to them by the constitution
and the law, and their moral and
ethical behaviour.
The MoI has witnessed un-
precedented development, both
on the security and the service
sides, which included a signifi- development in the service and the adoption of human rights
cant expansion in all its secu- security aspects come within the principles and the promotion of
rity and service departments, in framework of the development these rights, and ensuring the
terms of modern buildings and and modernisation the State dignity of individuals and the
technologies, in order to devel- has been witnessing in various protection of public and private
op and consolidate the security fields, as well as its strategy in freedoms in accordance with the
work in general. its community communication constitution and the provisions
The ministry noted that the and its technological leadership, of the law.

Qatar’s focus on being the lowest

cost producer of LNG: al-Kaabi
From Page 1
“So transition needs time to
develop – we need to be very
responsible, very deliberate,
and I think do it very respon-
sibly. But also, we need to
collectively do it as humanity
and not be unfair in how we
do it.”
Energy prices could prob-
ably go up with lack of enough
investments in the oil and gas
projects, he said.
And in the last couple of
years, there has not been
enough investments in oil and
gas projects, al-Kaabi noted.