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IFP News
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Sep 2 2010 12:00AM
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Qatar’s Tanween, a development management unit of Barwa Real Estate Co., is managing projects estimated at 80 billion Qatari riyals ($21.97 billion), Doha-based Asharq daily reports, citing an executive.
Tanween, formerly known as Quality International Qatar, is managing the Wakra Aqua Park project of Qatari Diar and is in talks with Diar to manage more of its projects, Mohammad Fakhro, Tanween’s chief executive, said according to the paper.
Tanween is also managing a project in Saudi Arabia that it will announce soon, he said, adding that his company is currently managing five of Barwa’s local projects, the daily reports.
Dow Jones Newswires
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Sep 2 2010 12:00AM
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Advertising expenditure in the first six months of this year increased by 23.6 percent to reach $3.77 billion compared to $3.05 billion for the same period last year.
The Pan Arab media share, mainly satellite TV, soared 24 percent to $1.57 billion, Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC) said.
According to Arabian PR managing director Walid Karanouh, based on recent industry report, Saudi Arabia is one of the major advertising and PR markets in the Gulf region. The GCC media share was $1.7 billion for newspapers and $1.6 billion for TV, he added, citing the report.
The Pan Arab media share represents 41.64 percent of the total advertising expenditure in the GCC.
This is followed by the UAE with $929 million, an increase of 42 percent Saudi Arabia $550 million, a rise of 11 percent Kuwait $337 million or 11 percent rise Qatar rose 1 percent to $157 million Oman jumped 69 percent to $120 million and Bahrain inched up 2 percent to $50 million.
PARC said advertising expenditure in the region, which includes Pan Arab media which is mainly satellite TV channels, reached $5.05 billion from January to June compared to $4.22 billion in 2009.
The impact of the global financial and economical crisis dampened the sector’s growth to 9 percent in 2009 at $9.2 billion compared to $8.9 billion in 2008.
Khamis Al-Muqla, chairman of Bahrain-based Gulf Marcom Group and Worldwide Board Member of the International Advertising Association, said these figures are a good indicator that the advertising activities in GCC are recovering and steadily returning to the previous level of growth seen over the last 10 years.
Should the rate continue, Al Muqla said, advertising expenditure will exceed the $10 billion barrier by end of 2010 for the first time.
The Pan-Arab media share of the advertising expenditure rose to $2.86 billion representing an increase of 34 percent compared to $2.14 billion in 2009.
Pan Arab media had the greatest share of the increase in GCC advertising expenditure with 57 percent of the total GCC spending.
By country, Bahrain’s advertising expenditure grew by 40 percent, the highest rate amongst all GCC countries, followed by Oman (12 percent), Qatar (11 percent), Saudi Arabia (9 percent), and Kuwait (8 percent). The UAE was the country to record a decrease (4 percent).
Despite the drop, the UAE maintained its leadership position in terms of market share in GCC adspend at 31 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia (27 percent), Kuwait (21.7 percent), Qatar (10.2 percent), Oman (6 percent), and Bahrain (3 percent). These percentages do not include Pan Arab expenditure which is directed to key markets in the GCC, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Other Arab markets also registered impressive growth with Egypt topping non-GCC countries at 36 percent followed by Lebanon (19 percent) and Jordan (9 percent).
Al Muqla added that TV advertising - including Pan Arab media - grew by 39 percent to reach $3.48 and continues to lead the total GCC advertising expenditure with a market share of 57 percent.
Print media was a distant second at 37 percent, with newspapers comprising 31 percent to reach $1.89 billion, an increase of 6 percent, followed by magazines with 6 percent market share and $368 million in total spend. Outdoor advertising’s market share shrunk to 4 percent having decreased by 6 percent to $244 million.
SG/Agencies
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Aug 17 2010 12:00AM
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Ezdan Real Estate Co., Qatar’s largest property developer by market value, expects to complete projects that are underway with investments worth 20 billion Qatari riyals ($5.49 billion) in less than three years, Doha-based Asharq daily reports citing an executive.
In other news, Hisham Al Sahtari, Ezdan’s chief executive and managing director, also said according to the paper that his company is on the brink of concluding the final deal with its partners who will own stakes in a QAR1 billion Malaysian real estate fund that is expected to be listed on the Malaysian bourse by the end of the current year.
Dow Jones Newswires
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Aug 17 2010 12:00AM
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Ezdan Real Estate Co., Qatar’s largest property developer by market value, expects to complete projects that are underway with investments worth 20 billion Qatari riyals ($5.49 billion) in less than three years, Doha-based Asharq daily reports citing an executive.
In other news, Hisham Al Sahtari, Ezdan’s chief executive and managing director, also said according to the paper that his company is on the brink of concluding the final deal with its partners who will own stakes in a QAR1 billion Malaysian real estate fund that is expected to be listed on the Malaysian bourse by the end of the current year.
Dow Jones Newswires
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Aug 16 2010 12:00AM
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Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) opened a logistics services establishment in Tripoli, Lebanon. According to company officials, this logistics services establishment would help Qapco meet its customers’ increasing demands, as the company’s exports of petrochemical products are reaching up to 20,000 metric tons per annum.
Qapco’s global marketing network currently consists of 28 overseas representative offices and logistics services establishments as well as an agent network to serve Qapco’s customers.
The offices are located in China, India, Egypt, Syria, the UAE, Lebanon, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Yemen,
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Turkey, Morocco and the Philippines. Qapco is a leading company in the ethylene and polyethylene markets in the Middle East and is looking to reinforce that position and strive towards increasing its share in the global market. Its products are currently being exported to over 4,000 customers in about 85 countries around the world.
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Aug 12 2010 12:00AM
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Qatar’s economy may be in the midst of expansion, with oil and gas income nearing an all-time high and GDP tipped to expand by up to 19%, but the country’s planners are looking to a far-off future where hydrocarbons play a less significant role in the economy, and their plans for diversification are based on education.
In late July, a senior state official said this policy of diversification needed to be taken a step further, shifting the base of the economy not just away from oil and gas but towards providing increasing employment for locals, instead of bolstering the number of foreign workers which in turn marginalized nationals.
Ibrahim Ibrahim, the head of the General Secretariat for Development Planning, said Qatar should look to focus on developing an economy that emphasizes technology and capital-intensive businesses, rather than industries that are reliant on manual work.
“We are recommending a different type of development path that will reduce the dependence on foreign labor,” Ibrahim said in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency on July 23.
The direction that path will take has been set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV), the policy document launched in late 2008 as the broad social and economic plan for the future of the country.
The central objective of the blueprint is for Qatar to be transformed by 2030 into a country capable of sustaining its own development and providing for a high standard of living for Qataris for generations to come.
Acknowledging that there will come a day when the country’s vast reserves of oil and gas will run out, the QNV says that the economic future will increasingly depend on the ability of the Qatari people to deal with a globalized economy that is knowledge-based and extremely competitive. To win that competition, the government has recognized the need to develop an advanced education system and to boost the effective participation of Qataris in the labor force.
To that end, the government has been increasing the levels of funding for education, both to ensure higher teaching standards but also to vastly expand the system’s infrastructure.
The projected education spend for the 2010/11 fiscal year – which began on April 1 – is $4.8bn, more than double the allocation under the 2007/08 budget, when just over $2.2bn was dedicated to the education system, and more than 10 times the $440m budgeted for in the 2004/05 term.
Of the total education budget for the present fiscal year, $2.1bn has been earmarked for buildings and educational facilities, a figure close to half of the entire national capital works budget of just five years ago.
However, while the government has been investing heavily in education over the past decade, it does seem that it may take a little longer for those investments to pay off, at least in terms of employment in the private sector.
According to the results of a recent study undertaken by the International Bank of Qatar, 88% of Qatari nationals in employment work in the public sector. The report, issued on August 8, said that Qatar had the highest ratio of public employment for nationals among the member states of the GCC, followed by the UAE at 85% and Kuwait with 82%.
Sanjay Modi, the managing director for India, South-east Asia and the Middle East for global online employment agency Monster, believes even greater steps have to be taken to ensure the region’s education systems provide skills training that will prepare graduates for work in the private sector.
“What you have to look at is education and employability. What the corporates and the employers are finding a challenge is the skill set, and I think that is where government support is required,” Modi told news portal Arabian Business on July 29.
While the higher spending in the education system may not as yet have been translated into stronger participation rates within the private sector, this can in part be explained by one of the underlying tenets of the QNV, which sets out that there should be incentives for Qataris to enter professional and management roles in education, as well as the business and health sectors.
Qatar is still trying to fill the remaining gaps within its educational sector, developing local educators who in turn will be entrusted with providing those coming after them with the skills needed to take the policy of diversification a step closer to the goals of 2030. Once these trained education professionals are in place, then Qatar will be well on its way to turning this vision into a reality.
Oxford Business Group
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Aug 12 2010 12:00AM
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Qatar’s economy may be in the midst of expansion, with oil and gas income nearing an all-time high and GDP tipped to expand by up to 19%, but the country’s planners are looking to a far-off future where hydrocarbons play a less significant role in the economy, and their plans for diversification are based on education.
In late July, a senior state official said this policy of diversification needed to be taken a step further, shifting the base of the economy not just away from oil and gas but towards providing increasing employment for locals, instead of bolstering the number of foreign workers which in turn marginalized nationals.
Ibrahim Ibrahim, the head of the General Secretariat for Development Planning, said Qatar should look to focus on developing an economy that emphasizes technology and capital-intensive businesses, rather than industries that are reliant on manual work.
“We are recommending a different type of development path that will reduce the dependence on foreign labor,” Ibrahim said in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency on July 23.
The direction that path will take has been set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV), the policy document launched in late 2008 as the broad social and economic plan for the future of the country.
The central objective of the blueprint is for Qatar to be transformed by 2030 into a country capable of sustaining its own development and providing for a high standard of living for Qataris for generations to come.
Acknowledging that there will come a day when the country’s vast reserves of oil and gas will run out, the QNV says that the economic future will increasingly depend on the ability of the Qatari people to deal with a globalized economy that is knowledge-based and extremely competitive. To win that competition, the government has recognized the need to develop an advanced education system and to boost the effective participation of Qataris in the labor force.
To that end, the government has been increasing the levels of funding for education, both to ensure higher teaching standards but also to vastly expand the system’s infrastructure.
The projected education spend for the 2010/11 fiscal year – which began on April 1 – is $4.8bn, more than double the allocation under the 2007/08 budget, when just over $2.2bn was dedicated to the education system, and more than 10 times the $440m budgeted for in the 2004/05 term.
Of the total education budget for the present fiscal year, $2.1bn has been earmarked for buildings and educational facilities, a figure close to half of the entire national capital works budget of just five years ago.
However, while the government has been investing heavily in education over the past decade, it does seem that it may take a little longer for those investments to pay off, at least in terms of employment in the private sector.
According to the results of a recent study undertaken by the International Bank of Qatar, 88% of Qatari nationals in employment work in the public sector. The report, issued on August 8, said that Qatar had the highest ratio of public employment for nationals among the member states of the GCC, followed by the UAE at 85% and Kuwait with 82%.
Sanjay Modi, the managing director for India, South-east Asia and the Middle East for global online employment agency Monster, believes even greater steps have to be taken to ensure the region’s education systems provide skills training that will prepare graduates for work in the private sector.
“What you have to look at is education and employability. What the corporates and the employers are finding a challenge is the skill set, and I think that is where government support is required,” Modi told news portal Arabian Business on July 29.
While the higher spending in the education system may not as yet have been translated into stronger participation rates within the private sector, this can in part be explained by one of the underlying tenets of the QNV, which sets out that there should be incentives for Qataris to enter professional and management roles in education, as well as the business and health sectors.
Qatar is still trying to fill the remaining gaps within its educational sector, developing local educators who in turn will be entrusted with providing those coming after them with the skills needed to take the policy of diversification a step closer to the goals of 2030. Once these trained education professionals are in place, then Qatar will be well on its way to turning this vision into a reality.
Oxford Business Group
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Aug 12 2010 12:00AM
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Qatar’s plans to spend tens of billions of US dollars on ambitious infrastructure developments including a $25bn railway and metro system are set to generate a steady flow of financing deals in coming years, a top HSBC Holdings official said.
HSBC Qatar chief executive Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi told Zawya Dow Jones in an interview that he expected a string of opportunities “for syndicated loans, government bonds and initial public offerings” as the Arab Gulf country undertakes a massive spending program to spur trend-bucking double-digit economic growth.
“There will be a need for capital financing in the future on the back of infrastructure and oil and gas related projects,” Mostafawi said.
Qatar, holder of the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran, expects gross domestic product growth of at least 16% this year, on the back of ballooning revenues from gas exports.
This compares to just 4% gross domestic product growth in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the two biggest Arab Gulf economies.
The world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, Qatar is using its wealth to fund transport, education and real-estate developments in a bid to diversify its economy, which remains heavily reliant on revenues from oil and gas.
Last November, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn inked a $25bn deal to design and build underground and rail lines in Qatar and neighboring Bahrain.
“The railway project currently under discussion is one example of a large investment over the long term [that will need financing],” Mostafawi said.
Qatar is keen to develop its capital markets and create a yield curve to make it easier for companies to raise money through bond programs, Mostafawi said.
“Qatar wants to develop its local debt capital market, so issuance of local currency debt is something that the government is looking at very seriously so it can be less reliant on external finance,” he said.
Due to the country’s rosy economic picture recent bond issues out of Qatar have been heavily oversubscribed as investors scramble for exposure to the wealthy desert state. Most recently, Qatari Diar’s $3.5bn bond issue was oversubscribed by around six times.
“Qatar has a great story and this is why you see a lot of attraction [in bonds] from the global markets. Investors are coming to Qatar saying we want more issuances out of Qatar people are hungry for new paper”, Mostafawi said.
He added that liquidity had picked up in the last six months in Qatar, but most of this was due to institutional money and not private investors.
“We would like to see more private funds coming through as well and we have seen some signs of this recently”, he said.
On earnings, Mostafawi said HSBC Qatar would post more profit in 2010 than the $136mn it reported last year.
He added that the bank, which has around 560 employees and first set up in Qatar in 1954, would focus on growing all its business lines including its investment and private banking arms.
Gulf Times
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Aug 5 2010 12:00AM
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The QU Wireless and Innovations Center (QUWIC) is collaborating with Mowasalat to develop an Intelligent Traffic Monitoring System (ITMS) customized for Qatar.
This was announced during a press meet yesterday which witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between QUWIC and Mowasalat which will see the development of a smart transportation system in the country in which ITMS is an important element.
The MOU was signed at QSTP by Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director of QUWIC and Ahmed Al Mansoori, Executive Director of Mowasalat.
"With the current and expected growth rate in Qatar, come many challenges and the need for deploying an intelligent transportation system, of which ITMS is a key component, becomes more urgent. Our applied research employs the latest technologies to create innovative solutions and applications that will contribute
to realising Qatar''s objectives as set forth in the 2030 vision through the joint efforts of all parties such as Mowasalat," said Dr Abu-Dayya.
ITMS will utilise multiple sources of data collected through different methods including fixed and mobile sensors. The data will then be processed through QUWIC''s own intelligent platform to generate near-real time traffic information.
This information will be used to create different applications such as travel time, trip planning, best route, fleet management, among others. These applications will be delivered to end users via the Web, Mobile Apps, SMS, and other valuable means.
According to the MoU, Mowasalat will provide adequate vehicles with the proper settings and the engineering expertise in the field of transportation technologies and public transportation business solutions.
Al Mansoori assured that all support will be granted to QUWIC to progress with its applied research on ITMS. He said that this comes in line with Mowasalat''s commitment toward development in Qatar, not only through providing transportation services but also through developing supporting services and applications.
Mowasalat will extend full support to QUWIC in the areas of public transportation experience, vehicles preparation, operational expertise and supporting equipment and services to ensure that QUWIC achieves the best possible results to its development effort.
Building an ITMS and associated applications is one of the key initiatives for QUWIC as it is considered a strategic asset for Qatar. QUWIC is the first Qatari organisation that is building such comprehensive end-to-end solution comprising an intelligent traffic monitoring platform, diverse applications, and multiple delivery mechanisms.
This MOU will allow both parties to exchange information and expertise with the objectives of field testing ITMS applications that suit the needs of Mowasalat and help it to deliver better service to its customers and to contribute efficiently in the development of the transportation sector in the country.
"This MOU brings us one step closer towards achieving our strategic objectives and we are glad to have the trust and support of Mowasalat following the previously signed MOUs with other local authorities such as Qtel and Kahrama," said Dr Abu-Dayya.
The Peninsula
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Aug 1 2010 12:00AM
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The Qatar National Bank Group (QNB), the largest financial institution in Qatar and one of the largest banks in the Midde Eeast & North Africa region, announced that it has received a license from the Central Bank of Lebanon to open a full service branch in the country.
It said the branch will provide a full range of banking services and products to individuals, corporate entities and government.
It indicated that it will offer retail banking services, as well as a range of corporate banking and advisory services that include corporate, project and trade finance. The bank said the branch will support trade and business activity between Lebanon and Qatar. QNB added that its presence in Lebanon falls within the context of its regional and international expansion plan, as the bank is currently present in 23 countries across the Arab world, Europe, Asia and Africa. It recently opened a branch in Mauritania and is present in Syria and Jordan in the Levant region. The Qatar Investment Authority owns 50% of the bank and the other 50% is publicly-traded.
QNB posted net profits of 2.7bn Qatari riyals, or $742m, in the first half of 2010, up 31% year-on-year. It had total assets of $51bn, loans & advances of $32.4bn and customer deposits of $38bn at end-June 2010. There are 53 commercial banks operating in Lebanon through 893 branches, including 9 foreign banks with 30 branches in the country. The sector''s total assets reached $121bn at end-May 2010.
Lebanon This Week – Byblos Bank
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