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June issue 2012
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it's all about numberswhat smes need to know
PATENT LAW IMPORTANCE OF CONTRACTS
INCOME TAX LAW TRAVEL AND TECHNOLOGY ACCESS TO FINANCE
REGIONAL TRADE
qatar.smetoolkit.org/qatar/en
JUN
E 2012w
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.privatesectorqatar.com/en
News10 UPDATESGet to know about the latest events and happenings in Qatar that will have an impact on SMEs and large enterprises.
Business setup24 TAKING AIM AT QATAR 2022With the World Cup 2022, only a decade away, Qatar is whirlpool of activity. Wayne Merrick, Country Manager, Links Group, Qatar, brings to our notice, the opportunities for foreign companies.
Business Guru18 KNOW YOUR NUMBERS One of the basic pre-requisites of starting a business is, access to finance. Abdulla Al-Khalifa, General Manager, Corporate Banking, QNB, talks to us about the importance of securing finance and which sectors show promise
20 ADOPTING TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVELNasser Batha, Regional Director, Markets MENA, and Wafiq Al Wahidi, General Manager, Amadeus Qatar, advise on how should SMEs adjust to the new market environment in order to benefit from the enormous potential of travel and tourism industry within the region.
Travel
Shelf Life14 PRODUCTSTake a look at the new launches that make your work life easier. It’s not like you need an excuse!
26 BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU MEASURE, YOU MIGHT GET ITElias Mazzawi, Managing Director, EMS MENA, explains to us the concept of metrics and how can we avoid misusing them.
Management
28 WHO DO YOU BELIEVE IN? It is common knowledge that businesses need a lot of input and different forms of investment to grow. Carolin Zeitler, Director, Arcata, explains to us why our business can only grow as much as we can.
Business Growth
Tax16 PAYING YOUR DUESKurian Kuriakose, Managing Partner, Sohila and Kuriakose, gives an overview of the various significant developments intro-duced by the new income tax law in Qatar.
Know your numbers!
CONTENTSJune 2012
36 PICTURE THIS!Graphic recording is the way to go, if you want to captivate your audience and get your message across, says Jenn Wicks, Instructor, School of Language Studies, College of the North Atlantic – Qatar
Technology32 KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR INFORMATION Nick O’Connell, Senior Associate, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Al Tamimi & Co. gives us an overview of the key aspects of law governing information technology in the region.
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Increase your workplace productivity
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38 NEVER GIVE UP Aparna Shivpuri Arya got talking to Christos Mastoras, Director, Business Development, MENA Yahoo! Maktoob, on what is his take on the ICT revolution and how can entrepreneurs from the region take advantage of it.
Business Advice
SMEs40 YOU ARE NOT ALONEThe government of Qatar has been working towards providing a support system to SMEs. In the first, of a two part series, Reji Cherian, Director, Investment Strategy for State Holding Group, highlights the important role of SMEs in Qatar’s economic expansion and gives an overview of the various initiatives.
50 FTAs: PROMOTING REGIONAL TRADE We bring you the highlights of the panel discussion organised by TASDEER, on the status of intra-regional trade in the GCC.
Trade
About Town54 GRAB THE OPPORTUNITYThe ninth Project Qatar was held in Doha and attracted 2,000 plus exhibitors. Private Sector was there and brings you the highlights.
46 THE CONTRACT IS YOUR FRIENDWhy talk about the legal stuff when business is all about deals and relationships? Mark Hill and Fiona Robertson, from therightslawyers, have some thoughts on that matter that they wanted to share with us.
Legal44 ENFORCING YOUR RIGHTSEmma Higham, Senior Associate, Clyde &Co, explains to us the status of the Patent Law in Qatar.
Marketing52 RELATIONSHIP RULES Public relations professionals need the media to get their message out to their clients and target customers. To do this effectively, it’s essential to build mutual respect, says Sawsan Ghanem, Managing Director, Active Public Relations.
Time sure does fly – we are already half way through the year and we still have so much left to share with you. And not to forget, we are just a decade away from the World Cup 2022!
We want to keep our readers engaged and cover every possible issue that might be of interest, so we thought it might be a good idea to expand our team. As I mentioned in the previous issue, we have two new additions to our editorial team. So please put your hands together for Tamara Pupic and Huda Kamal. Both
of them have been hard at work to put together an issue that informs you on all aspects of doing business in Qatar.
As the temperature soars, so does the tempo of the activities in the country and in the June issue, we get talking to some of the country’s business gurus, who are very successful and knowledgeable individuals in their respective fields, to pick their brain on what entrepreneurs and startups should and should not focus on. One advice stood out – Never be afraid of taking risks! So don’t miss the interviews of Christos Mastoras from Yahoo! Middle East and Abdulla Al-Khalifa from the Qatar National Bank.
In the last few weeks we were also privy to a number of events, such as Project Qatar and the Arabian Travel Market and we got some interesting inputs from the people we met there. Turn the pages to read some interesting technological developments in the travel industry.
And the list doesn’t end here, as we bring forth some attention-grabbing articles on business opportunities because of the World Cup 2022, the implications of the new income tax law and the advantages of graphic recording as a mode of presentation.
So please grab your copy of this issue and sit back and enjoy the read.
Till then...
EDITORIAL
Follow the buzz
Aparna Shivpuri Arya, Senior Editor (English), Private Sector Qatar
Talk to us:E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @PrivateSectorQA Facebook: www.facebook.com/PrivateSectorQatarLinkedIn group: Private Sector Qatar
PublisherDominic De Sousa
Group COONadeem Hood
Managing DirectorRichard Judd
[email protected] +971 4 440 9126
EDITORIAL
Senior EditorAparna Shivpuri Arya
[email protected] +971 440 9133
Assistant Editor - EnglishTamara Pupic
[email protected] +971 440 9130
Assistant Editor - ArabicHuda Kamal
[email protected] +971 440 9140
Contributing EditorsMike Byrne
[email protected] +971 440 9105
ADVERTISING
Commercial DirectorChris Stevenson
[email protected] +971 4 440 9138
Advertising Sales ManagerZaid Abdel Hadi
[email protected] +971 4 440 9163
CIRCULATION
Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M
[email protected] +971 4 440 9147
OPERATIONS AND DESIGN
Operations DirectorJames Rawlins
[email protected] +971 4 440 9108
Production ManagerJames P Tharian
[email protected] +971 4 440 9146
Art DirectorKamil Roxas
[email protected] +971 4 440 9112
Head of DesignFahed Sabbagh
[email protected] +971 4 440 9148
PhotographerCris Mejorada
[email protected] +971 4 440 9108
DIGITAL SERVICESwww.smeadvisor.com
Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy Maagma
Web DevelopersJerus King Bation
Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya
Louie Alma
[email protected] +971 4 440 9100
Published by
1013 Centre Road, New Castle County,Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Branch OfficePO Box 13700
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 440 9100Fax: +971 4 447 2409
Printed byAl Warq Printing Press, Qatar
Distributed byDar Al Sharq Distribution
© Copyright 2012 CPIAll rights reserved
While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this
magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
qatar.smetoolkit.org/qatar/en
QDB BriDgeD the gap to starting my own Business through aL Dhameen.
Do you have a promising business or new business idea? But do you also have trouble finding the funding that you need? Ask us about Al Dhameen Indirect Lending Program from QDB. We will guarantee up to 85% of your business loan*, leaving you free to focus on developing your business. Click on www.qdb.qa or visit one of our partners listed below.
* Guarantees of up to 85% are for new businesses. Exiting businesses can get guarantees of up to 75%. Terms and Conditions apply.
QDB_Al_Dhameen_Bridge_270x207mm.indd 1 24.01.12 16:29
For more information, please visit www.privatesectorqatar.com/en
Abdulaziz N. Al-Khalifa
Mr. Al-Khalifa is the Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Control at Qatar Development Bank (QDB).
Raed Al-Emadi
Mr. Al-Emadi is the Deputy CEO, Silatech.
Bassam Salman
Mr. Salman is Executive Assistant, Qatar Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
George M. White, Ph.D.
Dr. White is Associate Teaching Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University-Qatar.
Hamad Mohammed Al-Kuwari
Hamad AL-Kuwari is the Managing Director of Qatar Science & Technology Park.
Ms. Amal Al-Mannai
Ms. Al-Mannai is the Executive Director of the Social Development Center (SDC).
Hamad Al Abdan Al-Marri
Eng. Hamad Mohamed Al Abdan is the Chief Business Operation Officer at Enterprise Qatar.
Professor Nitham M. Hindi
Professor Nitham M. Hindi, is the Dean of College of Business and Economics at the Qatar University.
Gail Gosse
Gail Gosse, is the Dean of the School of Business at College of North Atlantic-Qatar.
AdviSory BoArd
The new silk route
QAMC and Barclays come together
The first IHT Global Conversation, to kick off the 125th anniversary of the International Herald Tribune (IHT), presented compelling viewpoints on the post Arab Spring world, with the panelists discussing the region’s current developmental challenges, the role of the US and Asia, and the significance of the Middle East on the “New Silk Road.”
Thomas Friedman, Foreign Affairs Correspondent of the New York Times, who delivered the keynote address, highlighted the challenges in today’s hyper-connected world, reminding audiences that the age of
“average is officially over.” To be competitive in the new world order, one has to “think like an immigrant, create like an artisan, work like a startup and provide service like a waitress, and continuously create a unique value add”.
On the conference’s key topic, “The Middle East’s Role on the New Silk Road”, Friedman observed that the region is witnessing the end of a 100-year-old order and the lid has been thrown open for the winds of change, reminding policy-makers and governments on the need to enable the region’s youth to realise their full potential.
Tarik Yousef, CEO of Silatech, Qatar, Nader Mousavizadeh, CEO of Oxford Analytica, and Masood Ahmed, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), joined Friedman in the panel discussion, moderated by Serge Schmemann, Editor of the IHT editorial page.
Introducing the topic, Serge Schmemann said, “There is no question that Asia and the Middle East are facing critical political and social challenges. But that makes it all the more important to discuss the “New Silk Road” because the shift of economic power from West to East is inexorable. The huge economic opportunities opening along the arc from China to the Middle East and beyond to Africa and South America will require enlightened and creative leadership, and it is important to start talking now about what this means in concrete terms.”
The IHT Global Conversation will progress on to Hong Kong on 15th June 2012, where it will address the topic “Can Asia Manage an Asian Century,” and Paris, on 4th October 2012, to discuss “Restoring European Competitiveness on the World Stage.”
The Qatar Asset Management Company (QAMC), a collaboration between the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFC Authority) and the Qatar Investment Authority, and Barclays Natural Resource Investments (BNRI), a division of Barclays Bank PLC, announced the formation of a strategic partnership. BNRI is a global private equity business focussed on natural resource investment opportunities.
Under the partnership terms agreed, QAMC will co-invest USD 250 million in BNRI’s current and future portfolio companies, of which a substantial proportion will be allocated to BNRI’s existing USD 2.1 billion portfolio of companies. BNRI will continue to source, execute, manage and exit private equity transactions in the natural resources sectors on a global basis and co-investors will be invited
to participate immediately upon completion of each transaction.
The BNRI office in the region will be located within the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC). BNRI employees, including senior members of the BNRI team, will work on the ground in Doha. BNRI will also add local as well as international talent as its growth strategy unfolds.
NEWS
Thomas Friedman highlights challenges at first IHT Global Conversation in Dubai
10 JuNE 2012
QDB and IFC workshop: Scaling up SME Banking Business
Following QDB’s successful launch of the SME toolkit in collaboration with the IFC (International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group), QDB and IFC continued their collaboration through a three day training workshop from 14th to 16th May 2012 for all banks and financial institutions in Qatar, to assess the potential benefits of targeting the SME sector and help them to build and expand their SME business offerings. This programme provided an overview of the best practices in SME banking from around the world, and methods for adapting these practices to the local market conditions.
This training programme was part of the QDB’s broader strategy to build to overall private sector ecosystem of Qatar. QDB sees the commercial banks and financial institutions operating in Qatar as integral partners to its efforts and commitment to achieve the QNV 2030.
NEWS
“As part of our commitments to promote sustainable private sector development in Qatar, we are very pleased of QDB’s collaboration with IFC’s Bank Advisory Services department to strengthen the capacities of other banks and financial institutions in Qatar for SME financing”, said Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Control at Qatar Development Bank.
Mr. Mansoor Bin Ibrahim Al- Mahmoud, CEO, QDB, congratulated all the participants for completing the training programme and said that he was delighted to see the workshop was attended by the IFC staff and number of other financial institutions from different parts of the world such as the USA, Egypt, Pakistan, India and Turkey.
He appreciated all the trainers from IFC who have provided their valuable time and inputs to make this program successful especially:• Mr. Xavier Reille ( Manager, Access to
Finance, Advisory Services MENA Region)• Mr. Kaiser Naseem ( Manger Bank Advisory
Services MENA Region)• Andrew McCartney ( Senior SME Banking
Specialist) Trainer• Qamar Saleem ( Senior SME Banking
Specialist) Trainer
The training programme was especially tailored to address the needs of SME banking to meet the growing challenges of the private sector. It will also form a pillar in building the capacities and capabilities of the participants to assess the potential benefits of targeting the SME sector and help them to build and expand their SME business offerings.
“Our experience working with financial institutions globally shows that when the right systems are in place in an institution targeting SMEs can be profitable, as risks can be mitigated. IFC believes that SME banking is a huge opportunity for banks to tap,” said Kaiser Naseem, IFC’s Head of MENA Banking Advisory Services.
Mansoor Bin Ibrahim Al-Mahmoud , CEO, QDB, presents certificates to the participants
Mansoor Bin Ibrahim Al-Mahmoud , CEO, QDB, speaks at the workshop
11JuNE 2012
Save the date!date Event Location2 June "HYA" Abaya Exhibition June 2012 Doha Exhibition Center
3 - 7 June World Stadium Congress Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Center
10 - 13 June 2nd Annual underground Infrastructure and Deep Foundations Oryx Rotana Hotel
1 - 10 July Doha Trade Fair 2012 Doha Exhibition Center
2 - 3 August Strategies, Governance & Social Research Conference Mövenpick Doha Tower
5 - 8 September Made in uSA 2012 Doha
15 - 19 September "HYA" Abaya Exhibition September 2012 Doha Exhibition Center
18 - 19 September Capital Markets Conference Qatar Central bank
18 - 19 September MEED Qatar Banking Summit 2012 Doha
23 - 26 September HR Congress Qatar Oryx Rotana Hotel
24 - 25 September Building Information Modeling Summit Doha
25 September Doha Furniture and Decoration Exhibition - INFDEX 2012 Doha Exhibitions Center
26 - 29 September World LP Gas Forum Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Center
30 September - 04 October Investment Management Forum Doha
NEWS
JuNE-SEpTEMBEr 2012
UNCTAD XIII concludes on a positive note
Hamad bin Abdulaziz bin Ali Al-Kuwari, UNCTAD XIII President and Qatar’s Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage, said, “UNCTAD’s message of reform is a contemporary one that recognises the changes that have taken place in the global
economy in the last ten years. A new generation of policies and reforms in trade, finance, investment and technology will be needed in this next phase of post-crisis globalisation.”The President will continue in the post for the next four years.
At the closing of the quadrennial conference, he also said that consensus texts adopted here have the organisation well-positioned to face contemporary challenges and to continue traditional work that remains relevant and effective.
12 JuNE 2012
SHELF LIFE
A new systemThe eagerly awaited update to
BlackBerry 7 is here! BlackBerry Bold 9900,
BlackBerry Torch 9810, BlackBerry Torch
9860, BlackBerry Curve 9360, BlackBerry
Curve 9380 and Porsche Design P’9881
SmartPhone from BlackBerry owners
can now upgrade to an exciting new
experience with the BlackBerry 7.1 OS!
With the update comes a host of
new features to make your BlackBerry
SmartPhone experience that much
better. Be on the lookout for, enhanced
BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) integration
that makes communicating easier.
BlackBerry Tag helps to easily invite BBM
contacts, exchange information and more
using NFC. And unique to BlackBerry
Curve 9360 or BlackBerry Curve 9380
users, is a new app that allows them to
tune in and enjoy local FM radio stations
without needing a data plan or use data
services. The update also brings fun and
engaging ways to communicate via an
updated BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)
app, which brings with it new emoticons,
animated avatars and the ability to
customise chat bubble colours!
Nokia announced the availability of Office Mobile apps from Microsoft – including Word mobile, PowerPoint mobile and Excel mobile – via a software update for the new Nokia Belle range consisting of the Nokia 701, Nokia 700 and Nokia 603. The update is also available for Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia Oro, and Nokia C6-01.
Office Mobile completes the suite of Microsoft productivity applications for Symbian SmartPhones with Nokia Belle, including OneNote mobile, Document connection, Lync 2010 mobile and PowerPoint broadcast.
Business users using SmartPhones with Nokia Belle range, can also enjoy the latest Nokia applications like Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps that feature free turn-by-turn voice guided walk and drive navigation in more than 100 countries, maps for more than 190 countries and live traffic in 26 countries maps.
Increase your workplace
productivity
Throwing light on the issue
Acer Inc has revealed its LED-laser
hybrid K520. This projector uses unique
hybrid LED-laser light-source technology
to achieve vibrant imagery with long-
lasting 2000 lumens brightness.
The hybrid LED-laser light source
significantly improves colour brightness
when compared to high-pressure
mercury lamps, and also increases the
light source up to 20,000 hours. In
addition, this innovative technology
enables a wider colour gamut to deliver
better colour saturation.
Utilisation is easy for business meetings
or classroom situations because instant
on/off capability lets the user turn the
projector on and off immediately, without
an ignition and a cool-down period. Users
can even project on uneven surfaces
thanks to 40 vertical keystone corrections.
The K520 is equipped with Acer
EcoProjection, an environment-friendly
power management suite. It features
ExtremeECO mode for advanced
lamp power control and reduced
power consumption of up to 90%.
AcerEcoProjection also includes Acer
ePower Management for customised
power-saving configurations.
14 JuNE 2012
SHELF LIFE
The “chic” notebook
The green printer
Sony’s new VAIO E14 Series, a 14-inch
notebook with stylish new “wrap design” and
long battery life, is set to be rolled out across
the region.
The laptop is equipped with third generation
Intel Core i5 and i7 CPU with AMD Radeon HD
7670M discrete GPU (VRAM: 1GB).
Available in five refreshing colours, including
white, black, pink, silver or gun metallic, its design
is accented by complementary colour flourishes
around the notebook’s edge, touchpad and
keyboard. The device also comes with a premium
diamond-cut finish VAIO logo on the lid and a
personalisation kit comprising matching mouse
and keyboard skin.
The battery life of over five hours is enhanced
by the discreet GPUs that automatically switch off
to boost battery life when less graphic-intensive
tasks are being performed. The efficient VAIO
Display, energy-saving processors, and the on-
board optical drive that shuts down to zero power
consumption when on stand-by or sleep mode
further stretch the battery’s endurance capacity.
Featuring the new “Rapid Wake + Eco”
energy-saving mode, VAIO goes into an ultra-low
power deep sleep, keeping all your data safe for
up to ten days. Once the PC’s lid is opened, the
laptop is up and running in seconds, with the files
exactly as they were left.
Sony’s xLOUD and Clear Phase technologies
enhance volume levels without distortion
for impressive-sounding movies and games.
Alternatively, one can switch to Dolby Home
Theatre V4 for rich, cinema-style audio. VAIO
also makes for a handy charger in the absence
of a quickly accessible AC socket. Users just need
to plug in their phones via USB, even when the
computer is switched off or in sleep mode.
To further increase the usability, VAIO E14
comes equipped with comfortably-spaced
isolation backlight keyboard for error-free late-
night typing.
Canon Middle East extended its range of
smart laser printers with the launch of the
i-SENSYS LBP6680x and i-SENSYS LBP6670dn.
The new black and white, single function
printers (SFPs) can be easily integrated within an
organisation’s print fleet.
Enhanced security features, such as secure
release, user authentication at the device and job
selection, provide controlled access to sensitive
documents and information.
The i-SENSYS LBP6680x and LBP6670dn
also bring high-level print functionality to small
workgroups and small businesses as a standalone,
desktop device.
The new SFPs enable staff to work more
productively, with print speeds of 33 pages per
minute (ppm), the ability to print double-sided
documents, and a quick and easy to navigate
five-line LCD control panel. They are also capable
of producing high-quality documents, printing at
a resolution of 1200x 1200 dpi.
Organisations will also benefit from reduced
print downtime. Efficient device management,
through eMaintenance, enables the remote
servicing of devices and the close monitoring
of consumables ensures that toner and paper
supplies never run low.
To help minimise energy consumption, both
the LBP6680x and LBP6670dn have also been
designed with the environment in mind, with an
auto shut-off feature, the option of two-sided
printing as standard and class-leading low energy
consumption levels of 1.3kWH/week.
15JuNE 2012
pAyiNG your duES
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represent a significant majority in most economies, both
developed and developing. Role of SMEs in ensuring equitable wealth distribution and, thus, contributing to the well-being of majority of the population is well understood across the world.
With the oil and gas production reaching its capacity levels, experts predict that Qatar’s accelerated growth can only come from the non-oil sectors and that too from SMEs. Therefore, providing the right environment for this segment is an important factor in the continued and accelerated development of the country. The tax regime is one of the important factors that determine the economic environment in any country. The new income tax law, which came into effect in Qatar from 1st January 2010, has brought several changes, mostly favouring the enterprises, entrepreneurs and potential investors in Qatar.
Tax rate reduction As stated earlier, there are many changes in the new income tax law which favours businesses in Qatar, the most commendable one being reduction in the tax rate. The new law replaced the erstwhile method of tax slab system, wherein the tax payer was taxed at progressive rates
starting from 10% and going up to 35% of the net profits, by introducing a flat tax rate of 10% on net profits. As evident from the rates, the tax rate has been fixed at the minimum applicable levels compared to the old tax regime. Further, 10% tax rate is significantly low compared to most jurisdictions in the world, where business income is taxed. The lower tax rate will ensure
that there will be higher percentage of the profits remaining with the business owners as compared to the earlier tax regime. The flat rate also simplifies the computation of tax.
While this being the case, the old law had a basic exemption whereby profits up to QR 100,000 were taxed at 0%, whereas the new law does not provide any such basic exemption limit. Some may point out that the removal of such basic limit is a dampener for small businesses as compared to the old law which exempted this category from paying any tax. Further, the low tax rates need to be taken in context with the “no tax” status in some countries in the region, especially within the Gulf Cooperation Council member states.
Old vs. newYet another significant development in the new law is the introduction of the withholding tax liability for certain type of payments. Under the new law, payments for the services to non-residents which are not in connection with a permanent establishment in Qatar attract withholding tax at 5% or 7%
depending on the nature of service. Royalties and technical fees attract 5% withholding tax, whereas interest and payment for other services attract 7% withholding tax. As per the executive regulations, interests paid by a permanent establishment in Qatar to the head office or to an entity related to the head office outside Qatar are exempted from withholding tax. For a branch, the recharge of head office expenses is exempted from withholding tax. For the companies that do not have a permanent establishment in Qatar, withholding tax will be the final tax. However, they may be able to benefit from the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, if it applies to them. It may be noted that the withholding tax is applicable only on payments for services
Awareness of the advantages and shortcomings of a particular tax regime is of crucial importance for any
business entity, particularly, for SMEs. Kurian Kuriakose, Managing Partner, Sohila and Kuriakose, gives an
overview of the various significant developments introduced by the new income tax law.
TAX
The new income tax law has brought several changes, mostly favouring the enterprises, entrepreneurs and potential investors in Qatar.
16 JuNE 2012
TAX
and is not applicable for payment for goods and materials.
With the introduction of withholding tax on services, the new law exempts filing of tax returns for non-resident companies providing services in Qatar other than through a permanent establishment. Under the old law, such companies were required to maintain accounts for their Qatar operations and file returns. Under the new law, the onus has shifted to the recipient of services in Qatar to deduct withholding tax at the time of making payment for services and remit same to the Income Tax Department. The new law prescribes that the withholding tax so deducted shall be remitted to the department before the 16th of the subsequent month failing which penal provisions become applicable.
Tax registration and obtaining tax card has been made mandatory under the new law for all entities deriving a taxable income. The application for tax registration is required to be submitted within 30 days from date of commercial registration, start date of activity or day on which income started to derive, whichever is earlier. Taxpayers who fail to apply for tax card within prescribed time limit will be subject to a fine.
The introduction of the withholding tax and the tax card has been a great relief for companies, as they are no more required to produce the tax clearance certificate to obtain their final retention released. Under the old provisions, the amount retained by the contractor could be released only upon the production of a tax clearance certificate issued by the department. Under the new provisions, the amount retained may be released upon the production of a valid tax card. This change has helped to ease the cash flows for companies undertaking contracts in the Qatar.
The new law continues to apply the principles existing under the old law in respect of filing tax returns. The law prescribes individuals and legal entities practising a taxable activity in Qatar to submit a tax return within four months from the end of the accounting period. The tax payers
who satisfy any one of the following criteria need to support the tax returns with financial statements duly certified by a registered auditor:• Capital exceeding QR 100,000.00
• Total taxable income exceeding QR 100,000.00
• Headquarters situated outside Qatar
The new law makes it mandatory for entities undertaking an activity that is tax exempted, to file tax returns within the prescribed time limits. The tax returns must be supported with financial statements duly certified by a registered auditor.
With the introduction of the new law, it has been mandated that even fully Qatari owned entities satisfying the following criteria must file tax returns:• Capital of QR 2 million or more
• Annual turnover of QR 10 million or more
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA)The new law prescribes for Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with other countries to save the businesses with cross-border operations from being taxed twice in respect of those operations (being that in the state of source and in the state of residence). Qatar has entered into a number of tax treaties already and is actively expanding its network of tax treaties to make it easier for the international investors to enter into various ventures in Qatar. While the individual DTAA will prescribe the modalities for claiming tax credit, a common procedure is to file a tax return paying the due tax in Qatar and availing credit for the tax so paid in the home country of the entity.
While some may argue that any kind of taxation will impede business activity, an underlying principle of taxation is public participation in building the country and its infrastructure. If one wants to participate in the enormous growth in infrastructure and
civic amenities in the country, one should heed calls for compliance to tax law as an essential sacrifice and duty of every resident.
The overall impression of the new income tax law is that it has made positive changes making it easier for tax compliance, which in turn has spurred growth of business, generally, and SMEs, specifically.
If one wants to participate in the enormous growth in infrastructure and civic amenities in the country, one should heed calls for compliance to tax law as an essential sacrifice and duty of every resident.
Kurian Kuriakose is the Managing Partner for Sohila and Kuriakose Chartered Accountants and Chairman of Morison Menon Chartered Accountants LLC, independent members of Morison International, a global accounting, audit and tax association. He has over 24 years of experience in auditing, taxation and Finance. He is a fellow member of ICAI (India) and a Certified Information System Auditor (USA). He holds double bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Law. He is also an MBA from Bradford University UK. His experience includes senior positions in Emirates Airlines, Air India and Budget Rent A Car. He is a member of the Board of Governors for IIA Qatar, Treasurer of IBPN Qatar and a past Chairman of ICAI Doha Chapter. Kuriakose has been assisting SMEs to setup their business in Qatar as well as supporting them through provision of quality audit, accounting and consultancy services. He can be contacted on [email protected].
About
Kurian Kuriakose
17JuNE 2012
BuSINESS GuRu
KNow your NuMBErS!
What is the vision of Qatar National
Bank (QNB)?
Our vision is clearly determined – to become a MENA icon.
Our mission includes the following:• To be the institution of choice for customers,
employees, investors and suppliers
• To be the dominant market player
• To maintain the highest credit ratings
• To have strong brand recognition and high
brand value
• To achieve sustainable profitable growth
• To enhance shareholder value
How has the banking sector changed in
the past few years? Has technology lead to
innovation?
As technology is at the heart of most successful businesses, it has a direct positive impact on the economy, especially
in emerging markets. Banking is known worldwide for predictable business practices which have had to evolve as technology improves. In line with that, banking as any other type of business relies on innovative technology to be successful. As customer
demand requires new levels of personal service at an unexpected fast rate, the level of competition in the banking industry is growing. Therefore, many banks now rely on improved technology in order to remain relatively competitive in the market.
Technology has also helped banks migrate customers from busy banking halls to alternate channels. QNB’s Cash Deposit Card for Business Banking customers recently won the award for “Best SME Card” at The Banker Middle East Product Awards 2012. QNB also offers an
electronic banking service (easy business) which allows corporate and SME clients to conduct their daily banking transactions via a secure internet portal. In addition, they directly interact with various Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems used by businesses today.
Access to finance at a start up level is quite difficult, even if a startup or an entrepreneur is ready for financial support
and does not need any additional guidance. Abdulla Al-Khalifa, General Manager – Corporate Banking, QNB, guides
startups and entrepreneurs what to do in both cases and also advises them which sectors to focus on and how.
As customer demand requires new levels of personal service at an unexpected fast rate, the level of competition in the banking industry is growing. Therefore, many banks now rely on improved technology in order to remain relatively competitive in the market.
18 JuNE 2012
BuSINESS GuRu
How does QNB help SMEs, startups and
entrepreneurs gain access to finance?
We have a dedicated SME team which manages an existing portfolio of customers. They attend to their direct and indirect borrowing needs, as and when required, and act as a “partner” in the development of their business.
Access to finance at a startup level is generally perceived as a “no go area” for banks. To challenge this perception, QNB SME has a close working relationship with Qatar Development Bank on the Al Dhameen Direct Lending Programme. This programme allows those companies who don’t have access to finance from commercial banks, facilitate their lending possibilities. In addition, those startups and entrepreneurs who are not quite ready for financial support and need further guidance are forwarded to various government initiatives and programmes that support early stage development.
For an SME looking for a loan or financial
help, what would your advice be to them?
Our advice would be two-fold depending of their needs.
If the SME is an existing, profitable business with sound financials that requires financial support for a new project or business expansion, they can call on an SME Relationship Manager based at any of our Corporate Branches, in Ain Khalid (Salwa Road), Wakra, Industrial Area (street 3) and Corporate Head Office.
If a startup or entrepreneur is looking for initial guidance on where to start, I would encourage them to visit the QDB SME toolkit website at www.qatar.smetoolkit.org/qatar/en. The
Toolkit is a Web-based online resource that supports and promotes the development and growth of private sector businesses in Qatar. Developed in association with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the online resource provides interactive tools and educational resources as a guide to starting and growing a business.
According to you, which sectors
offer opportunities for startups and
entrepreneurs?
There are a good number of sectors that offer opportunities for new ventures, however, there are two particular sectors in Qatar which are gaining greater focus as the country grows and strives to meet its development goals in line with National Development Strategies.
Those are the following:• Education
Education is starting to become a top priority in Qatar as the larger part of the expat population are young (mid 30’s to mid 40’s) and have young children. For that reason, reasonably priced and good quality training courses and after school activity classes for young children are now in demand. Also, the middle class in Qatar is growing and more families can afford to spend for these life quality improvements.
• Healthcare Health sector is, perhaps, the business sector which will benefit most and, thus, can offer greatest opportunity to entrepreneurs. This is particularly relevant for the alternative healthcare providers like community wellness programmes, out of which acupuncturists, masseuses and yoga instructors could benefit the most.
And, as people live longer, there is going to be rising demand for home health care companies, physical therapists and others who cater to the elderly.
What advice would you give to
entrepreneurs about the financial dos and
don’ts in starting a business?
Here are a few of the general dos and don’ts which I would communicate to any potential entrepreneur.
Dos:
• Take time to research all components of your
business plan.
• Include detailed market research.
• Most importantly, know your numbers.
• Have a basic understanding of what are the financial requirements and impacts.
Don’ts:
• Don’t assume anything. Get to the bottom
of the detail.
• Don’t try and complete a plan overnight.
Take your time to ensure that all avenues are
covered.
• Financially, don’t be conservative and under estimate your expenses and costs.
There are a good number of sectors that offer opportunities for new ventures, however, there are two particular sectors in Qatar which are gaining greater focus as the country grows and strives to meet its development goals in line with National Development Strategies. Those are education and healthcare.
Abdulla Al-Khalifa joined Qatar National Bank in 1996 as an account officer in the Marketing Department where he was gradually promoted to reach his current position as General Manager - Corporate Banking. He is a US graduate from the Eastern Washington University (1995) with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration. He has attended many international courses and conferences in and outside Qatar.
About
Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa
19JuNE 2012
TRAVEL
AdopTiNG TEchNoLoGy for TrAvEL
Tell us more about your company and its
operations in the Middle East, in general,
and Qatar, in particular?
We are a technology company which enables
travel trade to get more efficient. We have two
wings, which are the travel agency side of our
business and the airline IT side of our business.
We distribute the airline content to the travel
agencies and we also help airlines to get more
efficient with airline IT solutions.
We are present in the MENA region and
Dubai is the hub for this region. Regionally,
we are present through 17 organisations
servicing 21 countries. We have roughly about
300 employees in the region and, thus, we
are one of dominant players in the region as
travel agencies’ support, as travel technology
provider and as transaction processor for
the travel agencies. We focus primarily on
seeing how we can bring value to the travel
agencies. Basically, our efforts are construed
to enabling them to become efficient and to
reduce their cost of operations.
We’ve been here since 1999 and we are
constantly growing. Three years back, in
2009, we signed a deal with the Arab Air
Carriers Organisation (AACO). AACO is the
organisation which consists of 18 Arab carriers,
out of which we have signed with 13. So,
in each country we have joint venture with
various airlines and, in Qatar, for example, it’s
Qatar Airways.
We started a joint venture with Qatar Airways
in 2001. In the last two years, we have become
a market leader with quite a big market share.
In that market we are, again, focused on travel
agencies and on deploying a new portfolio
of good solutions which helps them to be at
the edge of technology. This should improve
services offered to their customers. Within
that, we also help them in cutting their costs
and having a full control. Basically, it is similar
to our operations in the rest of the MENA
market. In addition, we run a lot of training
programs, so we are also focused on how to
improve efficiency of travel agencies’ staff.
It’s intended to enable them to satisfy their
customers and to be ahead of their rivals.
Technology improvements have fundamentally changed the manner of business operations within travel and
tourism industry. Tamara Pupic and Huda Kamal asked for advice from Nasser Batha, Regional Director, Markets
MENA, and Wafiq Al Wahidi, General Manager, Amadeus Qatar, on how should SMEs adjust to new market
environment in order to benefit from the enormous potential of travel and tourism industry within the region.
20 JuNE 2012
We adapt to market changes, but, more importantly, we prepare ourselves to market changes in advance. Therefore, the advice would be – do not just wait, and then react, be proactive!
TRAVEL
What technology and distribution solutions
do you provide for the benefit of travel
agents and how it can help them better
market in a region?
There are two areas. One is efficiency and
how to get them be more effective. Our role
is to engage with travel agents and solve
operational issues by building technology and
ensuring they can provide services to their
customers. That’s the role we play. For example,
we have an auxiliary service and we try to
facilitate solutions to enable the travel agency
to sell extra leg space or duty free stuff in the
aircraft. Again, that’s our role – to enable them
and support them in executing consumers’
desires. In addition, we enable them to
separate customers according to destinations
and send them packages according to
customers’ profile. We follow them, so that
they can target their customer.
The other one, which we are now
effectively working on, is a way in which
customers today engage in travel. It is
completely different than how they did
it a couple of years ago. Before, they
would call and depend on the travel
agency to tell them where to go, what is
the price and so on. Today, the consumer
has access to information and sometimes
knows even more than the travel agents.
So, the whole process of making a ticket
booking is changing from buying a booking
to shopping. Shopping process is now
supported by the social media through which
the customers’ choices are now influenced
by the choices and recommendations of their
family and friends.
For that reason, Amadeus comes up with the
solutions. For example, exchange search is our
meta search solution which allows a consumer
to search, not only based on a destination, but
just on the basis of the available budget. So, if
you have, for example, USD 200 for a two day
trip, the solution will choose the destination,
the hotel, the ticket and all you have to do is to
choose from suggested results. So, it drives not
only on a choice of an airline and destination,
but on your budget as well, and sometimes
even links it to choices of your friends in social
media. In this manner we help our travel
agencies to stay in business, since now they can
offer that service to their consumers. Otherwise,
existing social media would directly offer these
choices to their consumers.
How have you managed to respond to
these market changes and what would be
your advice for SMEs in this regard?
We adapt to market changes, but, more
importantly, we prepare ourselves to market
changes in advance. Since 2004, we have
invested EUR 2 billion in research and
development. So, in that manner, we try to
stay ahead of competition. Therefore, the
advice would be – do not just wait, and then
react, be proactive!
What sales and marketing advice would
you give to the SMEs in usual market
circumstances?
I have already mentioned one advice which is a
proactive approach.
We cooperate with large organisations,
SMEs and very small customers. Out of
them, our main advice for SMEs and small
customers would be to manage their costs
more effectively.
In line with that, we would further give
them a two-fold advice. Firstly, embrace
technology in order to achieve efficiency
and, thus, reduce costs. Secondly, focus on a
service to be offered to consumers and track
them on that basis by using the automation
capabilities of your organisation. Otherwise, it
would become very difficult.
Wafiq al Wahidi
Nasser Batha
21JuNE 2012
Firstly, embrace technology in order to achieve efficiency and, thus, reduce costs. Secondly, focus on a service to be offered to consumers and track them on that basis by using the automation capabilities of your organisation. Otherwise, it would become very difficult.
Nasser Batha was appointed as Regional Director of Markets in October 2010. Prior to that Nasser was Business Development Director for Middle-East and North Africa and joined Amadeus after 5 years at Alshamel Holding Co (CWT) in Dubai where he was Chief Operating Officer. Nasser has Masters in Business Administration and he is fluent in English, Arabic and Hindi.Wafiq Alwahidi was appointed as General Manager of Amadeus Commercial Organisation Qatar in 2007 prior to which he served at the organisation as Sales Manager for five years. In 2006, he earned the Amadeus Sales Champion Award for his achievements in propelling the market share of Amadeus Qatar to its peak. Amadeus is a transaction processor for the global and regional travel and tourism industry, providing transaction processing power and technology solutions to both travel providers and travel agencies. For more information, please visit: www.amadeus.com.
About
With the FIFA World Cup 2022, how do you
see the opportunities in this sector?
The upcoming event is huge, and will have
long-lasting impact on Qatar. Qatar Airways,
our customer, is expanding to meet increased
demand anticipated by the upcoming event. We
engage very strongly with them to create new
airport solutions through our Altéa IT Platform.
We think that with all the opportunities the
future will bring, government is focused to
turn Qatar to a capital of culture and a capital
of sport championships which has started
already with the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. Also,
great efforts are being invested to promote
education and scientific research as well, like
are the initiatives of Her Highness Sheikha
Moza bint Nasser Al Missned, Chairperson of
the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science
and Community Development.
Do you see any regional challenges which
still need to be resolved and what should
be the next focus of your company and the
entire sector?
Freedom! The manner in which the region
will manage freedom. We are watching and
preparing for the young generations. We try to
provide as much as trainings we can to have
more skilled people. Also, we try to support
airlines in their cost management, so that they
can offer more jobs.
There is going to be a lot of changes in the
region. In our view, regional governments
now understand importance of this sector for
generating government revenue.
The Arab Spring has affected the travel and
tourism industry of the Middle East. Did you
change your marketing strategy to adapt to
the new challenges and how?
In terms of our business the impact was very
minimal, because the loss was somewhere
else and the growth was somewhere else. For
example, some countries in the region benefited
enormously from what had happened and
became the biggest destinations for visitors who
would in the past go to Syria, Egypt or Lebanon.
But, the speed in which things have come back
in Egypt, Lybia, Lebanon is pretty fast. The first
two months of this year have been fantastic in
terms of regional market movements, so we are
very optimistic.
Qatar market has already grown by 12%
which is a good start. So, Arab Spring didn’t
really affect Qatar market at all.
What is your advice to entrepreneurs
interested in being a part of this sector?
We would recommend potential investors in this
sector to invest in technology, since once the
technology is developed you can only improve
further and never go back to traditional way
of doing business. In addition, investments in
technology will open business horizons for other
parts of this sector. Lastly, technology is the only
business not affected by the recession or recent
political changes.
Each one is different and there’s no general
advice. In principle, within a travel business there
is a lot of sectors like corporate, leisure and so
on, and it all depends on what they specialise
in. So, specialisation is very important, because
by being general it would be a bit difficult to
capture the audience. Once they determine their
specialisation area, we will support them with
the right solutions for that market segment.
In the last two years, there have been many
new entries to the Qatar’s travel and tourism
market since there are no restrictions for opening a
business. Due to 2022 FIFA World Cup, the sector
will have a lot of new opportunities. In addition, we
have a growing market for medical tourism.
TRAVEL
22 JuNE 2012
We would recommend potential investors in this sector to invest in technology, since once the technology is developed you can only improve further and never go back to traditional way of doing business.
While the Qatar government remains committed to
supporting and developing local enterprises, it recognises the importance of bringing in external expertise to achieve its many goals. Opportunities abound for international businesses, particularly for consultants, contractors and suppliers.
Be ready for ambitious infrastructural projects
Over the next ten years, Qatar will need to
build the USD 60 billion worth of infrastructural
projects it has committed to in its 2022 FIFA
World Cup bid documents. A big push is needed
to bring Qatar’s roads up to the standards
required for such a prestigious international
sporting event and an extensive integrated
railway network will need to be designed and
built. The country will also invest heavily in hotel
and stadia developments.
Ashghal, the Qatar Public Works Authority,
has confirmed that it will invest USD 20 billion
in building and upgrading roads and drainage
infrastructure up to 2015. So far, only USD 2 billion
worth of projects were awarded in 2011. With
such a tight delivery timeline, Ashghal is expected
to expedite its tendering process.
There are plenty of opportunities for contractors
and suppliers, with design and build experience
and exceptional project management capabilities,
to capitalise on these projects. International
companies may also consider consortium or joint
venture arrangements to make their bids more
attractive (read competitive).
Currently, Ashghal is working on the tender
for Al Khor Highway project for the Lusail
development. The highway will be a multi-level
road that runs along the western border of Lusail
City and will include up to five interchanges.
Ashghal will also oversee the construction of the
planned 107 km New Orbital Highway, which will
be Qatar’s longest road running from Ras Laffan in
the north to Mesaieed in the South.
In addition, Ashghal is awarding contracts for
the development of 50,000 new hotel rooms,
which is more than half of Qatar’s current
supply. According to the Katara Hospitality
(previously known as Qatar National Hotels
Company), that equates to 77 new hotels
and 42 new hotel apartments. Add to that
the construction of nine new stadia and the
upgrade of three existing stadia and it’s easy to
see why Qatar offers ripe pickings for architects,
interior designers and contractors.
Qatari Diar, the country’s national real estate
developer, is heavily focused on completing its
USD 33 billion Lusail City project, which is the site
of the main stadium for the World Cup event. The
35 square kilometre mixed-use development will
contain residential clusters, commercial districts,
shopping and leisure facilities as well as the Lusail
Iconic Stadium.
TAKiNG AiMAT
QATAr 2022Qatar is one of the most promising project markets in the world today due to the need to meet the
immovable ten year deadline for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Wayne Merrick, Country Manager, Qatar,
Links Group, explains what opportunities are put in front of international businesses in the country
which is experiencing a construction boom.
BuSINESS SETuP
24 JuNE 2012
But, perhaps the most ambitious of projects in Qatar’s 2022 World Cup pipeline is its USD 35 billion integrated rail network.
Ashghal is also moving ahead with
infrastructure schemes to link Lusail to Doha
through the Lusail Expressway, a 16 lane
highway stretching approximately 12 km. The
Lusail project will also include a 22 km light rail
transit system, featuring 34 stations, to transport
people around the development. Qatari Diar and
Ashghal are now awarding contracts to local and
international suppliers to deliver on the various
phases of these developments.
But, perhaps the most ambitious of projects in
Qatar’s 2022 World Cup pipeline is its USD 35 billion
integrated rail network. Overseen by Ashghal and
designed and implemented by QRail, the project
comprises the USD 2.2 billion West Bay people-
mover, the Doha Metro, a freight line which will
run from the northeast to the southeast of the
peninsula, a high-speed passenger line serving
the New Doha International Airport and light rail
networks for Lusail and Education Cities.
Both the freight and passenger rail network
will span 651 km and will have 98 stations. The
340 km freight line will run from the industrial city
of Ras Laffan in the northeast to the New Doha
Port in the southeast and will have the capacity to
transport 11 million tonnes of cargo a year. The
high-speed passenger line will span 311 km and
will run at up to 220 km per hour from New Doha
International Airport through Doha and to the
northwest of the country.
The Doha metro will span 300 km and will have
80 stations. The USD 41 billion project will include
four rail lines and will link stadia for the 2022 FIFA
World Cup via underground tunnels in the centre of
Doha. According to a recent announcement from
the Qatar Railway Development Company, tenders
for the work will be awarded by the end of this year.
Again, efficient project management and
engineering excellence will be important differentiators
for landing these lucrative contracts. Suppliers that
provide solutions for mitigating the impact of Qatar’s
harsh climate on the rail network will also improve their
chances of standing out in the bid process.
Opportunities in oil and gas sector
In line with the country’s growing economy,
water and power demand in Qatar is expected to
increase rapidly in the coming years. Kahramaa, the
Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation,
has confirmed it will invest over USD 5 billion
in building new projects to boost its power and
potable water by the end of 2013. New projects
include, a 2,250 megawatt power plant, two
desalination plants with a total capacity of 194
million gallons per day and large water reservoirs.
Qatar’s expected increase in total energy
consumption, coupled with its investments in 2022
FIFA World Cup infrastructure, will likely accelerate
the government’s plans to exploit its gas reserves in
the North field. This is the world’s largest offshore,
non-associated natural gas reservoir with estimated
reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet of
recoverable gas. Should the Qatari government
pursue gas recovery in the North field, there will
also be numerous opportunities for companies
working in the oil and gas sector.
Compliance with the QNV 2030
The looming 2022 World Cup deadline will
undoubtedly put pressure on the respective
Qatari government entities to make their tender
processes more efficient. However, participating
bidders would do well to remember that these
projects form part of Qatar’s broader economic
diversification strategy Qatar National Vision
2030. Sustainability and viability of these projects
in the aftermath of the 2022 World Cup should
underscore every tender submission. Development
of local resource and talent is a primary objective in
turning Qatar into a knowledge-based economy,
so think carefully about how a contract fits into
this wider masterplan.
Also important to the Qatar government, is
the commitment a foreign company shows to the
country. If you are pursuing these major contracts,
you’ll be expected to establish a legal presence,
such as a limited liability company. This process
can take months, so it’s best to start investigating
your options now. Joint venture vehicles do offer
an alternative route to market and are worth
considering when the partnership enhances
expertise, resources and price efficiencies.
There is no doubt Qatar offers one of the
most buoyant construction markets in the
world and is one of the few economies with
the capital means to fully fund it. However, the
sheer scale and urgency of what lies ahead for
Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup requires investment
in international expertise and manpower. In
the next three years, we expect most of the
major tenders will be awarded. It’s game on
for consultants, contractors and suppliers.
Be strategic in how you line up your project
positions, shoot and then score.
The Doha metro will span 300 km and will have 80 stations. The USD 41 billion project will include four rail lines and will link stadia for the 2022 FIFA World Cup via underground tunnels in the centre of Doha.
Wayne Merrick is the Country Manager, Qatar, Links Group. He advises clients wanting to set up a commercial presence in Qatar. For more information, please visit www.the-links-group.com.
About
BuSINESS SETuP
25JuNE 2012
Wayne Merrick
MANAGEMENT
The thing is, that both the opportunity and the problem are within this phrase, “what gets
measured gets managed.” Using metrics to drive the performance of the business is only as good as the metrics that are chosen and the way they are used in.
Metrics need to be set up properly. They need to measure the right things, which mean that the processes they measure need to be set up right. The letter and spirit of the metric needs to be understood.
The reason why this is vitally important is that the things that get measured are usually the key things that have an impact on the business- what the customer perceives, profit, and so on. And, in an SME, the impact is very tangible, real and very rapid.
To make a pointA customer has a problem with a piece of technology and contacts the supplier by phone to get it fixed. It’s important to the customer that it is fixed quickly. It’s highly visible and will affect the customer’s perception of the supplier and, thus, it’s reasonable to assume it will have an effect on future business. It’s something that can be fixed by phone.
The customer contacts the help desk. The help desk rapidly finds that the problem is beyond the scope of first line support and passes it to technical support.
BE cArEfuL whAT you MEASurE you MiGhT JuST GET iT!
First impact is customer disappointment since the problem is not fixed at the first interaction.
Technical suppoer now has 24 hours to respond to the referral. Even though It will take 45 minutes to resolve the customer’s problem, but the technical team just doesn’t have that time right now. They have a backlog of work.
The team has a choice of either responding to the problem of missing the deadline. If they need more information, they just need tow minutes to ask and will meet their metric.
In fact, it will be good performance against the metric, because the response can go out within two minutes rather than 24 hours. And one piece of work is deferred rather than making the performance statistics look worse. However, the problem is not yet resolved and customer’s disappointment increases towards frustration.
The help desk now has four hours to go back to the customer for that information. They start to make calls immediately, but it takes a couple of calls to reach the customer. The customer has to go and find the information asked for. He or she can’t get the information immediately because the information is at home and the customer is at the office. The customer calls back with the information that evening. The impact – the customer’s issue is not yet resolved after three interactions while the help desk and the
customer are doing work they don’t need to. This results in more costs, more efforts and less positive impact, but is measured as good performance against metrics.
The help desk passes the information to technical team whose workload is now less pressured and they now have the capacity to address the problem. They find the solution within the 24 hours that they have, according to the metrics (the time-to-respond metric doesn’t change, even though this is a second referral). The technical team passes the solution to the help desk to give it to the customer. Nobody checks whether the additional information was actually needed.
Performance has been well within the metrics and just one referral back to the help desk for more information looks okay to the people that review the performance. How many times information that bounces back and forth between the two teams is measured? In any case, this one round is considered okay and won’t be investigated further.
The help desk now has four hours to contact the customer with the solution. They call immediately, but the customer doesn’t answer, the phone is switched off. They try again a couple of hours later, but the customer is in a meeting and can’t discuss right now. They try again the following morning, but the customer doesn’t get to the phone in time.
Most businesses set up a number of metrics to drive performance, to see how well they are doing and to
measure and motivate their staff. Elias Mazzawi, Managing Director, EMS MENA, explains to us why is
the over-used management phrase “what gets measured gets managed” still pretty accurate and what
impacts the misuse of metrics can have on your business.
26 JuNE 2012
MANAGEMENT
The process states that the case should be closed after three outbound calls from the help desk to the customer. This rule has evolved because a number of cases seemed to stay open forever distorting the performance statistics. Presumably, in those cases, the customer had found the way to resolve, but had not told the help desk.
So, this case is closed. The customer calls in a few hours later and is told the case is closed and the process needs to start again. Last impact – frustration and additional work are all round, but performance against the metrics that measure the process is okay.
A piece of adviceThe fragmented process with hand-offs between teams doesn’t help. Metrics that work rely on processes that work from an end to an end, not just piece by piece.
What gets measured gets managed, but gamed as well. With a strong emphasis on metrics and process, some people will do some things that the letter of the metric allows (even encourages), but which are not consistent with the spirit. This results in making the workload higher and is not helping customer satisfaction.
It’s not a reasonable aspiration to get precisely the right metrics to drive precisely the right actions all the time. Businesses are not machines and it’s more complicated than that. But, it is a reasonable aspiration to instil the right culture in the organisation to do the right thing, sometimes even in spite of the metrics.
The technical team could have raised issues about peaks and troughs in workload. They
see what activity the metrics are driving• Constantly check with focus groups,
composed of people doing the activity being measured, in order to constantly take the temperature of what’s happening and what can be done to tweak and improve.
• Constantly check the end-to-end performance against key metrics like cost, customer satisfaction performance.
Remember, each of the metrics in the example above looked right, when evaluated in its own piecemeal context, but, in some situations, it was driving to longer resolution time, increased workload and was not helping customer satisfaction.
could have raised a discussion about how these should be staffed, rather than burying the issue by sending back a spurious request for more information. In line with that, we can draw the following conclusions:• Organisations need mechanisms to
encourage this kind of discussion in a balanced way
• Organisations need mechanisms to identify these kinds of issues
• Organisations need ways to encourage people to raise them
Finding the right balanceBy their very nature, process metrics will measure disaggregated elements of the overall process, doing that bottom-up and piece-by-piece. And, as presented in the case study, these disaggregated metrics will not always deliver the top-down goal. Therefore, a balance needs to be introduced over some over-arching metrics, like how long does it take for a customer’s issue to be resolved, what does it cost, how is this varying over time and why?
The balance can be achieved by looking into randomly selected cases that can provide a lot of information and uncover situations in which metrics are not driving the right activity.
Working through cases publicly and involving the right case teams is crucial to evolve metrics by:• Encouraging and publicly recognising
exceptional activity • Encouraging issue and resolution• Encouraging opportunity and recognition
Evolving metrics is a key. A way to achieve this is to:• Constantly sample checking specific cases to
Elias Mazzawi is Managing Director of EMS-MENA.EMS (itself an SME) works exclusively with mid-size enterprises in the Middle East, driving higher performance in operations, sales and strategy. The EMS approach is distinctively tailored to the needs of mid-size enterprises.There is a focus on quick wins delivered through short, intense and highly focused project bursts of just a couple of weeks. For more information, please visit www.ems-mena.com
About
27JuNE 2012
What gets measured gets managed, but gamed as well. With a strong emphasis on metrics and process, some people will do some things that the letter of the metric allows (even encourages), but which are not consistent with the spirit.
Elias Mazzawi
BuSINESS GROWTH
who do you BELiEvE iN?
Everyone knows they need to put in time, money and energy to grow their business. Plenty
of courses and tools are available to startups and young entrepreneurs since a number of skills need to be acquired to run a business.
One fact that is largely overlooked, though, is
that there is another vital component to growing
your business. It is -YOU, your mindset, your
interpersonal skills and your awareness, especially if
it’s a sole proprietorship or an SME.
As your business grows, you will constantly
come up against limitations. If you then have
the guts to take a good long look in the
mirror and be perfectly honest with yourself,
you will find that many of these limitations
are personal – grounded in your beliefs. If
you have suddenly found yourself confused,
overwhelmed, irritable or “slamming on the
It is common knowledge that businesses need a lot of input and different
forms of investment to grow. Carolin Zeitler, Director, Arcata, explains to us
why our business can only grow as much as we can.
breaks”, then you have probably just come up
against what we call a “limiting belief”.
This is where coaching comes in to help you get
past these barriers.
Reformulate your beliefs
Here is an example of a “limiting belief” that
clients come up against and how it can be
turned into an opportunity for growth. A
common “limiting belief”, especially amongst
entrepreneurs, is, “I’m not a good sales person.”
This often results in the entrepreneur
not actively seeking or even seizing sales
opportunities. You might find yourself in an
environment that would be conducive to
pitching your product or service to potential
new clients but you feel it would be awkward
or even rude to do so. If you have this strong
belief, a sales trainer telling you that you “need
to seize every opportunity to sell” will not make
it go away. Even if you agree with the trainer,
the fact remains that you feel uncomfortable in
the situation and if you force yourself to do it
anyway that might well result in a rather weak,
somewhat incoherent pitch.
So, how to approach this “limiting belief?”
One possibility would be to reformulate the belief
itself. Rather than saying, “I’m not a good sales
person” you could try something like, “I don’t
do sales the conventional way.” If you look at the
challenge in that way, it opens the door to more
creative solutions.
You could then analyse your strengths and
create a sales procedure that is more in line with
what you are good at.
Say you have a friendly nature and strangers
usually react positively to you. Great, seek out
potential clients at the next networking event
and get chatting to them. You are a good
storyteller and can keep people’s attention for
a long time? Great, spin a yarn around your
product or service that engages the listener.
Or if you are persuasive, determined, a good
negotiator and great with figures? How can you
leverage any one of these strengths and make it
work for you?
As you keep on working on your attitude and
your approach, you might find that your belief
changes into something even more empowering
like “I have my own unique way of selling.”
And you keep on exploring and developing
your approach by asking yourself: What does that
mean for the way you approach your clients?
What comes more naturally to you - a hard sell, a
soft sell or simply building a relationship?
As you learn more and more about what you
are comfortable with, what you are good at
and what you are aiming for, you can develop a
unique approach that works for you. You might
be so uncomfortable with the word sales that you
initially call it something else, maybe outreach or
developing new opportunities. Just make sure
that you are clear on the goal. At the end of the
day, you need to make money and if you’re not
comfortable with that thought, that’s a whole
coaching process of its own.
28 JuNE 2012
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It is easy to see how dealing with your limiting
beliefs is a necessity, especially when you are
running your own business. Your business can
literally only grow as much as you can. If you can’t
perceive the growth, can’t even imagine it, then
how would you find ways to work towards it? If
experiencing a setback makes you think, “I will
never succeed”, then you probably don’t have the
energy and the drive to keep on trying.
First you need to work on your beliefs
about yourself and your ability to manage,
lead and succeed.
Improve your style
Then comes the next level that influences your
professional growth and, thus, the growth of
your business, which is your interaction and
communication with those around you.
This, again, is heavily influenced by your beliefs
and attitude. You can learn communication skills
and become better at finding the right words.
But, if you have no respect for the person you
are speaking to, that will still be reflected in your
communication with them.
We need to understand that communication
is a multi-level, simultaneous process. Many
things happen at the same time and influence
our communication, facial expression, posture,
body language, proximity, tone of voice and
pitch of voice, to name just a few of the many
factors that all play into how we perceive the
message. The words we hear only constitute a
small percentage of the message we take away
from a conversation. To paraphrase what Maya
Angelou famously said, “They won’t remember
what you said but they will remember how you
made them feel.”
Your communication and, thus, your leadership
style depend heavily on your attitude towards your
employees, volunteers or subcontractors. They will
remember how you made them feel. If you made
them feel encouraged and inspired, they will thank
you by being committed and engaged. If you made
them feel worthless and unappreciated, they will
ultimately give up trying and resign themselves to
underperforming. The key to all this is your attitude.
If it is one of gratitude, opportunity and enthusiasm,
then that is conveyed in your communication and it
influences those around you.
Understand your context
The final piece, which is the most overlooked out
of the three, is about understanding the bigger
picture – the helicopter view. It’s about activating
the neutral observer and looking at the situation in
a detached way.
Some of the questions you need to ask
yourself are:
• Where are we, as an organisation, at the
moment?
• How could we better respond to what the
market needs and wants?
• How are we doing internally?
• Are we making optimal use of our internal
resources?
• How could we use everyone’s strengths more
fully?
• Where am I, as an individual, in the context of
my company and of my industry?
• Is our internal identity congruent with the
external image?
I encourage you to be brave enough to ask
these questions. It’s better to discover your
shortcomings yourself and remedy them, than to
be made aware of them the hard way by failure or
customer dissatisfaction.
These questions will lead you to a better
understanding of who you are as an organisation,
even if there’s only three or four of you making
up the whole company. They will also help you
understand your organisation’s standing in the
community and industry, and what pathways are
open to you.
In order to navigate anywhere, you need to
first identify where you are, then where you want
to go and finally what the terrain you are moving
through looks like. Once you are aware of all those
factors, you can set your course.
It’s common sense, right? Yes it is and still it
is widely overlooked as entrepreneurs get busy
working “in their company rather than on their
company.”
In summary, to grow your business and yourself
there are three important aspects to consider:
• Your attitude and beliefs
• Your interaction and communication with
others
• Your context – the bigger picture
Most entrepreneurs have a penchant for one
or two of those three aspects and are already
working on that. Make sure to look closely at
the one(s) you’ve been neglecting so far. That’s
probably where you’ll find the biggest potential
for growth.
Carolin Zeitler inspires, encourages and empowers people especially women - to make a difference. She has combined her experience from being an ITA therapist, a trainer for coaches and therapists, a managing director and a coach to create her unique coaching brand, Arcata, the How Women Work community with its annual conferences and the many spin-offs like the “How Women Succeed” CSR Book project, an inspirational self-coaching book of which the proceeds are being used to provide free coaching for women of lower income. She is also a popular motivational speaker and the author of several self-coaching publications.Carolin can be contacted at: [email protected].
About
BuSINESS GROWTH
30 JuNE 2012
In order to navigate anywhere, you need to first identify where you are, then where you want to go and finally what the terrain you are moving through looks like. Once you are aware of all those factors, you can set your course.
Carolin Zeitler
For more than a century, Carnegie Mellon University has been inspiring innovations that change the world. Consistently top ranked, Carnegie Mellon has more than 11,000 students, 90,000 alumni and 5,000 faculty and staff globally.
In 2004, Qatar Foundation invited Carnegie Mellon to join Education City, a groundbreaking center for scholarship and research. Students from 39 different countries enroll at our world-class facilities in Education City.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar offers undergraduate programs in biological sciences, business administration, computational biology, computer science and information systems. Carnegie Mellon is firmly committed to Qatar’s National Vision 2030 by developing people, society, the economy and the environment.
Learn more at www.qatar.cmu.edu
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon.
TECHNOLOGY
KEEpiNG AN EyE oN your iNforMATioN
The information age brings with it many benefits (including greater efficiency and
convenience with regard to gathering, storing and using data).
On the other hand, expectations with
regard to protection from arbitrary interference
with privacy are generally considered a well-
established social and legal norm, including in
this region.
Privacy
Generally speaking, the position in most of the
GCC countries is that the privacy of an individual
Nick O’Connell, Senior Associate, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Al Tamimi & Co. gives SME
Advisor Middle East, our sister publication, an overview of the key aspects of laws in the information age,
from his presentation at the Telecommunications Law and Regulation in the Middle East Conference.
is protected under general provisions of laws not
specifically focused on the issue of privacy.
It also makes it an offence for anyone who
is, by reason of profession, craft, circumstance
or art, entrusted with a secret, to disclose the
secret, or use it for his or her own benefit, or
that of another, unless such disclosure or use
is permitted by law or by the consent of the
person to whom the secret pertains.
The key point that I wish to illustrate by
these examples is that these privacy related
provisions have not been drafted with
the information age in mind. To provide
some context, we have recently relied
on provisions, such as this, to advise on
a corporate client’s proposed transfer of
employee data to an off-shore data storage
facility and another client’s proposed use of
customer data for purposes other than those
for which it was originally gathered.
Would a company’s use of personal
information (such as employee information
or customer information) for fairly mundane
business purposes (such as off-shore data
storage or targeted marketing campaigns) fall
within prohibited uses of secret information
under these penal provisions?
32 JuNE 2012
TECHNOLOGY
Other laws restrict the use of personal data
in certain circumstances. By way of example,
the UAE Medical Liability Law (Federal Law No.
10 of 2008) prohibits a doctor from disclosing
the secrets of the patient that the doctor
becomes aware of in the course of practice,
either if the patient trusted him with the secret
or if the doctor became aware of the secret in
the course of practice.
We recently conducted a review of
the situation in other GCC countries and
essentially confirmed that privacy is protected
in these other countries in much the same
way in most countries. Laws designed
primarily to protect privacy do not typically
exist as laws in their own right.
Provisions relating to protection of privacy may
be found in the context of other laws, including
respective penal codes and laws relating to
specific matters, such as regulation of conduct of
medical practitioners, credit disclosure and unfair
business practices.
Data protection
The Qatar Financial Centre has its own data
protection specific laws or regulations. These
legal provisions are generally consistent with
data protection laws from other developed
jurisdictions (specifically, the EU Data Protection
Directive 95/46/EC and the UK Data Protection
Act 1998).
They apply to specific types of personal
information that can relate to identifiable
individuals, and set out obligations requiring
that personal data be processed fairly, lawfully,
securely and for a specified and legitimate
purpose. They also contain restrictions on data
transfer from within the respective financial
centres to places outside those financial centres.
The most significant point to note about the
respective data protection provisions of these
financial centres is that they are applicable only
to activities within those financial centres – or
transfers from those financial centres to places
outside the financial centres.
Oman and Qatar both have laws relating to
e-Commerce, which contain provisions relevant
to data protection. Oman’s Electronic Transactions
Law (Royal Decree 69/2008) and Qatar’s
Electronic Commerce and Transactions Law (Law
No. 16 of 2010) are both based largely on the
UN Model Laws relating to e-commerce and
electronic signatures – but the laws as enacted
in both countries go beyond these to include
specific provisions relating to data protection.
Specific data protection regimes appear to
be common in respect of telecommunications
service providers. By way of example, Qatar’s
Telecommunications Law (No. 34 of 2006)
requires telecommunications service providers to
operate their telecommunications networks and
related systems with due regard for the privacy
rights of their customers.
It also requires telecommunications service
providers to be responsible to protect any
customer data in their custody and to refrain
from collecting, using, retaining or publishing any
customer information unless with the customer’s
consent or as permitted by law. Additionally,
service providers must ensure that all the
information submitted is accurate, complete and
valid for use (and correct or remove data upon
the customer’s request).
Similar provisions (although with varying
degree of detail) apply to telecommunications
service providers licensed by the
telecommunications regulatory authorities in
other GCC countries.
Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority has issued Resolution No. 113/2009
issuing Regulations on Protection of the
Confidentiality and Privacy of Beneficiary Data.
Thus, telecommunications service providers
should be aware that special data protection
regimes may apply to their activities, even if
there may be no data protection laws of general
application.
Consumer protection and spam
The next topic ties in with the issue of privacy
and data protection in the sense that personal
contact details, such as mobile numbers and
email addresses, may be disclosed by customers
in the context of procuring goods and services,
and then used subsequently for electronic
33JuNE 2012
By way of example, Qatar’s Telecommunications Law (No. 34 of 2006) requires telecommunications service providers to operate their telecommunications networks and related systems with due regard for the privacy rights of their customers.
Nick O’Connell
Nick O’Connell has worked for Al Tamimi & Company for almost five years, initially in intellectual property, and more recently in technology, media and telecommunications. Nick’s work focuses largely on software and IT services agreements, data privacy and data transfer, e-commerce, m-banking, m-commerce, as well as intellectual property and technology aspects of corporate and commercial matters.Nick’s clients have included companies operating in a range of industries, including financial services, automobile manufacturing, business machinery, digital content, e-commerce, engineering, exhibitions and events, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, software, and real estate.
Al Tamimi & Co, originally established in 1989, is today one of the leading law firms in the Arabian Gulf region. It is one of the largest local, non-affiliated law firm in the United Arab Emirates, with offices in the Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, Riyadh (KSA) and associate offices in Doha, Baghdad and Riyadh. For more information, visit www.tamimi.com.
About
TECHNOLOGY
marketing purposes. Many people find this type
of marketing to be invasive of their privacy, and
prefer to receive it only if they have opted-in.
In some countries in the region there are
general prohibitions on this type of activity.
By way of example, the consumer protection
provisions of Qatar’s Electronic Commerce
Law restricts the ability of e-commerce service
providers (not necessarily telecommunications
providers) to be involved in providing unsolicited
marketing communications, and requires
consumers to be able to opt-out from the receipt
of such communications.
In July 2010, the UAE Telecommunications
Regulatory issued a specific policy on unsolicited
marketing communications. Under this policy,
licensed telecommunications providers in the
UAE are required to minimise spam and take
all reasonable steps to ensure that spam is not
being sent over their networks. If a licensee (for
example a telecommunications provider) fails to
take all practical steps to prevent spam with a
UAE link (which includes spam originating both
inside and outside the UAE) from being sent
over the licensee’s network, then
the regulator can take action
against the licensee.
Cloud computing
The term “cloud computing” describes a broad
range of remote access computing services,
generally involving situations in which users
have access to applications and data storage
services on demand and delivered over an
external network. This basically involves the use
of software and/or data storage space provided
by someone else – allowing for savings on
things such as licensing software or buying data
storage hardware.
Some of the key privacy and data protection
considerations in a cloud computing
environment are:
Data security
The cloud user will have its own data security and
access management policies. The cloud provider’s
policies should, at a minimum, be compliant with
the cloud user’s policies.
Data location
It is necessary to consider the impact of the
various laws governing privacy and data
protection on the collection and transfer
of data to the cloud provider, and the
movement of that data across different
jurisdictions as part of the provision of the
cloud service.
Data retention obligations
Different jurisdictions have different
commercial record retention obligations. If
data storage obligations are outsourced to
a cloud provider in a different country, it will
be necessary to ensure that, at a minimum,
the cloud provider complies with document
retention policies applicable to the user of
cloud services.
Corporate users of cloud services may place
responsibility for direct control of critical data
and applications in the hands of third parties.
If there is an outage or a security breach, the
user could be exposed to claims from its own
customers (and potential reputation damage)
even though the fault was on the part of the
cloud provider.
Similarly, failure on the part of the
cloud provider (for example with regard
to compliance in respect of data privacy)
could lead to regulatory non-compliance
on the part of the cloud user. Cloud users
should conduct thorough due diligence of
the provider they are considering and in
particular focus on the privacy and security
levels of the services to be offered.
34 JuNE 2012
By way of example, the consumer protection provisions of Qatar’s Electronic Commerce Law restricts the ability of e-commerce service providers (not necessarily telecommunications providers) to be involved in providing unsolicited marketing communications, and requires consumers to be able to opt-out from the receipt of such communications.
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Be part of a community spanning magazine, events, website and social media.
TECHNOLOGY
Popular statistics suggest that
approximately 60 - 65% of people are
primarily visual learners. Around the
world, visualisation strategies are employed
everywhere, from offices to classrooms,
to help people learn more efficiently, to
collaborate more effectively and to simply
remember more.
In the current economic climate, where
companies are revolutionising the conventional
workplace to increase employee engagement and
gain an edge over competitors, thinking outside-
the-traditional-box is the key. Utilising visualisation
as a tool to improve business meetings is one
tangible way to tap into the creative energy of
your employees and to harness the talent already
available to you.
What’s wrong with conventional workplace
meetings and brainstorming sessions? Google the
search terms “bored of powerpoint,” and over
2.5 million results appear. Many of these emphasise
the misuse of this tool for workplace meetings and
other potentially meaningful creative sessions. Yet,
while flip charts and powerpoint presentations
abound in the business world, it is generally agreed
that these tools are outdated and often ineffective.
As an adult educator, I know what to expect from
students when I subject them to a series of slides on
a screen. No matter how much time I have spent
animating those slides, making them flashy and
reducing the text to tiny sentence fragments, this
unidirectional style of teaching has proven ineffective
for decades. Yet, for some reason we tend to have
different expectations from employees than from
students. If we know that the one-to-many model
is not working in schools, why should we expect
When was the last time you scribbled on a napkin to get your point
across? Most of us have benefited from napkin sketches to help us
understand a concept that couldn’t quite be conveyed adequately
with words. Jenn Wicks, Instructor, School of Language Studies,
College of the North Atlantic – Qatar, presents six reasons for using
graphic recording in meetings.
employees to be riveted to their seats when they are
being “talked at”? Learning is learning. And, let’s
be honest, boring is boring. If you want to make
the most of your business meetings, visualisation
methods are your golden ticket.
Currently, visualisation, defined as making key
conceptual links between ideas or text and images,
is an often-overlooked and underutilised tool in
business meetings. When considering visualisation
as a workplace tool the approach to creating those
visuals is a key.
Power of visualisation
Graphic recording is one way companies can
harness the power of visualisation in facilitated
group sessions. Examples where this works best
include:
• brainstorming new projects,
• documenting staff development retreats,
• facilitating engagement in meetings and
employee development seminars,
• analysing problems and devising creative
solutions,
• assisting with strategic planning, and,
• synthesising contributions for future reference
or display.
Graphic recording involves a visual artist,
who records ideas as they are expressed during
a group session. This process can turn a typical
meeting on its head. Using a large area of
poster paper, the recorder is strategically located
in a place where participants can view the
poster throughout the session. As participants
contribute ideas and questions, the poster begins
to take shape. The graphic recorder makes series
of quick decisions to cluster and highlight key
information using icons and graphics to help
participants connect with, and expand upon, the
information already contributed. This process
can create opportunities for innovation as visual
representations of ideas are linked and organised
by the recorder, and participants are energised as
their ideas become part of a bigger picture.
36 JuNE 2012
Visualisation, defined as making key conceptual links between ideas or text and images, is an often overlooked and underutilised tool in business meetings.
TECHNOLOGY
The six keys
In the business world, hiring a Graphic Recording
Professional (GRP) works best for meetings where
the goal is to foster innovation and share ideas.
In my experience as a graphic recorder, I have
identified six key ways that graphic recording
can enhance workplace meetings, presentations,
planning sessions, team-building days, or
professional development seminars:
• Graphic recording is more fun than powerpoint:
Having an artist track ideas keeps participants or
the audience on their toes. Seeing information
as an organic process is far more engaging
than being the passive recipient of a product.
Learning should not be like waiting for a pizza
to be delivered. It should be more like making
your own pizza from scratch with all the
ingredients you could ever want.
• Graphic recording validates contributions from
individuals and teams: Most people want to
contribute. We feel a sense of community
membership when our words are valued and
represented beyond our own expression. When
participants see their words written by the
graphic recorder, they feel validated that what
they have said is worth keeping. This can inspire
confidence and pride in participants, which in
turn can foster other positive contributions and
idea sharing.
• Graphic recording stimulates creativity:
Watching ideas grow and connect in logical
ways is energising for participants. Seeing
connections and ideas in visual forms helps
reinforce contributions and also stimulates
a web of related ideas in the minds of
participants. A picture can inspire memories,
interpretations and imaginative thinking in
ways that text cannot – “a picture is worth a
thousand words.”
• Graphic recording provides a record: The
document resulting from a graphic recording
session can be used as a record of both the
process and product of a meeting. It is too
often the case that group meetings and
development sessions are forgotten about even
before the catering company has packed up for
the day. In order to make the most of meetings,
presentations and staff development, it is critical
to follow up with meaningful documentation
that reminds participants of what was learned
or gained from those meetings. The poster
from a graphic recording session can be
broken up into bite-sized sections for easy
referencing, utilised for training purposes, used
as an illustration for marketing purposes or to
reflect a particular company vision in a visually-
appealing manner.
• Graphic recording helps alleviate language
barriers: For companies where employees differ
in language ability, visualisation can be vital
to ensuring everyone is on the same page.
When language fails, most of us rely on visual
cues and images to express or understand
one another. Graphic recording can help get
messages across when other methods may fail
or take too much time.
• Graphic recording is cost-effective: For
all of the reasons listed above, the return
on investment (ROI) is high with graphic
recording. Hiring a graphic recorder to enhance
your group meeting will serve a variety of
purposes and benefits can be sustained
when the end product is utilised for staff
training and reference. The process involved
in generating and collecting employees’ ideas
will also reinforce how the company values
its employees. Graphic recording provides an
opportunity for the company to demonstrate
recognition for in-house knowledge.
Let the innovation begin!
So, rather than scratching key words onto a flip
chart at your next meeting, consider the value
a GRP can bring. Discuss your company’s vision
of the session with the recorder in advance so,
that you can clarify how you expect the process
to serve your business and staff during and after
the meeting. Provide the graphic recorder with
contextual details to help orient them to your
company (such as current mission statement,
company vision, organisation profile, and so on).
The session will flow more smoothly if the recorder
understands the overall vision of the business.
It is also important to inform the recorder
about the logistics of the session. What has been
communicated to potential participants? How
many attendees are expected? Are there any
special considerations (for example, varying abilities
in the target language)? What is your company’s
experience with past training or development
sessions? All of this information can help the
recording professional to tailor the session to the
needs of the company.
Additionally, if there is content-specific jargon,
that you can help your recording professional
prepare for, provide documents in advance to
allow the recorder time to gain familiarity with
terminology that might help them better capture
the contributions of participants. Finally, it is
critical to prepare participants for the session by
explaining the process of graphic recording, your
intentions for employing this service and your
expectations for participation. And that’s it – time
for the recorder to step in and work their magic!
Trying something new can inspire employees in a
way that brings forth innovation and investment in
a collaborative process, and continues to do so long
after the meeting has been adjourned. Find a GRP
in your area, and let the innovation begin!
Jenn Wicks is an Instructor in the School of Language Studies at College of the North Atlantic - Qatar. In addition to her teaching and graphic recording work, she is a musician and researcher. She has published her research in scholarly publications in the area of Sociolinguistics and is particularly interested in the reproduction of culture through discourse. For more information about Jenn’s graphic recording work, contact her through [email protected]. or check out her blog at www.jennwicks.wordpress.com.
About
37JuNE 2012
Graphic recording can inspire employees in a way that brings forth innovation and investment in a collaborative process.
Jenn Wicks
BuSINESS ADVICE
What is your take on the ICT market in
the region?
I really think this part of the world has a lot
of opportunities and gaps that startups and
entrepreneurs can fill through innovation. For
example, 5% of the online population speaks
Arabic. However, less than 2% of the content
online is Arabic. Yahoo! definitely thinks that
digital media and content is a very big area of
opportunities.
There are two things we need in the Middle
East to make entrepreneurs successful – the first
is to develop an ecosystem, and the second is a
cultural shift. The ecosystem has to develop on
its own, but in the meanwhile they can partner
with companies, such as Yahoo!, to help them
monetise and gain the reach and scale which they
are unable to do themselves. For instance, Yahoo
has an audience of about 56 million, so if they can
partner with someone like us, then they can drive
traffic towards themselves and also through our
advertisement tool. This will also generate revenue
and content for their companies.
From there on, at an individual basis, it’s about
culture shift. In the past, entrepreneurs were risk
averse and failure wasn’t really accepted. So, I
think, it is the fundamental shift in culture and
outlook which entrepreneurs and startups need to
achieve in this region – not to be afraid to take risks
and to accept that failure is not a bad thing. They
would then eventually succeed. Therefore, failure is
just a part of the experience.
Like I have mentioned many times,
entrepreneurship is like the Olympics – it’s not
about winning, but about participating. To
summarise, what we need in the region is an
ecosystem and a cultural shift.
If a startup wants to approach you,
what do they need to do? What are you
looking for?
We work very closely with startups and
entrepreneurs to integrate them into our projects
and to get their ideas. Therefore, we have
partnered with both individuals and companies
with an aim to deliver key projects. So, the first
thing startups can do is to identity a major market
need. We think digital content is a big one.
We work very closely with startups and
entrepreneurs to weave them into our projects
actively. Also, we work with leading organisations,
such as ictQATAR, which help us build that
ecosystem. Yahoo! is always looking to invest
or, potentially, acquire very promising startups.
So, we can pose as a viable exit strategy for such
a company, which is always important for an
entrepreneur. There are no specific criteria when we
look for companies to partner or acquire, but there
are areas from which we would want companies to
be. That would be the companies in the forefront
of innovation and which would fill the gaps and
interest to us. We can look at very different areas,
such as gaming and application, e-commerce,
mobile and tablet applications and so forth, in
addition to their very unique content propositions.
But, at the same time, it’s also on a case by case
basis. So, those approaching us would be startups
from these areas or peripheral areas. On top of that,
we also look at the quality of their technology and
how strong is their team regardless of geography. In
any case, we operate at MENA-wide level.
The startup has to be up and running. We
cannot collaborate solely on an idea basis. So,
we look for a startup with a functional product.
Within some of our partnerships in Qatar, we have
entertained some entrepreneurs and that’s part of
our mentoring and coaching programmes. But,
when it comes to investment and acquiring, it has
to be an operational startup which means that they
must have a team and a functional product.
What has been your experience in the
Middle East? What would you advice a
business which enters the region?
There are a few considerations. First of all,
when you look at the region, you can see a very
aggressive growth which makes it a very promising
region. Secondly, the IT sector is not as developed
as in the other parts of the world, and that is why
Yahoo! is not just competing in the market, it is
actually helping to develop the market.
NEvEr GivE up!ICT revolution is one of the biggest developments to have taken place in this era of globalisation. Aparna
Shivpuri Arya got talking to Christos Mastoras, Director of Business Development, MENA Yahoo! Maktoob,
about what is his take on it and what Yahoo! has been doing to promote ICT in Qatar.
38 JuNE 2012
BuSINESS ADVICE
With ictQATAR, we are looking to develop the
digital content and media ecosystem through the
incubation centre and digital cluster. When it comes
specifically to Qatar, we see that the country has a
lot of ambitious plans – Qatar National Vision 2030,
World Cup 2022 and many others. That creates
a very good dynamic and an opportunity for
companies like us through which we can partner
with the right people. That’s why we have such a
huge presence in the Middle East. We are looking
for other partners, across the region, which have
the same plans and approach to this aggressive
growth.
Tell us more about your partnership with
ictQATAR
In February 2012, we signed a strategic partnership
with ictQATAR to be their preferred partner for
digital and media content. The basic parts of
that agreement - the digital content cluster and
incubation centre to develop the ecosystem, are
based on the work with entrepreneurs through
mentoring and coaching. Basically, it as an over-
arching agreement and we are looking forward
to a number of projects. We are always looking
to expand our core business, which is, advertising
in Qatar. This partnership will help us gain visibility.
This is the beginning and ictQATAR is a very
important partner.
What is your perception of the ICT sector
in Qatar?
There are a lot of opportunities for SMEs and
startups in Qatar. IctQATAR is playing a key role in
facilitating them. There are various projects, such as
World Cup 2022, to promote entrepreneurs and
the government is focused on that.
Are there any exclusive services to the
region?
Yahoo! Website portal is in English and Arabic
and is customised to the region. Plus, our home
page has key verticals, such as a women’s
portal, games, news and so on. Therefore, we
have a dedicated offering for the Middle East in
both languages. We also have a lot of products
for the region in the pipeline. We also have a
regional product engineering and editorial team
and, by having that presence, we are able to
cater to the regional needs.
Are there any services that would benefit
businesses?
Our advertisement solutions are quite helpful. If
businesses start using that, they will have access
to our 56 million users which will give them
visibility. We have approximately 70 million people
online, out of which, 56 million per month visit
Yahoo! which provides a good visibility skill. This is
conditional upon the fact that the awareness and
traffic helps them monetise their presence in the
region. We have to help the market develop and
to make the pie bigger. In line with that, we have
a market development team which goes out and
educates companies about the benefits of digital
advertising. This is what we call share shift. That’s
the key difference – there is potential, but we need
to develop the market.
What are the dos and don’ts of doing business?
For companies that are looking for opportunities
to scale across the region, especially if it’s an
internet-based company, this region has a lot of
opportunities, in particular because of the common
language and common needs. So, the trick is to
go regional. It’s a case of calculated risk.
They have to identify opportunities and to go
about something they are passionate about. It
cannot be just about the money. For example,
if they are based here, they can partner with
key entrepreneurial centres in the country, work
with incubation centres or get into business
plan competitions. Reach out to the community,
connect with the right people. I have been
part of three startups and it’s good to talk
about stuff you have lived through. I think, as
an entrepreneur, that people are a bit hesitant
about sharing their idea while it should be the
opposite. They should be out there, sharing their
ideas and getting the word out there.
Don’t be afraid to take the risk, don’t be afraid
to fail – it’s almost like a badge of honour. I have
learnt much more from startups that have failed
than those that have succeeded.
Christos Mastoras is the Director of Business Development at Yahoo! Maktoob, where he leads strategic partnerships, M&A and corporate ventures for the company, across the MENA region.Prior to joining Yahoo!, Christos was an Engagement Manager in the Communications, Media & Technology practice of Booz and Company in Dubai. There he lead Corporate and New Business Development projects with telecom operators, media companies, broadband providers, ICT authorities, investment firms and governments, advising Board and C-level clients across MENA.Christos holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in International Relations from the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University.
About
Don’t be afraid to take the risk, don’t be afraid to fail – it’s almost like a badge of honour. I have learnt much more from startups that have failed than those that have succeeded.
39JuNE 2012
Christos Mastoras
SMEs
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role in growing, diversifying and
strengthening a country’s economic base. They create employment, enhance competitiveness, ensure effective utilisation of resources, contribute positively to socio-economic sectors and provide sustainability and innovation in the economy as a whole.
• The size and structure of SMEs allows them to be flexible and able to adapt to changing economic conditions.
• Being largely labour-intensive, SMEs have lower capital costs associated with the creation of jobs.
• SMEs improve the efficiency of domestic markets and make productive use of capital and resources, facilitating long-term economic growth.
• SMEs are the starting point of
development in the economies towards industrialisation. Most of the current larger enterprises have their origin as small and medium enterprises.
Why SMEs matter?Over the years, hydrocarbon sector has been the single largest contributor to GDP and revenues in most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Hence, GCC economies were concentrating on the development of hydrocarbon sector by creating huge oil and gas production facilities and also developing industries around the hydrocarbon
value chain being that both upstream and downstream industries. Excessive dependence on hydrocarbon revenues makes these economies vulnerable to significant
price swings in petroleum products. Moreover, considering the finite nature of hydrocarbon resources, these revenues could decline and come to a standstill at some stage. For that reason, most regional governments have recognised this pressing need and have initiated efforts to strengthen the non-hydrocarbon sector with special focus on SMEs.
In the first of a two part series, Reji Cherian, Director, Investment Strategy for State Holding Group, highlights
the important role of SMEs in Qatar’s economic expansion and gives an overview of the various initiatives.
Globally, SMEs represent a large share of registered businesses and contribute from 35% to 45% to the global GDP. The GCC countries, including Qatar, are yet to tap the full potential of SMEs.
you ArE NoT ALoNE!
40 JuNE 2012
SMEs
Globally, SMEs represent a large share of registered businesses and contribute from 35% to 45% to the global GDP. The GCC countries, including Qatar, are yet to tap the full potential of SMEs.
Despite unprecedented economic growth over the past two decades, the Arab world still faces high levels of youth unemployment, underemployment and a shortage of opportunities for young people. While the situation varies significantly by country, over the past fifty years, the Arab region as a whole has experienced the world’s highest rate of population growth. Today, one-third of the region’s population is estimated to be below the age of fifteen and two-thirds under the age of thirty. Roughly 100 million new workers are expected to enter the labour market in the Arab region over the coming two decades.
The table clearly indicates that the role of SMEs in employment generation in the Arab countries has not been as pronounced as in more developed economies. This imbalance presents measurable opportunities for SMEs in the GCC region to play a key role in diversifying employment sources and overall economic expansion.
What is Qatar doing?Economic diversification and support for private sector development are the two central pillars of the Qatar National Vision 2030. Qatar has recognised the need to develop the non-hydrocarbon sector and has initiated various efforts to strengthen the SMEs sector in the country to:• Maintain the economic growth• Mitigate the risk of oil and gas price fluctuation
and diversify from hydrocarbon sector
• Create more jobs for its rapidly growing young population, as oil and gas sector provides fewer new jobs
• Prepare the economy for the post-oil age when the technological advancement may significantly lessen demand for oil products
The socio-economic atmosphere in Qatar, at present, is very conducive for the establishment and growth of SMEs. A committed government, with its liberalised policies and massive support for SMEs, provides for a huge potential in Qatar for the growth of the SMEs sector. Some key industry friendly factors in Qatar include:• Electricity and natural gas priced at subsidised
rate• Industrial land at a nominal rent • Customs duty exemption on imports of
machinery, equipment and spare parts• No value added tax and export duties• No income tax on salaries of expatriates• Industrial loans at concessional rates of
interest• Stable currency - the Qatari riyal is freely
convertible at a parity of USD 1 = QR 3.64• Low taxes on corporate profits for foreign
partners• Up to 100% ownership for foreign investors
in selected sectors • No restrictions on repatriation of profits and
capital• Excellent telecommunication and transport
infrastructure
The Qatari government is seeking to diversify the country’s economy into the non oil and gas sector, with particular attention being paid to encouraging domestic and foreign enterprises to set up in the country. The initiatives of the Government of Qatar also focus on strengthening enterprises related to the basic industries in Qatar by producing some of the inputs needed by these industries,
or by consuming and transforming the various petrochemical and metal products manufactured locally in order to convert them into finished industrial products, adding value and benefiting from the available synergies and favourable business environment.
Support for aspiring entrepreneursThe following institutions provide support for aspiring entrepreneurs in Qatar:• Qatar Development Bank (QDB) is a fully
owned government financial entity set up to develop local industries and SMEs. QDB’s strategy is aligned to that of Qatar National Vision 2030 to promote and facilitate the development and growth of SMEs in the core economic sectors that will result in long-term socio-economic benefits to the people of Qatar. QDB offers industrial loans at attractive rates to new industrial projects and has also established the Al Dhameen Indirect Lending Programme (Al Dhameen programme) to offer a range of financing solutions to viable SMEs. Several private sector banks have partnered with QDB in the programme. The Al Dhameen programme is expected to result in an increase in the number of new SMEs by making access to finance easier for entrepreneurs at affordable rates. Additionally, it will also help existing SMEs grow into larger and more significant businesses by providing them with greater access to financing for investments and working capital. QDB recently launched an added service to provide export financing and business development and promotion support to Qatar based SME exporters. The bank also provides advisory support and guidance to SMEs on how to start up, grow and expand their activities, with the aim of developing a sustainable economy.
Today, one-third of the region’s population is estimated to be below the age of fifteen and two-thirds under the age of thirty. Roughly 100 million new workers are expected to enter the labour market in the Arab region over the coming two decades.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80 75%
Europe USA Singapore Malaysia Arab Countries
70%
62%
56%
33%
SME employment generation
41JuNE 2012
Reji Cherian
Reji Cherian is the Director-Investment Strategy for State Holding Group in Doha and is in charge of developing the SME investments of the Group. A private equity professional with more than 18 years of experience, he has held senior positions with the Industrial Bank of Kuwait and with the corporate finance division of Big 4 consulting firms in Singapore and Kuwait previously. He has been active in supporting SME projects in India and Kuwait and has served the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in India in restructuring sick companies. He has a Bachelor in Commerce from Mahatma Gandhi University, India and is a Chartered Accountant. He can be contacted at [email protected].
About
• Enterprise Qatar (EQ) is an authority established exclusively to develop and promote the SMEs in Qatar. EQ’s aim is to chart a sustainable development path for SMEs in Qatar and empower the private sector to encourage entrepreneurship to create jobs and diversify the country’s economy by creating and expanding SMEs. EQ is expected to lead a new phase of development for this dynamic sector of the economy. EQ has initiated “SME Evolution Programme” which is a free Web-based training programme for SMEs aimed at supporting them in Qatar to improve their capabilities in areas, such as management, business development, human resources and online marketing. The Web-based training programme will help SME’s network with their colleagues throughout the Middle East and gain support from each other as well as from other mentors.
• Qatar Exchange Venture Market (QE Venture Market) has been formed by the Qatar Exchange as a new market for the country’s SMEs. QE Venture Market is designed with smaller companies in mind and represents more flexible disclosure and corporate governance regime. QE Venture Market provides a dedicated route for SMEs to the stock market, an entry route to public markets, and creates a universe of peer group companies which can
be beneficial to investor following research coverage and ultimately maximisation of valuation. Being publicly listed also brings benefits in terms of ability to raise capital and liquidity. With the recent finalisation of the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) rules for the basis of market’s operation is now in place and Qatar Exchange looks forward to welcoming companies to this market.
• Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), a Qatar Foundation initiative, is home for technology-based companies from around the world and an incubator for startup enterprises. QSTP’s support programmes help organisations develop and commercialise their technologies.
• Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP) was established with the objective of creating a sustainable food security road map for Qatar. QNFSP aims to devise a holistic solution to food security by expanding the renewable energy, desalination and water management, agricultural production and food processing. The QNFSP plans to build an agro-industrial park as a designated area for Qatar’s food processing industry.
• Silatech was established to address the critical and growing need to create jobs and economic opportunities for young people in the Arab world. The initiative promotes large-scale job creation, entrepreneurship and access to capital and markets for young people. Its commitment is to mobilise interest, investment, knowledge, resources and action to drive large-scale comprehensive employment and enterprise development programmes. The strategic goals of Silatech are the following: » Improve society’s recognition and support
for young people’s contribution to economic and social capital
» Promote adoption of policies to stimulate increased employment and economic opportunities for young people and social inclusion
» Improve young people’s access to demand driven and market-oriented skills training and job placement services
» Improve micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ access to capital, business development services and markets
• Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (Bedaya Center) is a joint initiative of Silatech and QDB which provides a “one-stop shop” for young people in Qatar to find career guidance, mentoring programmes and a variety of workshops focusing on entrepreneurship- and employment-related skills development. Bedaya Center provides access to range of youth services, training programmes and activities in order to help development of skills and acceleration of entrepreneurial spirit.
To conclude with these initiatives, SMEs in Qatar have an amazing support system in place, which they can use to establish and flourish. In the next issue, we will look at the challenges the SMEs are facing, despite all this help.
The Qatari government is seeking to diversify the country’s economy into the non oil and gas sector, with particular attention being paid to encouraging domestic and foreign enterprises to set up in the country.
SMEs
42 JuNE 2012
LEGAL
Since 2002, Qatar has enacted new laws protecting intellectual property (“IP”) rights, with
respect to trademarks, copyright, registered designs and patents, and has acceded to various international treaties regarding IP law.
In addition, Qatar is a signatory to several
conventions and treaties that govern IP rights,
including the World Trade Organisation
(“WTO”). WTO is an umbrella to which most
of the other conventions and treaties fall under,
such as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS), the Paris
Convention for the Protection of Industrial
Property and the Berne Convention for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
How to file a patent application in Qatar?Law No (30) of 2006 (“Patent Law”) envisions
set up of a patent office within the Ministry of
Economy pursuant to implementing regulations.
However, to date no implementing regulations
have been issued and the patent office is not yet
functional. Currently, it is not possible to file a
patent application in Qatar, although there are
reportedly changes occurring which will allow for
applications in the near future.
Historically, patent applicants have
obtained protection in Qatar by filing for
patents with the Gulf Cooperation Council
(“GCC”) Patent Office in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. The GCC Patent Law operates on the
premise that the patents granted by the GCC
Patent Office apply to all GCC states with the
responsibility of enforcement being with the
individual states.
Qatar ratified the GCC Patent Law and
Regulations in 1996 giving to the system
operated by the GCC Patent Office a force
of law in Qatar. The legislation does not
deal with the enforcement of GCC patents,
therefore, there is no clear regime for
enforcing patents granted by the GCC Patent
Office within Qatar.
Qatar recently acceded to the Patent
Convention Treaty (“PCT”), with effect from
3rd August 2011. Rights owners with an
interest in Qatar may look forward to making
use of the international system offered by
the PCT in order to obtain protection in
Qatar, although it has not given rise to any
immediate change. Currently, the only option
for those seeking to secure patent protection
in Qatar remains the process through the GCC
Patents Office.
Is it a patent?In the Patent Law, a patent is defined as “the
certificate granted by the [Patent] Office
to the patent owner in order for his/her
invention to enjoy legal protection in line with
the provisions of this law and its executive
bylaws”. The government will protect the
patent for 20 years, giving the owner the
exclusive rights. This will mean that no third-
party can exploit the invention without the
authorisation of the owner.
A patent is given to a product or a process, but
first, it must meet several conditions:
• Novelty• Inventive step• Industrial application
Firstly, it is the novelty of the product or
process. The Patent Law is silent on whether
it implements the absolute or relative novelty
requirement. Absolute novelty means that
the product or process should not be part
of “known knowledge”. This means that it
should have not been disclosed to the public
in any form, whether through written or oral
disclosure or use or by any other means, prior
to the date of filing of the patent application,
whether in Qatar or abroad.
Nevertheless, in some countries an application
could still be validly filed and will be considered
novel despite the publication, provided that the
filing is made during the grace period following
the publication. This is known as relative novelty.
A grace period is not expressly mentioned in the
Patent Law, but is found in the GCC Patent Law
which gives a grace period of six months to the
owner of the invention who has publically disclosed
his or her invention prior to the filing date of the
patent application.
ENforciNG your riGhTLimited laws protecting intellectual property rights are part of Qatar’s history as the country progresses
towards enacting legislation and implementing practices to enable rights holders to protect their intellectual
property. As Qatar seeks to move away from its reliance on oil and gas and diversify, in line with its National
Vision 2030, Emma Higham, Senior Associate, Clyde &Co, explains to us which further reforms in intellectual
property protection will move Qatar towards its goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy.
44 JuNE 2012
LEGAL
Secondly, an inventive step means that the
product or process must have a significant addition
to the state of the art. The standard used is that the
inventive step would not be obvious to a person
with the ordinary skill in the art.
Thirdly, an industrial application a means a
patent can only be granted for an invention which
is susceptible to industrial application. In other
words, it should not be theoretical, but should be
able to be carried out in practice. Consequently,
the Patent Law will not grant patents to scientific
theories or mathematical methods.
Under the Patent Law, there are various
materials that do not receive a patent due to their
subject-matter. As previously mentioned, patents will
not be granted to scientific theories or mathematical
methods, while other examples include surgical
or therapeutic methods. A list of non-patentable
subject-matter is listed in Article 4.2 of the Patent
Law. Software programs are not protected under
Patent Law, but are protected under Copyright Law.
What to consider before filing for a patent application?There are conditions that need to be taken into
consideration when filing for a patent application.
Foremost, it should not contradict Sharia Law or
public policy. The Patent Law also states that the
subject-matter must not contradict public morality,
public order or national security.
The Patent Law does not define what is meant
by public order, but Article 4 of the GCC Patent Law
includes “the protection of human or animal or
plantation life and health, or to avoid serious damage
to the environment” as part of the public order.
Examples would include a machine that is invented for
forging money or a new process used to brew beer.
Compulsory licensing principle The Patent Law recognises the compulsory licensing
principle allowing the government to give a third
party the right to exploit inventions or processes
that are protected by patents, without the consent
of the inventor.
However, there are several conditions that must
be met. First of all, an interested third party may
only apply for compulsory licensing after three years
of the patent granting date. The third party may
only apply under three conditions:
• the owner of the patent has not been seriously or effectively exploiting the patent in the space of three years since the granting of the patent
• the owner has completely stopped exploiting the patent for two consecutive years without informing the Patent Office with legitimate reasons
• the owner refuses to grant contractual licensing to third parties, thus, impairing the development of Qatar economically as well as
commercially
Only in the event of one of the above listed
conditions mentioned, can an interested third party
apply for a compulsory licensing. In all cases, if the
owner of the patent provides legitimate reasons
(importing a product is not considered a legitimate
reason), then the application by the third party will
be denied.
The compulsory licensing
is only granted by the
responsible minister.
Under Article 7 of the
Patent Law the owner of
the patent has the right
to appeal against the
decision of granting the
compulsory license to the
Committee. Furthermore,
the third party must be
capable of carrying
out the necessary
requirements that
have led to the
initial request
for the
compulsory
licensing.
Emma is a corporate and commercial lawyer with over nine year’s experience. Having been based in Qatar for nearly seven years, Emma incorporates her extensive knowledge of the local law when advising both local and international clients. Emma advises on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including local establishment by way of joint venture, banking and finance, and providing regulatory advice in relation to the establishment of businesses in the Qatar Financial Centre, advising on IPOs, pre IPO funding corporate restructuring and employment and immigration matters. While working in Qatar, Emma has spent six months on secondment to Qatar Telecom (Qtel) QSC, assisting in the start up of a Gulf Corporate Council telecommunications company. Emma joined Clyde & Co in October 2007, having previously worked for another international law firm for six years, both in London and Qatar. Prior to that Emma worked for Price Waterhouse for eight years in both audit and corporate recovery.Emma can be contacted at [email protected].
About
Qatar recently acceded to the Patent Convention Treaty (“PCT”), with effect from 3rd August 2011. Rights owners with an interest in Qatar may look forward to making use of the international system offered by the PCT in order to obtain protection in Qatar, although it has not given rise to any immediate change.
Note: Qatari Laws (save for those issued by the Qatar Financial Centre to regulate internal business) are issued in Arabic and there are no official translations, therefore for the purposes of drafting this article we have used our own translations and interpreted the same in the context of Qatari regulation and current market practice.
If the original reasons that qualified the granting of
the compulsory licensing ceased to exist then the
compulsory licensing will be terminated.
To sum up, Qatar has made significant progress
in enhancing its regime of intellectual property
protection in the last decade. Although the only
way to apply for a patent right in Qatar, at the
moment, is through the GGC Patent Office, it
is hoped that Qatar’s accession to the PCT will
result in a clear regime for securing and enforcing
patent rights until the Patent Office in Qatar is fully
functional.
45JuNE 2012
LEGAL
Why talk about the legal stuff when business is all about deals and relationships? Mark Hill and Fiona Robertson,
media lawyers, therightslawyers, have some thoughts on that matter that they wanted to share with us.
As lawyers, we do come across a lot of contracts. We hear plenty of views from people
about contracts, mostly when the deal is young and everyone is happy, which sound like:• We don’t really use contracts and just really
operate on a handshake.• We trust each other and know each other
well.• If we sign a contract, we just stick it in the
bottom drawer and hope it never needs to come out again!
Don’t leave it to a handshake Put simply, contracts always should be involved
wherever you are agreeing to do something
in a business context with another party and
whenever they do something for you or you do
something for them. They can take the form of
standard terms and conditions, as the kind of
things you often see on the back of invoices,
through to very specific contracts tailored to a
particular situation.
What does a contract do? The basics of
what a contract is there to do are really pretty
simple. It is there to say who is going to do
what, when, how much money is involved and
what is going to happen to the things that are
created or used, including copyright and trade
marks in particular. A contract should be a
simple, understandable, user-friendly document
which sets out how the parties are going to
work together as they do whatever it is that
they are going to do.
Contracts might also discuss commission,
including commission base, allowable
expenses and how long particular stages are
going to take. It may also include details on
inputs from each of the parties (what I supply,
what you supply) and might include approval
mechanisms and the way that deliverables
can be altered.
The contract should set out, in a way
that both parties understand, what is going
to happen, from day to day, during the
time that the parties are working together.
This should not be something that you
stick in the bottom drawer, but should be
something that reflects actually what is
going to happen. Then it can be followed.
For that reason, it has the added benefit of
telling the parties exactly how things will be
dealt with, just in case if things don’t work
out smoothly.
So, why don’t we leave it to a handshake or
a good working relationship? Why should we
bother going to the trouble of actually writing
down what everybody is going to do?
The answer to that is simple. If you don’t
write it down, it’s easy to forget what
everybody is supposed to be doing. That is
the fastest way of creating problems. One of
the parties may have different expectations
about what the other is supposed to
be doing during the course of working
together. Thus, it’s sensible to set out the
course of action that will be taken if things
turn for the worse.
Let’s be specificThese issues are all about risk assessment. We’ll
try to capture certain points that might be
required in your contract:
» What is the contract actually for?
Is it to govern the overall working relationship
between the parties, for example on the basis
of a general retainer?
If so, you probably still need to tie in
somehow what each job is going to be about.
Therefore, you can have an overall agreement
that can cover the relationship, but then you
will have specific projects from time to time.
Each of these projects can sit within the overall
retainer agreement on separate deal sheets,
with clearly defined deliverables that relate to
that project.
» Money obviously is the key.
How is the supplier going to be paid?
When? Is it related to stages or simply done
on dates?
If you don’t write it down, it’s easy to forget what everybody is supposed to be doing. That is the fastest way of creating problems.
46 JuNE 2012
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LEGAL
Too many people realise too late that stage
payments would have been better, or that the
stages did not reflect the work load that went
into the delivery of the stages themselves.
» Who decides if a particular goal has been
achieved?
Is there a clearly defined goal for the services
or materials that are to be delivered? If it goes
wrong, as regularly happens with creative
processes, what can happen then? Who pays
for what, in the process of fixing the mistake?
Is there an approval process that should be
followed?
If so, set it out in detail and make sure that
approvals are to be provided in writing. Too
many parties end up fighting over materials
that were apparently approved over the phone.
» Who is going to check if there are laws
relating to the materials or services that are
supplied and more importantly, ensure that
they are followed?
We have a whole range of legal and regulatory
controls over what actually can and can’t be
done across the Middle East in many areas of
commerce. Who has responsibility for checking
that? Is it the supplier? Probably only if you tell
them it is!
» What about the intellectual property rights?
Every time any creative work is done by a party
or by third parties on their behalf, intellectual
property rights, mostly copyrights and
trademarks, are being created. So, who owns
these? Is it the client? Often not, unless the
contract says so. What can each of the clients
do with the materials once they are created?
» What about confidentiality?
We see clients argue over non-disclosure
agreements (NDAs), but forget about
confidentiality in their actual deal contracts.
This is a kind of two way issue in that specific
provisions should be made to address the
supply of information from both parties,
ensuring it is kept confidential and returned
upon request. That way, parties can be
more comfortable about disclosing sensitive
commercial information to each other.
Otherwise, how can you be sure that it is safe
to tell them real specifics about what you are
trying to do? Remember that a supplier might
also work for your competition.
» And what if things go wrong?
Who will be legally liable if things go wrong?
This is partly a matter of making sure you clear
the legality of whatever you are doing before
you do it. But, there are also questions about
whether there should be indemnities from each
party to the other. This will often depend on
the type of services that are being provided.
In addition, a contract is a way for you to
pass on a risk that you might have taken on
in another contract. Perhaps you are doing
an event and your client requires you to take
risk in relation to the safety of the guests,
Fiona RobertsonMark Hill
Making sure that you are aware of risk is one thing, but managing risk properly is also essential and a key part of business success. To achieve it, learn to understand and manage your contracting processes.
therightslawyers is the first and only boutique TMT (Technology Media and Telecommunications) firm set up in the Middle East to cater exclusively for the creative industries, businesses that are driven by or reliant on intellectual property rights (including brand and other IP rights owners, companies facing counterfeiting and IP infringement issues, franchise operations, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and technology, IT and telecommunications Industries.For more information, please visit www.therightslawyers.com
About
you should then pass some or all of that risk
onto your venue. If the client requires you to
indemnify them for the music that you put in
a commercial, then you should pass that onto
your producer. Again, this will only work if you
put it in a contract.
Make friends with your contractA contract is not something to ignore or stick
in a bottom drawer. It is there to make what
you are doing easier, clearer and safer.
Most people don’t like risk, so finding a
way of properly being able to assess any risks
that might exist in the dealings between you
and all your commercial partners would prove
useful. Making sure that you are aware of risk
is one thing, but managing risk properly is also
essential and a key part of business success.
To achieve it, learn to understand and manage
your contracting processes. And get a contract
that says who is going to do what, when, and
for how much! Remember, the contract is
really your friend!
48 JuNE 2012
TRADE
The panel discussion was attended by 150 plus participants and included Qatari exporters, QDB officials and various dignitaries representing other countries attending the UNCTAD XIII.
The discussion was moderated by HE Hisham Badr, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the UN. The panelists for the discussion were:• Mr. Hassan Khalifa Al Mansoori, Executive
Director of TASDEER• Mr. Pascal Lamy, Director-General, WTO• Mr. Jean-Marie Paugam, Deputy Executive
Director, ITC• Ms. Elham Aranki, General Manager,
Bloom, Jordan• Mr. Mohamed Saad Berrada, CEO, Michoc,
Morocco • Mr. Joseph Nkole, National Coordinator,
fTAs: proMoTiNG rEGioNAL TrAdE
Cotton Association of Zambia• Ms. Patricia Francis, Executive Director, ITC
Representatives from key export-oriented companies and related services, such as cables, iron steel and pipes, fibreglass products and so forth, were present for the discussion.
The discussion focused on trade impediments, including non tariff barriers, within the Arab region which has prevented the FTA to provide the required stimulus to promote the regional trade till now.
The proliferation of trade agreements around the world has changed the pattern of world trade flows and has brought mixed results in terms of trade integration, with meaningful integration in only some areas of the world, in particular in Asia
and Latin America. Empirical evidence shows that regional integration can have substantial direct and indirect employment creation effects on the economy
In the case of the Arab countries trade integration has not gone very far, despite deep cuts in tariffs. This is largely due to trade impediments including non-tariff barriers that represent major obstacles for exploiting the opportunities offered by the trade agreements existing in the Arab region. It is essential that urgent measures are taken to remove trade impediments affecting regional trade. This will help unleash the entrepreneurship potential of the youth and create jobs for an increasing number of highly skilled young people
The event addressed the following issues:• Do FTAs implicitly result in increased regional
TASDEER, along with ITC, organised a panel discussion on Arab regional trade, as part of the UNCTAD
XIII. We bring you a snapshot of the discussions.
50 JuNE 2012
TRADE
trade integration?• What are the main reasons for weak regional
trade integration in the Arab region – seen from a business perspective – and what lessons can one draw from this?
• What could be the economic impact of an improvement of the regional business environment particularly on welfare and jobs in particular for women and youth?
• How can ITC’s work in the Arab region provide some examples of creating jobs for women and youth through regional integration?
The removal of intra-regional trade obstacles could increase trade by 10% and create two million new jobs in member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS), according to new research by the International Trade Centre (ITC).The region has one of the lowest levels of intra-regional trade in the world despite preferential market access and significant cultural homogeneity. Trade potential exists but is as yet untapped.
In recent years the LAS has made efforts to largely remove bilateral tariffs. Compared to other regions, however, trade among the LAS members has remained low. For example, while more than 60% of the European Union’s (EU’s) total trade is with one of its member states, only 11% of LAS members’ trade takes place inside its region.
Overall, it has been found that despite the tariff privileges that LAS countries enjoy in each other’s markets, regional integration has been declining since the mid-1990s. Other (non-tariff) obstacles are in place, which prevent LAS members from taking full advantage of the preferential tariffs. ITC has found that reducing non-tariff obstacles to trade will result in lower prices of imported goods from LAS countries in other LAS countries. This will increase the purchasing power of consumers, resulting in a rise of welfare of at least 2% in 2025.
Key findings and recommendationsLAS countries enjoy preferential access to the LAS market. Based on the LAS’ import structure during 2006-2010, a weighted average of 0.4% tariff duty was applied among LAS members. By contrast, non-LAS members faced tariffs in LAS markets in the range of 5% to 6%.
In spite of ongoing efforts to cut tariffs and to sign and implement preferential agreements, regional trade integration among the member states of the Arab League is moderate compared to other common markets, such as the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The share of total trade which takes place inside the LAS represents only a fraction of the trade conducted with the member states of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or with other developing countries.
The modest evidence of regional integration among LAS trading partners hints at factors other than conventional tariffs that seem to hinder the free exchange of goods across LAS markets. Trade agreements providing preferential market access do not insulate against problems related to non-tariff measures. A future reduction of these barriers could increase total trade by
10% and create over two million additional jobs, including 80,000 skilled jobs.
Barriers to trade in goods and services are heterogeneous; they are quite high in the food sector, rather low in textiles and clothing, and almost zero for oil. A further integration of LAS trade focusing on NTMs would mostly create new opportunities in sectors such as food or metals and machinery.
Given that currently most intra-regional LAS trade is in unskilled manufacturing, in order to maximise benefits to member states, targeted national development programmes favouring skill-intensive value-added sectors, and sectors where women and youth have a high participation like clothing and services, are recommended.
Simulations show that a reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade within LAS members would favour the sectors with already significant trade. As a consequence, these sectors would become more profitable and attract more investment.
The event was widely covered by the press and TASDEER has been greatly appreciated for promoting this discussion on a very relevant regional issue.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
EU
ASEAN
ALADI
LAS
SADC
TASDEER is aimed at providing financial supportive solutions to back Qatari exporting firms, SMEs and startups for overtaking their financial obligations, to cater for their export- finance demand, and to guarantee their receivables against foreign buyers’ insolvency and/or political risks might occur in the importing countries.Providing trade information and market intelligence is an important part of any export development agency. As such, TASDEER provides trade information tools such as Trade Map and Market Access Map in coordination with the International Trade Centre and UNCTAD.For more information, please contact [email protected].
About TASDEER
Intra regional trade shares around the world
The removal of intra-regional trade obstacles could increase trade by 10% and create two million new jobs in member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS), according to new research by the International Trade Centre (ITC).
51JuNE 2012
Media provides a community service. It informs and updates us and does this with a passion
for its profession. Some people either don’t get this or decide to ignore this simple set of facts and seem to approach media in a manner and style that immediately irritates, or puts a journalist on the defensive.
In hearing some of the quite incredulous stories
in my 12 plus years in PR, a few of us have come
up with a classification system that is simple but
accurate: it’s called the two camp league.
The first camp which we shall call PR’aucrats,
follow the lazy approach of just forwarding or
mass distributing any news, invites, interview
pitches and more on behalf of their company to
all media. This camp is usually completely ignorant
about journalists’ areas of interest and its relevance
to their clients and target audiences.
The second camp which we shall refer to as
arrogant delusionists, follow a similar approach
to the PR’aucrats camp but are guilty of thinking
that any communications related to their company
or their client’s company must be of interest to
all media and in turn will be published by these
minions who stand between them and a titanic-
sized coverage report.
Unfortunately, both camps have failed in the most
basic forms of human interaction in the professional
world ie understanding who they are communicating
rELATioNShip ruLES
with and respecting the media profession, their
interests and their time or lack of it. Think about it, if
you worked in the IT industry and were approached
by someone looking to sell you fashion design
courses, what would you think of them?
If you are really serious about gaining the
journalist’s and reporter’s respect, then you
need to work hard at understanding them, their
publications, topics and issues they love writing
about. Provide the journalists with information
for that story in a timely fashion. Every company’s
media outreach approach needs to be defined,
targeted and mindful of each reporter’s
preferences and interests. You need to keep in
mind that the media is your main target audience,
who needs to engage with your brand and fully
understand it. Why? Simple, it is your voice to your
customers or key stakeholders.
Some rules of thumb:
• Do your homework, research and understand
who your target media is. By
doing so your approach
will be more targeted and
knowledgeable, yielding
respect from the reporters
and editors you approach
from the outset.
• Build relations with the
reporter or editor who
writes about your
particular industry
by monitoring their
articles in real-time to understand their specific
style, angles pursued. This way, when you pitch
them for content, you will have a better success
rate. Also, reading an article for a particular
reporter and then calling them with constructive
feedback shows you are really interested and
read the news all the time.
• Build a rapport on a personal level – don’t just
call media when you need them for something.
Contact them on a regular basis for an informal
chat and get to know what their interests, political
leanings, hobbies are. This way you build a solid
relationship rather than one based on needs.
• Be responsive – It’s a two way relationship, if a
reporter contacts you for commentary, direction,
feedback, you need to respond immediately.
This goes a long way in positioning your
company top of mind with that reporter. In turn,
when you approach the reporter for a pitch
or announcement or commentary they will be
more willing to listen as you’ve supported them
in the past.
• Give exclusives – Every now and then if you
have a big story to tell and want to make a big
impact in a specific Tier 1 publication, pitch it to
them as an exclusive.
Cultivating a relationship means you must be
willing to compromise, to understand the other
person. This means listening to them as much as
talking to them. That may sound simple but in this
industry it’s not always common practice. In a market
with the largest concentration of PR Agencies and PR
people, no wonder some journalists work so hard to
keep us at an arm’s length.
MARkETING
Public relations professionals must face the facts. They need the
media to get their message out to their clients and target customers.
To do this effectively, it’s essential to build mutual respect as the
basis of a productive relationship with journalists, says Sawsan
Ghanem, Managing Director, Active Public Relations.
Sawsan Ghanem is the Joint Managing Director of Active PR. She has lived in the Middle East region for the greater part of her life. Sawsan lived and studied in the UK for a few years where she gained her BSc in Chemistry & Management from Kings College, London University and MA in International Business, from Webster Graduate School (London Campus).Sawsan began her career in PR over 14 years ago, when she caught the PR & Communication bug. She founded Active PR in the summer of 2003 along with Louay Al Samarrai. Sawsan has in-depth experience in strategic PR campaigns, media relations, creative thinking, crisis management and more. She is the SMB Advisor Middle East winner [before the magazine was rebranded SME Advisor] in the category of Admirable Woman Entrepreneur (2008) and she won Arab Entrepreneur of the Year at the SME Advisor Stars of Business Awards 2011.
About
* This article was first published in SME Advisor Middle East, our sister publication.
52 JuNE 2012
partnership opportunitiesPrivate Sector (Al kitaa Al khass) is an Arabic and English magazine, presented and supported by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and published by CPI. It is aimed at business owners and senior executives in the private sector in Qatar. Armed with practical advice, it highlights key issues for the business community.
The driving force for regional economies is the private sector – a catalyst for growth, development and job creation. With the world’s spotlight on Qatar’s development activities and the buzz being created around 2022, this sector is going to grow by leaps and bounds. That’s great news if you’re targeting the private sector, which spans across almost all industry verticals, but the problem you face is identifying the most dynamic and competitive companies amongst a sea of competitors.
A key answer for the past half decade has been CPI’s uAE-based magazine SME Advisor Middle East, which has delivered valuable business information to leading SMEs across the region, helping them develop their businesses, putting them in touch with valued partners and fuelling growth even in a stalled global economy.
For more information about advertising and other partnership opportunities, please visit www.privatesectorqatar.com/enFor marketing ideas and opportunities, please contact [email protected]
Now, with the support of QDB as our presenting partner, we have launched the same business values, tailor-made for Qatar in the form of the brand Private Sector. This will encompass magazine, events, online and several other initiatives to drive Qatari entrepreneurship and the private sector.
This is your chance!This is a market you cannot afford to miss. This is a market that you can reach in an intelligent, focused way, working with the expert team that brought you SME Advisor Middle East and has now launched Private Sector magazine in Qatar.
This year was by far the biggest yet for Qatar’s biggest construction exhibition. Now, in its ninth edition,
Project Qatar has come to represent the remarkable construction sector growth being witnessed in Qatar as local and foreign companies vie to win a slice of the USD 250 billion worth of projects being undertaken.
In the lead up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup,
Qatar is undertaking a variety of infrastructure
projects which will reshape the country and
prepare it to host the world, including: a
deepwater seaport (USD 5.5 billion), national
railway project (USD 42.9 billion), the New Doha
International Airport (USD 7 billion), the Qatar
North Gas Field Development (USD 20 billion) as
well as ongoing projects that are currently under
construction, such as USD 14 billion Pearl Qatar
real estate development.
With almost USD 126 billion in projects (out
of USD 250 billion) still in the concept phase of
development, opportunities for companies to win
new business are immense. As these projects get
set to enter the crucial tendering phase, Project
Qatar provides interested companies with the
platform they require to showcase their products
and services. All in all, the exhibition featured
2,083 exhibitors from 48 countries spread across
62,000 sqm of exhibition space.
A number of European firms were present
at the exhibition projects in the fastest-growing
construction market in the Middle East region
at present. Under the auspices of His Excellency
Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar,
the exhibition has grown in both stature and size.
This year, Project Qatar was 25% larger than last
year which is a massive increase for an exhibition
that was already the biggest exhibition in Qatar.
Visitor numbers also increased by over 10,000
when compared to last year while the first day’s
figures indicated that the turnout would be
record-breaking once again.
The exhibition was inaugurated by His
Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Khalifa
Al Thani, Minister for Municipality and Urban
Planning in Qatar. Dubai Exports also participated
ABOuT TOWN
in the event in order to promote UAE-Qatar ties.
About 140 companies from the UAE took part in
Project Qatar.
Separate events were held on the sidelines of
the exhibition to promote trade and business and
help companies understand the legalities and
formalities of setting up a business in Qatar.
The exhibition was a very good meeting
ground for customers and businesses and
highlighted the booming construction sector of
Qatar – one of the fastest growing economies of
the region.
Grab theopportu ityThe ninth Project Qatar was held in Doha from 30th April to 3rd May and attracted 2,000 plus exhibitors.
Private Sector was present there and brings you the highlights.
With almost USD 126 billion in projects (out of USD 250 billion) still in the concept phase of development, opportunities for companies to win new business are immense.
54 JuNE 2012
QDB helpeD me take steps to grow my Business through al Dhameen.
Do you have a promising business or new business idea? But do you also have trouble finding the funding that you need? Ask us about Al Dhameen Indirect Lending Program from QDB. We will guarantee up to 85% of your business loan*, leaving you free to focus on developing your business. Click on www.qdb.qa or visit one of our partners listed below.
* Guarantees of up to 85% are for new businesses. Exiting businesses can get guarantees of up to 75%. Terms and Conditions apply.
QDB_Al_Dhameen_Steps_270x207mm.indd 1 25.01.12 14:24