Want a Higher ICV Score In Qatar? Here’s Exactly How The Bonus 15% Is Earned.

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If you supply goods or services to Qatar’s energy sector, your ICV score is no longer a “nice to have.” Under QatarEnergy’s Tawteen initiative, In-Country Value is a direct lever in commercial evaluation — a stronger score can be the difference between winning a tender and watching a competitor take it.

Most suppliers understand the base calculation: ICV measures the economic value you retain inside Qatar — local purchases, workforce spend, supplier development, capital investment — divided by your in-country revenue. What far fewer suppliers fully exploit is the Bonus Scheme, which can add meaningful points on top of that base.

Here’s the part worth your attention: the bonus levers carry a combined weight of 20%, applied per supplier up to a cap of 15%. Much of it rewards activity you may already be doing — but failing to document and submit correctly. In a close commercial evaluation, that gap is often decisive.

The 7 Bonus Levers — With The Actual Thresholds

The enhanced program rewards seven behavioural elements. Each has a priority weighting and three performance tiers — Low, Medium, High — with the bonus ICV growing as you move up. Here is the real scoring matrix and how to act on each one.

1. Productivity & Automation — priority 25% Measures the level of automation and digitisation integrated into your operations. This is where a SIRI assessment (Smart Industry Readiness Index) does its work — it’s the recognised way to evidence operational and digital maturity.

• • Tiers: Low → Medium → High maturity
  • Bonus ICV: 0% → 2.4% → 5.0% This is the single highest-reward lever. If you act on one thing this year, make it this.

2. Capability Building — priority 25% Spend on supplier development and training as a percentage of total cost. This is the home for everything you do to build up local suppliers and upskill your workforce.

• • Thresholds: 0.1% → 0.3% → 0.6% of total cost
  • Bonus ICV: 0% → 2.4% → 5.0% Equal top weighting with automation — and often easier to evidence, because the spend already exists.

3. Investment Growth — priority 15% Year-on-year change in equity, signalling reinvestment and long-term commitment to Qatar.

• • Thresholds: 2.5% → 6.0% → 9.0% change vs. prior year
  • Bonus ICV: 6% → 1.4% → 3.0%

4. Qatarization — priority 15% Qatari nationals as a percentage of your white-collar workforce.

• • Thresholds: 1.5% → 3.2% → 5.0%
  • Bonus ICV: 6% → 1.4% → 3.0% A scored behaviour, not just a national-policy expectation — worth building into your hiring plan deliberately.

5. Exports — priority 7% Exports and re-exports as a percentage of total revenue (backed by proper documentation — POs, invoices).

• • Thresholds: 1.4% → 4.3% → 10.0% of revenue
  • Bonus ICV: 2% → 0.6% → 1.4%

6. Research & Development — priority 7% R&D spend as a percentage of total cost.

• • Thresholds: 0.3% → 0.9% → 2.0% of cost
  • Bonus ICV: 2% → 0.6% → 1.4%

7. Sustainability — priority 6% Number of recognised certificates integrating sustainable practices.

• • Thresholds: 1 → 2 → 3 certificates
  • Bonus ICV: 1% → 0.4% → 1.1% If a certificate is issued during the validity of your current ICV certificate, you don’t have to wait for renewal — you can request a bonus update and have your scorecard reflect it once approved.

Maximum at the top tier: 20.0% combined — capped at 15% applied to any single supplier.

The Mistake Most Suppliers Make

These points are rarely lost because the activity isn’t happening. They’re lost because the activity isn’t documented, structured, and submitted correctly. SIRI reports, supplier-development and training spend, equity movements, Qatarization records, export invoices, R&D schedules, ISO and sustainability certificates — all of it has to be captured in the right format, evidenced, and presented in your scorecard before your certifier signs off.

Where To Start?

Treat your next certification as a strategy exercise, not a compliance chore. Three questions before you submit:

• Which levers are we already clearing but not claiming?
• Which one or two could we realistically push to the next tier — Medium to High — before our next certificate?
• Is our evidence organised the way a certifier and Tawteen expect to see it?

Note the weighting: Productivity & Automation and Capability Building together carry 50% of the bonus priority and up to 10 of the 20 available points. That’s where the highest-leverage effort sits.

At MBG Corporate Services, our ICV advisory team works with suppliers across the energy, facilities management, and industrial sectors to maximise both base and bonus scores —from capability-building strategy through to certification. If you’d like a short review of where your score could improve, let’s talk.