Qatar Today February 2013

contents

february 2013

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42

Sports Nation

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As sports become more and more of a national pastime, Rory Coen takes a look at efforts by the Qatar Olympic Committee and others to get residents active. With Qatar’s World Cup now less than 10 years away, Qatar Today spoke to some South Africans, who helped shape the 2010 tournament, about the challenges facing the country.

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KAHRAMAA TO TAP RENEWABLE ENERGY

What are the future prospects for electric power in the region amidst the current socio-economic problems. Ezdhar Ibrahim was at the fourth general conference of the Arab Union of Electricity.

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GTL: A viable alternative energy source

The recent World GTL Congress in Doha helps prove that Gas-to-Liquids technology is gaining steam around the world.

february 2013

Qatar Today 3

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FEBRUARY 2 0 1 3

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Islamic Finance coming into bloom Islamic Finance is certainly a global talking point at the moment, but many feel it’s time for it to truly define itself among its peers. Sowmya Sundar investigated its recent progress.

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GCC and ASEAN: Nurturing two regions’ success

Two new hot spots for global investment have risen.

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For the love of racing

A family history of rally racing gives one accomplished driver the ambition to compete. Izdihar Ali talks with him about local competitions and QAFAC support.

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“i AM NOT A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST”

El Seed the Calligraffiti artist who hates to be labelled, is in Doha for an exciting project.

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Secure Communications is priority With recent concerns about the security of mobile communication, Thuraya Communications takes steps to make sending information safe for journalists in conflict zones.

regulars 68

Are we ready for Hydroponics?

New technology for farming in the desert is expensive, and leaves producers without profit. The QNFSP plans for the future, but meanwhile farmers are stuck in the present.

News Bites.................................................12 O & G O v e r v i e w. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 Bank Notes................................................20 R e a l t y Ch e c k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 ARA B SNIPPETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 W o r l d V i e w. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 TEC H TA L K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2 B RA K IN G N e w s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 Market Watch............................................86 D o h a D i a r y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9

Volume 39

issue 2

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Chief Executive Executive Vice President Vice President

february 2013

Yousuf Jassem Al Darwish Sandeep Sehgal Alpana Roy Ravi Raman

Editor Sindhu Nair

SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS rory coen

eZdhar ibrahim abigail mathias CORRESPONDENT OLA diAB

senior Art Director Venkat Reddy

deputy Art Director Hanan Abu Saiam

assistant art director Ayush Indrajith

senior Graphic Designer maheshwar reddy Photographer R obert F ALTImirano

senior Manager – Marketing Zulfikar Jiffry ASSISTANT MANAGERS – MARKETING Chaturka Karandana THOMAS JOSE

senior Media Consultant HASSAN REKKAB LYDIA YOUSSEF

MARKETING RESEARCH AND

SUPPORT EXECUTIVE KANWAL BALUCH

senior Accountant Pratap Chandran Sr. Distribution Executive Bikram Shrestha Distribution Support Arjun Timilsina Bhimal Rai basanta pokhrel

Published by Oryx Advertising Co WLL, P.O. Box 3272; Doha-Qatar Tel: (+974) 44672139, 44550983, 44671173, 44667584 Fax: (+974) 44550982 Email: qtoday@omsqatar.com website: www.omsqatar.com Printed at: Gulf Publishing and Printing Co WLL Copyright © 2013 Oryx Advertising Co WLL

Qatar Today invites readers’ feedback Share your views on the magazine or any issue connected to Qatar. One lucky reader will win an exquisite Mont Blanc writing instrument.

6 Qatar Today

february 2013

published by oryx advertising co wll, All rights reserved. qatar today is published monthly by oac, po box no. 3272, doha, qatar. subscription rate for qr. 180 per year. address for all subscription correspondence to qatar today, oryx advertising co wll, po box 3272, al hilal area, doha, state of qatar. for single copies call us on + 974 44672139 or mail to qtoday@omsqatar.com. material in this publication must not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission. request for permission should be directed to qtoday@omsqatar.com. reprint requests should be directed to the info@Omsqatar.com. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co wll reprint requests should be directed to the info@Omsqatar.com. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co wll reprint requests should be directed to the info@Omsqatar.com.

Write to: The Editor, Qatar Today, PO Box 3272, Doha.

Fax: (+974) 44550982, email: qtoday@omsqatar.com Qatar Today reserves the right to edit and publish the correspondence.

Views and opinions expressed in the published letters may not necessarily be the publication’s views and opinions.

February 2013

from the desk

Press

freedom in Qatar is a highly debatable issue.

When Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) director Jan Keulen said that the rights to life, liberty and security of person don’t mean anything if they cannot be communicated freely, he couldn’t have spoken truer words.

But when the same organisation refused to comment on the volatile issue of the Qatari poet who was handed a life sentence in November 2012, that was disappointing. Though Keulen did ambiguously comment: “We are not going to make any specific comments regarding the case as the original sentence has been appealed. But obviously we are highly concerned about this case and the effects it may have on freedom of expression and hence media freedom in this country.”

Being a part of the media here, I feel mortified by the stance taken by the local newspapers — that of entirely ignoring the issue. What made the matter worse was a recent press conference called by Qatari private entity, Rizon Jet, that spoke quite openly about the constraints it faced while doing business. Sadly, none of the local media reported this (excect for one newspaper and an online news organisation), nor did they investigate the allegations made, taking the easy path of ignorance. Which brings the focus back to the issue of censorship. Are we being censored or are we self-censoring? Qatar Today promises to investigate the issue of censorship and how Rizon Jet is being targeted by competition, as its CEO asserts. (Look out for our March issue).

Censorship is of course unhealthy, but Qatar is on a wellness spree, giving sports maximum impetus. Qatar Today looks at the various sporting activities that the country is committed to and how it is gearing up for even bigger sporting events.

GTL is a technology that has put Qatar on the world map with its clean gas technology, and Qatar Airways has used home-grown GTL jet fuel to fly its aircraft. While the world talks about Qatar’s carbon dioxide emissions, it makes sense to ponder the fact that a clean technology developed in the country is being used by the country’s own airline to fly people around the globe — a feat no other country has managed to date. This issue of Qatar Today puts the spotlight on GTL. Qatar Today is also wondering whether Islamic banking, which was once the most debated issue in the world, has it lost its credibility. For some intriguing insights, keep reading...

Sindhu Nair

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february 2013

letters feedback qtoday@omsqatar.com

Refreshing article I really enjoyed the article, “The Arab Spring Revolutions” in January’s Qatar Today. Dr. Abdulhamid Al Ansari’s answers were very refreshing. The interview, especially Al Ansari’s honesty, was stimulating. Most importantly, the journalist asked the right and important questions, which many people, Muslims and non-Muslims, think about. Great job!

Bouchra Yamini

Water worries for the future

I’m a bit apprehensive about the idea of water from oil facilities and gas fields supplying the city, as referenced in “Working to solve water woes”. If you think about drinking a nice, cold glass of spring water, as opposed to treated waste water, the one most people would prefer is quite obvious. But in a country where water resources are scarce, I’m thankful for all the hard work researchers are doing to get enough water for us in whatever way they can. It seems like they are exploring a lot of options. And a large portion of the treated water will be used for irrigation, as opposed to drinking. I just hope they’ll also research the effects of this water on the human body - I’d hate to see negative effects start developing 20 years or so down the road. Who knows what prolonged exposure to unnatural water could do.

Caroline Mitchell

qt poll – february

Fighting Irish

It was inspiring to read the interview with Mary Robinson. Among the many noteworthy causes she champions, her call to ‘stand up and be counted,’ seems fairly universal. I hope it resonates with more people from around the world.

Poll result is based on messages received till 20th of every month

Jasmine Mongiello

Q

ARE YOU A MEMBER OF A SPORTS LEAGUE?

Some real action please

SILA brought in outside “Angel Investors” to listen to business proposals from Qataris, but as a foreign-national, if they had some money to invest in a promising company, wouldn’t they be more likely to pursue one in their own country instead of Qatar? Miss Al-Dorani intimated that all these organisations have little to offer the small business person and it seems that SILA event is a lot of talk with little action.

Kay Blenard

Change for Climate

The Qatar Today coverage of COP18 was quite comprehensive with experts giving their insights on what has been achieved at the Doha Talks. My only concern is on how do we account for all the carbon footprint that this event has acquired. Does the result of the talk justify the large amount of energy spent on transporting all the leaders from around the world to Doha and back for the talks?

Tariq Hassan

SMS answers to +974 33170142 A lucky winner will win a NOKIa C5-03

have you noticed women having a greater impact in qatar recently?

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19

Yes

no

The winning number of the last QT poll is 33161425

1 0 Qatar Today

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Qatar Today invites readers’ feedback Share your views on the magazine or any issue connected to Qatar. One lucky reader will win an exquisite MontBlanc writing instrument.

Write to: The Editor, Qatar Today, PO Box 3272, Doha.

Fax: (+974) 44550982, email: qtoday@omsqatar.com Qatar Today reserves the right to edit and publish the correspondence.

Views and opinions expressed in the published letters may not necessarily be the publication’s views and opinions.

Check out all articles of Qatar Today on www.QATARTODAYONLINE.COM www.issuu.com/oryxmags/qatartoday follow us on www.facebook.com/qatartoday www.twitter.com/qatartoday www.qatartoday.tumblr.com

ARE WE READY FOR HYDROPONICS? 68

Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images

NEWS BITES

The Emir, hh Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is greeted by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron at Number 10 Downing Street in london on January 22. The two leaders discussed the situations in Syria and Iran as well as the Emir’s business interests in the UK.

Qatar Airways pioneers use of GTL

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atar Airways has become the first airline in the world to commercially introduce a new environment-friendly jet fuel, the first to be approved globally for commercial use in over two decades. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has approved the use of “GTL Jet Fuel”, a blend of up to 50% GTL kerosene with conventional oil-based kerosene. GTL Jet Fuel will flow from Pearl GTL Qatar; the world’s largest GTL plant, and soon all Qatar Airways flights will be fuelled by the revolutionary new fuel. An Airbus A340-600 flight, QR001, made history by being the first to fly outbound from Doha International Airport to London Heathrow using GTL Jet Fuel. Managing Director and Chairman, Qatar Shell, Wael Sawan said: “This fuel can be safely used for commercial aviation across all legacy aircraft in use across the world as well as the latest models of airframes and engines on the drawing boards today, and notably those in Qatar Airways’ fast-expanding fleet.” Blended jet fuel has to go through a rigorous certification and qualification process to meet international aviation standards. The GTL Jet Fuel introduced in Qatar meets the highest standards on the Fuel Readiness Level scale. It can

1 2 Qatar Today

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help diversify the aviation fuel supply chain and improve air quality at busy airports by reducing local emissions as it is virtually sulphur free. It is also denser than conventional kerosene, reducing engine maintenance requirements and the required fuel payload. As a result, for a given fuel weight an aircraft using GTL Jet travel longer distances than an aircraft running on conventional fuel. When asked about the cost of the new fuel and its impact on ticket prices, HE Abdul Aziz Al-Noaimi, Chairman of Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, announced that “a thorough study has been done and it will not affect ticket prices”. Akbar Al-Baker, Chief Operating Officer, Qatar Airways, said the GTL blend will have a “positive effect on the airline’s operating costs as it will reduce harmful emissions, and as far as price is concerned, we pay the same price that we were paying for the normal jet fuel”. He added that all Qatar Airways aircraft will be fuelled

by GTL Jet Fuel as soon as possible.

Manufacturing sector the best in class

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atar’s gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, rose 3.9% from a year earlier in the third quarter (Q3) of 2012. The Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) estimates that the manufacturing sector performed the best and was worth about QR8.58 billion in Q3 2012, showing an increase of 13.6% over the same period in 2011.

Q3 2012 -vs- Q3 2011 up 3.9% Qatar GDP

up 7.7% Non-Oil sector

down 0.8% Mining and Quarrying

up 13.6% Manufacturing

up 9.4% Construction

up 8.1% Hospitality

up 4.7% Finance

up 2.7% Government Services

news bites

Unfair competition alleges Rizon Jet HH Sheikha Moza celebrates TAMU’s milestone

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izon Jet, Qatar’s privatelyowned luxury flight services provider outlined its bid, last month, to sustain a viable business in Qatar. Rizon Jet is a Qatari-owned company that embodies the Qatar 2030 vision of encouraging the private sector to be part of the growth of the country, but its ability to grow and excel is being hampered by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority creating obstacles along the way.

“We have tried to resolve the issues on an amicable basis, but now we have to speak out. If it is a level playing field then competition is OK, but this is uneven. It is unfair competition. We are all for clean, healthy competition – that is what brings efficiency and raises standards – but in Qatar we have a world-class airline that also owns a private jet business and enjoys a monopoly on ground handling, as well as being the airport operator.

“We were aware of the exclusive deal the

T

airport has with Qatar Aviation Services for ground handling, and we are happy with them providing the under-the-wing services, catering, towing etc., but at the same time, we were told that we could accept our own aircraft and those of third parties. We are not going to accept the block, which has resulted in all third-party customers being forced to use the main ramp at Doha International Airport,” said Captain Hassan AlMousawi, CEO of Rizon Jet.

NDIA to be named Hamad International Airport HE Abdul Aziz Al Noaimi, Chairman of the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority revealed last month that the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) will be renamed as Hamad International Airport. When the new airport opens in April1 , this year it will operate simultaneously with the existing airport, before it becomes fully operational in the latter half of the year.

QF partner with Oxford University

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atar Foundation (QF) has launched an exclusive training programme to enhance the expertise of top-tier managers and improve efficiency across organisations. In partnership with the University of Oxford’s prestigious Said Business School, the leadership development programme has been carefully tailored to suit QF’s strategic goals. The programme was unveiled at a launch event at Qatar National Convention Centre last month, where the primary objectives of the course were presented to 25 senior managers. Participants come from various sectors across QF including science, research, education, community development, capital projects and administration. The Executive Director of Human Resources at QF, Hassan Al-Hammadi, told participants that he was confident the six-month programme would improve synergy between the foundation’s

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numerous departments and provide plenty of opportunities for individuals to work together.

“We chose Oxford University after evaluating four other executive development programmes and found that Said Business School was the most responsive to the needs and requirements of our organisation,” said Al-Hammadi. “Our aim was to bring senior management together so they could speak one language, have one vision, and deliver towards the strategic objectives of QF.

exas A&M University at Qatar celebrated its 10th anniversary at a gala event at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) last month.

The event honoured HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF), QF and Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) VIPs, and staff from Texas A&M University’s campus in Texas, US. The university has been offering engineering degree programmes in Qatar since 2003. The event served to mark a milestone decade in Qatar and provided an opportunity to promote TAMU’s mission of developing leaders of character who are dedicated to serving the greater good, by presenting a resolution to Sheikha Moza in support of her newly-founded “Educate a Child” programme.

The resolution outlined TAMU’s dedication to partnering with the initiative whilst engaging “Aggie” engineering students to develop solutions to practical problems that hinder access to education through engineering design projects.

The Educate a Child initiative seeks to deliver quality primary education to millions of children across the world and address challenges that keep 61 million children out of school because of extreme poverty, conflict, natural disaster, prejudice or any other factor that can make them hard to reach by conventional means.

“This resolution sums up the essence of all that Education City is about equipping our young people with the skills and the knowledge to be global citizens and enabling them to make the world a better place.”

HH Sheikha Moza BINT NASSER The event was also attended by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry for the State of Qatar and Texas A&M at Qatar Joint Advisory Board Chairman, and HBKU President and QF Vice President for Education, His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, who both gave opening remarks in praise of the university’s achievements over the last decade.

news bites

Qatar’s road infrastructure gets capital injection

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he government announced last month it was about to initiate a major upgrade of the country’s road network, which will come as light relief for many commuters who constantly find themselves in traffic. The sector was buoyed by two major awards in 2012 – the $640 million (QR2.33 billion) deal awarded to the UAE’s Al Jaber Group for Package 13 on the Doha Expressway, and the $961 million (QR2.5 billion) deal awarded to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construc-

tion for the Lusail Expressway – and 2013 promises to be the same, as the country gears up for 2022. According to MEED Projects, spending on future projects will significantly increase this year as more than 30 highway projects, valued at QR100 billion ($27.5 billion), are awarded. Tracking the growth and development of Qatar’s transport sector, including details of potential contract awards, will be discussed at the forthcoming Qatar Projects 2013 conference from February 17-20, the biggest gathering of stakeholders, owners and

contractors in Qatar’s project sector.

“From 2013, the country presents bigger opportunities to do business as it enters the next critical phase of its preparations to host the World Cup. Any potential stakeholder would not want to miss the massive surge of contracts that will be awarded in the next few years, with details and leads to be announced in various presentations and panel discussions throughout the duration of the conference,” said Edmund O’ Sullivan, Chairman MEED Events, the organisers of Qatar Projects 2013.

29%

Qatar SWF continues to spend in 2012 significant stakes in the hospitality sector, in both Paris and Singapore. It also sealed a major deal with a Vietnamese petrochemical plant in January.

In February, Qatar Holding bought the headquarters of the Swiss banking group Credit Suisse in London and re-leased a long-term contract that runs until 2034. It enhanced its stake in a Spanish company during the same month, as well as its stake in the Swiss mining giant Xstrata. In May, it closed an estimated QR40 billion deal with the global oil giant Shell and formed a tripartite pact with Turkey and Bulgaria in the construction of a highway project linking those countries.

foreign debt and current account balance 35 30

%of gdp

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atar’s sovereign wealth fund’s investments abroad reached QR163.8 billion in 2012, some QR116 billion higher than in 2011. Outside the Arab region, it made major investments in Singapore, France, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, the US, Vietnam, Iraq, the Netherlands, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany, China and Malaysia in 2012. It invested in a wide range of sectors including hospitality, resorts, petrochemicals, power plants, oil companies, banks and financial institutions, fashion, mining, media and communications, roads, transportation and sports.

The year started with the fund taking

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year

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nterprise Qatar (EQ) will hold its third annual Al Fikra Business Plan competition from January 23 to April 25. New for 2013, EQ has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Enterprise Forum for the Pan Arab Region. Winners will now compete for the chance face entrepreneurs from around the region.

“We aim to exchange experiences and build on their best practices,” said Hala Fadel, the MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition chair. Al Fikra provides a forum for EQ, Silatech, MIT and the SILA Angel Investment Network, along

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february 2013

with academic partners, to recognise what they see as the most innovative business proposals from Qatari entrepreneurs.Finalists will be coached, and their ideas refined, as the programmeprogresses. “We believe that one party cannot have the full solution, and that’s why we hold the competition,” said Raed Al Emadi, Silatech’s deputy CEO.

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t the end of fiscal 2011/12, Qatar’s foreign debt stood at 29% of nominal GDP. Government spending is expected to rise by 27% in fiscal year 2012/2013, including wages, social services and infrastructure, but it expects to see a comfortable surplus.

Qatar projects record high expenditures of QR178 billion ($49 billion) for the fiscal year, above the QR140 billion ($38.5 billion) planned for 2011-12. It has pencilled in revenue of QR206 billion ($56.6 billion), a 26% rise from the previous year’s budget plan and a surplus of 4.4% of 2011’s gross domestic product.

credit: Inside Investor

Al Fikra Competition launched

o& G ov e r v i e w

GTL: A viable

alternative

energy source

The optimism regarding Gas-to-Liquids technology as a viable gas monetisation option is gaining ground across the world.

by Sow m ya Su nd a r 1 8 Qatar Today

february 2013

o&G ove rview GTL Exports In 2012, Tasweeq marketed and lifted around 300,000 tons of ORYX GTL Naphtha and 700,000 tons of PEARL GTL Naphtha. From 2013 onwards, with full operating capacity of Pearl GTL Train 2, exports of Pearl GTL Naphtha are expected to increase to over 1 million tons per annum, with Oryx GTL exports remaining stable at around 300,000 tons. Production of GTL Jet (25% GTL Kerosene and 75% conventional) is expected to reach 5 million barrels in 2013, increasing to nearly 15 million barrels per annum at full capacity. The GTL Jet has already been used locally in Qatar, and any surplus will be exported by Tasweeq.

Capital Costs GTL capital costs are about QR364,000 – QR728,000 ($100,000-200,000) per barrel per day, two to four times those of LNG, affected by several factors such as plant size and the potentially volatile prices of construction materials. Depending on the particular plant and local cost of gas, GTL may break even at about $40-$80 per barrel.

Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, Deputy Chairman of Qatar Petroleum (QP)’s Board of Directors and Managing Director of RasGas Company giving his keynote speech at the World GTL Congress

THE

World GTL Congress, a three-day event that welcomed hundreds of enthusiastic gas-to-liquid (GTL) delegates from around the world to Doha was further testimony to GTL and its rapidly-expanding role in global energy markets.

In his opening keynote address, Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, Deputy Chairman of Qatar Petrolium (QP)’s Board of Directors and Managing Director of RasGas Company Ltd, emphasised Qatar’s determination to continue the industry momentum.

Despite a number of challenges such as huge capex requirements, cost blow-outs, the need for technological innovation and shortage of talent, the risk-reward scenario is gradually tilting in favour of GTL due to abundant availability of gas reserves and low natural gas prices compared with oil.

Qatar, the GTL capital of the world, has the largest GTL capacities globally. It is one of the pioneers in successfully commercialising GTL technology.

Global interest perks up Though the GTL Fischer-Tropsch technology has been around since the early 1930s, it wasn’t until the 1990s that investments were made in commercial GTL plants.

When Qatar’s first GTL plant was commissioned in 2003, there were only three such

facilities in the world using the FischerTropsch process: two in South Africa, operated by Sasol, and one in Malaysia, powered by Shell. Qatar, in partnership with Sasol and Shell, created large-scale GTL capacities averaging combined production of more than 170, 000 barrels per day of high quality GTL products through its two plants, Oryx GTL and Pearl.

Now, a number of countries including the US have announced fresh GTL capacities.

The availability of cheap shale gas reserves has changed the dynamics forever. Korea, a resource-poor country, has invested in three GTL-related projects to secure its energy supplies. China too is expected to join the fray to meet its energy needs and to make use of its untapped shale gas reserves.

GTL – the future oil?

GTL’s advantages as a sulphur-free, odourless, clean-burning fuel have increased its credibility as a green alternative to transport fuels. They also result in better performance in terms of fuel economy, emissions, and tolerance to extreme operating conditions compared with their conventionallyderived counterparts. “Stricter emissions and noise regulation in dense urban areas, requirements for superior-performing lubricants, and a growing appetite for highquality refined products for specialty, industrial and civil applications are driving demand for GTL products. We see a significant demand-driven opportunity for GTL products,” says Hamad Rashid Al-

Mohannadi. Echoing his optimism, Abdul Rahman M. Al-Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer, Oryx GTL, said in his speech to the congress: “In order to really mature and develop, additional players are needed, such as technology providers, resource owners and operators. It’s a massive market with significant room for growth. GTL’s ability to be used within existing infrastructure is a tremendous advantage. Furthermore, we believe GTL products can meet market needs for the foreseeable future even as environmental regulations become more stringent.”

The industry is specifically excited about the GTL Jet fuel blend. Recently Qatar Airways became the first carrier to fly commercially on GTL Jet fuel. The airline will make it available for all international airlines fuelling in Doha, and intends to completely convert to GTL Jet as soon as possible. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker says: “GTL-operated flight paves the way for Qatar Airways to contribute to environmental effectiveness when it comes to the day-to-day operations of our business.”

He also said that GTL will have a positive impact on the airline’s operating costs.

The GTL industry in Qatar has not only generated revenues as exports but also contributed to the development of GTL technology, which is being sought out by the industry, particularly countries looking to diversify ways of deriving income from their energy reserves, such as Russia,

february 2013

Qatar Today 1 9

0&G overview

Akbar Al-BakeR, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways and Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, Deputy Chairman of Qatar Petroleoum along with other officials visit the exhibition which ran alongside the World GTL Congress

Australia, Indonesia, Libya, Algeria, the US and Canada.

“These major developments are not for the faint of heart,” says Wael Sawan, Managing Director and Chairman, Qatar Shell.

He attributes Qatar’s success to “partnership, people and product. It takes a special partnership like the one we have with Qatar Petroleum to build the scale of business that in some other countries has taken more than 100 years,” he says.

Director, Energy at Navigant Rick Smead echoes these views when he says: “The essential ingredients for success are low-risk technology, good credible partners, project developers, technologists, a stable political environment with the ability to deliver the project and the availability of long-term gas supply from a low cost of production.”

According to him, the main drivers for choosing GTL are “diversification, integration opportunity, shortage of liquids and geopolitics” – factors that supported Qatar to embark on mega-GTL projects. “GTL is a very attractive gas monetisation option, especially in a world in which we find ourselves with an abundance of conventional and unconventional gas resources,” says Wael Sawan.

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As long as oil prices remain at high levels and natural gas prices are low, GTL remains an attractive option. Experts predict natural gas prices to remain at sub-$8 levels (QR50) and oil to peak at $140-150 (QR510QR545), making a case for GTL. But though the energy industry is warming up to the idea of GTL, there are concerns too.

ates, feels the huge construction cost blowouts of energy projects across the world is a key risk. Recently, Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project suffered a huge cost blowout and the project has been delayed. The paucity of trained labour and rising labour costs in countries like Australia are also cited as reasons that deter huge investments in GTL.

Challenges The key deterrents to setting up GTL plants are the enormous capital expenditure and the risks involved. Pearl GTL, the largest GTL plant by a margin, cost QR66-70 billion ($18-19 billion) to build. Shell and QP took that leap and the risks have paid off.

Rick Smead says: “GTL is a great way to use stranded gas, but practically it has a lot of challenges.” According to him, GTL becomes viable only if capex and operating expenses can be reduced and the efficiency and quality of end products increased. Some feel that the process is antiquated and needs lot of improvement. A number of technology improvement projects are being worked on around the world. It is about who comes out with a better technology, say experts. Dr Duncan Seddon, Fuel Conversion Technology Specialist, Duncan Seddon and Associ-

New technology surfaces To overcome some of these constraints, there are proposals to build floating LNG and GTL plants offshore at low-cost locations. There is also excitement about the recent breakthrough in Compact GTL technology. Right now, GTL is an industry for the big boys with deep pockets. However, Compact GTL may change this equation and allow smaller players to enter the field.

The company has developed a technology that allows GTL to be produced on a smaller scale. A Compact GTL plant can also be drillmounted. As the industry matures these are developments to watch out for. The panel discussion on the future of GTL at the World GTL Congress unanimously concluded that GTL is not an answer to the world’s energy problems but is increasingly becoming a viable alternative energy source

2013 – THE YEAR OF TABLET COMMERCE?

64

bank notes

QNB raises GDP growth estimate

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NB Group has revised its forecasts for Qatar’s GDP growth in 2012-13. The new forecasts take into account Q3 2012 GDP data, recently released by Qatar Statistics Authority, as well as a slight downwards revision in oil price forecasts.

The Q3 GDP data was broadly in line with QNB Group’s overall expectations, albeit slightly weaker in the oil and gas sector and stronger in the non-oil sector. As a result, the bank has revised up its estimate for overall real GDP growth in 2012 to 6.1%, from 5.6% previously, and revised its 2013 forecast down marginally to 5.0%.

The volume of activity in the oil and gas sector, as represented by real GDP, grew by 0.6% during Q3 2012. The increase came de-

REAL GDP FORECASTS (2012-13) OIL & GAS

TOTAL (LATEST FORECAST)

NON-OIL

TOTAL (OLD FORECAST)

2.1

2.8

5.6

5.2

9.4 6.1

6.6 5.0

2012

2013

SOURCE: QNB GROUP

spite a slight easing in crude oil production, by about 11,000 barrels per day (b/d), and scheduled maintenance work on some of Qatargas’s LNG trains in September, which

would have reduced LNG production.

The real increase is, therefore, most probably due to higher gas-to-liquids (GTL) production as the second Pearl train ramped up and required greater gas feedstock from the North Field. This would also help to partly explain the 4.7% quarterly increase in manufacturing sector real GDP, where the value added by the GTL process is categorised.

QNB Group expects that there was a pickup in oil and gas GDP in the final quarter of 2012. This is because of an expected increase in crude production and the ending of most of the LNG maintenance downtime (although one train was offline in October). In addition, Pearl GTL is expected to have approached close to its full capacity of 140,000 b/d during Q4, therefore further increasing its gas draw and also the amount of condensates extracted from the wet gas.

Non-Oil Sector was 2012 driver in GCC QIB assists smes

R

eal GDP growth in the GCC is likely to have slowed from 7.8% in 2011 to an estimated 5.7% in 2012, according to QNB Group. This remains a relatively high rate of growth compared with many other countries in the current challenging global economic and financial environment. The non-oil sector has driven growth while oil output has also risen.

In 2012, oil prices remained at historically high levels, boosting government revenue and spending, which, in turn, boosts growth across non-oil industrial and services sectors. Around 22% of government spending is capital expenditure, mainly on infrastructure in transport, real estate, education and healthcare sectors. Government spending, therefore, supports non-oil sectors such as construction and utilities.

The remaining 78% of government spending is current expenditure, mainly on government wages and other public

2 2 Qatar Today

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services. This provides an injection of income into the GCC non-oil economy, driving growth in services and retail trade.

Additionally, non-oil industry has grown strongly as investment in major manufacturing projects, particularly petrochemicals, has boosted output.

Rising oil production was also an important factor driving growth in 2012. Total GCC oil production reached 17.2 million barrels per day, on average, in the first three quarters of 2012, 6.2% higher than in 2011.

Higher oil production came as OPEC removed its production quotas for individual countries. The quotas had initially been put in place in 2009 when oil prices crashed, but were replaced in 2012 with a more relaxed aggregate production target for all OPEC members. OPEC also ramped up production in 2011-12 to calm oil markets as concerns grew about lower output in countries such as Libya (due to the Arab Spring) and Iran (due to sanctions).

Q

atar Islamic Bank (QIB) launched a new programme aimed for providing special services to the country’s small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), offering them exclusive financial benefits, guidance and advice.

The programme will be known as “Aamaly”, and the bank has created a special department for it with trained and highly experienced executives behind the wheel.

Benefits for SMEs will include the provision of dedicated relationship managers, a wide branch network including special SME-centric banking centres, 24hour banking including a dedicated call centre line, payroll services, cash and cheque collection, overnight vaulting and time deposits, together with some flexible financing options tailored to the needs of SMEs.

bank notes

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Qatari Banks disclose 2012 figures QIB Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) recorded a net profit of QR1.24 billion for 2012. The QIB Board of Directors proposed a 37.5% profit distribution to shareholders, subject to the approval of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) and to be discussed at the next meeting of the QIB General Assembly.

Total assets of the bank increased by 25.6% from December 31, 2011 and now stand at QR73.2 billion. Financing activities continue to be the major growth driver and have now reached QR43.1 billion, having added QR13.5 billion (a 45.7% growth since December 31, 2011). The bank’s customer deposits registered an increase of 55% from December 31, 2011 and now stand at QR43.1 billion, reflecting a well-balanced financial position. Total income for the year ended December 31, 2012 reached QR 3,111 million, 16% higher than the QR2,681 million generated the previous year, reflecting strong growth in the bank’s core operating activities. Financing income grew by 17% to reach QR2,081 million at the end of 2012 compared with QR1,775 million for 2011.

Net fee income was QR417.2 million compared with QR300 million in 2011, showing a YOY increase of 39%.

QNB QNB Group continued to record robust growth in profitability, with net profit for 2012 exceeding QR8.3 billion, up by 11.1% compared with 2011. These results were the highest ever achieved by the group.

The board of directors is recommending to the general assembly the distribution of a cash dividend of 60% of the nominal share value (QR6 per share). The financial results for 2012 along with the profit distribution are subject to QCB approval.

Total assets increased by 21.5% to reach QR367 billion, the highest ever achieved by the Bank. This was the result of a strong growth rate of 28.9% in loans and advances to reach QR250 billion. Meanwhile, customer deposits recorded a solid growth of 34.9% to QR270 billion, resulting in improved liquidity with the loans to deposits ratio reaching 92.6% at year-end 2012.

The Bank was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans at 1.3%, a level considered one of the lowest amongst banks in the Middle East and Africa. The group’s conservative policy in regard to provisioning continued with the

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NET PROFIT of banks FOR 2012 QNB

QR8.3 billion QIB

QR1.24 billion QIIB

QR679 million Doha Bank

QR1.3 billion coverage ratio reaching 115% in 2012.

Total operating income, including share of results of associates, increased to QR11.5 billion, up by 12.8% compared with 2011, as QNB Group succeeded in achieving strong growth across the range of revenue sources.

Total Equity increased by 12.6% to reach QR48.0 billion by December 31 2012. The capital adequacy ratio reached 21.0% at the end of 2012, far higher than the regulatory requirements of QCB and the Basel Committee.

QIIB Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) posted a net profit of QR679 million in 2012, up 4% from 2011. The bank achieved a total revenue of QR1.18 billion in 2012. its total assets jumped 23% in 2012 compared with the previous year and reached QR28.6 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) amounted to QR4.49 in 2012 compared with QR4.38 in 2011. QIIB Chairman and Managing Director Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani Al-Thani said the bank’s board of directors recom-

mended to the general assembly of shareholders to approve a cash dividend of 35% of QIIB capital, which amounts to QR3.5 per share. He said the results mean QIIB is on the “right path, implementing the desired strategy that focuses on growth and capitalises on opportunities, both locally and abroad”.

Operating revenue was QR1.18 billion in 2012, which shows an increase of 5% compared with 2011. Deposits totalled QR19.6 billion in 2012, up 18.6% on 2011.

Shareholders’ equity amounted to QR5 billion in 2012. QIIB’s CEO Abdulbasit Al-Shaibei said: “The capital adequacy ratio under Basel II was 18.66% and is a clear reflection of International Islamic’s robust risk management policies. The results were an indication of the growth achieved by the national economy last year, which presented a lot of opportunities for the bank.”

Doha Bank Doha Bank recorded impressive growth in its net profit, 5.1% for 2012. The annual profit of the country’s fourth largest lender reached QR1.305 billion in 2012 as compared with QR1.241 billion in 2011.

Sheikh Fahad bin Mohammad bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced that the board had approved the draft of the bank’s audited financial statements for the year ended 2012.

They decided to present a recommendation to the general assembly to approve the distribution of cash dividends of 45% of the paid-up capital — QR4.5 per share — to the shareholders.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Mohammad bin Jabor Al-Thani, Managing Director of the bank, declared that it had achieved noticeable growth in total operating income of 3.6%, where the total operating income rose from QR2.3 billion in 2011 to QR2.4 billion in 2012. Earnings per share were QR6.3.

The return on adjusted average shareholders’ equity and the return on average assets were 20.6% and 2.42%, respectively.

The bank recorded growth on all financial indicators. Total assets rose from QR52.7 billion in 2011 to QR55.2 billion in 2012, up 4.7%. Loans and advances rose from QR31 billion to QR33.8 billion, a growth rate of 8.9%. Customers’ deposits grew by 8.5%, from QR31.7 billion in 2011 to QR34.4 billion in 2012

ba n k n ot es

Fresh financial resolvE the New Year is the perfect time to sweep away the cobwebs and resolve to work at those parts of our lives that we’d like to improve.

When

setting financial goals, expats often overlook squeeze an extra percentage point by shopping around. However, the obvious when it comes to maximising their in the current climate you may do better moving up the ‘term’ ladhard-earned income. Setting a budget is the obvi- der with the largest sum possible. At the moment putting your ous route to making your income go further, but money away for longer will earn you extra interest. skimping on coffee with friends, avoiding boutiques and cutting So look at fixed and long-term deposit and savings accounts for the back on luxuries is probably not the most inspiring way to start the better rates. Don’t forget to compare local as well as offshore rates to get the best comparison. If you are New Year. So we’ve listed five ways to boost lucky enough to have a decent-sized savcurrent income that don’t require missing ings pot, then consider putting it to work out on that much-promised trip to Ramharder by investing it rather than simply say’s at St Regis. And who knows, the savputting it on deposit. ings you make may just enable you to enjoy Rental income and sales – Not making a few more luxuries of that kind. money from what you don’t use is lost inOverpay – One of the best ways to achieve come. Most expats organise the renting your financial goals is to overpay on any If you are lucky enough to out of their home before going abroad. loans or mortgages. Paying more than you have a decent-sized savings If you haven’t done this yet, make it your originally allocated is a good way of reachpot, then consider putting it number one priority and start to make ing your goal more quickly. Plus, with the property pay for itself. Likewise, if savings rates generally at historic lows it to work harder by investing it you have any other bricks-and-mortar asmakes more sense to reduce debt than to let rather than simply putting it sets –a lock up garage? Beach hut? – put savings languish in poorly paying accounts. on deposit. that in the hands of a good letting agent.

Check, though, that you won’t get stung by Double-check there are no memberships any penalties or overpayment limits. Some to clubs or gyms for which you are still mortgages will, for example, only allow anpaying annual fees unnecessarily. nual overpayments of 10%.

Brush up on skills – Many expats have Shop around – This doesn’t just mean on second (and third) strings to their bows. your groceries. Review any medical and Extra income is often available from insurance policies, phone and broadband contracts to see whether you would be better off switching. While teaching English, as well as all kinds of sports training, teaching landscape painting techniques or photography. it may seem a drag, you could make huge savings.

If you do opt to switch, make sure that any new cover is equal to If you know it, you can teach it! Many expats have travelled the or better than your previous contract so you don’t lose out on any world with a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) qualiimportant benefits you currently enjoy. This is particularly impor- fication. Accredited teachers can earn higher fees, so it may be worth investing in a course to improve and maximise any secondtant when it comes to medical and insurance cover.

Savings – Interest rates are currently low but you could still income potential feedback qtoday@omsqatar.com

BY Steven Callaghan The author is the senior financial consultant, Guardian Wealth Management Qatar

2 6 Qatar Today

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bank not es

bank notes

Islamic finance coming into bloom The burgeoning appetite for Islamic Finance globally has led to a flurry of activity in the MENA region as many countries create an ecosystem to nurture this nascent but niche industry. Banks and regulatory institutions are mobilising to support this sector. Qatar leads the way in creating a conducive environment, and industry watchers believe that other countries may follow suit.

However, there are a number of creases to be ironed out.

THE

by Sow m ya Su nd a r

Ernst & Young World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2013 “Growing Beyond – DNA of Successful Transformation” has forecast that global Islamic banking assets with commercial banks will reach $1.8 trillion in 2013 from $1.3 trillion in 2011, representing average annual growth of 17%, significantly higher than some earlier industry estimates. The top 20 Islamic banks have registered growth of 16% in the past three years. These banks are concentrated in the seven core Islamic banking markets – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Malaysia and Turkey. Indonesia, Egypt, Iraq and Libya are the new markets on the horizon.

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Gordon Bennie, MENA Financial Services Leader at Ernst & Young, said: “Ten of the world’s 25 rapid growth markets (RGMs) have large Muslim populations and present significant growth prospects for Islamic banking. The fast-growth economies now form almost half of global GDP and remain the main contributors to overall global growth. The outlook for Islamic banking in these markets is bright.”

Developments in the MENA region Post-Arab Spring, the new Islamic regimes in the MENA region are opening their doors to Islamic finance. The newly-elected Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt wants to

bank notes

The central bank is implementing strict requirements for scholars who serve on Sharia boards. This is aimed at addressing concerns around the uniformity of standards amongst different boards and at trying to introduce a more structured approach to supervising Sharia compliance issues.

Steve Troop, CEO, Barwa Bank

boost the market share of Islamic banks to 35% in five years from 5% now. Egypt, Iraq and Libya are working on Islamic banking regulatory frameworks, while Turkey, Egypt and Morocco have issued or are planning to issue sovereign sukuks. Several banks in Egypt are expected to launch Sharia-compliant products. A number of both established and new banks are considering introducing Islamic banking operations in these markets.

Amjad Hussain, Partner, Islamic Finance with K&L Gates, an international law firm based in the Qatar Financial centre (QFC) points out that “the regulatory framework governing the Islamic finance industry in the wider region has not changed in a hugely significant manner over the past few years.

The approach of the regional regulators has been a light touch by and large. There have been some piecemeal changes to regulations, aimed at implementing prudential changes that have been introduced globally for the conventional banking sector.”

Pointing out instances of key decisions taken in the region, he says: “In Oman –the most recent country in the GCC to introduce Islamic finance – we have seen the im-

plementation of a relatively strict approach by the regulator. The central bank is implementing strict requirements for scholars who serve on Sharia boards. This is aimed at addressing concerns around the uniformity of standards amongst different boards and at trying to introduce a more structured approach to supervising Sharia compliance issues. It will be interesting to see what sort of an approach Egypt and Libya will take.”

Last year, an Islamic Interbank Benchmark Rate (IIBR) was introduced in a bid to establish an Islamic yield curve. According to the E&Y report, “the IIBR has been evolving through a process of regular reviews from the Islamic Benchmark Committee and the Sharia Committee.”

Sukuks in demand The capital debt market segment appears very promising. Demand for sukuk instruments is expected to grow, outpacing global supply. According to the E&Y report, “based on current growth forecasts, Islamic financial institutions will require at least $400 billion (QR1.46 trillion) of short-term, credible, liquid securities for liquidity and capital management purposes by 2015. In-

cluding other investor classes, global Sukuk demand could be in excess of $600 billion (QR2.2 trillion) by 2015. 2012 would see in excess of $110 billion (QR400 billion) in new issuance – a record year, but still short of industry demand. Market opportunity will drive more Islamic banks to set up international platforms to offer Islamic fixedincome advisory services.”

Barwa Bank CEO Steve Troop believes that the bank can be an effective player in the increasingly sophisticated Islamic capital debt markets: “So far we’ve achieved a great deal in this area, with senior management roles in six recent sukuk issues, and were ranked amongst the top ten for International and MENA Region sukuk arrangers in the Bloomberg Islamic finance league tables (2012 – year to date).”

In another move, the Qatar Exchange has launched an Islamic Index that can be used as a benchmark index for Islamic investment products, indicating more action in this space.

Creating an ecosystem Qatar took a bold step last year to separate Islamic finance activities from

february 2013

Qatar Today 2 9

bank notes conventional banking. To avoid any exploitation of regulatory loopholes, the ban is proposed to be extended to banks and insurance companies in the Qatar Financial Centre too. A year later, Qatar Central Bank (QCB)’s directive to separate Islamic operations has not had a major impact on the growth of conventional Qatari banks as expected. Their business and profitability continued to grow at a healthy clip, as most of them were able to convert their Islamic customers to conventional banking.

Ashar Nazim, Partner, Global Islamic Banking Centre of Excellence at Ernst & Young, explains: “Most Islamic banking customers with conventional banks are ‘mainstream banking customers’. These customers, who form the bulk of the domestic retail banking market, demand a double-compliant offering, ie best of banking services, quality, convenience and product depth topped up by the desirable Sharia-compliant features,” he says. This may suggest that from a customer’s perspective ease of doing business comes first.

Moreover, QCB had allowed banks to retain current Islamic accounts until maturity. The sharp growth in credit uptake also helped camouflage the impact of the ruling.

Islamic banks in Qatar continue to grow at a healthy clip too. Qatar’s largest Islamic bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, registered a 25.6% increase in total assets and 45.7% growth in financing activities for the year ended December 2012.

Barwa Bank, the most recent bank to start operations in Qatar, was a beneficiary as it took over International Bank of Qatar’s Al Yusr Islamic retail banking operations, instantly jacking up its portfolio. Among the foreign banks, HSBC had to close down its Islamic window just three months after it started operations in Qatar.

Supporting the ban, Amjad says: “Qatar is leading the Gulf region by implementing structural changes to assist the Islamic finance industry to operate. The segregation of Islamic windows from conventional banks will make it easier for regulators to supervise properly the risks encountered by these institutions and enable them to put into place tailored supervisory instruments and prudential ratios. This also opens the way for the QCB to accommodate the specialist standards that have been recommended by the standard-setting bodies in the Islamic financial industry, such as the Islamic Financial Services Board or the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions.”

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Islamic Finance needs to identify itself The fast-growing economies now form almost half of global GDP and remain the main contributors to overall global growth. The outlook for Islamic banking in these markets is bright, but Ashar Nazim, Partner, Global Islamic Banking Centre of Excellence at Ernst & Young, believes that it needs to add clarity to its differentiation from conventional banking.

bank notes

THE

buzz around the prospects for the Islamic finance industry is getting louder. According to the World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2013, “Growing Beyond – DNA of Successful Transformation”, published by Ernst & Young, Islamic banking assets are forecast to grow beyond $2 trillion (QR7.3 trillion) by 2014 from $1.3 trillion (QR4.75 trillion) in 2011.

Within the ambit of Islamic banking, what are the segments that look most promising in the GCC and Qatar in the next couple of years, and why?

The most promising segments over the next few years will be retail, infrastructure and small and medium enterprises (SME).

We expect larger transactions in the corporate financing market owing to World Cup spending initially – this will be followed by retail and SME expansion as the economic activity from corporate investments will boost the economy.

How are Islamic banks placed to support this growth? What are the challenges ahead and possible solutions?

Islamic banks are relatively small and largely local. Only 13 Islamic banks today have an equity base of more than $1 billion (QR3.64 billion). We believe this club of 13 will drive and also shape the future of the Islamic finance industry.

Now that the critical mass is in place (Islamic banking assets are estimated at $1.55 trillion [QR5.64 trillion] in 2012) the next winning move would be establishing strong regional banks with balance sheet strength and regional connectivity.

This will help the industry to participate in bigger financing transactions and play a meaningful role in the development of their economies.

What are the key issues that need to be addressed to support the growth of the industry?

Three primary issues need to be addressed.

First, quality of growth is important. It is no longer just about increasing the balance sheet. Quality will come from a credible

suite of profit- and risk-sharing products, diversification into different segments of the economy, and demonstration of valueaddition through stricter adherence to ethical and socially responsible operation Second, regulatory clarity is absolutely critical. More needs to be done to create stronger, effective linkages between the financial and real sectors of the economy.

Clear and comprehensive legislation together with a practical implementation roadmap will drive industry’s progress through this decade.

Finally, several Islamic banks are only beginning to acknowledge that a lot more needs to be done to be competitive at a regional scale. Transformation around the “three Rs” (regulation, risk and retail banking) will separate successful banks from others.

What are the reasons for the heightened sukuk interest, and what are your expectations for the sukuk market?

Sukuks have emerged as an effective tool for capital management, and for financing growth, that is compliant with the new banking regulations. It offers funding diversification and access to a unique investor pool that is otherwise not available to conventional markets.

We expect there to be significant sukuk issuance from Qatar following on from the past few years’ successful issuance by the sovereign and financial institutions in Qatar. As infrastructure needs development – especially leading up to the FIFA 2022 World Cup – we believe there will be additional demand to raise alternative sources of funding, of which sukuk is an excellent liquid market.

Secondly, with Basel II/III implementation, we expect to see more Lower Tier II debt issuance from banks as well as potential Hybrid Tier I capital issuance from Qatar as banks look to shore up their capital base in line with the regulations.

A number of Qatari banks have expressed interest in expanding abroad.

What is the potential for Qatari/GCC

Islamic banks to expand overseas?

The next phase of growth is about creating regional banks and there is certainly a viable opportunity for Qatari banks to explore reaching out to new markets. However there are prerequisites to this move.

Many Islamic banks got burnt during the global financial crisis as they had expanded too far, too fast, and without really ensuring that their core operational infrastructure is resilient.

So the first step is to ensure transformation around the regulatory, risk and retail banking infrastructure. Once a strong platform is in place, Islamic banks have an opportunity to expand to populous Muslim markets in the Far East, Asia and Africa.

From a regulatory perspective, what needs to be done to foster the growth of Islamic finance?

In markets where there is increased regulatory clarity, the growth of Islamic banking has been much more impressive than the rest. A case in point is Malaysia.

Going forward, there is a serious need for mature Islamic banking jurisdictions to revisit banking legislation, as well as specific regulations relating to capital markets, takaful and various banking sectors, with a view to creating stronger and more effective linkages with the real economy.

Unless these linkages between the financial and the “real” economy are evident to the end users, Islamic banks will continue to be confused as an extension of the conventional system.

What are the trends and challenges for the Islamic insurance sector?

The takaful industry is still in its infancy.

The current task is to establish a credible business model that is both Sharia-compliant and profitable.

For the next few years, the priority for existing Takaful operators and new startups has to be demonstrating their differentiating aspects compared with conventional insurance. This difference is sometimes lost due to commercial pressures. The other priority is quickly achieving scale

february 2013

Qatar Today 3 1

bank notes Outstanding Sukuk maturity profile and estimated demand by Islamic banks ($billion)

Islamic Banking Assets Growth (US$billion)

2 0 12

89 South East Asia

2 0 13

131 GCC

257

Rest of the World

1811 Global Islamic Banking Assets 2013 expected Regulatory transformation A key consideration is whether Islamic financial institutions should be regulated in a fundamentally different manner from conventional institutions. Proponents of this view claim the Islamic finance industry is based upon different values, methods of trade and instruments. “Applying a conventional approach to regulation would lead to risk,” says Amjad.

Amjad points out two areas that may require regulatory attention, risk management and dispute resolution: “There is a need for greater scrutiny of the risk that unaware depositors may be subject to from the investments and lending made by Islamic banks. Two, a specialist dispute resolution process to deal with issues regarding different interpretations of the Sharia and their implementation may help increase the perceived legitimacy of the industry in the eyes of grassroot Muslims – a key issue facing Islamic banks in many parts of the world. This would oversee the work of Sharia scholars to ensure consistency and high standards.”

Need for innovation Most Islamic products in the market tend to mirror their conventional counterparts.

Some feel that the industry should bring out truly innovative products to meet the expectations of believers. According to another view, customers tend to pick up a

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Source: E & Y Global Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report

1334 Global Islamic Banking Assets in 2011

2 0 14 2 0 15 2 0 16 2 0 17

55 15 35 15 20 39

product that gives better returns, whether Islamic or conventional. It is a matter of choice. Speaking about product innovation at Barwa Bank, Steve Troop says: “There are only two products in banking – deposits and financing – and everything else is packaging and presentation. We tend to try to think in terms of relationships and customers rather than products. In terms of customer relations and presentation of services, we have recently launched our Private Banking offering which enables us to serve a market segment that is growing in the region, a segment which demands sophisticated services and highly personalised attention. We don’t set out to be an ‘all things to all men’ proposition. We have a number of areas where we feel that we can excel and we focus on them. In corporate banking we probably punch above our weight, and that will remain important to us as we go forward.”

The right strategy Despite the projected asset growth and the introduction of new Islamic initiatives in a number of countries, the profitability of Islamic banking continues to lag behind that of conventional banking due to sub-scale operations, a very basic risk culture, incomplete market segmentation, limited engagement with clients, and an absence of technologically-oriented value propositions, according to the E&Y report.

Over the period 2008-2011, the leading re-

179

total outstanding sukuks 2011

400

estimated demand 2015

Source: E & Y Global Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report

turn on equity (ROE) for Islamic banking, globally, was only 11.6%, against 15.3% for conventional banking.

Steve Troop counters by saying: “The average ROE for Qatar’s Islamic banks, through the economic cycle, compares favourably with that achieved by the conventional sector. Profitability at banks in general is a function of many things – the ‘right’ strategy, effective execution, the quality of decision-making and risk management, capital allocation, optimisation of return and rigorous cost control, and it follows that some banks, be they Islamic or conventional, are better managed – and thus produce better results – than others.”

He adds: “We do not accept the idea that Islamic banks are inherently less profitable than their conventional counterparts: We do acknowledge, however, that the nature of Islamic structuring can mean additional operational cost, and Islamic banks need to address these costs effectively. We would also point out that many Islamic banks – including this one – have been established only recently and are ‘immature’. They have yet to achieve critical mass in terms of business volume, a situation reflected in their results in the early years of their development.” The E&Y report suggests that successful transformation in regulation, risk and retail banking over the next three years could see the profit pool of Islamic banks rise by an additional 25% by 2015

IS EL SEED A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST? 96

realty check

Ashghal reveals resewerage strategy

Q

atar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has unveiled its strategic drainage network programme – the Inner Doha Resewerage Implementation Strategy (IDRIS) – developed to meet the long-term demands of the South Doha catchment for the next 50 years.

Addressing the unprecedented demand for a more comprehensive sewerage network, Ashghal has partnered with CH2MHill, a global leader in programme management and engineering consulting, to develop IDRIS as a major deep-tunnel sewer network and an advanced sewage treatment works that will return to Doha treated water suitable for irrigation. The programme is designed to accommodate planned growth for over an additional one million people in Doha’s south catchment.

Commenting on the strategy, Eng. Nasser Ghaith Al-Kuwari, Manager of Ashghal’s Drainage Project Department said, “To en-

able the nation to support the future socioeconomic needs of the country, Ashghal has adopted a strategic and comprehensive approach to deliver some of Qatar’s largest infrastructure projects. Addressing the demand for a more robust nationwide sewerage network, IDRIS will overhaul South Doha’s existing network’s capabilities and ‘future-proof’ it for several decades.” Scheduled to be implemented over the next seven years, the programme is a result of studies that took a comprehensive and integrated approach, whereby various influences on

Banks overexposed in realty sector

T

he rising real estate exposure is raising concerns about Qatari banks. Qatar’s banking sector has large exposure towards real estate developers and contractors, which comprise 40% of banks’ private sector lending of banks, cautioned a report titled GCC Banking Sector Outlook for 2013.

Most listed Qatari real estate companies reported disappointing results in Q3 12. Among its covered banks, QNB has remained focused toward public sector lending and is unlikely to see any significant asset quality deterioration, while other banks, with their increased exposure to the real estate sector in 2011 and 2012, may face asset quality deterioration going forward.

“We expect to see real-estate related asset quality deterioration, as the substantial

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real estate development is unmatched by demand. Qatari banks have aggressively increased lending to the real estate sector; however, we expect a rise in real estate delinquencies at some point,” said Bahrain-based investment bank SICO’s research note.

However, the research continued to prefer QNB with its strong public sector lending growth potential, which is underpinned by low operating costs and strong asset quality.

The 2013 outlook that noted GCC banks’ balance sheet growth will continue to remain strong in 2013. The report said it is bullish on Saudi Arabian banks at current valuations; but see no major triggers for Qatari banks in the coming year. The GCC governments’ focus on economic diversification to lower their reliance on hydrocarbons is positive for the private sector and expects to see greater borrowing demand.

sewage flows were examined, including projected community growth, the condition of the current drainage system and planned development such as Ashghal’s Doha Expressway motorway system and Qatar Rail Company’s Metro system. On completion, the project will decommission over 30 ageing pump stations in the inner city area of Doha and replace them with a single large deep terminal pump station 30 km outside Doha. Due to the significant depth below ground of the tunnelling works, IDRIS will utilise sub-surface techniques that will minimise the usual disruption associated with utility pipeline work. The only visible signs in the construction of many kilometers of pipeline will be occasional access shafts and worksites.

CH2MHill have been appointed as the programme management consultancy for the project to develop and oversee the implementation of IDRIS in a safe and sustainable manner.

High on Malls

Q

atar will soon have more shopping malls and commercial complexes, with at least nine such facilities, costing a whopping QR20 billion, planned in the next three years.

Most of the new facilities will be built in Gharafa, Kharaitiyat, Wakra and Al Khor, and some will be based in the new township to be developed on the siteof the existing Doha International Airport, according to Al Sharq newspaper. The UAE-based Al Futtaim Group has already announced plans to open its first shopping mall in Qatar, Doha Festival City, which is expected to cost QR6 billion. Industry sources expect the facility to be ready in two to three years. Ezdan will build three malls in Gharafa, Wakra and Wukair under its new arm, Ezdan Mall Company, to be launched very soon.

SPORTS NATION

42

arab snippets

Time for Change

bahrain

Bahrain Blaze

ksa

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AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE

hirteen people, mostly Bangladeshi migrant workers, were killed as a fire swept through a three-storey block housing Asians in the Bahraini capital on January 11. Civil defence teams managed to rescue several workers during firefighting operations that lasted several hours. One firefighter was injured when the building’s roof collapsed during the rescue attempt.

Officials said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the fire, which broke out in the illegal labour accommodation in the crowded Makharka district of central Manama.

Saudi women arrive at a shopping mall

uae

in Riyadh on January 12, 2013. Saudi King Abdullah has appointed women for the first time to a top advisory body, with decrees published marking a breakthrough in a kingdom that imposes stringent restrictions on females.

T

he newly-appointed women members of the Shoura Council say there is a real and genuine political will to ensure Saudi women are involved in the decision-making process.

The common theme among the 30 women is willingness to work toward the common good. The new appointees on the 150-member council are highly educated and have had distinguished careers at re-

Going up

search centres, hospitals and universities.

“The most important issue is serving the whole nation, not a certain class or region,” said Haya bint Abdulaziz Al-Manea, the first Saudi woman doctor in biotechnology and one of the new members. She added that King Abdullah’s decision marks the start of a renaissance.

She said all her colleagues are committed to working hard to help develop the country.

Cold and cruel?

AFP PHOTO/JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

QUSRA : A Palestinian youth walks on a snow-covered hill while protecting his face from tear gas during clashes with Israeli forces after Israeli settlers from the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement cut Palestinian farmers’ olive trees on January 10, 2013 in the village of Qusra, south of the city of Nablus. Israeli settlers opened fire in the northern West Bank wounding two Palestinians in separate incidents, Palestinian security forces and witnesses said.

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A

bu Dhabi (SCAD) reported an overall rise of 1.1% in consumer prices during 2012 compared with 2011, according to the monthly report on the consumer price index (CPI) and the inflation rate in the emirate of Abu Dhabi for the month of December and the fourth quarter of the year 2012.

The Consumer Price Index rose from an average 121.6 points in 2011 to 122.9 points in 2012, representing the combined outcome of the upward and downward movements in various expenditure groups during the two periods compared.

The next largest contributor to the rise in the CPI during 2012 was the food and non-alcoholic beverages group which contributed 844% points of the rise in the index during the twelve months in 2012 compared with the same period of 2011, as a result of increases in the prices of most of the subgroups falling under this group. The education group contributed 512% points of the overall increase recorded in 2012 compared with 2011.

world view

Kumbh Mela at Allahabad

AFP PHOTO / PETER MUHLY

INDIA, ALLAHABAD: Sadhus or holy men (L) carry a child adorned with marigold flowers on their shoulders as they all march towards the Sangham or the confluence of the the Yamuna and Ganges rivers during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad on January 14, 2013. The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings.

AFP PHOTO/SANJAY KANOJIA

3 8 Qatar Today

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(Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

AFP PHOTO / NSW

world view

Monkey Business CZECH REPUBLIC, PRAGUE: Kijivu, a western lowland gorilla, holds her two-day-old baby as they rest at the Zoo in Prague, December 24, 2012.

Wild Fires scald Australia AUSTRALIA, New South Wales: Burnt dead sheep lie in a paddock where they tried to break through a fence as a recent bushfire raged near Bookham, a small village in the Yass Shire in the southern region of Australia’s New South Wales state, on January 10, 2013. Fires have been raging across Australia for nearly a week and while many have been contained, 126 are still burning and at least 15 remain out of control in the country’s most populous state, New South Wales.

GRAPHIC CONTENT AFP PHOTO / Greg WOOD

AFP PHOTO/Robyn BECK

AFP PHOTO / MICHAL CIZEK.

Union Jack sparks riots NORTHERN IRELAND, Belfast: Britain’s Union flag flies behind a statue of Queen Victoria at Belfast City Hall on January 9, 2013. The British flag was hoisted over City Hall for the first time since its removal a month earlier sparked riots in Northern Ireland. The emblem will now fly for a maximum of 18 days a year including British royal birthdays – the first of which fell on january 9 as Prince William’s wifeAFP Catherine turned 31.

PHOTO/MAHMUD KHALED

Argo scoops top Golden Globe UNITED STATES, Beverly Hills: Actor/director Ben Affleck (L) poses in the press room with producers Grant Heslov (C) and George Clooney with the award for best motion picture drama for Argo at the Golden Globes awards ceremony in Beverly Hills on January 13, 2013.

february 2013

Qatar Today 3 9

v i e w p oi n t

Manufacturing growth offers SMEs fresh opportunities With preparations for the 2022 World Cup fuelling growth in the construction sector, it is perhaps something of a surprise that the next 12 months could see Qatar’s manufacturing sector increasing its share of the headlines.

Although

it was the high price of oil that was the big story of 2012, seconded by the spate of high-profile construction projects launched in the transport sector, recent figures from the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) have shown that manufacturing grew by 13.6% in the third quarter of last year alone. And growth on this scale is already having a positive impact on the sector, creating new opportunities for small manufacturers.

Underpinning this impressive performance has been a rise in production in petrochemicals, fertiliser, aluminium and liquid fuels derived from gas. Indeed, according to the QSA’s statistics, the gross value added of the manufacturing sector is estimated at QR19.47 billion for Q3 of 2012, showing an increase of 19.9% over the corresponding quarter of 2011 (QR16.24 billion).

With Qatar’s diversification strategy continuing apace, the manufacturing sector now finds itself poised for continued growth, enjoying strong levels of government investment while at the same time benefiting from high demand. With the state looking to expand its share of the global chemical and petrochemical industry, some $25 billion (QR91 billion) is set to be invested in the petrochemical industry alone by 2020, which is expected to boost annual production from an existing 10 million tonnes to around 23 million tonnes by 2020, according to the Ministry of Energy and Industry.

This investment, according to plans made by the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment, will be part of a new petrochemical complex being developed in partnership with Shell, set to become operational in 2017. Also in the pipeline is a petrochemical complex for Qapco (Qatar Petrochemical Company) with an annual production capacity of up to 1.5 million tonnes of ethylene, a million tonnes of high-density polyethylene and 500,000 tonnes of polypropylene, to be operational in 2018.

On the demand side, the World Cup 2022 preparations are expected to lend domestic manufacturing a significant boost. Five

stadiums are currently in the planning or tendering stages, and it is expected that these will need large quantities of plastics that could be partially or fully supplied domestically by Qapco.

The growth of manufacturing also represents welcome news for SMEs within the sector. The recent strong performance of manufacturing is coupled with renewed efforts to lend a boost to this all-important sector, which currently constitutes about 15% of Qatar’s economy, as investment trickles down from the top. Until recently the sector has traditionally been dominated by a handful of major players, but that is starting to change, with positive benefits for the country’s manufacturing base.

Last year, for example, Salam International Investments Limited (SIIL) established several SMEs in the electrical equipment and products sector as part of its strategy to strengthen and exploit the growth opportunities offered by the upturn. In the same vein, in January 2013, Enterprise Qatar – the state’s entrepreneurial support body – launched an initiative to help local SMEs win contracts. While it is obviously too early to gauge the success of these schemes, it is hoped that sustained support for SMEs will bring long-term growth for the sector.

Pleasingly for the authorities, it appears these renewed efforts to create opportunities for local manufacturers are already having a tangible effect. In December, Qatar Shell and Venture Gulf Engineering signed an agreement to include Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) as an approved local manufacturer of hydrochloric acid. The contract will enable QVC to supply to the world-scale Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant, the largest energy project ever built in Qatar and one of the highest consumers in the country.

Developments like this have the capacity to directly contribute towards the social and economic development pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030. Yet, more importantly, it will mean that the SMEs created will further boost the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP going forward, creating something of a virtuous cycle and one which will no doubt be welcome news to both the authorities and businesses alike

online www.qatartodayonline.com

By Oliver Cornock The author is the Regional Editor of Oxford Business Group

4 0 Qatar Today

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COP 1 8 v i e w p oi n t

Nurturing two regions’ success The GCC, especially Qatar, is a brilliant example for the results of the global economic shift that has embraced the world since the financial crisis of 2008. With investors losing their confidence in traditional markets, new regions, such as asean, have emerged successfully and are now the hot spots on the global business radar.

Besides

the GCC, one other such region is the As- been acknowledged by financial analysts that a Laos bond at the sociation of Southeast Asian Nations, or moment would hold a lot more prospects for investors and would ASEAN, comprising ten exciting and rap- be even safer than bonds issued by ailing European economies. On idly-growing countries aiming to become the other hand, Qatar holds a lot of opportunities for ASEAN investors, given the fact that the nation will spend a noticeable amount one of the new hubs of the world’s economy.

The GCC has already realised this fact. In early January the of money on future projects in infrastructure, tourism and gas Gulf countries and ASEAN extended their existing memorandum exploration. The Malaysian government has already called on its of understanding on an action plan that commits both regions to investors, contractors and businessmen to invest in the country enhanced cooperation in trade and investment, economic and and sees great opportunities for project management firms, engidevelopment cooperation, education and training, culture and neering contractors and construction companies. In the oil sector, Qatargas and Thailand’s oil giant PTT have information, as well as mutual consultation ASEAN-GCC trade just signed a contract on liquefied natural on international matters. On this occasion, gas delivery to the southeast Asian kingdom GCC Secretary-General Dr Abdul Latif Alover 20 years at an annual volume of 2 milZayani recognised “the pivotal role that the lion tonnes, which will most likely boost bieconomically vibrant region [of ASEAN] will 2012 (est.) lateral economic relations in related sectors. play in global growth”.

The governments of Thailand and BahOne example of an expected vibrant future rain in November 2012 set up a joint steercollaboration is the financial services sector.

2011 ing committee to boost food and energy Sukuk issuances from Qatar are already atsecurity as well as increase bilateral investtracting interest from China and will do so ment. Bahrain is planning to establish siin ASEAN countries in the years to come, as 2010 los in Thailand to store food, such as rice, financial pressures rise in the region from which would be purchased from Thailand increased infrastructure spending. With the to improve food security in the Gulf counboom of a large number of entrepreneurial 2009 try. In turn, Thailand will set up a comventures that have been established in the modity distribution centre in Bahrain. The wake of the region’s rapid economic growth, Gulf island nation has also said it will send fresh venture capital and private equity have 2008 more businessmen to Thailand to improve become highly sought-after in Singapore, capital investment and intensify their coopThailand and Malaysia, to name just a few.

Thailand, for instance, has set itself the goal of becoming ASEAN’s eration in the area of health tourism. Qatar Airways has said it will fundraising and investment hub, as it becomes increasingly suc- expand further into southeast Asia on the back of rising demand cessful in convincing foreign companies to raise funds through for flights between ASEAN and the GCC. Only recently, MyanThai bond and stock markets. A lot of IPOs are in the pipeline in mar’s capital Yangon became the 10th gateway for Qatar Airways ASEAN over the next two years, and all this makes it attractive for in ASEAN, following on from successful operations to Kuala LumGCC investors to “offload” their cash surplus in a booming destina- pur, Bangkok, Bali, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Hanoi, Singapore, Mation with forecast growth rates of 5–7% annually. For example, the nila and Phuket. It is clearly time to invest in ASEAN. The bloc has as yet underdeveloped but high-potential country of Laos has just decided to grow into a single market of 600 million consumers by announced it will issue the first foreign currency bond in its history 2016, linked by a free trade area to create a free flow of goods and to boost infrastructure development, and more are to come. It has services. The GCC will have to look east to seize this opportunity

$135 billion

$120 billion

$83.25 billion $67.33 billion $56 billion

online www.qatartodayonline.com

Dr Arno Maierbrugger is Editor-in-Chief of www.investvine.com, a news portal focusing on Southeast Asian economic topics as well as trade and investment relations between ASEAN and the GCC. Investvine.com updates its clients on current business news and financial market data and publishes interviews with prominent business people as well as government officials. The related website www.insideinvestor.com is currently being developed as an online platform connecting investors with investment opportunities.

4 2 Qatar Today

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By Dr Arno Maierbrugger investvine.com

sports

nation On December 6, 2011, an initiative adopted

by HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent, to help instill a culture of sport into Qatar was announced. The second Tuesday of every February would be a National Sport Day and a public holiday. It was testament to the growing profile which sport is now enjoying in Qatar and the influence it is having on the residents here.

In light of this, Qatar Today focuses on the efforts being made by the various stakeholders throughout the country, from the Qatar Olympic Committee to the various sporting federations to the organisers of the different grassroots leagues which are giving the ordinary residents of Qatar a chance to play on a competitive team.

By Rory Coen

cover story

Sports nation

you take a walk around the Aspire Academy, you’ll see that it is peppered with quotes from famous sports personalities about what it takes to succeed in sport, but also how enjoyable general participation in sport can be. The legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi holds no punches with quotes such as “If winning isn’t everything, then why do they keep score?” to Michael Jordan’s more down-to-earth “just play, have fun, enjoy the game” philosophy.

Sport includes all kinds of characters.

Qatar is trying to place itself somewhere in the middle. While it wants everyone to get active and play some kind of sport – as is evident in its National Sports Day initiative – it is also trying to train young children to be superstars of the future, which can be witnessed any day you walk through the high-tech Aspire Zone.

The country is also a big player in sports tourism, the concept of attracting tourists to the country by hosting top-quality sporting events or providing state-of-theart training facilities for top teams to come here to train. The Manchester United football team spent a week last month training at the Aspire Zone, for instance. The South American champions Uruguay play the European Champions, Spain, at Khalifa Stadium this month. Platforms like the recent Aspire4Sport Congress were perfect for allowing the various stakeholders a chance to discuss opportunities in all segments of the industry.

National Sport Day However, the intention of National Sports Day is much more modest. Its remit is simple: to get people active, or to “further embed sporting values into the nation’s culture and inspire local people to participate in sports activities”. Sport wasn’t always part of the Qatari vernacular and the country is now playing catch-up with much of the world. While it’s difficult to implant a cultural trait into a nation’s psyche, Qatar feels that a fit and competitive populace should be integral to its 2030 National Vi-

sion. So across the nation, on February 12, ministries, government departments, public and private sector organisations and sports clubs will be organising various activities in an attempt to create awareness about how sport can lead to better health.

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) will open its sports clubs and facilities allowing everyone – men, women and children, includinf those with disabilities – to practise and enjoy sporting activities. Events will be staged on the Corniche and at Aspire, Al Ra-

“The National sport day is the perfect way to try sport in a fun and safe environment. qatar is at the forefront of sport development and the health benefits of being active are huge: everyone should make sport an integral part of their daily life. “i hope everyone joins in on february 12 to make this year’s national sport day an occasion to remember – i am really looking forward to it” abdulrahman abdulqadar abdulrahman. paralympian 2012 and ambassador for national sport day 2013.

faa Street and the Olympic Parks. Additionally, a sport zone will be set up by the QOC near the Corniche, featuring all-day sport and recreational activities open to all from February 12-16. Qatar’s fastest woman, Noor Al-Malki, who represented Qatar at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and is an ambassador for National Sport Day, endorses the idea of dedicating one day every year to the ideals of sport: “Initiatives like National Sport Day advertise Qatar’s willingness to become a sporting nation and encourage people to become sports fans. We can show other nations that our society is adopting the sporting culture and is open to fresh ideas for a healthier and robust life.”

Private initiatives Brave as the concept of a national sports day is, other organisations must carry the can for the remaining 364 days of the year.

Qatar is a country with a very diverse demographic, where only about 20% of the population are Qatari Nationals. The remainder come from every corner of the globe and their sporting interests vary. While it may be construed as a challenge to cater for everyone’s interests, it can also be grasped as an opportunity. Many expatriates are only too keen to impress their love for sport on this country. There’s growth and opportunity in every sector and they know that with the right model in place, anything is possible.

Quantum Sports Leagues (QSports Leagues) was founded by seven men in 2011 and has grown at a phenomenal rate since.

It is a multisport league and sports management company which lives by an ethos of “Have Fun, Get Fit and Make Friends” by playing and enjoying sport on a regular basis. It organises sports leagues and activities for residents of Qatar.

Ben Panton, one of the founder members of QSports Leagues, explained how it all began: “A few of us were looking for things to do in Qatar. Joining a gym had certain limitations, in that you pay a set price for a year and you’re fed up with it after a month. And

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the red devils train at aspire academy part of qatar’s sports tourism strategy is to attract top-class clubs, such as england’s manchester united FC, to doha. WORLD CLASS PLAYERS, SUCH AS ROBIN VAN PERSIE, WAYNE ROONEY AND MICHAEL CARRICK ARE BEING PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES.

it’s difficult to really meet people in that environment. We felt a soccer league might be more in tune with what we wanted to do, so we decided to set one up and see who was interested.

“We advertised it on Facebook, and news of the league soon spread around Doha. Our original plan was for a pilot season of eight teams where we would book a sports hall at Al Jazeera Academy. However, we had 20 or so applications, so we bumped up the number of teams to 12. The over-subscription was very encouraging, but since it was our pilot season, we decided to tread cautiously,” said Panton.

Since this initial offering where it had 150 members, QSports League now boasts 4,000 members. This is due to their recognition of the potential of their product. Instead of sitting on a 12-team six-a-side soccer league, it has opened up to other sports such as cricket, basketball and touch rugby.

Although they are a private company and deep down you feel they would love to make some money, this doesn’t seem to be their short-term goal, and it was refreshing to hear about the effort the team was putting in without any thought for real-time financial reward.

One example of this is how “open” the company is for membership. You feel there is a sense of pragmatism about how they operate – which isn’t always a recognisable

“We are a public facility that allows anyone to use our courts. As for members, we have 175 children enrolled in our Tennis 10s school – promoting the game to the youngest group; 70 students on our national team – representing the country at all levels of play; and 250 students in the QTF School which is open to all juniors.”

Nasser Ghanim Al Khelaifi President, Qatar Tennis Federation

attribute of private companies. They run cricket leagues but they understand that those who wish to play can’t afford what the league may feel is a fair price, so they adapt. While the cricket facilities in Qatar are pretty abysmal for the thousands of cricket players who are working here, they may still be better than what they are used to at home. QSports Leagues try to simulate a cricket environment as best they can.

Another example is through its promotion of women’s soccer. Panton explained that they didn’t get involved in women’s soccer for the first couple of seasons, but women now form 10% of their overall membership. Much of this is due to their tolerance for the different levels the women may be playing at.

QSports League set up a women’s soccer team – expats with membership – and trained them to play the Qatari national team in three 90-minute games last year.

Panton explained that there was a huge disparity in standards.

“We had the ex-Dutch international goalkeeper and then a girl from Palestine who hardly ever kicked a ball,” he said. “So it was a real balancing act. Some of the Western girls, whose skills were more developed, really wanted to beat the Qatari girls. You could understand their frustration with the less technical girls, but we wanted an allinclusive squad; we wanted to give everyone

cover story

Sports nation a game.” QSports League hired an American coach for the three-game series, whilst Panton assisted with the team’s preparation to some degree. They made it clear to the Qatari team that they would start with their best team, but they would roll substitutes through the games to be fair to everyone.

They lost each of the three games (2-1, 4-0 and 1-0) but the seeds for the development of women’s football within the league had fallen on fertile ground.

“We had fifty women the following season,” said Panton, “and we split them into four teams of 12, where each team would have an even mix of highly technical players and novices.”

Panton claimed it was the women’s basketball league that brought the company to a whole new level in terms of exposure and sponsorship.

“We tried to get more sponsors on board to be able to afford better venues and increase our exposure,” he said. “When we moved into women’s sports we were contacted by the QOC; and the Qatar Women’s Olympic Committee was interested in our basketball leagues in particular. Corporates like McDonalds came on board on the back of this, and we have just grown from there, really.”

Evolution Soccer (Evo Soccer) noticed a large gap in the football segment in 2007.

It’s set its goal to create a soccer coaching resource for the burgeoning population of Qatari and expat players and coaches. This happened long before Qatar’s bid for 2022 was accepted, so the timing of FIFA’s decision couldn’t have been better.

“All our coaches are trained to a high level, usually in the UK,” said Tommy Westmoreland, a coach at Evo Soccer. “Most groups train twice a week, with midweek focused on skills development and technique, while the weekends are reserved for small-sided games. Our U/16s recently took part in the QIAFL, an adult league in Qatar, and received huge plaudits for their technique and style of play.”

How do parents react to their children’s dream of playing in the 2022 World Cup? Do they see football as a viable career path because of this huge opportunity in ten years time?

“I think education is priority for most parents, but it can’t be denied that the decision to host the 2022 World Cup has fueled great interest here and has opened up people’s eyes to the potential opportunities for these kids. Evo soccer has already sent many Qatari kids onto club teams.”

“SALEH AL KAABI AND GHANIM AL KUWARI HAVE WORKED TIRELESSLY TO IMPROVE THEIR GOLF GAMES, AND NOW THEY HAVE EARNED THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME TO REPRESENT THEIR COUNTRY IN A HOME TOURNAMENT. “PART OF THE MISSION OF THE QATAR GOLF ASSOCIATION IS TO PROVIDE QATARI GOLFERS WITH THE ACCESS AND SUPPORT NEEDED TO ACHIEVE AT A WORLD-CLASS LEVEL. WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE THESE TWO PLAYERS REPRESENTING US IN THE COMMERCIALBANK QATAR MASTERS.” HASSAN AL NUAMI PRESIDENT OF QATAR GOLF ASSOCIATION

Public initiatives The QOC – which is in effect the Ministry of Sport in Qatar – is in the midst of a fiveyear sport strategy (2011-2016). The strategy includes a number of key projects and outcomes. The “Sports Participation Survey Project” in collaboration with the Qatar Statistics Authority and the Qatar Supreme Council of Health is one example. The results of this survey will be announced during the National Sport Day activities.

The five-year strategy hopes to increase participation, enhance and integrate planning for general and specialised sports facilities, and improve the process of building and managing sporting talents. The Schools Olympic Programme (SOP) is aimed at preparing young athletes in a sporting context and has seen a 400% increase in the number

of participants since its inception. Other projects include the construction of sports facilities and parks throughout Qatar, such as the recent opening of the Al Wukair playing fields, which include a number of facilities for various sports.

There’s no doubt that Qatar is really putting in an effort to glamorise sport and take it to another level. Chief among its goals is to get young Qataris developing a taste for sport and competition, and its SOP is the key driver towards this.

The SOP hopes to “create a sports culture that calls for the practice of sports for health and life in Qatari society, creating an attractive environment for students of both genders to practise physical education activities”. The programme has been running for six years now between the months of October and April.

Public schools (independent and nonindependent), private schools, community schools (boys and girls), kindergartens and special needs institutions participate in the competitions, games and festivals. Male students in all educational stages may participate in one team event (football, basketball, handball or volleyball) and one individual event (table tennis, fencing, swimming, gymnastics or athletics). Female students in all educational stages may participate in one team event (football, basketball, handball or volleyball) or one individual event (table tennis, fencing, swimming, gymnastics or athletics).

On the sidelines of this programme, Enterprise Qatar (EQ) is working with these students through a series of workshops entitled, “Innovation and Creativity Challenges”, where students are grouped into teams and asked to develop certain business plans, such as how to promote Qatar as a tourist destination for the World Cup, how to increase the participation of women in sport, and how to create a sports plan for the disabled. “The response has been fantastic!” exclaimed PR Professional Patrick Forbes. “The workshops were attended by over 400 students, from a wide range of independent and government schools. The students engaged in the activities with a lot of passion, and the level of competition was high. This is the sixth year that the SOP has taken place so it isn’t the first step, but it is certainly a confirmation that there is serious interest in sports among students, and contributes to the momentum. If we are successful in reaching people when they are in their youth, they are more likely to adopt healthy habits in their adult life.”

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CELEBRATION TIME BEN PAnTON CLAIMS THAT QSPORTS LEAGUE REALLY BEGAN TO GROW ONCE THE QATAR WOMEN’S OLYMPIC COMMITTEE AND MCDONALDS ROWED IN BEHIND ITS PROMOTION OF THE SPORT.

National Sports Federations While the QOC has adopted its five-year strategy, various other National Sports Federations (NSF) have their own strategic plans aimed at developing and supporting talented athletes. QOC and the NSFs work together as partners for all sporting events.

There are a number of big events that Qatar will be hosting in the future. These include the 2014 FINA Swimming World Cup, the 2015 World Handball Championships and the 2016 UCI Road Cycling World Championships. Qatar currently hosts 30 international sporting events, which will increase to 50 by 2020. It recently had bids for the 2017 IAAF Athletics World Championship and the 2020 Summer Olympic Games turned down.

Mutaz Barshim, Hamza Driouch and Ashraf Amgad Elseify are just a few shining examples of how the Qatar Athletics Federation has been supporting athletes. Their achievements include a bronze medal by Mutaz in the recent 2012 Olympic Games in London, a gold medal by Hamza in the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona and a new world record by Ashraf Amgad Elseify in the hammer discipline at the 2012 Asian World Junior Athletics Championships in Sri Lanka.

Investment in these young athletes is one

tool that the QOC is using to prepare for Rio 2016 and other sporting events. The focus is on giving more attention to grassroots sport and talent development in order to secure medals in athletics and shootings – which are seen as important sports for Qatar in the Olympics. Nasser Al-Attiyah of course won bronze for Qatar in the men’s Skeet (clay-pigeon shooting) at the recent London Olympic Games.

The Qatar Golf Association (QGA) has sixty national members and two of its upand-coming members, 18-year-old student Saleh Al-Kaabi and 31-year-old business owner Ghanim Al-Kuwari competed with the world’s best at the recent Commercialbank Qatar Masters. They realised this dream by finishing as the top two Qatari nationals at this year’s Qatar Open amateur event played prior to the Masters.

A graduate of Aspire Sports Academy and a first-year student at Qatar University, AlKaabi has only been playing tournaments for about three years, but Qatar’s national team coach, Mike Elliott, believes he has the skillset to make it as a touring golfer.

“He hits the ball extremely long, well over 300 yards regularly,” he said. “He’s up there in distance with anyone. “He’s also a very calm and focused person on the course.

His temperament always remains the same,

which is great. He’s the whole package.”

Al-Kuwari, married with three children, has been one of Qatar’s top golfers at numerous points over the past decade. A sporadic tournament player, balancing his love of the game with life responsibilities, AlKuwari has recently re-dedicated himself as a member of the Qatar national team and played some of the best golf of his life. Elliott highlights Al-Kuwari’s course management and his putting as his top skills, calling him one of Qatar’s most exceptional players on the green.

With golf being on the programme for the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Elliott was disappointed that these men wouldn’t be allowed the chance to even qualify, such were the rule adjustments made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Instead of giving the likes of Al-Kaabi, who is still a teenager, the chance to represent his country in the Olympics as an amateur, the IOC prefers to bring in the top professionals we see week in, week out on our television screens.

An area that is really taking off in Qatar is motorsport. Hardly surprising when you see the speeds these boys are able to get up to on the Al Shamal road.

“Motorsport is growing in Qatar and is indeed a culture that has existed for many

cover story

Sports nation

“THE QATAR MOTOR AND MOTORCYCLE FEDERATION is organising more and more events every year on various types of terrain: desert, off-road areas and asphalt circuits. More than half of the entries in these events are Qatari drivers or riders.”

NASSER KHALIFA AL ATTIYAH QATAR’S FUTURE

PRESIDENT, QATAR MOTOR AND MOTORCYCLE FEDERATION.

EVOLUTION SPORTS IS GIVING YOUNG KIDS THE COACHING NEEDED TO REACH THE TOP.

years already,” said Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiya, Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) President. “QMMF is organising more and more events every year on various types of terrain: desert, off-road areas and asphalt circuits. More than half of the entries in these events are Qatari drivers or riders.”

The QMMF now boasts almost 1,000 members who volunteer as marshalls for events and also participate when they can.

It runs a Children’s Academy to instruct children and young people to develop their riding skills – instruction which always includes an education in safety awareness.

The Federation runs fourteen different events every year. International events include the Moto GP World Championship, Motocross World Championship, Qatar International Rally, Sealine Cross Country Rally, Endurance World Championship, Asia Road Racing Championship, Qatar International Enduro and Qatar International Road Racing Championship.

National events include the Qatar National Rally, Qatar National Baja, National Sprint, Qatar National Road Racing Championship, Losail Asia Road Racing Championship and Track Days.

The 2013 FIM Motocross World Championship – will be staged for the first time in Qatar. The event will be held at the Losail Circuit on March 1 and 2.

Stakeholders This apparent boom in sporting interest in the country has whetted the appetites of the many sporting stakeholders based here. There’s money to be made on sporting infrastructure, equipment, gadgetry and clothing. The recent Aspire4Sport Congress brought many of these stakeholders together, where they discussed three segments in particular: construction, science and medicine, and technology.

One of these stakeholders is TechnoQ, which has been involved in systems integration in Qatar since 1995, specialising in audiovisual, building controls, fire and security systems, lighting, information technology, broadcast and hospitality management solutions. Over the years it has built a diverse client base spans a broad range of industries including the sporting sector.

The Managing Director of Techno Q, Zeyad Al-Jaidah, gave Qatar Today his thoughts on how important sport is for Qatar and how his company has put itself in a position to take advantage of the numerous projects which sport will bring to Qatar over the next decade.

“The sports industry is a big business that can contribute great amounts to building a strong country brand and the economy,” he said. “The brand of a country has a direct impact on its ability to compete and grow in the global arena. When a major interna-

tional sporting event is hosted by a country it brings in a big influx of foreign currency, tourists and additional spending on goods and services.

The sports industry crosses state lines and generates exposure for almost every area of the economy. For us, as for other SMEs in Qatar, this means that we can successfully put down roots in cornering a niche with products and services serving this sector, and there is a way to carve out a piece of the market,” he said.

TechnoQ’s initial foray into sports sector came in 2004. In preparation for the Asian Games 2006, it was appointed to design and install the broadcast and audiovisual systems for Khalifa Stadium. In the years that followed, it was awarded many other projects, such as systems installations at Aspire Zone, Al Shaqab Academy and the Equestrian Centre.

“As a company, we have made many efforts to establish a strong hold in this field by hiring highly-skilled technical staff and investing in resources that enable us to fully understand our clients’ project requirements,” said Al-Jaidah. “We anticipate that approximately 20% of the new business will come from projects that are in the pipeline for 2022. The major factors influencing project evaluation for us will depend on the design and the technical specifications of the new buildings and stadia”

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A lesson from

South Africa With the 2022 FIFA World Cup secured, Qatar has something tangible to aim for in terms of sustaining a sporting culture and legacy. Qatar will be the first Arab nation to host the World Cup, but not so long ago, South Africa was the pioneer in Africa. It hosted a very successful tournament in 2010, in terms of both its production and its legacy for the continent. Qatar Today spoke to two South Africans who helped the tournament reach its potential.

By Rory Coen

cover story

Sports nation

the cover of journalist Richard Dowden’s book Africa – Altered States, Ordinary Miracles stands a young African boy dressed half-naked to his waist holding a football.

It’s indicative of where the continent now sees itself against the tragedies and suffering of the latter half of the twentieth century. Boys and girls just want to play football.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was hosted

by South Africa, but for many Africans it was hosted by the continent of Africa itself. Rival supporters stood toe-to-toe with each other when an African team faced off against a non-African team. They were so proud that the biggest tournament of them all had finally arrived on their continent and it was being run off with such fluid organisation. They were so proud of South Africa. Antiquated perceptions were suddenly changing. So when Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty kick that would have taken Ghana into a World Cup semi-final, the whole continent held a hopeful, collective breath...before releasing it in tears of despair. After all the tension across the Arab region recently, could 2022 be the year when an Arab nation feels the same regional warmth, and football brings everyone together?

Qatar and South Africa are very similar in terms of their sporting ambitions, though not so much on the field as off it. The latter has a population of over 50 million people where sports like golf, cricket and rugby union are already cultural institutions in the country. They have some of the world’s best players in these three sports alone.

Football is also very popular, only the players aren’t quite reaching the standards of the other disciplines. Qatar, meanwhile, has a population of a little over 200,000 nationals and is a land where the idea of sport is still really being conceived as an alternative pastime. Both countries, however, are keen to adopt the concept of “sports tourism”, which means attracting visitors to their shores by hosting major sporting events.

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC)’s Secretary-General, HH Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, says “the QOC is very interested and supports the concept of sports tourism, which was discussed recently at the Aspire4Sports Congress. The discussions involved a number of important

“Before the 2010 tournament, developing countries were seen as a risk, now they’re seen as an opportunity. So we see a big shift from risk to opportunity, it’s a change of mindset.”

Danny Jordaan, CEO, 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA, AND CHAIRMAN, 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP LEGACY TRUST.

institutions in the tourism sector on how a collaborative effort can be made in order to promote the segment. Qatar hosts around 30 international events a year and the sports tourism sector should be developed further in order to attract more tourists and be connected to future sport events.”

Qatar is pretty much putting in a bid for everything these days outside the Winter Olympics. Since its FIFA World Cup bid was accepted in December, 2010 it has had bids for the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Summer Olympic Games turned down. South Africa, meanwhile, hosted the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup and of course the 2010 FIFA World Cup. South African officials say that Durban is very interested in putting in a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games – as is Doha, after two failed bids.

Leaving a legacy But if South Africa is trying to reap what it sowed in 2010, Qatar is in the process of sowing its own seeds for 2022. What are the challenges it will face between now and the Opening Ceremony? What are the challenges it will face after the Closing Ceremony?

Danny Jordaan, Chief Executive Officer, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, said: “There has been a mind-shift over who can host these major events. In the past, they were always hosted by developed countries: the USA, the UK, Germany or

Italy for instance. After 2010, it went from developed countries to developing countries – countries that have to build a lot of infrastructure.

“I think South Africa has given the world significant confidence to go into developing countries and emerging markets,” he continued. “Before our tournament, developing countries were seen as a risk; now they’re seen as an opportunity. So we see a big shift from risk to opportunity; it’s a change of mindset.” Jordaan is now Chairman of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust, a taskforce charged with reaping the benefits of staging the World Cup. One must remember that the actual World Cup only lasts a month, but its legacy should stand the test of time. How has South Africa gained from staging the World Cup in 2010?

“Well, straight off, we have better infrastructure such as roads, airports and sporting facilities. We also have better hotels and shopping malls,” he said. “Second, from a tourism point of view, we have more tourists coming [to South Africa] now because it opened up new markets for us. During the World Cup, 18,000 fans from all over Africa came into South Africa. As a result of that, these fans then went back and told their friends and families about their experience. Until the tournament, our tourists mainly came from Europe, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Now they are coming from all over the world,” contin-

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ued Jordaan. “Third, it’s about building the brand of your country, building the image of it as a country that can deliver, a country that has modern technology and telecommunications. These things are valued by investors and trading businesses.

“Lastly, it’s about national pride, particularly for countries that have a lot of different cultures, such as South Africa. Such events bring the nation together, because everyone is feeling proud that the world can see what we can do.”

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is just a little under ten years away now, so the 2022 Supreme Committee has plenty of time to organise itself. However, Jordaan’s advice for Qatar is to get its infrastructure finished as soon as possible so it can start planning its operational tasks with fully functional roads, rail and stadia in place. It’s easier to simulate a game-day scenario when you have everything in place and you have practised it time and time again.

Marketing issues With almost 30 years’ experience and literally thousands of events managed annually, Octagon is one of the world`s leading event management companies and a trusted partner to many of the world`s leading brands, sports federations and entertainment owners. The South African company performed the activations for some of these brands at the 2010 World Cup. The Managing Director of Octagon, Qondisa Ngwenya, explained what he felt were the main challenges for Qatar ahead of 2022.

“One of the main challenges in Qatar, from a marketing perspective, is that brands will wonder how they can communicate their message out to the rest of the world,” he said. “Qatar is such a small country with a small population. Brands are not going to make a social impact there. They’ll pour their money into broadcast advertising, but they won’t be found doing their normal ‘fun activities’ on the ground. For example, if you do an activation in South Africa, you can engage with the Nigerians, the Ghanaians and the Ugandans in different ways.

They then take this sentiment back to their home markets. I don’t think there’s going to be that kind of liberty in Qatar.

“The brands won’t be talking to Qatar because there’s no market there – it’s such a small country. Brands will be talking to the people outside Qatar. For the brands that we work with – we’ll be working on the markets that are outside Qatar. We’re going to be doing very little on the ground, but quite a lot of what we do will be geared towards

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HH SHEIKH Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Secretary-General

the markets outside Qatar. There’s going to be a huge disconnect between these two, because the people of Qatar are going to feel cheated by these brands because they are not connecting with them.

“Another problem is communication,” Ngwenya continued. “The cultural differences between the Middle East and the rest of the world are obvious. There will be a lack of understanding from both parties – both the locals and the visiting football supporters. The local organisers will be trying to facilitate as best they can, but their actions may be construed as being hostile or unhelpful. In the same way, a football fan might be trying to be cooperative and this could be interpreted as being unruly. This was even a talking point for us when we hosted the World Cup in 2010. You need to be cognisant of what people will think about the strange things local people might be doing. Well-intentioned as they may be, they may send out the wrong message.

“When the World Cup happens – and we saw it in this country – FIFA Republic comes, and it’s different. It’s an entity in its own right. They play by their own rules, regardless of what the local authorities want.

When they descend, they want to run things their own way. You have to understand that FIFA is a product that transports from one market to another. You can’t keep changing it as you move from one place to the next; it has to remain the same. I’m not sure how Qatar is going to cope with this. We found it very, very difficult in South Africa; the Brazilians are finding it very difficult now, because I deal with them. This will be a huge headache for Qatar,” he said.

And what about the opportunities? Will any brands see Qatar as a place where they can generate some real exposure?

“Sure,” said Ngwenya. “It is the alternative gateway to the Middle East. Alternative to Dubai, that is. There is definitely an opportunity for Qatar to stake a claim, and I think the people of Qatar have started to do this already. Qatar Foundation, for example, has done a lot to project the country as a Western-friendly peninsula in the Middle East. So a lot of brands will see it as an opportunity, to take a different base and still be relevant in the region as a whole.”

Olympic bid?

As mentioned earlier, Durban may well be challenging Doha for the 2024 Olympic Games, assuming Doha follows through with its promise to bid once again for the prestigious multi-game event.

Sugen Pillay, Business Development Director for Thebe Exhibitions and Projects in South Africa, the country’s most successful event organiser, says: “I think Durban is quite keen to bring the Olympics [to South Africa]. The bidding doesn’t open up until 2017, so we have some time to strategise.”

“We are going through a process of understanding, a process of reconciling the investments that we made for the FIFA World Cup, but also looking at what legacies we could leave behind after an Olympic Games.

What is it we as a nation can do to position ourselves through an Olympics? We were quite successful in 2010 in delivering a message of a country that is very positive, that we have the ability to make the impossible possible

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Five Skills That Will Get You Hired In 2013 Having a good career is definitely is top of the agenda for most Middle East professionals this year, as seen from the statistics gathered for the “MENA professionals’ New Year Resolutions” poll by Bayt.com.

In fact, the number one career-related resolution for 2013 is to find a better job, according to 65.3% of Middle Eastern professionals.

Finding your dream job for 2013 also requires you to be aware of the other side of the story, like knowing which skills are in high demand among employers. This can help you navigate your career path successfully.

And yes, some skills are more coveted than others and can make the difference between someone who can do the job and someone who does it well. Bayt.com’s August 2012 Job Index survey revealed that more than half of the employers in the MENA region would be looking for skills that go beyond degrees and relevant experience. So, what skills will get you hired in 2013?

In 2013, job seekers should consider transforming their job search by seeking out creative ways to land the job of their dreams. While we know that 50% of employers in the MENA region are looking for cooperative, helpful and flexible employees (Bayt.com’s August 2012 Job Index survey),

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there’s a set of skills that you want to be sure to develop this year. The HR experts at Bayt.com list the five most critical skills to work on this year:

1. Teamwork With half of employers in the MENA region looking for team players, it is hard to find a job that doesn’t mention “works well in a team”. To highlight your teamwork skills during the interview, try citing specific examples of when you best put this skill on display.

These could be specific projects that you worked on, features you collaborated on and what your contributions were to the overall outcome. It’s important that you give the employer an idea of the size and scope of the project, so don’t forget also to mention specifics such as number of people on the project and timelines.

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2. Communication Today’s typical workplace requires you to communicate with geographically scattered offices, engage in online correspondence and share a whole lot of information.

In such a scenario, good communication skills (both written and verbal) are highly prized. If you can communicate well, then you are halfway there to many jobs. Employers evaluate this right from the initial point of contact, which in many cases is established by your CV. According to Bayt.com’s “Hiring Practices in the MENA” poll (December 2011), spelling mistakes and bad grammar top the list, with 21.3% of employers voting for these two things as the most common mistakes on a job seeker’s CV. In fact, half of employers in the MENA region are looking for individuals with good communication skills in both English and Arabic (Bayt.com’s August 2012 Job Index).

Think of how you handle yourself on the phone, how your CV reads, whether you can communicate well at different levels and if

your written correspondence is crisp and succinct. Employers will know right away if you can communicate well by how you introduce yourself at interview and address questions.

3. Professionalism and demeanour Personality plays a role in how you are perceived by others. Even if you have the right experience, being rude can put a damper on your eligibility for a job. Radiate enthusiasm and motivation for your career. In a poll conducted by Bayt.com (“Hiring Practices in the MENA”) 28.8% of employers choose hunger, drive and ambition as the most important aspects they based their hiring decisions on.

4. Good presentation and personal grooming Hiring managers rarely judge job seekers on their sense of fashion in an interview, but they do notice how you dress. Dressing

professionally for an interview and having refined presentation skills can help hiring managers see you as a welcome addition to their team.

5. Sales and marketing experience Fourth on the list of experiences most coveted by employers, as per Bayt.com’s August 2012 Job Index survey, is sales and marketing experience, with 25% of employers saying it is valuable.

However it is important to note that the qualities that make a good salesperson/ marketer are not just for those in that job role but extend to other job roles as well.

These skills can be valuable when “selling” an idea, overcoming objections, convincing a team mate, etc.

Whether you are a software developer, a designer or a sales engineer, you can seek knowledge in marketing strategy, product promotion and demonstration, and sales techniques. Because in the end, we are all promoting the company we work for and the products we help in creating

bookmark www.issuu.com/oryxmags

About Bayt.com: Bayt.com is the #1 job site in the Middle East, with more than 40,000 employers and over 6,750,000 registered job seekers from across the Middle East, North Africa and the globe, representing all industries, nationalities and career levels. Post a job or find jobs on www.bayt.com today and access the leading resource for job seekers and employers in the region.

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The new functional agenda Corporate functions need to change as companies refocus their strategies and adapt to a more challenging global economy. Companies are asking their functional departments to move from being mere service bureaus to strategic enablers of corporate strategy. These new demands are placing functions and their executives in a bind. On the one hand they have to adapt to their new role, but on the other they still have to meet the daily needs of their internal customers and provide services such as IT, HR and finance to help keep the business running.

Executives

world’s leading companies now seek to build a small number of differentiating, and winning, capabilities by focusing on what they do better than anyone else and what makes them unique. Differenfaced with these conflicting demands tiating capabilities can be Apple’s design should reconcile them by adopting a of intuitive devices and brand managenew functional agenda. This agenda alFunctional leaders are still ment or Walmart’s highly efficient suplows functional leaders to focus their ply chain management that comes from departments toward actively enabling being asked for increased aggressive vendor management, expert the company strategy, rather than simply functional efficiency and point-of-sale data analytics, superior meeting the requests of business units, flawless execution. logistics, and rigorous working-capital and thus to create more value for their management. As part of this trend, comcompanies. panies want their functional departFor many years, the functions existed ments to be more involved in strategic to fulfill the many specialised tasks evdecisions and be engaged in building ery company needs. They ensured legal differentiating capabilities. and regulatory compliance, fixed shortThese demands are putting functional term problems, and provided important leaders in a challenging position. Corpofunctional expertise and services.

Functional leaders are still being asked for increased func- rate leaders want the functions to “up their game” and be more tional efficiency and flawless execution. Years of outsourcing strategic players while still delivering time- and resource-conand process improvements have led to important efficiency suming daily support requirements efficiently and flawlessly.

Functional leaders can escape this seeming contradiction gains. However many functions are still far from efficient in even the most basic activities, and their internal customers want yet by adopting a new functional agenda consisting of three mutually supporting items. These are: aligning priorities, a fit-formore services, more cheaply.

In the past several years, however, functional leaders have in- purpose operating model, and reallocating resources toward creasingly been asked to tackle a different set of challenges: to building capabilities.

The first element of the agenda involves the function ensurhelp differentiate their companies more clearly from competitors by being “the best” around a focused set of capabilities. The ing that its priorities align with the corporate strategy and the

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function’s role in enabling that strategy. The bulk of a function’s effort should be on assisting the company to develop its marketbeating, differentiating capabilities. The best companies have demonstrated that differentiating capabilities – the few things they do extremely well and in a way nobody else can copy – lead to success. Functions play a key role in identifying what these capabilities are and enabling them so that their company sets itself apart from the competition.

For all other activities that are not related to these differentiating capabilities, functions should strive to be just good enough rather than aim to be top-notch.

The second part of the agenda is to align the functions’ operating models to be able to support the corporate strategy and to deliver maximum value to the organisation. This could involve consolidating or creating new roles, changes in decision rights, and redesigning existing processes and tools. It could also include developing new ways of cooperating with other functions in order to build cross-functional differentiating capabilities.

Third, the functions have to reallocate resources to support departmental and company-wide priorities. This means just enough resources, and no more than are needed to deliver their daily responsibilities – such as keeping IT working effectively, efficiently and securely. Non-essential costs can be cut, the resources redeployed toward skills that are competitive necessities in the market and, more importantly, toward building

differentiating capabilities.

An example of the agenda at work is when functions become pioneers in their own right. They seize the opportunity to concentrate on activities that are strategically important to their companies and that will differentiate them in the market, even while they are meeting daily organisational needs.

For example, take a case where a company wants to focus from many capabilities to fewer, more differentiated, capabilities. Its finance department can add value by aligning the company’s performance measures and management processes to support this shift, as well as helping other parts of the company make investment and cost decisions in line with the strategy and key capabilities, and establishing criteria for evaluating the fit of inorganic growth opportunities with the chosen strategy and capabilities. Daily tasks, such as paying the bills, recording transactions, and standard financial reporting, can be automated, performed at lower cost through a shared services model, or outsourced, so that the finance department can focus more on the strategy-enabling activities. The new functional agenda helps functions make a contribution that might otherwise have been missed. It breaks down the silos that are so often a feature of large organisations. Most of all, it leverages the considerable expertise and knowledge residing in functional departments and uses them to identify and build the differentiating capabilities that allow a company to succeed

Visit

www.booz.com and www.booz.com/me

By Deniz Caglar, Namit Kapoor, and Thomas Ripsam, partners with Booz & Company.

About Booz & Company: Booz & Company is a leading global management consulting firm, helping the world’s top businesses, government ministries and organisations. Our founder, Edwin Booz, defined the profession when he established the first management consulting firm in 1914. Today, with more than 3,300 people in 60 offices around the world, we bring foresight and knowledge, deep functional expertise, and a practical approach to building capabilities and delivering real impact. We work closely with our clients to create and deliver essential advantage.

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How to retain

competent Qataris?

Are organisations developing the national talent?

What are the challenges facing Qatarisation, and how are these to be overcome? Eisa Abdulla, manager at a telecom company here, talks about the effectiveness of Qatarisation, specifically within the private sector.

Qatarisation is included in Qatar’s strategic development plan, under the pillar of human development. One of the key challenges facing Qatarisation is the speed at which organisations are placing nationals into senior roles. There remain gaps in terms of ability to fulfil roles with job-ready nationals.

Abdulla believes the demand for Qataris to be placed in key decision-making roles is high, and the responsibility placed on many Qataris is huge.

“The need for Qataris to lead organisations, functions and teams is rapidly growing,” says Abdulla. “Qatarisation is about placing Qataris in roles which invariably end up being management or leadership roles. There might not be many Qataris qualified to lead, though there is strong evidence of excellent Qatari leadership in some industries. There remains a strong demand for young people to be ready to lead. In Qatar, we are at a stage where we learn as we grow. The immediate challenge for Qatarisation is how we fill the demand

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for competent Qataris for pivotal decisionmaking roles within a range of businesses.

If we were to take 100% competent Qataris to run companies, then we would probably be giving every competent Qatari four to five full-time positions each.

“The growth of businesses and industries in the past five to six years has been immense, and Qatari manpower is simply not enough to sustain the market demand.

We are now fast-tracking Qataris into senior positions. In three to five years we will have an increased number of competent Qataris in the workforce and the figures will continue to grow. We are aware that when we recruit a Qatari from one organisation we leave a gap in the organisation they were recruited from. We have to keep in mind that we need to serve our organisations as well as the nation as a whole,” he says.

Building leaders For Qatarisation to be effective, I believe we

need to ensure our business community is supporting it – not as an organisational focus, but rather a business community focus.

Qatar Development and Consultancy Centre (QDCC) manages a range of Qatarisation programmes on behalf of our clients, and while we assist in the development of our clients, we are acutely aware that we are part of a movement to build a community of business leaders.

As a leading HR practitioner and Qatarisation expert in Qatar, I understand the need for robust development programmes that facilitate effective deployment of competent Qataris. I was keen to capture Abdulla’s thoughts regarding Qatarisation development.

“We have some very successful leaders,” says Abdulla. “Look at oil and gas, finance, property development and telecoms. However, given we are in a high-growth stage, we do have many managers who are still learning to be leaders while holding leadership roles. The manpower plan within the

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private sector must realise the 2030 Vision, which is the master plan in terms of bringing Qataris to the highest skills and competencies. We need to have proper succession plans to replace expatriates.”

Specialised roles While management and leadership roles require Qatarisation, I advocate that we look to move Qataris into specialised roles too. Not all Qataris wish to move vertically within an organisation – some wish to focus on specialising in the field of expertise.

“Qataris can work broadly,” he agrees.

“We need Qataris to be in areas where there is an obvious gap, such as HR and external affairs.”

Abdullah explained why there was a gap in these areas in particular: “There are elements of these roles which require a ‘country culture’ – the way we do business, specifically for government relations-related areas. If these functions were led by expats, they would not be as efficient. However, closing this gap creates another one. What I mean is, if we look at the history of HR, it was founded from personnel management, but in Qatar we still operate in the personnel management stage. This is changing,

but the practices in HR still remain largely personnel management. So, we fill one gap and create another.”

To build knowledge and expertise and bring Qataris to the level of international best practice, it is clear we need a strong development plan for Qatari nationals.

We need to have the right system in place tailored to Qatari learning (which is not necessarily the same model as for their expat peers).

Abdulla agrees: “We need to measure the gaps in terms of Qatari capacity to fill roles across the board. We need to think beyond organisations or industry; we need to consider a national programme regarding effective placement, development and retention, which is critical for country growth.

There will be challenges given the learning curve, especially when competing internationally. We admit we have inexperienced Qataris in leadership roles; however, we have experienced people supporting our inexperienced leaders, whether Qatari or non-Qatari.

“Young people have the energy and ambition to be part of a national change,” he continues. “We have some very smart students emerging from college. Because of the high

demand, they become eager to choose the right organisation that can provide them with the right opportunities to be a successful leader, and they may be attracted to higher salaries.”

Gap analysis Organisations must do a thorough gap analysis to really add value to the learning and outcomes, and invest in the right people: individuals with the attitude, capacity, values and cultural fit for the organisation. I personally believe that Qataris should first and foremost be mentored by more senior Qataris and then turn to our expatriate counterparts for further mentoring. The key to effective Qatarisation within organisations is retaining the right employees, but how do organisations retain quality Qatari employees?

Abdulla responds: “Qataris are historically very loyal to their community, family and friends – it is in their nature. By providing and maintaining their dignity and respect with open doors (communication channels) you can retain Qataris, and by providing the correct mediums for learning, you can retain knowledgeable and competent Qataris.”

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By Elizabeth Fleming Elizabeth Fleming has over 20 years of international HR and business solutions experience.

Her well-balanced mix in business solutions, human resources and anthropology adds a unique and effective approach to Qatarisation, both in cultural understanding and as a business offering. She has now established Qatar Development and Consultancy Centre; where her skills and industry knowledge has been well received; she is currently working on a National HR Competency Framework alongside Qatar University.

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Kahramaa to tap renewable

energy The Fourth General Conference of the Arab Union of Electricity took place in Doha last month under the strapline “Renewable Energy and Smart Systems – Future Solutions for Electric Power”, agaiNst the backdrop of the challenges facing socioeconomic development projects in various Arab countries and also globally. by ezdha r ib ra him 6 0 Qatar Today

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THE

residual effects of the global economic crisis can still be seen in declining economic growth rates in most countries of the world with the exception of the Arab Gulf states, which continue to see unprecedented growth. However, these countries’ wealth depends primarily on hydrocarbon resources. Strenuous efforts to diversify their economies are going on while profligate consumption patterns show a lack of concern by Arab citizens of the need to conserve resources and protect an environment at risk from global warming.

The electricity sector, being closely linked with the energy sector, is facing new challenges both at a global level and here in the Arab world. Policymakers and decision-makers must set practicable national strategies to ensure that their electricity ministries, institutions and corporations fulfil their commitments at a local level to ensure the diversity and adequacy of their energy sources, and at a global level earnestly pursue alternative energy sources that will help to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide. They therefore have to draw up a robust plan enabling development of the infrastructure and technology to turn their electricity networks into interactive smart grids allowing the incorporation of renewable alongside conventional energy sources in a single grid. The challenges are many, including direct investment to provide the necessary industrial plant and technology, human resources and financial investments to set out on a new course of economic and development sustainability projects in all the Arab states.

Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry, HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al-Sada, said that members of the Executive Office of the Arab Ministerial Council on Electricity had unanimously agreed to invite Qatar to set up an Arab body to generate electric power from renewable sources A pioneering Arab experiment “Qatar, in keeping with its National Development Strategy 2011-16, has resolved to deliver a pioneering Arab experiment to promote alternative energy projects,” said HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister,

in a speech delivered on his behalf by Energy Minister Dr Al-Sada at the official opening ceremony for the Fourth General Conference of the Arab Union of Electricity and Accompanying Events last month. “It will set up a number of vital projects related to this sector by supporting research, establishing an advanced photovoltaic solar cells industry, and starting the first integrated pilot project under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy and Industry, by supporting the initiative of Kahramaa to start a project to produce electric power from renewable energy sources.”

The Prime Minister said this two-phase project was basically to exploit unused flat surfaces within Kahramaa’s infrastructure installations, like the roofs of power stations and water reservoirs, to install solar power generating stations of up to 200 MW using a number of different technologies, such as solar photovoltaic panels and solar condensers, over the next eight years. The first phase would consist of setting up pilot projects of 5-10 MW with a notional lifespan of 20-25 years. The tender is due to be launched in the first quarter of 2013 for the engineering works, construction, operation and maintenance. A second phase would follow based on the outcome of the first phase, possibly bringing in private sector partners to invest in the sector, and scaling up to larger projects with an output capacity of 150-200 MW. The project would take place over the next eight years within Kahramaa installations and on land owned by the corporation.

Successful experiment Progress is also being made on cooperation and integration projects among the GCC states, said the Prime Minister. “The most important of these is the GCC power grid project, which marks a milestone in direct economic cooperation, as a successful project among power companies in the Gulf and a model of cooperation throwing light on a strong political will to achieve lasting integration among us. Our larger ambition is to deliver a pan-Arab power grid, and beyond that to expand to interconnect with the European grid. This will open up bright prospects for our countries’ economies to participate more actively in the world economy.”

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“Kahramaa is announcing a project to produce electricity from renewable energy, based on exploiting unused flat surfaces within its infrastructure installations, with the aim of eventually producing up to 200 MW of electricity from solar power.”

Engineer Essa bin Hilal Al-Kuwari President of Kahramaa and President-Elect of the Arab Union of Electricity

Qatar Today 6 1

tag this HE Saeed Mohammed Al-Tayer MD and CEO, Dubai Electricity and Water authority

70% growth in global demand for electricity by 2035

80 %

More than 80% of the increase will come from non-OECD states, with China and India accounting for the lion’s share at 38% and 13% respectively.

2.7%

Average ANNUAL growth in global electricity demand:

3

GROWTH IN Demand for electricity in Arab region THREE times average global growth rates

7.4%

Average growth in Arab electricity demand in recent years: 7.4% a year (approx.)

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open up to international best practices

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he Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s MD and CEO, HE Saeed Mohammed Al-Tayer, speaking exclusively to Qatar Today, talked about the need to share information and to open up to international practices.

“We have the ambition to develop the electricity sector further and interconnect the Arab world, then link up globally to take advantage of our capacity in generation, transmission and distribution. There is a lot of energy being wasted according to the figures and statistics.

“Although the Arab region is the world’s biggest producer of energy and fuel, it also has the highest levels of personal energy consumption. Policies have to change and energy efficiency must be pursued; buildings must become environment-friendly (green buildings) and industrial production has to be less energy-intensive.”

Al-Tayer said Arab countries have to follow a policy of diversifying their energy sources so as to reduce the dangers of relying on a single source that couldn’t guarantee continuity of supply in the event of a technical fault.

This is something that is recognised the world over, even in America, which uses energy from its various fossil fuel sources as well as renewable energy. China, too, even though 80% of its energy comes from coal, has started to diversify into solar

february 2013

and nuclear power, while Korea gets 35% from coal, more than 30% from nuclear and also some from solar energy. Al-Tayer added that power generation and transmission systems need to be highly efficient, and the energy lost in the transmission and distribution networks must be kept to a minimum.

Unlike Dr Hisham (see Page 61), who seemed pessimistic about the prospects for solar power in the Gulf states because of their small land areas, humidity, and the effect of large amounts of dust on the efficiency of solar panels, Al-Tayer thought renewable energy, especially solar power, had a promising future there.

He noted that these countries have the world’s highest GDP and have made great progress in this area, adding that despite being small in area they can install solar panels on the roofs of buildings, especially as the operating costs of such systems are falling.

“The UAE does not seek, and does not expect, renewable energy to reach 40% of its total output,” he said, “only 20% in 30 years, and if that is delivered it will be a big achievement.”

Dubai’s energy strategy proposes diversifying by only 5%, as power generation in Dubai is highly efficient. Its plants manage to achieve an efficiency rate of 84-90% with minimal energy loss, which has earned Dubai accolades for bringing the rate of loss down from 7% to 3%.

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The bane of the power sector

I

n an exclusive interview Dr Hisham Al-Khatib, Vice-Chair of the World Energy Council and winner of a Global Energy Award, told Qatar Today that the main reason for the rise in personal consumption of electricity in the Arab world is the way governments subsidise it, which he calls the bane of the Arab power sector.

Questioned about the prospects for renewable energy in the Arab world and specifically the Gulf, AlKhatib said its contribution was likely to remain limited compared with that of fossil energy, which represents 80% of the world’s energy output and has done so for 40 years.

“It is my conviction,” he said, “and that of impartial scientists, that things will stay like this for another 80 years. Renewables will grow,” he went on, “but they won’t be able to replace conventional energy, despite the mounting cost of coal and oil.”

He said it might be possible to integrate renewable energy together with conventional into a single interactive smart grid, but Arab countries have so far made only modest progress in this area (though he expected some Gulf states, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to succeed) while Europe has taken great strides. He observed that commitment among the Arab states remained variable and was more a matter of intent than of investment.

The Arab League’s Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs, Mohammed Al-Twaijri, commented, “Implementation of the Electricity Grids Interconnection Projects is both a major achievement and a shining example of Arab integration.” He explained that the Arab Ministerial Council on Electricity was monitoring implementation of the resolutions of previous Arab summit meetings, including one for speeding up completion of the Arab Electricity Grids Interconnection Projects, studying the PanArab Power Grid and assessing the potential for using natural gas to export electricity, given its importance for creating an integrated Arab energy market.

Al-Twaijri said the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development had approved funding for a study on organising groups of power grids in Arab countries and a feasibility study on trading electricity and gas among Arab states, with the possibility of exchanges with other markets too. A consultant had been appointed and had started work on the study. Al-Twaijri said the study was expected to be completed in the summer of 2013.

Meanwhile, he went on, the World Bank has also been conducting a study of the Arab Electricity Grids Interconnection Projects and is expected to suggest ways of completing and strengthening the Grid project already under way and to make proposals on the exchange of electricity and gas among Arab states.

He noted that while wind power had been talked about, it would not work in the Gulf states as they don’t have the constant winds needed to generate electricity, though it could be a viable prospect in North Africa and the Gulf of Suez. He said the most suitable regions for generating solar power were in the Mediterranean; it would not be successful in the Gulf states because of their small land areas, high humidity and dust that would reduce the efficiency of solar panels.

Broadening the energy mix Al-Twaijri said the Arab Ministerial Council on Electricity had approved the Arab strategy for developing renewable energy up to 2030. This strategy sets out to formulate a future vision for renewable energy in the Arab world, he said, by increasing its share oin the energy mix and joining up Arab efforts to develop renewables. A pan-Arab outline framework has been drawn up to improve the efficiency of power generation, reduce consumption by the end user, and monitor Arab states as they draw up their national energy efficiency plans to achieve reductions in demand.

Increase in Arab electricity output (Terawatt hours):

527 710 2004

2008

1,188 2018 (estimated)

Diversifying sources of energy Most Arab states would like to include the option of using nuclear energy for electricity generation and water desalination within their strategies for diversification and sustainability.

The Arab Atomic Energy Agency and the Secretariat of the Arab Ministerial Council on Electricity joined forces at the First Arab Conference on the Prospects of Nuclear Power for Electricity Generation and Seawater Desalination in 2010 to explore nuclear energy as a strategic Arab option for security of energy supplies. Another conference was held in Amman last year to follow up on the issues raised at the first one regarding priorities and concerns related to nuclear power programmes

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Aweb of

importance The Internet Society, an organisation that promotes the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world, recently held its Arab Regional forum, Inet Qatar, at Carnegie Mellon University in Education City. by r o r y c o e n

The

discussions focused on the importance of connecting with regional Internet communities throughout the region. The Internet Society believes that local conditions require local solutions focusing on specific regional needs, assisted and informed by the technical expertise and policy experience of leading Internet community experts. Taylor Reynolds, a senior economist with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), spoke about why a robust Internet, based on an open and collaborative development model, spurs innovation and economic growth. Qatar Today got some of his insights into how the Internet could help develop Qatar’s economy.

How important is the Internet to diversify Qatar’s economy by 2030?

Any attempts to diversify the Qatari economy should consider the role of the Internet.

The Internet is becoming a core economic infrastructure in countries around the world. A recent study by the OECD found that up to 13% of the entire value created by businesses in the United States in 2011 was based on Internet-related activities, and that percentage is growing. All sectors of the economy are touched by the Internet so

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a robust, fast and open network will help lay a foundation for supporting other sectors of the economy.

Would it be advisable to provide free Internet connectivity or at least heavily subsidise it?

Free access to the Internet certainly reduces a significant barrier (cost) to Internet adoption. But it also has some unintended consequences related to innovation. A competitive market for the delivery of broadband services forces providers to reduce prices and, more importantly, to introduce new services in order to attract customers.

These innovations bring value to customers. When there is only one Internet service provider (ISP) in a community, there is less pressure to innovate and this affects customers. The approach typically used in OECD countries is to foster a competitive market for broadband, at either the infrastructure or the service level, and then provide targeted subsidies to those who cannot afford broadband, so they can buy it in the market. This helps extend broadband to all but requires Internet operators to compete for customers via innovation and price.

You spoke about an “open” Internet being crucial to an economy’s development. Is there talk of reducing the “openness” that we now enjoy?

Recently there have been proposals put for-

ward to alter the fundamental structure of the Internet by changing the way networks exchange traffic with each other. Some telecommunication companies would like apply the old model for international phone calls to the Internet. This could have negative consequences for websites such as the not-for-profit Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) that streams free educational videos around the world. Sites such as the Khan Academy would likely be forced to cut off access altogether to countries where they are forced to pay a tax for each of the educational videos they deliver (based on the amount of data they transfer). This is a solution that makes everyone worse off, including those imposing the tax, because Internet use could drastically fall.

There are also discussions currently underway about whether ISPs should be able to selectively block access to sites, or governments to limit access to services provided over the Internet.

Comparative advantage and Internet can give a country a competitive edge.

If every country is using the Internet, then how can they gain this comparative advantage? It’s not like agriculture, where only certain climates are conducive to certain crops. You spoke about France producing cheese, for example.

The Internet can be run anywhere, any time.

tag this Internet access is available in nearly all countries of the world, but certain geographic areas are clearly hubs for Internet and media companies. Silicon Valley in the United States and London in the United Kingdom are examples of these innovative hubs. Government policymakers are all interested in developing an Internet ecosystem that attracts companies because it is one of the few sectors of the economy that is predicted to keep growing over the next few decades, as more objects are connected to the Internet and as we find better ways to infuse Internet connectivity into various aspects of business, society and our lives.

Qatar is in the enviable position of having the plan to convert itself into a knowledge hub and it has the resources to do it quickly.

How can a country like Qatar gain a comparative advantage in this space?

Qatar has a nearly unique opportunity to gain a comparative advantage in this area, first with its investments in network infrastructure. Fibre optic networks represent the future of high-capacity Internet connectivity, and a national fibre-to-the-home network is the goal of many countries, but currently out of reach for most. Only Japan and Korea are coming close to approaching this goal, and this will provide them with the most advanced domestic networks in the world. The Qatari government’s plan to extend fibre connectivity to all throughout the country ensures that Qatar is a global leader along with Japan and Korea in terms of domestic infrastructure. This domestic infrastructure serves as a foundation for attracting companies and innovation that will provide services throughout the world. Qatar has long been known as an international trading hub so this transition in terms of the Internet is clearly within reach.

Can you give examples of where countries raised taxes on Internet usage and innovation dropped?

Recently, the government of Ghana introduced a new tax on all incoming international telephone calls. The tax was only applied to calls coming from abroad and was meant to raise revenue. But the results were not what the government planned. The tax hit the Diaspora the hardest and they significantly reduced their calls back home to family and friends. The government of Pakistan proposed the same and, as a result, costs of calling Pakistan went up. The government suspended its taxation as a result.

While this is an example from telephony, the same principle would apply to the Internet. Policies that directly or indirectly

Qatar has a nearly unique opportunity to gain a comparative advantage in this area, first with its investments in network infrastructure.

discourage use eventually stifle innovation.

What do you know about Qatar s QNBN (National Broadband Network)? How modern will this be, and how do you see it propelling an economy like Qatar’s?

The information I have on the QNBN isthings I have read on its website. The fact that the network is a fibre-to-the-premises network that will reach 95% of households/ businesses means that it will be among the most advanced in the world. The network will certainly provide Qatar with an impressive and important foundation for becoming a knowledge-based economy. However, the network alone will not guarantee that Qatar can attract firms, investment and innovation. Policymakers must also focus on creating a pool of well-educated workers and a business environment that supports innovative thinking, competition, creativity, business creation and entrepreneurship.

Is a world-class Internet infrastructure crucial to Qatar’s development?

Infrastructure is always one of the key factors supporting economic growth and development, and our increasingly information-intensive economies will require fast and robust connectivity. Countries such as Qatar, that invest in new fibre networks, are laying a foundation for communications for probably the next 50 years. Qatar’s ability to fund the massive rollout certainly positions it with a certain comparative advantage.

Firms based in Qatar will be able to deliver services domestically that are just not possible in countries with less-advanced networks. This potential helps attract innovative firms that could use Qatar as a test bed for global products, in much the same way Korea attracts high-tech firms today. Then these firms could use Qatar as a base for delivering global information services.

If you had one piece of advice for the Qatari government with respect to the Internet, what would it be?

Qatar’s goal of creating a knowledge-based economy will depend on pulling together different elements to support a flourishing ecosystem. These elements range from infrastructure to skills to business development. Policymakers often focus on ways to promote digital content industries domestically, but the Internet economy also extends beyond the digital realm to all other businesses that can operate more efficiently and extend their reach by leveraging the power of the Internet and communication technologies. Governments should therefore try to use ICT to make doing business in their country easier. Qatar seems to have the vision and resources to pull all these elements together so it is vital now that they focus on the implementation

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Will 2013 be the year of Tablet

Commerce?

By Kapil B h ati a

for The past few years “mobile” has been a point of discussion in the digital world. The year 2012 was touted as the “Year of the Mobile” in terms of e-commerce. Into 2013, with tablets becoming more prevalent, can online retailers adapt to offer tablet-optimised shopping experiences?

AS

more and more shoppers get comfortable with their tablets as a commerce tool, tablet sites will become a necessary and focal point of every brand’s multichannel strategy. Lack of customised e-commerce websites for tablets is likely to put the desktop site at the heart of the shopping process.

Users are finding it increasingly easy to consume information on mobile and make a purchase on tablet. However many online retailers continue to ignore tablets.

This year Adobe Digital Index analysed 23 billion visits to websites around the globe and found the share of visits from tablets has grown approximately 10 times faster than from smartphones within two years of hitting the market, and more than 300% in the last year. Adobe forecasts that tablet visit share will reach 10% of total website traffic by early 2014. Consumers who have access to both smartphones and tablets are

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using them simultaneously, turning to the smartphone for quick research and pricechecks while the tablet is the preferred place to actually conclude transactions.

The research shows that the average spend on tablet devices is 50% more than smartphones. The diagram on the next page also shows that conversion rates on tablets exceed those on smartphones on retail websites.

Why would tablets be preferred to smartphones?

The screen – Given the choice between a smartphone and a tablet, consumers find it easier to use the latter to browse the Internet, given the large screen size. It is easier to type, click on links and view information.

Rich app experience – Tablet apps have features like page flipping, horizontal scroll and gyroscope that give users a unique

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conversion

0.60%

QR

290

2.3%

QR

mobile

mobile

450

tablet

tablet

2.5%

370

QR

traditional

experience. The apps are engaging, with excellent customer journey experiences.

A survey by Internet Retailer found that the average tablet owner makes around $63,000 (QR230,000) a year and Adobe research suggests that 29% of tablet owners have an annual household income greater than $75,000 (QR273,000).

Distinct segments In other research conducted by Adobe on the impact of tablet visitors on retail websites it was found that tablet visitors and smartphone visitors are distinct segments that do not share the same visit objectives or have equal value.

Tablet visitors are more likely to visit a retail site with the objective of making a purchase than are smartphone visitors.

Each tablet visitor is four times as likely to purchase and spends over 50% more per purchase. In contrast, smartphone visitors may be more likely to visit a bricks-andmortar retail store after visiting a website and be more receptive to local store follow

www.twitter.com @kapilkb blog @ iwep.blogspot.com amateur photographer @earsplease. blogspot.com

average order value by device

traditional

promotional offers, because smartphones are more portable than tablets.

A lot of traffic to sites comes from e-mails and social networks, with people clicking on URLs via their mobile devices and tablets. By using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, online retailers can take an existing desktop site and optimise it for mobile users.

This will help them manage their marketing campaigns successfully.

Apple had sold 40 million iPads worldwide at the end of Q3 2012. In the UAE tablet sales are expected to reach almost 500,000 for 2012 according to analysts IDC MEA. Some people may argue that tablet commerce is restricted to iPads only, which is probably true as the iPad has captured around 90% of the market. However, there is room for improvement for other tablet developers to gain market share.

On a mobile device, it is obvious that a desktop site is not user-friendly. But for tablets, a desktop site can work. Tablets can do better than desktops if online retailers start tailoring their experiences for them.

At present most of the websites are still oriented toward a desktop experience. But there is still more optimisation that can be done for tablets, including better touch navigation and bigger links.

Tablet shoppers do represent a major opportunity. But with every opportunity come potential threats, ie websites that are slow for tablet users and don’t meet their performance expectations will result in lost customers and revenues.

Online retailers are realising the e-commerce impact of tablets, which have been around for two years.

Users are increasingly consuming information on mobile devices and the traffic on various websites proves and shows that smartphones and tablets are providing a big boost to retailers.

As more consumers use tablets to browse, shop and purchase online, there is a need for online retailers to offer tablet-optimised shopping experiences not only to meet the needs of growing numbers of tablet users, but also to increase sales

By Kapil Bhatia Kapil Bhatia is an E-Business Manager, working in the Financial Services Industry for the past 10 years. His work ranges across Digital Marketing, e-Channels and development of marketing strategies, with a sound Information Technology base.

TFour.me is an up-and-coming technology blog in the Middle East, which features talk about Tech Entertainment, Social Networks and Digital Trends and also lists jobs. it offers insightful analysis about Big Data and the Internet industry and will feature Start-ups in the Middle East region.

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Secure Communications

are priority With reports that an increasing number of journalists are being killed in conflict zones, it has never been so critical for journalists to be able to communicate over secure lines to cancel out the risk of hacking and tracing.

Satellite communications are innately more secure than traditional terrestrial and GSM networks, and Thuraya Telecommunications Company has taken steps in re-configuring its satellite network to ensure all users can communicate safely, including the unique ability to turn off GPS markers. Mobile satellite communications offer journalists the most secure form of voice, data and videostreaming communications and provide complete coverage where terrestrial networks fall short.

Samer Halawi, Chief Executive Officer, Thuraya Telecommunications Company, talks about forays made in the communications sector.

How crucial is security when you talk of satellite communications?

There has been a great deal of concern recently about secure connectivity related to mobile communications. I can confidently say that mobile satellite communications employ high communication security.

Thuraya is constantly upgrading and enhancing its network to ensure offering customers a safe and secure network. Some

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of Thuraya’s users include relief organisations, broadcast and media, and government agencies that trust and rely on us for their voice and data communication. We take this responsibility very seriously.

Tell us about your role in the ICT sector of Qatar. Where do you think the country stands with regard to information and communications technology?

Qatar is an exciting country at the forefront of ICT innovation. We are proud to have strong ties to Qatar, as one of our major shareholders is the leading telecom operator, Qtel. We have a close working relationship with Qtel, whereby they have appointed their subsidiary StarLink as a local distributor for Thuraya’s products and services in Qatar. We serve a wide range of customers in Qatar including leading industry organisations across the media, government, NGO and energy sectors. Some of our Qatari customers include Al Jazeera Network, Qatar Petroleum and other energy companies, as well as governmental organisations such as the Ministry of Interior, Qatar Armed Forces and the Qatar

Red Crescent Society.

Is there a growing reliance on mobile satellite communications in the region, and if so, why?

We have definitely seen an upsurge of traffic as a result of the Arab Spring in different pockets of the Middle East region. Recent events in Syria, including the ongoing communications blackouts, have resulted in an increase in traffic on our network. As I mentioned earlier, mobile satellite communications offer secure and reliable services, which is why many media customers are using our mobile broadband modems (called Thuraya IP) to stream live video images and for broadband internet connectivity. However, we have also seen strong demand for our mobile voice and data communication services in remote or disconnected parts of the region from a range of users. In many cases there simply isn’t a business case to extend a mobile or terrestrial network for a telecom operator. Thuraya offers an ideal solution to network operators looking to quickly extend their services to their subscribers in remote areas and hence meet

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universal service obligations. In other cases it is simply not physically possible to rollout terrestrial networks to some parts of the region, which is where satellite comes into play. We recently signed an agreement with SoftBank Mobile of Japan. Japan is probably one of the most connected places on this planet. However, they tragically discovered the vulnerability of terrestrial networks during the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. As such, we’re seeing more and more mobile operators like Qtel, SoftBank and Etisalat offer Thuraya’s services to extend their networks and for emergency communications. In addition, governments and regulators in other countries and regions are also requiring and encouraging the availability of satellite communications, particularly mobile satellite communications, as a backup communications capability in case of any emergency.

Thuraya also promotes pre-deployment of mobile satellite equipment and terminals by the national emergency response team and centres so that these are readily available during any unfortunate occurrence of a disaster or emergency situation. Countless relief and government agencies rely on Thuraya to support communications for disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts.

The increasing number of satellites is putting high demand on certain frequencies and orbits, causing orbital/ spectral congestion. Such congestion may lead to unintentional interference to satellite services. Can you explain this in a Qatari context?

Satellite frequencies and orbital rights are managed by an international body called the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Yes, it’s true that frequencies or spectrum are a scarce resource, with many different communications providers lobbying hard for additional orbital slots to support the launch of new satellites providing TV and communication services. Thuraya has successfully coordinated its resources as per the ITU Regulations. Moreover, Thuraya’s services in Qatar are fully coordinated.

Samer Halawi, Chief Executive Officer, Thuraya Telecommunications Company

Satellite operators including Thuraya work closely together to coordinate frequencies and operate in accordance with the international regulations. We also work together to combat satellite interference, which in most cases is unintentional. There are different industry organisations including the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), which consists of satellite and VSAT operators, and the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG) discussing and implementing ways to deal with interference. Thuraya operates two fantastic satellites which are well positioned to provide coverage of not only Qatar but the rest of the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Australia.

Which companies are you looking to for collaboration?

We see great opportunities for Thuraya’s services mostly from the energy and media sectors, but we are also in talks with a number of government entities and NGOs based in Qatar.

There have been many instances, especially in the Middle East, when communication lines have been jammed. What is the reason for such breaches?

Satellite operators can experience inten-

tional jamming and Thuraya is no different.

Fortunately we have a highly experienced team of engineers who have the necessary know-how on troubleshooting and resolving the source of the interference. It may seem dramatic to say this, but in many cases we are providing mission-critical communication services which could make the difference in saving lives. This is why we take this responsibility very seriously and have the best people in the industry to deal with such issues, if and when they arise.

Tell us about innovations in your sector and what 2013 holds for ICT. Thuraya is gearing up for a year of many new launches. We pride ourselves on delivering product innovation, including a legacy of industry firsts. We have worked hard on filling gaps in our product roadmap and this year we will see the fruits of our efforts.

Stay tuned this spring to hear news about two exciting new product launches that will revolutionise the mobile satellite industry.

The challenge with mobile satellite communications is that the hardware has often been clunky and expensive. This is changing, and we’re excited to be introducing ultra-lightweight phones and broadband modems that are highly cost-effective

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Are we

ready for Hydroponics?

Hydroponics could solve Qatar’s food woes.

But – farming without soil – it’s costly, and the agriculture sector’s cash flow is at a low. The Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP) continues preparing its plan, but while the strategies move forward, the farmers’ worries remain.

Annalise Frank investigates...

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PICTURE COURTESY: Annalise Frank

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Without laying a finger on the strawberry – touching the fruit even for a moment would transfer bacteria, decreasing its shelf life – Ahmed Moustafa plucks it from a tall stack of Styrofoam containers brimming with plants.

Thin, snakelike tubes jut out of the non-organic soil in the containers and worm their way towards the ceiling, where they join larger tubes that carry water and minerals across the farm. Here is where Al Sulaiteen Agricultural and Industrial Complex (SAIC)’s plans for soilless food production are coming to fruition.

SAIC comprises a 40-hectare farm, with a production potential of about 700 tonnes of vegetables, and a landscaping business. SAIC began using hydroponics, a soilless form of farming, in 2008. It’s widely recognised as the best way to overcome the hardships inherent in farming in the Gulf.

For a moment I’m not sure if Moustafa, Al Sulaiteen’s CEO of agricultural projects, means to eat the berry himself, or if he’ll hand it to me. I don’t want to seem overeager. So I withhold my hand until it is painfully obvious he means to place the strawberry in my palm. Plop! There it is: succulent, sugary fruit at its most organic – from farm to consumer in under 10 seconds.

It definitely takes longer than that to bus SAIC produce from the farm almost 20 kilometres northwest of Doha to grocery stores. But the distance isn’t much compared with the distances most fruits and vegetables sold in stores travel. Ninety percent of the country’s produce is imported, according to the QNFSP. It’s unlikely for a buyer to run into a product grown at Al Sulaiteen or another local farm.

“Vegetable production in Qatar is not really profitable,” Moustafa asserts. It’s an interesting statement, coming from a man who works surrounded by fields stuffed with seeds and blooming broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce plants. But those fields don’t hold the future of desert farming in their rows. The expansive, domed greenhouses that rest side-by-side with the open fields do.

It takes a special kind of bravery to tackle agriculture in the arid countryside.

But technology like hydroponics, and sheer willpower, can overcome ecological limitations. Less certain are the problems of economy, says an agricultural entrepreneur working with SAIC, Abraham Kamarck.

The “big constraints” are overpriced plots of land (up to QR10 per sq. metre) and price-setting for local produce, according to Kamarck.

With the due date for the QNFSP’s recommendations for the agriculture sector approaching – it plans to hand them over by 2014 – producers consider the QNFSP’s potential impact on their industry (Qatar Today’s February 2011 cover story investigated the QNFSP). Though agriculture attributes only 1% of Qatar’s gross domestic product, the QNFSP’s plans to expand it could some day affect most, if not all, consumers and growers.

“At any time, the food security programme could put every single farmer out of business,” Kamarck says. This can’t be known by producers for certain.

But it’s an idea that could gnaw at the mind of anyone looking to invest.

He can’t assuage all the farmers’ fears, but Jonathon Smith, senior advisor to the QNFSP’s chairman, says he doesn’t see “any successful model” where the government runs agriculture as a business.

“You’re going to have major infrastructural things that it kind of takes the government to make the investment, take the risk and take leadership on it,” Smith says.

Science as progress Vital to the success of the QNFSP and Qatari farming in general, hydroponics means growing plants in nutrient-enriched water. Plants can be grown in water with only the assistance of a framework to keep them afloat. However, many hydroponic systems use gravel or a synthetic substance to steady their vegetables.

But SAIC isn’t the only technologically advanced grower in Qatar. In addition to more than 10 farms, according to Nasser Saif Al-Kaabi, the Ministry of Environment (MOE)’s Head of Agricultural Research and Extension, the MOE employs hydroponics heavily in its research sector. The soilless system circulates nutrients more consistently than daily watering of fields does. It also uses about 70 to 90% less water than outdoor irrigation, according to SimplyHydro.com.

Moustafa says: “Using hydroponics, we can produce good quality and high yields, and get away from insects and pests.”

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“We cannot leave prices of food commodities to fluctuate, because this is a necessity for people.”

Ahmed Moustafa, CEO, agricultural projects, saic

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“We have good products, if you go to the Mazrouah market for vegetables FOR INSTANCE, But we have a failure in marketing.”

Nasser Al-Kaabi Head of Agricultural Research and Extension, MOE

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The concept isn’t new. Writings as early as the Ancient Egyptians describe growing plants in water.

But the science must be moulded to fit these farmers’ needs, and that means preventing tomatoes, peppers and melons from drying in the sun.

Still, the field of hydroponics is evolving. Nazeer Hussain, a salinity expert in the MOE’s Department of Agricultural and Water Research, is testing a similar technique called aeroponics. It allows plants’ roots to hang suspended from a framework. They devour water dispersed to them as a mist.

Trouble for local entrepreneurs The MoU between SAIC and Abraham Kamarck grants him a section of the farmland. He uses it to test greenhouse technology for his investment advisory company, Maendeleo Ventures LLC. Kamarck calls himself a “social entrepreneur”. He tries to use money to “do good” in the world – and he’s certainly seen enough of it. The 36-year-old US native’s entrepreneurial pursuits have pulled him across Europe, to Washington, DC, briefly to Ghana and finally to Qatar. He has big plans for Bahrain, too – “they’re giving away land,” he says, barely joking – but for now he’s staying put.

“There’s a major quality difference that hasn’t reached Qatar yet,” he says. “Like, even the most basic hydroponic supplies are not available, you have to import them.” Nasser Al-Kuwari, owner of Al Safwa Farms, also sees Qatar’s agricultural economy as supremely difficult. And Al-Kaabi, the MOE’s Head of Agricultural Research, says he agrees that it’s currently not profitable.

“The farmer is spending a lot” on technology in an unstable market, Al-Kaabi says. It’s a risky business.

february 2013

Price pitfalls “We have good products, if you go to the Mazrouah market for vegetables,” Al-Kaabi says. “But we have a failure in marketing.”

Al Mazrouah Yard, the fresh produce market that opened north of the city about a month ago, hits visitors with a combination of smells. Fertilisers and dust mix with the sharp scent of plants. That freshness complements the scene: farmers bustle through a square with overstuffed wheelbarrows. Produce stands surround them, shaded by tent tops. Al-Kuwari’s Al Safwa Farms sign draws the eye instantly from the middle of the row. All the vegetables at his stand were grown using greenhouses and hydroponics. Al-Kuwari’s eyes gleam as he shows off his cherry tomatoes. They’re available in red and yellow.

“They said they wouldn’t grow here,” he boasts, “but they do.”

When the government sets prices for local produce, it causes setbacks for sellers at Al Mazrouah Yard. Kamarck says SAIC sells there and also directly to supermarkets. They sold to Central Market, too, before it closed. For example, they would try to sell tomatoes at QR10 per kg, while the set price for local produce was QR3 per kg.

“Middle men had the negotiating power and were pushing the price down (at Central Market),” he says.

“Qatari produce was seen as inferior. The Ministry of Business and Trade has tried to step in to try to save the farmers but really they’re hurting them more, because there’s no distinguishing quality. Their price sets are based on origin.

“It doesn’t make any sense, because 90% of the time they’re forcing the farmer to sell at a loss, especially if they’re using hydroponics.”

tag this Hydroponics provides a gateway to food security for Qatar.

Here’s why importing can’t provide that same security:

153% 16 133 1.64% 380

Food imports are expected to increase 153% to around qr12 billion ($3.3 billion) in the next 10 years due to population growth

Price volatility: Qatar cucumber imports were found to be 16 times above the world price level

133 sources imported rice into Qatar in the first half of 2010, but the market share for the top four companies was 46%

1.64% of land in Qatar is arable

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The commercial hydroponics industry has grown four-to-five fold in the last 10 years

A case study from Australia shows that it takes 160,000 litres of water to produce about QR380 of cotton, compared WITH 600 litres (best practice) of water to produce about QR380 worth of hydroponically-grown produce

(data provided by QNFSP, NationMaster.com and a study undertaken by the Australian Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation)

The road to future policies “So what do we do? We obviously need to give a subsidy,” says Ishrat Hossain, a Qatar University assistant professor of economics.

About 20 years after government policies towards farmers improved in Saudi Arabia, the agriculture sector had vastly improved, according to a case study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in 1998. The industry grew about 12% yearly between 1979 and 1991. Farmers were paid “approximately three times the world market price for wheat,” and were able to buy equipment such as fertilisers for much less than their average world prices.

“In Qatar, very, very little is being given by the government,” Moustafa says. “Not like in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia or in Oman too, where they get a lot of help and support from the government.”

Qatari farmers may not feel that they receive enough monetary assistance, but they do get some, according to Al-Kaabi. Last year the government provided 33 greenhouses, 130 irrigation systems and undisclosed monetary sums to producers. Still, there are many different options that the the authorities could choose – it isn’t all about subsidies. The Ministry of Business and Trade or the MOE could provide information to producers and consumers, and act as a quality regulator, Kamarck suggests. But the situation is in the hands of the QNFSP. And the organisation’s answer right now? It doesn’t know. That’s why economists and scientists are still researching the future of the business.

“I hope they will change (things),” farmer Al-Kuwari says. He’s on a QNFSP consultant committee for producers.

Since its inception in 2008, he says he doesn’t feel

the organisation has done anything noticeable to help farmers. Chiefly a planning body, the QNFSP doesn’t literally plant seeds in the ground. As Smith of QNFSP puts it, the programme’s employees are “spending half of the day in the library and half of the day out on the street interviewing”.

Asked what the QNFSP is doing for farmers with concerns that can’t wait for a 2015 or 2016 implementation of the recommendations, Smith says they can expect forums for producers to converse directly with their government. Those are set to start in April.

“On January 20 we finally got the opportunity to sign something we’ve been working on with Texas A&M University,” he says. The MoU is “a first phase toward looking for recommendations for agricultural extension. We’re putting into the field a comprehensive face-to-face interview with everyone involved in production.” In a wider scope, the QNFSP needs to make local food more attractive to consumers. They’ll have to prove that produce grown locally is healthier than food shipped across the world, says Smith, and worth paying more for. This, in conjunction with increased marketing regulations and subsidies, could allow local farming to flourish, according to the programme. “We cannot leave prices of food commodities to fluctuate, because this is a necessity for people,” Moustafa says. Sitting in his SAIC office in a yellow-and-blue checkered cardigan and tie, pausing after a sip of karak tea, he makes a swift, chopping hand gesture. He’s felt a connection to the farm since he designed it in 1995. He is invested in its, and the country’s, future.

“You can do without a computer, without television, without a mobile phone, but you cannot do without food. You must have food,” he says

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Qatar Today 7 3

TECHTALK Bringing YOU the newest gadgets and global tech stories each month…

Facebook unveils new search capabilities

Do you think Graph Search will be useful?

“It is good in case you have a hobby or you want to go on a specific adventure and people might help you... But in general this will be for a short term and then you will forget about it when you are done with your search.”

Elise Zwein, Country Manager, Action Qatar

A

t a mysterious press conference on January 15, Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook search feature. Called Graph Search, the addition allows users to more easily access facts and photos belonging to friends.

The technology isn’t widely available yet. It’s still in the early development stages. It can only be browsed in English for a small amount of content.

From a larger search bar at the top of any Facebook page, users can search in categories like “restaurants nearby”, “music my friends like” or “photos of my friends”, according to a recent Facebook press release. But the search can get even more specific. For example, a search for “photos of friends in London” could bring up albums from every person on your friends list who has posted pictures in London. On the right side of the page options for narrowing down the search are displayed. If you’re searching for people, filter by “gender”, “likes”, “employer” and many other criteria.

“Which is more valuable? Finding a sushi restaurant in New York City or finding one that my friends like?” Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said to Bloomberg.com. “This continues to pit Facebook against Google.”

It’s easy to assume that Graph Search is the same as Google or any other search engine, but through Facebook. However, the two styles of searching are vastly different. For one, Zuckerberg’s new search draws from separate pools of content, depending on which user clicks “enter”. Friends’ private content may come up for your search, but it won’t if the person browsing isn’t friends with them.

It doesn’t access anything new; it just makes finding information easier. Also, searching the web is about taking key words and finding sites that match them.

Graph Search combines a set of traits or phrases (“people who live in Doha and enjoy cycling”) to find “that set of people, places, photos or other content that’s been shared on Facebook”, the press release says.

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“I don’t think Graph Search will be useful, but it might be entertaining. Everyone is not going to update what they like doing just because that option is available to them. I am highly cynical about how people will respond to that.”

Alanna Alexander, Northwestern University in Qatar student “I don’t think Graph Search will be useful to me...because I am a very private person and do not share many photographs on FB and also have a circle of friends I interact with often enough.”

Tusilya Muthukumar, Freelancer “It wouldn’t be particularly useful, however I may refer to it for ideas if needed. I would probably check it out for ideas for holidays... or reference to useful information such as gyms.”

Elizabeth Fleming, Marketing Director of the Qatar Development and Consultancy Centre “I think if Graph Search had been available when I reached Qatar in 2004 it would have helped me a lot to know more about the country and know more friends faster.”

Mohamed Samy, account manager for Action Qatar “Social networks like Facebook have moved from being a social place to a search network, due to the abundance of data which is available on them. Graph Search will enable users to...extract data points that they really want, adding tremendous value in today’s day and age of big data.”

Manik Kinra, Chief Executive Officer of Mixilion.com

Robots diner

E

arth person, hello! Welcome to the Robot Restaurant,” a short, metal robot says to customers as they enter the Harbin, China diner that’s a groundbreaking intersection of food service and technology.

The restaurant, which opened last June, according to the International Business Times, is almost entirely run by 18 types of colourful robots, from “Waitress Robot” and “Usher Robot” to food servers like “Dumpling Robot” and “Noodle Robot”. The automated waitstaff run along a black and white track on the floor and take orders, in addition to dropping food off at tables. When a meal is ready, it can also be transported to the right patron through the diner’s hovering conveyor belt system.

Growth of internet usage in MENA

R

ecent growth in internet usage by the MENA region is expected to lead to more online trading.

Web users have increased by 2,500% over the last 10 years, according to research by ArabNet and Discover Digital Arabia.

That translates to about 72 million people with internet access. The study also reflects a burgeoning dependence on internet-capable mobile devices like phones and tablets.

The penetration rates for these technologies vary from 69% in Saudi Arabia and 58% in the UAE to 41% in Egypt. ictQATAR had Qatar at 75% in early 2012.

But more web traffic doesn’t “automatically translate to high rates of online trading, because many investors first need reassurance about the security of online transactions,” said Malek Kanawati, CEO of Mubasher Financial Services, a regional brokerage firm.

Mubasher, which has subsidiaries in the UAE and Bahrain and “associate” businesses in Egypt and Libya, announced its aim to build confidence in online trading in a recent press release.

Kanawati said it aims to make the region more inclusive for investors by developing relevant applications for mobile devices.

Infrared pen turns older monitors into touch screens

M

icrosoft’s new Windows 8 operating system has touch screen capabilities. That makes the OS work intuitively with tablets like the recently-released Windows Surface, but some users looking to install Windows 8 on older, non-touch screen computers have found the technology awkward to navigate. Still, PC users need not fear – California-based digital pen company E Fun has come up with a solution. The Apen Touch8 is a cordless pen with a receiver that plugs into a PC’s USB port. Basically, the Apen makes computer monitors touchscreen by replacing the human finger that works with tablets and smartphones with a pen-like device, according to the Associated Press. It works with screens up to 432 mm across, diagonally. Drag the pen across the screen to swipe, or push down on the pen to create a clicking or selecting motion. It runs on a 500-hour, replaceable battery. It will be released in the US in March at a price of $80 (about QR290).

Internet penetration rates on smart devices

75% QATAR

69% KSA

58% uae

41%

egypt

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Qatar Today 7 5

-

What WAS trending in Doha last month?

What’s top on Doha News?

Report: Man jailed for a year for antics on Qatar Airways flight A man in his mid-30s was reportedly jailed for a year by a Qatari court for becoming causing chaos on board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha and sexually harassing cabin crew, including kissing a female member crew member on the lips and slapping another on the back.

He apparently also took his clothes off and ran naked in the aircraft’s economy cabin. The man, whose nationality is not mentioned, was found guilty of “sexually assaulting hostesses and drinking even though he was a Muslim”, and also fined QR1,000 by the court.

10 things about Qatar’s upcoming Hamad International Airport Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority confirms that the New Doha International Airport, now renamed Hamad International Airport, will begin limited commercial flights as of April 1. They shared a presentation with Doha News on the airport’s current status and future plans. The new passenger terminal will handle 28 million travellers per year through 88 loading bridges (no more buses) and 150 check-in terminals.

Read more: http://bit.ly/hamadairport Josh Von Trapp: I’ll be pretty surprised if its actually open in April...

Parents of Villaggio fire victims fume over questions at hearing Qatar’s lower criminal court heard two rounds of testimony this month in the trial to determine criminal responsibility for the 19 deaths in the Villaggio fire.

Louie Aban, the 32-year-old widower of Gympanzee employee Maribel Orosco, offered dramatic testimony on his attempts to save her. According to Aban, now a single father, Orosco called him three times during the fire – the first two times to ask him to help her and the kids, and the last to say goodbye.

Parents taking the stand said they felt insulted and attacked by the questions posed to them during the hearings, which included inquiries about their whereabouts during the fire, how they found out about their children’s deaths and why they chose to enrol their kids there.

Read more: http://bit.ly/villaggiofire

Qatar’s first digital news service http://dohanews.co

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Michael Gobel: This story is so random Peter : Surely if you’re in the air you’re not in Qatar, so how can you be convicted in Qatar of a crime that you didn’t commit in Qatar?

Hotel restaurant policies called into question after Qatari woman barred entry on New Year’s eve A young local woman spoke out against a common hotel policy here that denies anyone wearing hijab or national attire (abayas/ thobes) entry to restaurants with bars late at night. The Qatari, who spoke to The Peninsula about being turned away from two luxury hotel restaurants during New Year’s celebrations, said she was shocked by the treatment.

Read more: http://bit.ly/hijabpolicy MIMH : It’s a freedom of choice issue. The hotels or the government should not interfere in what is a legal practise in Qatar. They are there to set the laws not act as moral guardians. boulderhijabi : I think #hijabis can make their own decisions thank you very much. via @ dohanews

Complaints about wealthy Arab youthS and London’s “supercar season” hit UK television A new TV documentary highlighting complaints about rich, young khaleeji men turning London’s streets into their own personal playground is sparking debate and discussion online about multiculturalism and tolerance. Channel 4’s “Millionaire Boy Racers” focuses on the so-called “Arab supercar season” in London every summer, when young male Gulf residents flock to the UK’s capital for lengthy holidays, often with their imported supercars in tow.

Read more: http://bit.ly/londonsupercars

braking news

is gtl a viable source of energy?

16

a

human-centric

car

If you are looking for value for money, then the 2013 Nissam Altima is all geared to pack a punch in the mid-range category of sedans, predicts Sindhu Nair ...

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braking news

When

it comes to test drives and cars, I concede, I am terribly fussy. After close to 10 years in Doha you cannot remain unaffected by the opulence available in driving instruments.

My list of favourites runs from Porsches, to Dodge Chargers to BMWs and sometimes flicks on a McLaren. If this sounds like an ego trip, well, I am just stating the facts here. There are some comforts that come with being a journalist in Doha, and I am not going to be the first to deny myself some rights.

So when my colleague asked me to testdrive the Nissan Altima, my knee-jerk reaction was somewhat negative (to put it mildly). The shock on his face (at my arrogance) brought me back to reality and to the job at hand.

I had to review the car, and I would do it with as much honesty and passion as I would do any other product.

Market Share: Nissan enjoys the highest market share in GCC at around 20% in the Qatar market. in 2013 it aims to further improve this with the launch of at least three new models in addition to the all new Altima.

As luck would have it, we had an unexciting grey Altima to test-drive. My joy dwindled, but not my resolve. As I neared the car, the balanced journalistic mind came to the fore. I took in the span, the spread of the all-new Altima and searched for what had changed. I liked what I saw, though there seemed to be a remarkable similarity in design to the Infiniti M37. There seemed to be a sensibility that had explored all possibilities in getting the most ergonomic design.

Subtlety My colleague, who drives the old Altima,

came to my rescue: he said there are subtle differences in the exterior, with the car moving more towards the Maxima design, which makes it faintly futuristic. In my eyes, the redesigned 2013 Nissan Altima has an appeal for the mid-size car shoppers who go in for a practical family sedan but want sporty, fun performance.

Though retaining the same wheelbase as the previous generation Altima, the new model has a wider front and rear track (+35 mm) and deeper arches (+20 mm each side), which combine with a crisp new grille design, seamless bumper and projector-type headlights to create a bold, sophisticated appearance.

According to senior majors at Nissan, they have explored the design to bring in an exciting, engaging and energising new Altima. “The safe thing to do would be to follow other automakers’ paths, conserva-

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Qatar Today 7 9

braking news

High: Remote Engine Start System that allows the owner to heat or cool the vehicle from the comfort of their home.

tively evolving the Altima so as not to upset the existing owner base,” explains Atsuo Kosaka, Managing Director, Nissan Middle East. “But that would not be in keeping with Nissan’s new brand philosophy of ‘Innovation and Excitement for Everyone’.

Innovation is what we do! Human-centric, accessible, purposeful.”

A very passionate statement from the brand, but one they are striving to keep true.

“We took one of our most successful models, kept its DNA and changed nearly

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everything else – the visual appeal, the driving experience and, of course, the technology. The new Altima is hands-down the most engaging vehicle in its class,” says Kosaka.

Nissan Middle East, Senior Manager, Product and Planning, Jiju Mathew talks about the changes in the new Altima. He says, “ The horsepower has increased to 182 hp (from 175 hp), with a new body design that is about 8% lighter than the previous body, all-new Altima’s Xtronic CVT offers a better fuel economy, better acceleration and better durability versus a conventional automatic transmission. A new active trace control system is also used for the first time on a Nissan vehicle which utilises intelligent control logic and high-response brake actuators to brake the inside front wheels

Choice: six models Prices start at QR82,000 for the All New Altima. Altima is available in 6 versions in Qatar covering both the 2.5L and 3.5L Engines

during cornering.”

Who better to certify this statement than a previous Altima owner?

In his words, the new Altima looks more appealing while the interior seems a tad unexciting, though to me it seemed to be packed with features. A great value-for-money deal, if you ask me.

Get inside I found the interior pretty neat, with an excellent Bose audio system with AM/FM/CD design, RDS, MP3 and six speakers. Three

B RA K IN G NE W S

connectivity levels are offered to passengers including USB for iPod and compatible devices, aux-input, and Bluetooth streaming audio and hands-free phone connectivity. The navigation system is similarly packed with quite a number of features and is incredibly easy to use, with its seven-inch touch-screen, 3D-effect map views, and turn-by-turn navigation integrated into the Advanced Drive-Assist Display. The handy Drive-Assist comes as standard on every model. It is customisable and easy to use, and integrates key information right in front of the driver.

Located in the centre of the instrument display between the tachometer and speedometer, it features a four-inch LCD colour display more than 400% larger than the previous generation Altima’s vehicle information display. Utilising more natural 3D-effect graphics, it helps the driver keep his or her eyes on the road longer than a traditional centre-stack information monitor.

The Drive-Assist offers audio system dis-

play, instant fuel consumption readout, trip computer, navigation system (if equipped) with destination turn-by-turn information and compass, and the ability to match the on-screen vehicle image with the actual car colour. Three displays (Car View, Vehicle Settings and Active Vehicle Warnings) are included as default screens that the driver can scroll through.

What I found particularly interesting were the other features added to the Altima that are usually found in most highend luxury cars. The Drive-Assist is linked to three new safety features: Blind Spot Warning (BSW), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Moving Object Detection (MOD). Thanks to the use of the systems’ advanced next-generation rear-view camera, the BSW, LDW and MOD are integrated and intuitive.

The Blind Spot Warning system uses the rear-view camera to scan the Altima’s blind spots and alerts the driver if there is a vehicle in the zone. The driver is then alerted

with audible and visual indicators. Similarly, the Lane Departure Warning system uses the rear-view camera to monitor lane markings and alerts the driver if the vehicle unintentionally crosses these markers.

Moving Object Detection detects moving objects such as other vehicles when the rear view camera is engaged when backing up, and warns the driver with visual cues – perfect for those who take ages to park the car in a tight spot squeezed between two parked cars. As for the engine, there is a choice of two: the 2.5-litre DOHC four-cylinder and the 3.5-litre DOHC V6. I drove the second.

The 2.5-litre QR25 engine has been redesigned to be lighter and more efficient. The advanced, award-winning VQ35DE 3.5-litre V6 remains rated at 270 hp and 35.7 kg-m of torque. The drive was effortlessly light, silent and sporty. The all-new Nissan Altima has everything that matters, and it is affordable and accessible to a wider market.

And that’s what made this car truly score big in my prejudiced luxury-seeking mind

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auto news

qatar motor show dazzles

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Lexus is moving into a new era

L

exus is moving towards “progressive luxury”, to make its cars even more rewarding to drive and advanced in their use of technology – and their design will show this.

For many people, the eyes are the windows of the soul. For cars, it’s often the headlamps. But in the case of the new Lexus models, it’s the dramatically sculpted spindle grille. This is the striking design that says “dynamism” with unabashed, bold directness. It also begs the simple question: Does this car drive the way it looks? The answer, Lexus will tell you, is a definite “yes”.

Within Lexus, the first discussions about a new Lexus grille – essentially the shaping of the L-finesse philosophy – started around 10 years ago, before L-finesse made its public debut with the 2005 GS. The L-finesse philosophy is based on creating “leading edge” design without losing continuity with the past. The first generation of Lexus debuted with the 1989 LS. Since then, Lexus has based its grille identity on the inverted trapezoid shape, with simple yet elegant, finely-pitched bars in a horizontal or radial layout. With the implementation of the Lfinesse philosophy, Lexus design embarked on a carefully phased development of frontal design to reflect Lexus’ movement towards a more dynamic yet sophisticated position in the market.

Evolution The grille in each Lexus model, along with the headlamp design, has evolved logically and progressively over time Lexus was more into “elegant” in the past. Now it’s adding greater visual presence to that elegance. You should be able to identify a car as a Lexus immediately, but until recently this aspect has been a little lacking. Now that’s changing. Instant visual recognition, for example, is the reason behind the spindle grille, a prominent feature of the new GS and LS F. It may look aggres-

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sive at first glance – that’s intentional – but it also conveys its boldness with sophistication and elegance. These sentiments reflect how Lexus is evolving Every new Lexus model will feature a spindle grille – it will be a visual embodiment of the shared values between all Lexus cars – but each model will have its own interpretation to reflect that model’s individuality. Likewise, they will share sharper body language and a stance that conveys their driver-orientated focus. But each model will express its distinctive personality through details such as the treatment of the front and rear lights. Expect significant developments where the headlamps are concerned. Lexus’ strategy is to focus in addition to greater instant recognition and design excitement, on emotional driving pleasure and advanced technology. The intention is to make the driver and car feel as

one. A supercar like the LFA or a coupe like the LF-LC concept will take this to a more extreme level, but all Lexus models will share the ability to reward their driver. The new GS is an example of that. It’s spacious, practical, refined, luxurious – yet it feels sharp and agile on a mountain road.

Lexus also strives to offer something beyond the customer’s expectations (the first generation of LS and RX are good examples) and there are more innovations in the pipeline. Lexus will be offering customers greater opportunity to personalise their new cars, too. So there are two factors: creating something new by innovating, and drawing from the deep well of customer feedback to improve existing models. Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros Co. are the sole agents for Lexus vehicles in Qatar, and support Lexus sales by giving their customers excellent service.

auto news

Audi making a statement in the region

S

ince the establishment of its Middle East subsidiary, German premium car manufacturer Audi has grown steadily in the region. With a sales increase of 16.4% to more than 9,000 vehicles in 2012, the company reported another record year. Following the appointment of new Managing Director Trevor Hill, Audi now plans to concentrate on increasing capacities and quality for sales and after-sales service in the region to support its growth on route to its Middle East sales target of 20,000 units annually by 2020.

The brand launched several new models onto the market in 2012, including the new A4 and A5 model ranges, the Audi Q3 and also the S models, but it was the traditional Middle Eastern favourites that again led

sales in 2012. 1,738 and 1,730 units respectively were sold of the large C and D segment sedans A6 and Audi A8 L. Thirty-six percent of their volume was sold in the UAE alone. The C and D segment SUVs followed closely with 1,349 units sold of the Audi Q5 and 1,596 units of the Audi Q7. In terms of growth the A6 led the board with a 54.1 percent increase, followed by the A8 L with a 17.1 percent increase and the Q5 with 10.8 percent. The demand for the large Q7 SUV remained stable. “Audi is at present the fastest-growing German premium brand in the Middle East. In 2013 our focus is on strengthening our infrastructure backbone in terms of sales and after-sales service facilities. Together with our regional partners we currently have seven major construction projects on the way,” explained Hill.

BMW Group records sales growth

A

lfardan Automobiles successfully concluded the year 2012 with growth across both the BMW and Mini brands in Qatar. This success signals the strength of the Qatari market as well as the continued demand for BMW Group cars in the country.

The flagship BMW 7 Series was the company’s best-selling model. Offering new levels of luxury, comfort and power, the new and refined 7 Series model went on sale in Qatar in the second half of the year and was a driving force behind the company’s 2012 sales achievements. Other top-performing BMW models included the BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle, with 37% growth, and BMW 5 Series with 15% growth.

Mini recorded another year of exceptional sales, with a 31% increase over 2011.

It was one of the most successful years in the brand’s history in terms of Qatari sales, and an impressive result when operating in a market that predominantly favours large, luxury cars.

Looking to the future, General Manager Mohamed Kandeel said: “It has been a great 12 months and we are confident that 2013 will be another successful year for BMW Group in Qatar. We remain committed to continuing investing in our facilities and customer service, as well as launching new and exciting models in the year ahead.”

Porsche presents three new models

P

orsche had three regional debuts at the Qatar Motor Show recently. The German sports car manufacturer showcased the highly anticipated Cayenne Turbo S, two-seater Cayman and 911 Carrera 4, the icon’s fourwheel drive version.

The highlight of the line-up was the Cayenne Turbo S. It is the latest in the Cayenne family, labelled the athlete among all of its siblings. Featuring a 4.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that produces 550 horsepower, the Cayenne Turbo S is the newest member of the family to raise the automotive bar. Despite its increased output of 50 hp compared with the Cayenne Turbo, the new

model has the same fuel consumption rate of 11.5 litres per 100 km.

The third generation Cayman has been completely redeveloped. It is lower, longer and lighter, making it more efficient yet more powerful than ever. The two-seat, mid-engine sports car is available in two

classic Porsche versions: the Cayman and the Cayman S. The base model is powered by a 2.7-litre flat six-cylinder engine with 275 hp. It accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 5.4 seconds and reaches a top speed of 266 km/h. The 3.4-litre engine of the Cayman S produces 325 hp; the best possible acceleration from a standstill to 100 km/h is 4.7 seconds. The S model reaches a top speed of 283 km/h.

The new 911 Carrera 4 guarantees maximum vehicle dynamics on a wide variety of road surfaces and in all weather conditions. The new all-wheel drive 911 is being launched on the market in four versions – as the 911 Carrera 4 and 911 Carrera 4S and each as Coupe and Cabriolet styles.

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auto news

Jaguar F-Type makes its regional debut

T

he full 2013 Jaguar and Land Rover product line-up was showcased recently at the Qatar Motor Show. Included were the F-Type – Jaguar’s all-new aluminium two-seater sports car, making its Middle Eastern debut – and the all-new Range Rover, which was launched across the region at the end of last year.

The new Jaguar F-Type represents a return to the company’s heartland: a twoseater convertible sports car focused on performance, agility and driver involvement. It is a continuation of a sporting bloodline that stretches back more than 75 years and encompasses some of the most beautiful, thrilling and desirable cars ever built.

The engineering ethos underpinning it is centred on Jaguar’s expertise in the use of aluminium. The F-Type has ideally balanced weight distribution that allows its involving rear-wheel drive dynamics to be explored to the full. Utilising extensive computer-aided engineering programmes, the attention to detail involved in the FType’s creation even extended to the development of a new, lighter, aluminium front subframe.

Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director, Jaguar, said: “Jaguar is a founder member

of the sports car segment, with a rich sporting bloodline stretching over 75 years, and in the F-Type we’ve reignited that flame.

The F-Type isn’t designed to be like anyone else’s sports car. It’s a Jaguar sports car – ultra-precise, powerful, sensual – and, most of all, it feels alive.”

The all-new Range Rover line has been developed from the ground up, capturing the innovative spirit and iconic design of the original model that changed the world

of motoring when it was launched over 40 years ago. The world’s first SUV with a revolutionary lightweight all-aluminium monocoque body structure is 39% lighter than the steel body of the outgoing model, enabling total vehicle weight savings of up to 420kg. The lightweight aluminium platform has delivered significant enhancements in performance and agility, along with a transformation in fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

Infiniti delivers Seven-Passenger Luxury

S

et to turn the luxury crossover category inside out with its utility and spaciousness, the all-new Infiniti JX is designed to excel in the areas that crossover buyers desire most: interior flexibility, practicality, safety and advanced hospitality features.

“Infiniti JX exudes class and confidence with its sophisticated styling and innovative technologies,” stated Hisham Bin Saleh Al-Mana, Managing Director of Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Company. “This Infiniti model has unique features, both technical and aesthetic, which emphasise its position as a luxury vehicle. It has already been successful in other markets and we are certain that it will make its presence known in the Qatar luxury automotive market.”

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The JX is a stylish, luxury, seven-seat intelligent all-wheel drive crossover offering real three-row utility, plus all the premium features and innovations that Infiniti has become known for worldwide. Infiniti JX’s seamless combination of luxurious versatility and visual appeal conveys two personalities: a comfortable, safe, multipurpose and feature-filled family vehicle by day and a

stylish luxury car by night.

In the United States, Infiniti JX sold more than 2,000 units in its first month and was named to the “Ward’s 10 Best Interiors” award list after an intensive evaluation of dozens of nominated vehicles, each judged in areas such as aesthetics and design harmony, comfort, ergonomics, fit and finish, materials, safety and overall value.

auto news

Qatar Motor Show dazzles car aficionados

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is Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, launched the 2013 Qatar Motor Show on January 28. This motor show was open to the public from January 29 to February 2.

Co-hosts Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), q.media Events, and GL Events, are confident that the year’s motor show will see record-breaking attendance. “120,000 visitors walked through the doors of the 2012 Qatar Motor Show, but with more exhibitors this year, more events, premieres

and regional interest there is no doubt that this year’s visitor numbers will be exceeded,” according to the organisers.

Twenty six new cars were revealed at the 2013 Qatar Motor Show, a new milestone for the Show as it is significantly greater than last year’s premieres.

Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Bertone, Ford, Ferrari, Kia, Maserati, McLaren, Mercedes, Mini, Mitsubishi, and Toyota will regionally premiere their latest models. In addition, Bentley, Brabus, Lamborghini and W Motors showcased models never seen before.

Qatar Today picks some of the best...

january 2013

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auto news

The Middle East’s first hypercar One of the most anticipated world premieres was the W Sports futuristic Lykan Hypersport 2013. The first hypercar designed in the Middle East, the Lykan Hypersport wooed visitors with its highperformance specs and luxurious styling (which includes diamond-encrusted LED lights). Only seven of this model will be produced, and each will be offered for almost QR12.4 million.

Lykan, CEO, Ralph Debbas said, “This is history in the making...”

Automobili Lamborghini starts the celebrations for its 50th anniversary Lamborghini celebrated its 100 years of innovation in half the time during this year’s Qatar Motor Show by launching Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster. This new open top car is the Roadster version of the V12 Aventador LP 700-4 coupe that was first seen in the region at last year’s Qatar Motor Show. The Aventador LP 7004 is built with lightweight engineering technology and exceptional torsional rigidity and safety, With a V12 6.5 litre engine outputs at 700 hp at 8,250 rpm , the Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds (Roadster 3.0 seconds) giving Roadster the ultimate open-top driving experience to the Aventador’s prowess.

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Toyota goes sporty with 86 The 86 is the latest in a long line of exciting sports cars from Toyota. It builds on Toyota’s heritage of rearwheel drive, front-engine sports cars dating back to 1965 with the Sports 800. The 86 has an ultra-low stance. It’s modern, streamlined shape features timeless aspects of the 2000GT.

auto news

Brabus 800 Widestar: the new 12-cylinder off-roader With the Brabus 800 engine conversion, Brabus offers owners of the new Mercedes G 65 AMG a fascinating performance upgrade. A sprint time of just 4.2 seconds to 100 km/h (62 mph), an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph) and the optional wide-body version complete with 23-inch forged wheels, available in various versions, set the tuned off-roader far apart from the rest. The electrically adjustable ride control suspension offers a perfect symbiosis of excellent ride comfort and safe, agile handling.

Audi reveals its new offering Representative of an entire new R8 model lineup, Audi revealed the Audi R8 V10 Spyder as a Middle East premiere. The high-performance sports car is now more dynamic than ever, with a new S tronic transmission and new features on the exterior, in the cabin and for the brakes. Also on the stand were the customer favourites Audi Q3, Q5 and Q7 Audi’s SUV range - as well as the sports sedans Audi S6 and S8.

During the official press conference Q-Auto - the official Audi dealer for Qatar, General Manager, Benny Lim, told Trevor Hill, Audi Middle East’s newly appointed Managing Director: “Our new Service Center in the Industrial Area and new Audi Showroom on Salwa Road will open in the second half of this year and we have further plans to expand our infrastructure in the future. It is imperative for us to deliver on and exceed our customers’ expectations of an Audi ownership experience.”

Porsche has an exclusive line-up Porsche is showcasing not one, but four exclusive highlights from its model range. The exclusive line-up includes the regional premieres of the highly anticipated Cayenne Turbo S, new generation Cayman and 911 Carrera 4, the icon’s four-wheel drive version. In addition, the German manufacturer is presenting one of the first Panamera Platinum Edition models that arrived in the market.

The elegant special edition Panamera, also available as Panamera 4 and Panamera Diesel, stands out thanks to its subtle, independent design features in platinum, silver and metallic ,combined with expanded standard features and exclusive details. The model, which can be ordered in five exterior colours, is now available across the region.

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MARKET WATCH

kahramaa to tap renewable energy

CGC scoops sales award

InterContinental Doha makes new appointment

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Anil Mahajan, COO, CGC, receives the award from Dr Ing Emanuele Algieri, Regional Sales Director, Sepura. Gabriel D’mello, Assistant General Manager, Business Development at CGC is also present.

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onsolidated Gulf Company (CGC) won the Best Tetra Sales Progression award from Sepura plc, the UKbased global leader in Tetra digital radio products. CGC’S COO Anil Mahajan said: “This award is a testimony to our commitment to sales and service excellence. It is an acknowledgment of CGC’s leadership position and our progressive sales performance in Qatar for seven years in the field of Tetra radio communications.

We are proud to serve over 300 valued clients and about 12,000 end users with the

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most comprehensive portfolio of Tetra radios and applications. Our satisfied client list includes emergency and security services, oil and gas companies, transportation, aviation, construction and public utility entities.” Sepura’s Sales Director congratulated CGC on its achievement. “With its years of pioneering Tetra services in Qatar, CGC deserved the industry’s appreciation.

We are proud of our long association with CGC since 2005, and look forward to further strengthening our partnership to serve the Qatar market with a range of Tetra solutions and services,” he said.

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eorges Khalil, Executive Chef at InterContinental Doha, has been promoted to Director of Food andBeverage. In his new role, Georges will oversee all food and beverage operations while still leading the culinary team.

Having worked with properties around the world, Georges has over 20 years experience in the hospitality industry. He is a Certified Master Trainer with the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA). He was chosen to head the Lebanese and Middle East team in the “Bocuse d’Or 2005” contest in Lyon, France and was part of the organising committee and jury for the Salon Culinaire programme of Diyafa, Qatar’s annual hospitality event, from 2005 to 2010. He was also named Executive Chef of the Year at the 7th Hotelier Middle East 2011 Awards.

General Manager at InterContinental Doha, Andreas Pfister said: “Georges joined InterContinental Doha as an Executive Chef in 2005 and has played a leading role in positioning and developing the food and beverage experience at this hotel. With these added responsibilities, Georges will build on the successes achieved and work on developing new ideas and concepts that will entice you as usual.”

MARKET WATCH

ExxonMobil Qatar supports Katara Cultural Village

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atara, the Cultural Village and ExxonMobil Qatar announced a strategic partnership last month which will help preserve the unique Qatari culture for current and future generations.

Through its sponsorship, ExxonMobil contributes to the many events held by Katara on a regular basis – from art exhibitions by local artists to world famous operas. The strategic partnership between ExxonMobil and Katara will help enhance such events that help express Qatar’s pride in arts and culture.

“Katara was born out of a long-held vision of HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar to position it as a cultural beacon,” said Abdulraman Alkhulaifi, President, Katara. “ExxonMobil’s support will enrich the fruition of making this vision of Katara as a centre for art, theatre, literature, and music a reality.”

“The importance of this cultural infusion to Doha is immeasurable to Qatar,” said Bart Cahir, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc. “We, at ExxonMobil Qatar, are extremely pleased to partner with Katara in an effort to preserve local culture and make Qatar an international cultural destination.”

In addition to hosting daily events and workshops, Katara organises festivals, exhibitions, symposiums, as well as other ac-

tivities in coordination with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, along with other government agencies. Katara also hosts operas, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, Ramadan Festival, The Annual Dhow Exhibition and orchestras, receiving more than 20,000 visitors per day to major events.

Displaying a sound approach to prosperity, Qatar is channeling its resources into the advancement of culture, research, and education in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030, providing a roadmap to modernize its economy, increase education and op-

portunity and preserve its unique cultural heritage.

ExxonMobil shares the view that developing these areas is essential to achieving the vision of a knowledge-based economy.

“Through our deeply valued role in the Qatari community – a place that is steeped in culture and traditions – we believe that one of the most important contributions we can make to Qatar and its citizens is to support events of cultural and traditional significance that highlight as well as preserve Qatar’s unique heritage,” said Cahir.

Omega’s adaptable jewels

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he Omega Aqua Swing collection reinterprets the iconic identity of the wave of the Aqua line: the symbolic wave has given birth to an incredible range of combinations that allow each wearer to create a unique model and to make her ring “swing”. The nearly endless number of possibilities is the result of the generous choice of dimensions and materials.

Crafted in 18-ct yellow, red or white gold, and polished or set with diamonds, the Aqua Swing collection also offers two other compelling options: white or black ceramic.

Ceramic is a high-tech material that has

long been appreciated for its light weight, its scratch-resistance and its durability.

The incredible variety in the Aqua Swing line comes from the ability to create combinations with different widths, with more or less sparkle, and with one colour or with several that complement each other perfectly. The jewel can be enhanced over time and can be designed to express any emotion perfectly.

Omega’s iconic Aqua fine jewellery line traces its origins equally to the brand’s long connection to water and to the jewellery that has been such an important part of its history and heritage.

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market watch

Damas brings fairytales to life

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amas, one of the Middle East’s leading jewellery and watch retailers, has unveiled its much-anticipated 2013 Valentine’s collection, featuring four pendants and one ring design, inspired by timeless fairytale romance.

The collection introduces delicate designs bound to fulfil the desires of all hopeless romantics. Beautifully intricate, each piece has been crafted to signify unmatched devotion in its own unique way. Created masterfully by the jewellery connoisseurs at Damas, love was definitely in the air when these pieces were being made.

The “Hayati” Valentine’s pendant, set in 18-ct white or yellow gold and accented with round brilliant diamonds, expresses the differences between a couple that come together to create beauty between them.

The pendant is a heart made up of two halves: one of delicately striking diamonds

and one of strong solid gold. Each half has its own personality, but together they are each the other’s perfect complement.

The “Kiku” Valentine’s pendant represents the purest love of all, concealed in a heart with enough passion to burst. Set in 18-ct gold, with round brilliant cut dia-

monds and freshwater round pearls, this delicate creation will appeal to the tenderhearted.

Bringing together the clarity of water with the sparkle of diamonds and the exquisiteness of gold, this piece embodies the magic that fairy tales are made of.

Tod’s reveals its new collection

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od’s women’s collection for spring/summer 2013 represents the perfect balance between tradition and innovation, and between craftsmanship and modern design.

The ability to work with the highestquality leather to create pieces with timeless appeal and elegance, while also pushing the envelope of creativity; lies at the very heart of Tod’s and comprises the DNA resonating throughout this collection. Colourful and rich in refined details, Tod’s spring/ summer 2013 sees the return of iconic favourites as well as the introduction of exciting new styles.

The shoes The Ballerina is a key model for the season, now imagined with an artisanal fine wedge.

The look is elegant and feminine, while suggesting a casual, urban, contemporary spirit. There is a selection of models characterised by the use of a wide spectrum of fun summer colours, with the wedge always playing an intrinsic role. These everyday shoes are made using only the highestquality leather. There are also flat sandals and heels in a treatment that recalls saddlery, “croco” loafers with coloured soles,

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colourful striped slippers, and platform heels in a new style.

The bags The D-Bag, the iconic bag of the brand, comes in beautiful daytime options with a sophisticated and soft structure, in a variety of luxurious degrade python skins.

There is also a special couture edition of the

D-Bag in precious skins, which emphasises the artistry and craftsmanship involved in making this style, confirming its status as a modern-day object of desire. A new bag design features a buckle that recalls an elegant door key and there is a classic handbag and a shopping tote in this new chic family of bags, which come in blue, white and yellow leather.

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doha diary

partnering for charity

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he Ritz-Carlton Doha and Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) announced their partnership in 2013 to increase community awareness of local humanitarian initiatives.

QRC has called upon the Ritz-Carlton to embrace the role of official hospitality partner of QRC. The Ritz-Carlton will some part of QRC’s annual events and activities, among them workshops and awareness sessions on international humanitarian law, basic and advanced first aid accredited training, and opportunities for involvement in various community-centred activities.

The events are open to the Ritz-Carlton’s guests and other targeted community groups. “Part of Qatar Red Crescent’s

mission is to empower communities in the face of humanitarian crises and disasters.

To do so, we organise annual activities and events that include professional development programmes and training to educate and empower the public,” said Saleh AlMuhanadi, Secretary-General of QRC. “We are proud to partner with the RitzCarlton, one of the most reputable hotels in Doha, whose hospitality reaches beyond its properties to building stronger communities and being sensitive to its surroundings. By means of hosting our events, the Ritz-Carlton demonstrates a commitment to the humanitarian cause and paves the way to helping us spread the values of gratuity and volunteerism,” he added.

QF Radio celebrates its second anniversary With listeners from over 80 countries, QF Radio celebrated its second anniversary on January 23, when a special anniversary segment offered listeners the chance to win several prizes and revealed the station’s future plans.

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NU-Q offers admissions workshops

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ith the university’s admissions deadline of March 1 fast approaching, Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) set up a series of workshops and tours to assist students and their guardians in preparing strong applications.

The “Get Ready! 2013 Admissions Success” series, which attracted over 170 students to a workshop on writing an effective personal statement last week, invited prospective students and their guardians to a session entitled “Discover Northwestern University”, which featured a presentation and guided tour of the school’s programmes and facilities, including its state-of-the-art studio building on January 24.

Another session on “A Decision-Makers Perspective and Financing Your Education” talked about applying for aid from Qatar Foundation, Higher Education Institution and US Federal Student Financial Aid as well the critical elements that NU-Q admissions committees look for in a student’s application. This final event took place on January 31. The workshops were free to the public and were streamed live for applicants living outside Qatar. Online viewers were also able to send questions through instant messaging and receive responses from admissions staff on hand.

doha diary

Adding spice to MIA

GLOBAL ART FORUM 2013 COMES TO DOHA

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DAM, the Middle East’s new “flagship” restaurant for haute cuisine was recently launched at the Museum of Islamic Art. Alain Ducasse, the ‘architect of flavours’, who has been striving to reveal new tastes and experiences for his patrons brings his first venture in the Middle East, which he claims to be “a bespoke dining experience defined by freedom of emotions and passion, but also of rigour, sobriety and method.”

“Here’s a chef whose passion for the most refined cuisine transcends the kitch-

en and pushes him to reach out and translate his ideas into entire restaurants,” said Aisha Al Khater, Director of the Museum of Islamic Art. “This is the final work on the MIA, though there is a possibility of extending the MIA park. But tonight we are complete,” she added about the MIA’s future plans.

Philippe Starck’s unique and exquisite design concept for IDAM emphasises the importance of life, creating a venue which takes guests on a journey of discovery

rt Dubai’s renowned Global Art Forum, bringing together artists, musicians, museum directors, strategists, writers and thinkers, will start its 2013 events in Qatar. Featuring commissioned projects and research, as well as six days of live talks, the Forum starts at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (March 17 and 18, 2013), then continues at Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah (March 20-23, 2013).

Global Art Forum is presented by the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), and is held in partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Featured artists and contributors for 2013 include poet and author Mourid Barghouti (I Saw Ramallah, among other books); artist and former REM lead singer Michael Stipe; and artist Douglas Coupland. The Global Art Forum was launched by Art Dubai at its inaugural fair in 2007. Bringing together protagonists from the art world and beyond for a week of innovative talk, debate and performance, the Forum has become the region’s leading annual platform for cultural discourse, with emphasis on issues prevalent in the Middle East and Asia.

Baraem TV celebrates FOURTH anniversary

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ommemorating its fourth anniversary on January 16, Baraem hosted a theatrical event, Ba-Ba-Ba-Baraem, at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). The show brought together renowned presenters, familiar puppets and iconic characters on a set specially created for the event. Children had the opportunity to take photographs and interact with Baraem’s characters.

Several Baraem TV fans and families from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia attended the event to celebrate Baraem TV’s anniversary.

The live theatrical performance was combined with video clips. The plot revolved around the anniversary celebrations and as the plot thickened our characters were faced with many challenges, which they overcame with ease by the end of the story. As the plot unfolded, the audience

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lost themselves in the story and the auditorium was soon filled with joy and laughter. The cast was made up of Baraem’s renowned presenters Marwa and Iman along with iconic puppets like Nashit, Noun, Teela and Toola. The highlight of the evening was Fafa, who made a guest appearance at

the end of the performance.

The evening ended with a special Baraem song sung live by over 30 performers with children from the audience joining in.

Around 500 parents and children attend the anniversary, which was broadcast live on Baraem TV.

doha diary

Ambassador of Japan in Qatar hosts New Year Party

CBE grads showcase projects

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E Kenjiro Monji, the Ambassador of Japan, hosted a dinner at his residence for the Japanese community in Qatar to celebrate New Year 2013. The party was attended by more than 150 guests including Japanese businessmen, directors and managers of Japanese companies, and educators and their families.

The function started with a speech by Ambassador Monji briefing the gathering on the achievements of the Qatar-Japan 2012 project initiated last year by the Qatar

Museums Authority in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Ambassdor Monji emphasised that our much-strengthened relations would be further enhanced in 2013 in a wide range of fields such as diplomacy, the economy, culture and education.

Ruy Ramos, head coach of the Japanese national beach soccer team, joined the party. The team was in Doha to participate in the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifier from January 22-26.

Soul Riders attend Al Khor Fly-in

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isitors who attended Al Khor Fly-in not only watched microflight planes but also saw Soul Riders, Qatar’s largest Harley-Davidson Group, founded by Khalid Al Hammadi, do a round at the event. The main idea of this sixth edition programme was to make locals people aware of the aviation service activities in Doha. You could see different shows happening with the airplanes through remotes, or manually, sitting in them. Visitors like Pablo Ibanez Fernandez also took rides in planes like the autogyro for QR200, and many others took rides on the plane. Other activities took place such as the Ferrari show and face painting for children. Riding all the way from Al Salam Mall at the Corniche to Al Khor for the Fly-In, each of

ixteen students from the College of Business and Economics (CBE) presented project posters on topics ranging from GCC consumer attitudes to social commerce to continuing professional development’s impact on dentists’ performance, the reasons behind information security policy violations, and the impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer attitudes.

The presentations were made at an event organised annually by the college to showcase the graduation and course projects of its students. Fourteen MBA and two Master of Accounting students, along with their supervisors, were on hand to discuss their projects and to highlight the value of their findings to the wider Qatari community.

QU VP for Institutional Development Saif Al-Sowaidi and VP for Research Hassan AlDerham also attended the event.

WCMC-Q fights cancer

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the 18 Soul Riders rode a different version of the Harley-Davidson motorbike, from Road King to Dyna. Out of the 18 riders in the group, there were only two lady riders present at the show. Female riders, Rania Al Ashker and Rutavi Mehta have both been riding motorbikes in their respective countries for some years.

eill Cornell Medical College (WCMC-Q) is representing Qatar and the MENA region on an international consortium dedicated to fighting cancer. The Worldwide Immunoscore Consortium (WIC), led by Drs Jerome Galon from France and Bernard Fox from the US, is an initiative of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and is currently researching how to improve the accuracy of colon cancer prognoses. The results could ultimately lead to personalised cancer treatments and potentially even new drugs.

WCMC-Q was offered the opportunity to become part of the consortium in February 2012 and is now organising a symposium with representatives from 17 countries and about research into colon cancer.

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doha diary

Memac Ogilvy PR Wins

QU organises trip to study mangroves

emac Ogilvy Public Relations (PR), one of the the region’s leaders in the field of communications, scooped the “Best Use of Social Media in the Middle East” award at the Middle East PR Association (MEPRA) awards ceremony for its work on Qatar Coral’s #Ramadangram campaign. This was one of the first campaigns in the region to leverage social networking phenomenon Instagram, via a campaign designed to increase engagement amongst young Qataris during the holy month of Ramadan.

Memac Ogilvy PR is part of Memac Ogilvy Group, established in Bahrain in 1984. Since then, it has grown from one person to more than 60, and expanded to 16 offices across the region.

The #Ramadangram campaign was leveraged on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, engaging the residents of Qatar in a seven-day Instagram photography competition. Participants were asked to capture their best Ramadan moments and share them via Qatar Coral’s Twitter page (@qatarcoral). Winning images were

atar University (QU) College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) carried out a field trip on December 22 to the mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems at Al Khor and Al Dhakeera.

Fifteen students were led by Qatar Shell Professor of Sustainable Development at QU, Mohamed Ajmal Khan.

The trip was held in conjunction with the UNESCO office in Doha, and was aimed at raising awareness in QU students studying sustainable development, with a focus on basic mangrove ecology, of the importance of ecosystems for biodiversity, conservation, recreation and carbon sequestration.

Before the excursion, the students were given a 30-minute presentation on “Floating mangroves for carbon sequestration”

by UNESCO’s Ecological Sciences Advisor for the Arab Region, Dr Benno Boer. They also learned about the zoning of coastal intertidal vegetation in the Gulf from Dr Boer and Professor Khan, who explained that that these ecosystems can thrive in hot dry climates without any supply of freshwater because they are seawater-tolerant.

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selected by a panel of judges at Qatar Coral and displayed on the company’s Facebook page.

La Varenne opens at tornado

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a Varenne, a French brasserie offering classic French cuisine in a contemporary setting, is now officially open on the 28th floor of Tornado Tower in West Bay. Inspired by cuisine served to diners in a traditional Parisian brasserie, the menu consists of French dishes such as chicken liver and foie gras parfait, bouillabaisse, steak frites, duck a l’orange and pot-au-feu.

In addition, simpler bites including croquemadame, Puy lentil salad and French onion soup are available.

A selection of delicious sweets is available from the dessert menu including pear clafoutis with cinnamon ice cream, glazed lemon tart with raspberry sorbet, chocolate fondant and vanilla creme brulee.

Initially La Varenne is open for breakfast and lunch. A dinner menu will be launched in the coming months. The restaurant offers special two- and three-course business lunch menus from Sunday through Thursday.

Heading up the kitchen is Executive Chef

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DFI Launches “Hazawi Fund” TO INSPIRE WRITERS

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Stuart Collins, who trained under Gordon Ramsay and Michael Caines and has worked in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in both the UK and USA. The rest of the kitchen team consists of talented chefs from France and around the world.

oha Film Institute (DFI), Qatar’s dedicated organisation for films, has announced the launch of Hazawi Fund, a new initiative under its Gulf Film Development programmes, to promote film production in Qatar and the Gulf region, providing the opportunity to produce up to six high-quality short films written and directed by Qatari and Gulf filmmakers.

Each project selected will shoot entirely in Qatar and be allocated a budget of up to QR250,000; the films produced will have the opportunity to premiere at the next edition of the Doha Tribeca Film Festoval (DTFF) and will also be submitted for regional and international film festivals.

The Hazawi Fund highlights DFI’s focus on promoting the growth of the Arab film industry across the region.

doha diary

Think you know how women work? Think Again!

“How Women Work 2013 - a conference to explore potential and actualise talent” takes place on March 6 and 7 at the Renaissance Hotel, Doha. How much do you know about it?

by KRI ST I N MCK I E

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magine, if you will, that an e-mail has just dropped into your inbox. It is an invitation to attend the How Women Work Conference in March.

Now, imagine that you are there on the first day. Who are your fellow delegates? What do they look like? Do you picture a roomful of predominantly expat women, dressed in their sharpest power suits? Perhaps they are discussing the most effective ways to smash through that corporate glass-ceiling? Well, allow me to dispel a few myths, because the reality is that the How Women Work (HWW) Conference brings together hundreds of women from all sectors of Qatar society. Yes, some will be suited and booted, but many will be wearing abayas.

Some will be talking about how to thrive in male-dominated industries such as IT and construction, but others will be learning about emotional intelligence or discovering how to channel their entrepreneurial drive more effectively. HWW Founder Carolin Zeitler says this year’s event is the perfect opportunity to tap into the positive energy that Qatar’s diversity generates.

“The How Women Work Conference attracts amazing women from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures,” says Zeitler. “In 2012, forty-five different nationalities were represented and one-third of the delegates were Qataris.

“The conference is a fantastic environment for sharing ideas and goals. One of our main aims at How Women Work is to reach hearts and minds, break down barriers and promote understanding. Our delegates meet new people, open their eyes to new perspectives, their ears to new stories, their minds to new ideas and their hearts to new friendships.”

Connecting and empowering One of HWW’s long-term supporters and

“I have been particularly impressed with Qatari women’s ability to retain their ‘feminine essence’ whilst accomplishing career goals with strength and wisdom. As much as I possess a desire to inspire Qatari women and men, I also aspire to continue learning from their example.”

Suzanne Grant Key note speaker at HWW

contributors is Dr Amal Mohammed AlMalki, Executive Director of the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Hamad bin Khalifa University and Assistant Teaching Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. She shares Carolin’s belief that the annual event is connecting and empowering women throughout the country.

“The How Women Work Conference acts as a platform where different women from different backgrounds and experiences come together, network, and learn from their joint expertise,” says Al-Malki. “The conference has succeeded in building trust and understanding through dialogue and exchange.”

Keynote speaker on Day One this year is Suzanne Grant, who is the Canadian entrepreneur behind many start-ups and successful brand launches across the GCC, including local magazine Qatar Happening.

She is currently heading up strategy and content engagement for GoArabisc.

On Day Two, one of Qatar’s most inspirational young businesswomen, Rabaa AlHamed, takes centre stage. Rabaa is Human Capital Manager at the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR).

Throughout the conference delegates will be encouraged to look at their current situation, to identify their strengths and talents, and to build upon them. They will also be given self-coaching tools to help them continue their personal development in their own time.

Whether they are entrepreneurs, businesswomen, employees, recent graduates or individuals looking for work or a life change, each will focus on exploring their potential and actualising their talent – the theme of this year’s conference.

And just in case you have any lingering preconceptions about How Women Work, imagine you are at this year’s conference.

This time it is the end of the second day and you are enjoying a fabulous lunch with your fellow delegates. Do you see a hall full of women from all walks of life and all corners of the world, wearing bright smiles and chatting animatedly to their neighbours? Well, you would be right, but allow me to dispel one final myth about the HWW conference. Every year, in amongst all those ambitious and aspirational women are a few equally ambitious and equally aspirational men.

Tickets are available at Virgin Megastores.

Corporate tickets can be ordered through corporate@hwwqatar.com.

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doha diary

For the love

of racing Coming from a family of rally drivers, it is difficult for Abdullah Al Kuwari not to have a distinctive love for the sport.

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doha diary

“My

father, Ahmed Al Kuwari was the first Qatari to participate in the first ever rally held in Qatar around 1975,” he says quite proud of the lineage that goes back to Qatari history.

Even without much training or experience, Al Kuwari participated in the Qatar National Rally for the first time in 2001 and was the runner-up at the event.

Speaking about the Qatar National Rally and its popularity, he says, “Qatar local rally, which is the most intensely contested among the championships of Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation, comprises of five rounds in 2012 season. This year’s championship is open, and it promises intense competition throughout its five rounds amid vast public following and huge participation from local and GCC drivers.”

It is quite difficult to determine a specific date for the local rally, he says, “because most Qatari drivers are engaged in overseas championships, to which they usually give priority as such championships give them more experience.” Thus, a date is agreed after they finish their overseas participations.

“The main reason for the reluctance on the part of the Qatari youth to participate in the rally lies on the lack of support, and on the fact that they give priority to their participation in overseas championships,” he opinions. Al Kuwari says that the local races are different from international ones even though both are staged off-road in the desert.

“But the participants of the first are Qataris and expatiate, while the other is contested by a large number of drivers from the GCC states and the Middle East. In addition, the international rally is two days long and is composed of 12 rounds, while the local is half in both counts. In the local rally the driver is exposed to more pressure to finish the race in one day, while in the international one the driver has more allowance to conserve his energy and skills for the following day. Equipments are also different in both rallies,” he says.

Support system Al Kuwari won the title of Qatar National Rally two times 10 years ago and then abandoned the game for a while.

“I abandoned the game because I didn’t

emissions and improves the performance of the vehicle according to Al Kuwari. Methanol use has become very commonplace in car races, he adds.

“This unconventional fuel gives me the leading edge I enjoy in competitions,” he says.

get any support at the time. Now I am glad to comeback, thanks to the trust that QAFAC has in my experience and competence in this field,” he says. Family, though, has been his biggest source of inspiration.

“I have an innate love for auto racing. I loved this sport since I was a child, especially after I knew about my father. As my desire to participate in rallies intensified, my brother Saadoon Al Kuwari, who was a rally driver himself, offered to provide the required support for me,” he says.

“My first participation was in 2001 when my brother was committed to support me financially after I expressed my readiness for competition, only one week before the date of the race. I traveled to UAE to buy the car. Having done so, my brother trained me for three days. I didn’t have any background about the race. Nevertheless, I came second in it,” he says.

Al Kuwari is especially grateful to QAFAC for the support it provided during the national rally season 2012/2013.

“The sponsorship comes within the framework of its social responsibility programme which is meant to enhance responsiveness towards societal needs through supporting social activities especially sport.

“QAFAC supports me financially and also provides my car with methanol and regular fuel which are the main products of the company,” he says.

“We use methanol fuel in races due to its high efficiency compared to regular fuel which is mixed with the methanol compatible to the technicalities of each car. Mostly they are mixed at the ratio of 20 to 80 respectively. QAFAC is still studying the feasibility of marketing this fuel in Qatar where consumption rate of this fuel in is very low,” he says. Mixing regular fuel with methanol contributes to reducing harmful gas

Rally encounters “My participation in the Rally of Lebanon 2002 was the first for me as a member of a team sponsored by the State, and the second international rally I participate in after Qatar National Rally. The Rally of Lebanon which is staged on paved roads is totally different from Qatar National Rally. The captain of the team was my brother Saadoon Al Kuwari who was responsible for the management of the team in this rally; and it was because of his guidance and training I won this rally. The technique I usually follow in the first day is to gain time in the first rounds, maintain the stability of the car, keep the car on the track and exert my energy and potential. The second day is usually the day in which the contestants drive in a certain predetermined manner to determine their positions at the finishing line,” he explains. He says that the Qatar National Rally is one of the most difficult auto races due to the hard, rocky and pebbly nature of the roads in Qatar.

“However, these rallies are the best experiments from which rally drivers can learn the right techniques of driving, and compared to which all other rallies seem to be easy.” The skills that are necessary for a rally driver, according to Al Kuwari are, “the competent rally driver should have extensive information, be physically fit and healthy, and with good sporting body built. He should have enough sleep time, and should refrain from staying up late in the night to maintain a high level of concentration.”

And his future plans are also all on racing, “After my success in the first round in Qatar National Rally 2012/2013, I hope to win the title of the local championship and come first in the Middle East Rally of group “N” as I am the only Qatari who participates in this group. Next year I hope, if the support of QAFAC continued, to participate in a stronger group of race cars”

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Doha Diary

“I AM NOT A REVOLUTIONARY

ARTIST” El Seed the Calligraffiti artist who hates to be labelled, is in Doha for an exciting project. Ola Diab finds out more

graffiti is almost foreign to the Middle East. The walls of this region are usually clean and clear of elaborate and artistic spray-painted writings and drawings. However it is home to some of the most accomplished calligraffiti artists. Calligraffiti – an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti – is becoming a common art in the Middle East. Arab men and women have found a way to create art that mixes the beautiful and traditional Arabic script with the more infamous urban graffiti.

One of this region’s most talented calligraffiti artists is a Tunisian-French man who goes by the pseudonym el Seed, meaning “the master” in Arabic, which is a name he adopted at the age of 16 from the French tragicomedy book Le Cid by Pierre Corneille. This 31-year-old father of two has painted, in sprays and with brushes, on walls in France, Germany, Canada, the US, the UK, Brazil, the UAE, Tunisia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. el Seed has now made his way to Qatar to start a four-month project where he will paint calligraffiti murals on the walls of the soon-opening Salwa Road – a project commissioned by the Qatar Museums Authority’s Public Art Department and the Public

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Works Authority (Ashghal). When they came up with the idea of having art in the tunnel, HH Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani immediately asked for el Seed.

“For me that’s really revolutionary, because in Europe you would get a ticket or be jailed for painting on the highway. But here, they’re asking me to paint on the highway,” says el Seed. “In the Middle East there’s no strong representation in terms of graffiti.

Every time they do graffiti it’s on a wood panel, then they’re taken off after some time. But now they’re asking me to paint four tunnels, about 52 walls, 700 m each wall. That’s big and really cool!”

For this project, a team of six assistants – Qataris and expatriates – will help el Seed prepare and implement his graffiti work in the tunnels on Salwa Road.

The redirection Born in 1981 to Tunisian parents, el Seed grew up in France and started spray-painting in the late nineties.

“My generation discovered the hip hop culture like break dance and graffiti,” he says. “I used to dance a lot. I used to be a break dancer and a graffiti artist on the side, and then graffiti took over years later.”

Doha Diary

el sid calligraffiti mixes the beautiful and traditional arabic script with more infamous urban graffiti

el Seed was just 16 when he realised his talent, but it wasn’t long before he set his focus on something entirely different, business, where he eventually earned an MBA. “Where I come from, nobody makes a living from art so I was told to do something that I would be able to make a living from,” says el Seed about why he initially pursued a career in business. “So I studied business, but I was always painting on the side. But for me, that wasn’t a life. I used to do my job but my head was somewhere else. I used to paint on the weekend, and step by step it became every night, then all the time. Then one day, I just dropped my job and said I cannot do this any more.”

During this phase of revelation, el Seed was put back on track by a French graffiti artist and friend called Hest. “When I was doing business, I stopped doing everything else. It was killing me. When you feel like there’s something missing in your life, you feel like a vegetable,” he says. “Graffiti was something I was yearning to do all my life. I felt like I couldn’t continue my life without being able to paint.”

The story behind the painted walls Painting on the walls of Salwa Road is el

Seed’s second-biggest project. His biggest to date was Tunisia’s tallest minaret in September 2012. The minaret of the Jara Mosque in his hometown, Gabes, was painted with a verse from the Quran preaching tolerance.

“That was the biggest challenge I ever had,” says el Seed. “The entire city was watching me. I was under scrutiny by the mafia of Tunisia. The painting was one I loved and it wasn’t difficult, but people didn’t let me do what I wanted and threatened me. I was scared for myself and my family. I was watched all the time.”

That three-week project took him 10 days just for the planning as he battled this resistance. People were very sceptical, asking why he was touching the mosque. “In the 18 years since it was built, nobody had ever touched it. The imam told me that people were afraid to touch it,” he says.

He was accused of having a political agenda for following instructions and painting the wall blue. “I don’t have any political agenda. I don’t believe in politics,” says el Seed. Eventually, he gave in to his artistic insights and changed the colour. “I didn’t care about anyone. This is my work. My name will come out of that,” he says.

This project placed el Seed on the media’s radar, landing interviews and coverage by the Huffington Post, CNN, BBC, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. el Seed doesn’t have any greater agenda than just painting for the love of it. “I try to be relevant to the place I am in. I like to paint quotes or poems.” He rarely paints verses from the Quran, and has done it only twice – on the walls of a mosque in Tunisia and another one in France. “I try to target the community I’m in. I target all the stereotypes of Arabs and Islam. In Tunisia, I was trying to unite people but it didn’t work. People say it’s fantastic but they don’t think about what’s written on it and that is what makes me angry. How can you just see the beauty without understanding the wisdom of the verse?” says el Seed referring to the verse from the Quran he left on the – 47 meters tall and 10 meters wide – minaret of Jara Mosque, which says, “Oh humankind, we have created you from a male and a female and made people and tribes so you may know each other.”

Although el Seed can spend minutes to months working on a piece, his wall paintings are frequently erased, so to immortalise his work he saves it online.

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doha diary

Artistic labels and choices Looking at el Seed’s artwork, it’s impossible not to assume that he’s a professional calligraphist. “I just paint with Arabic script,” he says.

Arabic calligraphy and graffiti work are completely different. “I don’t know the rules of Arabic calligraphy. I’m a graffiti artist, painting in Arabic. I do calligraffiti.” el Seed’s knowledge of calligraphy comes from being inspired by many calligraphists in the Arab region. “Hassan Massoudy was one such inspiration,” he says. French-Iraqi Massoudy is one of the most renowned Arabic calligraphists in the world. “Calligraphy is really restricted because of rules. The work of Massoudy is different from everything else I have seen in this world. He completely revolutionised the art of calligraphy.” His Arabic link is his identity. “Being able to paint in Arabic is like being able to keep a link with where I come from. If I stop painting in Arabic, I feel like I’m cutting off

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some part of myself.” el Seed is a non-conformist. “Even though I am known as a graffiti artist, I think I’m an artist first because what I do is not only graffiti. I try to do more than that,” he says. The calligraffiti artist also paints on canvases using paintbrushes. el Seed believes that he has been given more than his share of media attention.

“We’re part of the Arabic graffiti movement and Islamic art renaissance but we’re not freedom fighters. I am not a revolutionary artist,” he says. el Seed’s first artistic statement, concerning the Tunisian revolution, says, “Arabs agree to disagree” which is a quote from Ibn Khaldun, a famous 14th century Tunisian historian. “People say we’re part of this awakening, but we were always awake.

There was a lot being done, but no one spoke about it and there was a lot of repression,” says el Seed about the graffiti artists of Tunisia and other Arab Spring countries.

The juggler During his four-month stay in Qatar for the Salwa Road project, el Seed will be travelling frequently to complete his projects in other parts of the world. He has been preparing for an exhibition of his artwork in the Tashkeel Gallery in Dubai, which was held in January. In the same month, in one of the most prestigious streets in the world, the Champs Elysees in France, there was an auction of el Seed’s artwork. Furthermore, el Seed has collaborated with Louis Vuitton to design scarves, which will be launched in March.

“I’m glad they asked me, because they asked six graffiti artists, each representing a region, and I was chosen to represent the Arab region,” says el Seed Check out his art at: http://www.elseed-art.com/, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and the Salwa Road project at: http://www.elseedindoha.com

What did the world search for in 2012?

1.2 trillion searches in 146 languages.

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Whitney Houston, who died in February 2012, was an American recording artist, actress and producer. In 2009 the Guinness book of World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all time. Houston was one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide

Gangnam Style is a K-pop single by the South Korean musician PSY. The song was released in July 2012 and debuted at number one on South Korea’s Gaon Chart. On December 21, 2012, “Gangnam Style” became the first online video to record a billion hits on the Internet.

Hurricane Sandy was a hurricane that devastated portions of the Caribbean and the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States during late October 2012, with lesser impacts in the Southeastern and Midwestern states and Eastern Canada.

iPad 3 is a tablet computer, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. The third device in the iPad line of tablets.

It shipped with iOS 5.1, which also provides a platform for audiovisual media including electronic books, periodicals, films, music, computer games, presentations and web content.

Diablo 3 is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the third installment in the Diablo franchise that features elements of the dungeon crawl and hackand-slash genres.

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Kate Middleton is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The Duke of Cambridge is second in line, after his father, to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms, and the Duchess is expected eventually to become queen consort.

Olympics 2012 The London Summer Olympics took centre stage during the summer of 2012 which saw Usain Bolt retain his 100 metre crown at

Amanda Todd committed suicide in October, 2012 at her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to her death, Todd posted a video on YouTube in which she used a series of flash cards to tell of her experience of being blackmailed, bullied and physically assaulted. The video went viral after her death.

Michael Clarke Duncan, who died in September 2012, was an American actor, best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

BBB12 (Big Brother Brasil 12) was the twelfth season of Big Brother Brasil, which was aired January 10 to March 29. In the end, veterinarian Fael Cordeiro from Aral Moreira won the competition over poster girl Fabiana Teixeira with 92% of the final vote.

Taken from: http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world