Doha: Qatar’s former prime minister and strongman was on Tuesday replaced as deputy head of the powerful Qatar Investment Authority in a shakeup ordered by the country’s new young emir, official QNA news agency reported.
Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani had already lost his post as foreign and prime minister when the new Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani announced his cabinet on June 26.
The emir decided in a decree to restructure the QIA’s administrative council, of which he is the head, handing the vice-presidency to his half-brother Prince Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Thani, QNA said.
The decree also named Finance Minister Ali Sherif Al Emadi and Economy and Trade Minister Ahmad Bin Jasem Bin Mohammad Al Thani to the new administrative council.
A separate decree appointed Ahmad Mohammad Al Syed, managing director of Qatar Holdings, as executive chairman of the QIA.
The emir also announced the formation of a higher council for economic affairs and investment, which he will head himself, QNA quoted a separate decree on Tuesday as saying.
Several ministers and top officials, including the prime minister and representatives of the QIA and Qatar Development Bank, will sit on the new council.
The QIA, the gas-rich gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, has invested billions of dollars in businesses ranging from Germany’s Volkswagen to French energy giant Total, Britain’s Sainsbury’s supermarket chain and Barclays Bank.
