With its authorised capital increased from QR200m to QR5bn, Qatar Development Bank (QDB) formerly known as Qatar Industrial Development Bank (QIDB) is poised to play an even greater role in the country's economic development, Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani the bank's General Manager said here on Thursday.

Sheikh Hamad said QDB was set to expand the scope of its financing to include new areas such as health care, fisheries, education, tourism and agriculture.

QDB expanded role, he said, will see the bank providing financing for setting up private schools, colleges, hospitals, clinics, laboratories and recreational facilities as well as helping to attract new technologies in agriculture, irrigation and fisheries.

"We are now becoming a broad development bank and are ready to receive applications to work in these sectors," he told reporters on the sidelines of the bank's 10th anniversary celebrations.

The bank marked the event by honouring its long-serving employees and the local media at a lunch hosted at the Sharq Village and Spa on Thursday evening.

Sheikh Hamad added that the proportion of the total financing for each sector would depend more or less on the contribution of each of them in the country's GDP.

"We are looking for the quality of the projects rather than the quantity in each of these sectors," he added.

Asked whether QDB had any plans to venture overseas, Sheikh Hamad said the focus was to be a partner in development projects and help develop the country's productive and industrial sectors.

"Our aim is to promote joint-ventures, to bring in high-tech and also to provide the financing either for these projects or the local private sector," he said.

He said the bank did not aim to make profits and that it might take minority stake in eventual joint-venture projects such as those related to local raw material.

He added that the bank ,which was 100 per cent government owned, was not envisioning to be listed in the Doha Securities Market and that the idea was to provide soft loans and that making profits was not the bank's major target but rather to help establish the country's industrial base to diversify the economy.