Qatar Today March 2011

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44Rev up and goQatar has a new ambition, moving away from being a mere consumer it is vying to be an active participant in the automotive industry. Sindhu Nair finds out more...

417000 yeaRs of civilization; 18 days of RevolutionBirth of a new Eygpt? What comes after the historic revolution asks Mustafa Zidane.

22islamic advantageConventional banks forced to scamperBanks are taken aback by the QCB directive to close down their Islamic banking activities by the year-end.

84BlisteRing BRussels!More than just ‘frite’ revolution and funny businessF16s escorting the first QR flight in Belgian airspace. Axelle Red live. Staying in an erstwhile jail. Chocolates by the tonne, speculoos by the carton, truffles, mussels, art nouveau archi-tecture, brilliant comics, efficient paramedical service and the not so efficient emergency care. Vani Saraswathi experiences just about every-thing that Brussels has to offer....

c o n t e n t sm a r c h 2 0 1 1

published by oryx advertising co.wll, all rights reserved. qatar today is published monthly by oac, po box no. 3272, doha, qatar. subscription rate for qr. 240 per year. address for all subscription correspondence to qatar today, oryx advertising co.wll, po box 3272, al hilal area, doha, state of qatar. for single copies call us on + 974 44672139 or mail to [email protected]. material in this publication must not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission. request for permission should be directed to [email protected]. reprint requests should be directed to the [email protected]. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co.wll

march 2011volume 4issue 3

www.omsqatar.com

c o v e R s t o R y

62dJWe: eight yeaRs and spaRkling... Exclusivity, elegance and élan marked this year’s most awaited luxury extravaganza, the 8th Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE), billed as one of the region’s leading exhibitions of its kind.

58moBification of youR WeBsite! When was the last time you spent more than 30 seconds on a mobile based web-site to find some content? As new mobile devices and development platforms are introduced, it is difficult to keep pace with the technology... Some bite-sized tips to catch up with the fifth tech cycle.

54moBile cloudThe Gathering StormWe could be looking at potentially one trillion internet connected devices by 2015, writes Barry Flaherty, from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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n e W s B i t e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0R e a l t y c h e c k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6o & g o v e R v i e W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8B a n k n o t e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0W o R l d v i e W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6B R a k i n g n e W s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6m a R k e t W a t c h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 0d o h a d i a R y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 0

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33the city in tRansitHistorically visible all over the world, especially in the ancient settlements of the Middle East, the pattern shows that trans-portation and land use are inextricably linked. It is no different in the 21st century.

90aRtistic tReasuResAn exhibition by Sotheby’s at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha on March 5 and 6, will highlight the great traditions in Islamichistory.

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published by oryx advertising co.wll, all rights reserved. qatar today is published monthly by oac, po box no. 3272, doha, qatar. subscription rate for qr. 240 per year. address for all subscription cor-respondence to qatar today, oryx advertising co.wll, po box 3272, al hilal area, doha, state of qatar. for single copies call us on + 974 44672139 or mail to [email protected]. material in this publi-cation must not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission. request for permission should be directed to [email protected]. reprint requests should be directed to the [email protected]. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co.wll reprint requests should be directed to the [email protected]. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co.wll reprint requests should be directed to the [email protected]. qatar today is registered trademark of oryx advertising co.wll

c o n t R i B u t o R sm a r c h 2 0 1 1

QataR today invites ReadeRs’ feedBack

shaRe youR vieWs on the magazine oR any issue connected to QataR. one lucky ReadeR Will Win an exQuisite mont Blanc WRiting instRument.

qatar today reserves the right to edit and publish the correspondence. views and opinions expressed in the published letters may not necessarily be the publication’s views and opinions.

write to: the editor, qatar today, po box 3272, doha.

fax: (+974) 44550982, email: [email protected]

puBlisheR & editoR-in-chief yousuf Jassem al daRWish

chief executive officeR sandeep sehgal

executive vice pResident alpana Roy

vice pResident Ravi Raman

managing editoR vani saRasWathi

deputy editoR sindhu naiR

editoRial cooRdinatoR cassey oliveiRa

fashion &lifestyle coRRespondent oRna Ballout

coRRespondents pRagati shukla

ezdihaR iBRahim ali

contRiButoR shalinee BhaRadWaJ

aRt diRectoR venkat Reddy

asst aRt diRectoR – pRoduction suJith heenatigala

assistant aRt diRectoR hanan aBu saiam

senioR gRaphic designeRs ayush indRaJith

sampath gunathilaka

manageRs –maRketing mohammed sami

zulfikaR JiffRy

senioR media consultant

chatuRka kaRandana

media consultants victoRia feRRaRis

hassan RekkaB

maRketing ReseaRch & amJeth ali suppoRt executive

accountant pRatap chandRan

sR. distRiBution executive BikRam shRestha

distRiBution suppoRt aRJun timilsina

Bhimal Rai

v o l u m e 3 7 i s s u e 3 m a R c h 2 0 1 1

f R o m t h e d e s km a r c h 2 0 1 1

“eveRy Revolution Was fiRst a thought in one man’s mind” Ralph Waldo EmERson

i n t h e R e g i o n W e h av e s e e n t h i s i n ac t i o n ov e R t h e l as t c o u p l e o f m o n t h s . B e i t m o h a m m e d B o ua z i z i o f t u n i s i a o R Wa e l g h o n i m o f e gy p t, a n d m a n y m o R e u n n a m e d i n d i v i d ua l s W i t h o n e t h o u g h t i n m i n d – c h a n g e – W h o

c a m e to g e t h e R to d o aWay W i t h R e d u n da n t g ov e R n m e n ts . t h e n e x t s t e p i s to Wa i t a n d Watc h h oW t h e t R u e R e vo lu t i o n W i l l u n f o l d – t h e e x eR c i s e o f es ta B l i s h i n g v i a B l e a n d e f f e c t i v e g ov e R n a n c e .

Protests and demands for change in some countries has been a clarion call across the re-gion. It is time for leaders to review their performance, take an honest audit of where and how they have failed, and pay heed to the unrest amongst its youth. Not every state may demand a complete overhaul, some may only require bridging a gap between expectations and delivery. Clearly, many ageing leaders are totally out of tune with the needs of their people – harping on past glory and ignoring the current mess, pathetically clinging to pow-er, and using unwarranted force.

The advantage with a democracy – even the weakest – is that there is a periodic opportu-nity for change, and hence a hope for something better. If one hopes for development and growth in the absence of a democracy, then it is critical that the leadership is both forward thinking and in touch with ground realities.

What happens over the next few months will attract trepid interest, and it is a time for those individual minds to up their ante, and deliver a resounding rebuttal to the ways of the past.

In Twitterville, where a large part of the revolution was staged and brainstormed, there have been curious queries from people abroad on whether Qatar needs to prepare its ‘Tah-rir square’, and the repartees have been both insightful and humorous. A Qatari tweets: “The Qatari Emir is the only one of his peers who can walk safely amongst his people.” Another wonders if Souq Waqif would be a fun spot to protest the lack of good Mexican food. An expatriate talks of why there is no worry here – “health, education, employment all taken care of, what’s there to protest about?”

So what’s the latest in Qatar that we can talk about? Wheels, of course. And the recently established Qatar Automotive Gateway (Qatar Ag) that will see the country interesting the auto production value chain.

We also look at the future of Islamic banking units within conventional banks, and the world of mobile cloud.

Action-packed as always, Qatar Today’s March issue, delivers a punch.

va n i sa R as Wat h i

l e t t e R s

IneffectIve PR

Being an employee at a media organisation, I personally liked the article ‘Message is a Bat-tle’ in the February issue. Where on one hand, the country is becoming a major attraction with events like Doha Tribeca Film Festival and Asian Cup Football; on the other hand it also suffers from a media industry which is unable to provide the exact details and infor-mation on time. With major events like FIFA 2022 lined up, there will be a definite need for good and effective media coverage. I second Media Relations Manager, Vodafone, Lana Khachan’s thought of forming a media authority that would ensure that industry codes of conduct are upheld.

yasmin salman

BelIeve In the cause

I was reading the story on the degradable Bag and was touched by the initiative of The One. I will make it a point to buy a bag from the store as it will not only help in making our planet free of pollution but would eventually reach to the parts of the world where hunger still prevails. Buying the FEED bags would help me to participate in the humanitarian cause. I would request others to be part of the cause and believe in bringing about change.

rob xavier

WheRe theRe Is a WIll....

I was highly inspired after reading the article “The Special Champion” and the journalist has told the emotional story of Abdullah Nasser Al-Mani ,a special Olympic player. We re-ally need more people like Al-Mani who have made their own identity. Human beings are the most beautiful creations blessed by unique powers which if utilised well, can do won-ders and Al-Mani is the best example. Hats off to Al-Mani for the courage he has shown by being a part of the Special Olympics team.

taheem obaidly

small countRy, BIg Punch

This is regarding the article ‘Cities and Sports’ from the February issue. The win of FIFA 2022 bid has brought Qatar in the limelight. All eyes are fixed on how the small country is going to handle the big challenge. But Qatar has a plan – a plan which not only will help the country in building its infrastructure even better but would also help in adopting to the green practices more. I was going through a link on youtube where they have shown the de-signing and plan of the future stadiums where the FIFA world cup will take place and I was stunned to see the designs of the stadiums. They are exceptionally good and I wish Qatar all the best for the World Cup.

thomas

[email protected] food Is a conceRn

the cover story highlighted a major concern prevailing in the region and needs to be

taken care of immediately. increasing food prices has become a foremost concern all

around the world and qatar is not an exception. the stats show that qatar is importing

60-95% of their food requirements which is a huge percentage. though being one of the

richest countries in the world, qatar is capable of importing food at any cost but when

other countries are banning export it will become difficult for the country to balance

the food equilibrium and the climate conditions here also doesn’t support the agricul-

ture practices in the region. i liked the analysis and the plans of the country in making it

food secure.rajan kodembakam

s m s a n s W e R s to + 9 74 3 3 0 7 2 5 24 a lu c k y W i n n e R W i l l W i n a n o k i a e 6 3

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qatar today reserves the right to edit and publish the correspondence. views and opinions expressed in the published letters may not necessarily be the publication’s views and opinions.

Will the sponsoRship Rules in QataR Be changed to the Benefit of the WoRkeRs?

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t h e W i n n i n g n u m B e R o f t h el as t Q t p o l l i s 5 5 9 6 7 1 6 0

QataR today invites ReadeRs’ feedBack

shaRe youR vieWs on the magazine oR any issue connected to QataR. one lucky ReadeR Will Win an exQuisite mont Blanc WRiting instRument.

write to: the editor, qatar today, po box 3272, doha.

fax: (+974) 44550982, email: [email protected]

check out all aRticles of QataR today onWWW.issuu.com/oRyxmags

folloW us onWWW.faceBook.com/QataRtodayWWW.tWitteR.com/QataRtoday

QataR today m a r c h 2 0 1 110

nodal agencyto monitoR and help smes

atar took a major step to bolster its economic diver-sification drive and decided to set up a nodal agency that would be tasked with

encouraging, helping in funding and moni-toring SMEs The idea is to help improve the contribution of SMEs to the national economy.

The proposed agency which will be au-tonomous is to have annual budgets and will be reporting to the Supreme Council for Economic and Investment Affairs.

Its main mission is to frame an exten-sive national strategy to develop small and medium enterprises in close coordination with other state organs and this strategy would be directly linked to the overall na-tional development strategy. The proposed body would have a board to be headed by a chairman and the tenure of the directors (members of the board) numbering five to 11 is to be three years. The term will be re-newable.

The Emir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani on the recommendations of the chairman, will directly appoint the CEO of the proposed agency which will have exten-sive powers to achieve its goals.

neWs Bites

Will poWeR 30

eneral Secretariat and Development Planning (GSDP) Secretary General Dr Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim de-livered a presentation on

National Development Strategy 2011-2016 (NDS 2011-2016), at the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) at Education City, recently.

While presenting ‘NDS 2011-2016 and Pathway to Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030),’ Dr Al-Ibrahim said, “Qatar’s strategic planning aims to provide high standards of living for its people and the future of our country, while preserving the country’s traditions and culture. In line with Qatar’s senior leadership’s resolve to see the country continue on its path of de-velopment and growth, the QNV 2030 was formulated in 2008 to set the foundation for sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental development.”

“The QNV 2030 defines the long-term outcomes for the country rather the pro-cess for reaching these outcomes and it provides a framework within which nation-al strategies and implementation plans can be developed,” Dr Ibrahim explained. How-ever, he said the NDS would help QNV 2030

in realising the ambitious goals by defining priorities, directions, and processes would also provide a medium-term framework for aligned sector and enterprise strategies containing various plans, programmes and projects.

Dr Al-Ibrahim added, “The framework aligned with QNV 2030 would allow full participation from all the sectors and would make sure that they are educated, capable and healthy population, effective Qatari participation in a productive labour force, environmental sustainability, caring and cohesive society and sustainable economic prosperity.”

no neW suBscRiBeRs foR viRgin?

Qtel’s Virgin Mobile Services (QVMS) has suspended accepting new subscribers in compliance with an ictQATAR order. Virgin Mobile SIM cards are neither available online nor from their stores. A notice on their website said: ictQATAR has asked us to stop enrolling new customers until ictQATAR confirms that we

have fully complied with their orders for how we present and market our services. Virgin mobile or Qtel authorities were not available for comment. Mobile services

operator Vodafone had objected to the entry of Virgin in the market and ictQatar had given a ruling last year saying it had resolved the issue amicably.

nds – a neW appRoach to Realise vision 2030

g

gQataR natIonal vIsIondr ibrahim al-ibrahim, secretary genral, gsdp

QataR today m a r c h y 2 0 1 112

n e W s B i t e s

atari Diar has started work on an underground trans-port network linking all the major commercial and administrative centres in

West Bay.The Automated People Mover system is

part of the Doha Metro project and is sched-uled to be completed by 2018, according to Harj Dhaliwal, Project Director (railways) at Qatari Diar.

Dhaliwal gave a presentation on the proj-ect at the UITP (International Association of Public Transport) Middle East and North Africa Qatar seminar held at Grand Regency Hotel recently.

Dhaliwal said, the Automated People Mover was intended to address the traffic congestion in the crowded West Bay and the Corniche area.

The People Mover will function without a driver. The network will start and end at the Doha Sheraton parking area where work is currently going on. The 10km underground network will have 19 stations linking the diplomatic area and all the important com-mercial, business and administrative cen-tres in West Bay. The People Mover will operate on a special track named guideway system that is neither a road nor a railway track. There will be three carriages, one for the public, one for VIPs and another for

families and children. Passengers will be able to use the recently-introduced Karwa smart cards to pay fares for the service.

The underground network will not affect the existing roads in the area since it will follow the same plan of the roads.

“Once completed, the project will drasti-cally reduce the traffic congestions in West Bay. Work will be carried out in a phased manner to minimise the impact on the flow of traffic,” said Dhaliwal.

A presentation by the Urban Planning and Development Authority (UPDA) fo-cused on future transport scenarios in Qa-tar, particularly in the context of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

QWoRk Begins on undeRgRound tRanspoRt netWoRk

he Georgetown University School of Foreign Services in Qatar (SFS-Q), at the Education City was bustling with VVIPs recently.

The occasion was the official opening of the new SFS-Q building where HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned marked her presence. Along with HH Sheikha Mozah were Deputy Premier and Chairman of Emiri Diwan HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Chairman of Qatar 2022 Bid Com-mittee HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, Chairperson of Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority HE Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, Vice-Pres-ident of Education at Qatar Foundation, Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani and Presi-dent of Georgetown University Dr John J DeGioia.

Eng Saad Al-Muhannadi, Vice-Chair-man of Capitol Projects and Facili-ties Management at Qatar Foundation, briefed the media about the planning and design of the building.

Designed by renowned Mexican archi-tect Legorreta+Legorreta, the building has been designed keeping in mind the

green building concept and is currently under the evaluating with hopes of being LEED certified within the next two years.

sfs-Q Building foRmally opened

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neW facIlItIes Revealedhh sheikha moZah bint nasser al-missned among the dignitaries present at the sfs-q building launch ceremony

B u i l d i n g Fa c t F i l e :

Cost of building

Q R600 m i l l i o n

T o Ta l a R e a o f S f S - Q i n S Q m T

40,000

library

w i T h o v e R 60,000 p R i n T v o l u m e S , c l o S e T o

5,000 D v D S , a n D m o R e T h a n 500,000

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salaRies set to Riserivate sector salaries in Qa-tar is forecast to increase at an average rate of 6.8% this year, according to research released today by GulfTal-

ent.com, an online recruitment firm in the Middle East.

The findings were published in GulfTal-ent.com’s sixth annual review of labour market trends entitled ‘Employment and

Salary Trends in the Gulf 2010-2011’ and were based on a survey of 32,000 profes-sionals and 1,400 companies across the six Gulf States.

Although much lower than the double-digit increases of 2008, the pay rises were all higher than the rates of inflation, result-ing in improving living standards for many. However, an estimated 55% of profession-als did not receive any pay increase at all.

Across the region, with consumer spend-ing picking up, the retail sector saw the highest pay rise at 6.4%, while education had the smallest increase at 3.8%.

According to the study, pay increases were largely driven by the employers’ ef-forts to retain their top performers, grow-ing demand for skill in Qatar and Saudi Ara-bia, as well as continued growth in Asia, the main source of talent for the Gulf.

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hamad and sidRa to collaBoRate

hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Medical Research Cen-ter and Sidra Medical and Re-search Center will collaborate

on biomedical research on the general areas of women and children’s health, in particular maternal and fetal health, diseases of pregnancy, and clinical paediatrics with the aim of addressing these key health issues in Qatar.

“HMC and Sidra have the same overall strategic goal to improve health and healthcare for the com-munity in Qatar and beyond, through focused medical research,” according to a joint statement by Dr Al Hareth Al-Khater, Chairman of HMC’s Medi-cal Research Center and Dan Bergin, Executive Project Director of Sidra. The National Research Strategy for Qatar has identified women and chil-dren’s health as paramount health issues that also include diabetes, obe-sity, cardiovascular diseases, genetic factors on health of individuals and population, cancer-primarily breast, haematological, and colon malignan-cies, and health and environmental pollution.

nfrastructure development projects worth QR70 billion will be made in the utility sector in the next decade, according to a top official of

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corpo-ration (Kahramaa). He was speaking at one of the sessions of Meed Qatar Projects 2011 held last month here.

Stressing that Qatar offered enormous investment opportunities for major compa-nies with proven track record as part of the infrastructure development being carried out, Saad Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mohannadi, from Kahramaa, said the power sector alone would undertake projects worth QR30

billion in the next 10 years.The power generation today stands

close to 7,881MW while the actual peak re-quirement is a little more than 6,100MW. With the complete commissioning of the 2,730MW Ras Girtas project in April last year, the power generation would exceed 9,000MW, he said. Even at the current rate, the country would not face any electricity shortage until 2015, he said.

The two-day event organised by MEED and held under the patronage of Chairman of the Emiri Diwan and Deputy Prime Min-ister HE Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah focused on the country’s infrastructure requirement.

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meed focuses on pRoJect needs

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op executives of Barwa Real Estate and senior represen-tatives attended a ceremo-ny to celebrate the official opening of Barwa Village on

February 14. Barwa Village, located between the Doha

International Airport and Wakra is a resi-dential and commercial real estate develop-ment that will meet the housing and com-mercial needs of the country.

Barwa Investments, Director-Qatar, Ibrahim Fakhro said, “Barwa Village sup-ports the vision of Barwa and its commit-ment to be a major partner in the urban re-naissance of Qatar. The Village successfully balances the needs of tenants and residents with the commercial ambitions of retailers in the community.”

More than 30% of Barwa Village is green space, designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The project does not allow high-rise buildings, thereby reducing traffic con-

gestion. The maximum height is restricted to three floors for residential and civil buildings with only the shopping mall one storey higher. Barwa Village, General Man-ager, Khaled Al-Hitmi commented, “Barwa Village provides all of the day-to-day needs and amenities for the neighbourhood. We are reaching full capacity for apartments and have leased the majority of the com-mercial properties.

“The attraction of Barwa Village is not only the quality of the properties, but also the constant availability of maintenance and repair for our tenants.”

Barwa Village joins the spectrum of Barwa Real Estate developments from up-market developments at Barwa Al Sadd and Barwa Financial District to affordable housing projects at Masaken Mesaimeer and Masaken Al Sailiya, and from the major commercial project at Barwa Commercial Avenue to the landmark residential scheme at Barwa City.

ohaland’s flagship project ‘Musheireb’ has won two awards at the MIPIM Ar-chitectural Review Future Projects Awards, through

one of their architects commissioned for the project, Mossessian & Partners. The ‘Mixed Use’ category and the ‘Overall Win-ner’ was awarded for the mixed use cluster of buildings around the Al Barahat Square, a civic, and the centrepiece of Phase 1B of Dohaland’s QR20 billion Musheireb development.

Founded in 2002, the MIPIM Archi-tectural Review Future Projects Awards include eight categories and are awarded every year for international projects that are under construction. The judges seek out projects that combine architectural ex-cellence and consideration for the context, both environmental and social. Past win-ners include Jean Nouvel (2010, for One New Change) and Foster & Partners (2003, for the Swiss Re building).

‘musheiReB’ pRoJect Wins aWaRds

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BaRWa village inauguRated

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one-year ‘affreightment contract’ was renewed be-tween Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Com-pany (Tasweeq) and LPG

Global Transport Management recently to deliver liquefied petroleum gas from Qatar to Tasweeq’s customers across the globe.

The signing of the contract took place in the presence of Saad Al-Kuwari, Tas-weeq’s Chief Executive Officer, Kazunori Nakai, Mitsui OSK Lines Executive Officer and Nakilat Managing Director Mohamed Ghannam.

By renewing its contract, Tasweeq aims to reinforce its mission of ‘reliable and ef-ficient’ off-take of ‘regulated products’ to maximise the value for customers and stakeholders.

o & g oveRvieW

the value of Being gloBal 37

atar’s Energy and Industry Minister HE Dr Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada was appoint-ed Chairman and Manag-ing Director of state-owned

Qatar Petroleum by the Emir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, according to a decree. Dr. Al-Sada replaced former Min-ister for Energy and Industry HE Abdullah Al-Attiyah, who was made head of the Emiri

Diwan last month after serving 19 years as Qa-tar’s top energy official.

Dr Al Sada, who earned his PhD from the University of Manchester’s Institute of Sci-ence & Technology, will head a company that owns a majority stake in all of Qatar’s lique-fied natural gas plants. QP also owns stakes in chemical, fertilizer, steel and aluminum ven-tures as well as in LNG receiving terminals in the US, UK and Italy.

atargas reached a significant milestone recently, when it became the world’s largest producer of LNG by meeting the target of producing 42

million tonnes per year. The achievement came after the commencing of produc-tion from Train 7 of the QatarGas 4 (QG4) project which is owned by the share holders

Qatar Petroleum (70%) and Shell (30%). Train 7 is the world’s largest LNG facility with a 7.8 million tonnes per year capac-ity and is the final of the four major trains constructed by Qatargas at Ras Laffan. The project has opened many new markets for LNG other than US. Sales agreement has already been signed with China and Dubai for QG4 LNG.

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tasWeeQ in gloBal lpg supply deal

ge helps in minimising gas flaRingin the first large-scale application of its type, GE Oil & Gas advanced compressor technology is minimising liquefied natural gas (LNG) boil-off gas flaring at LNG berths at the Ras Laffan Port, Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, by making productive use of the gas that boils off during loading of the LNG carriers.

Gas that was previously boiled-off and flared during the loading of LNG carriers in Ras Laffan Port will now be collected from the LNG carriers and transferred to a Central Compression Area via large diameter stainless steel pipelines. At the Central Compression Area, GE compression units will com-press the gas and send it to the LNG trains primarily for use as fuel gas. Qatargas and RasGas are dedicated to continuously improving environmen-tal performance. GE’s reliable tech-nology will be critical to the success of the project.

QuickbiTeS Qp neT income QR 35 .2

billion in 2009 on QR1 18 . 1 billion of Revenue

woRlD’S laRgeST lng faciliTyTRain 7 capaciTy 7.8 million Tpa


c o v e R s t o R y s h i f t i n g g e a R s

Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group completed the ac-quisition of majority shares in Bank Kesawan, an In-donesian Bank following a

rights issue.QNB Group and Bank Kesawan signed a

‘Letter of Intent’ in September 2010, mak-ing QNB Group the ‘Standby Buyer’ for the rights issue which received regulatory ap-proval in December 2010.QNB Group Chief Executive Officer, Ali Shareef Al-Emadi said this partnership is in line with the Bank’s international growth strategy to ex-

pand its presence in strategic markets with significant potential. “QNB Group is a com-mitted long-term investor in Bank Kesawan and wishes through its investment to be a partner in the development of Indonesia’s economy,” he said. Bank Kesawan currently operates a network of 36 branches and sub branches throughout Indonesia, with to-tal assets of approximately Indonesian Rp 3.2 trillion (QR1,295 million) and share-holders’ equity of approximately Indone-sian Rp920 billion. (QR371 million), with a capital adequacy ratio of 60% after the completion of the recent rights issue.

IB won the Best Islamic Financing Institution in Qatar in 2010 from the 8th International Real Estate Finance Summit (IREF)

organised by ICG in London. QIB has re-ceived the award due to its excellent financ-ing solutions for local companies as well as its premier standing as a competent Qatari financial institution contributing to shap-ing the national economy.

Upon receiving the award in London, QIB Acting Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Meshari said, “This award reflects QIB’s commitment to position itself as the Islam-ic Banking pioneer not only amongst the financial institutions in Qatar but region-ally and globally. It’s recognition for QIB’s continuous efforts in developing Islamic banking in Qatar and the world for the past 28 years.”

he collective net profits of Qatari banks jumped to an all-time high of QR12.3 bil-lion in 2010, up an impres-sive 25% over 2009. al khali-

ji bank recorded the highest growth among all the local banks in percentage terms.

The bank witnessed a growth of an in-credible 155%, followed by Al Ahli Bank. Qatar National Bank (QNB), the country’s largest lender which is half state-owned, achieved maximum profits in terms of quantum but ranked third as far as growth percentage was concerned.

The highest growth in the net profits of the local banks was witnessed in 2007 due to massive return on investments in local stocks.

However, looking at the profit figures quarter-wise in 2010, the maximum growth was witnessed in the fourth and the last quarter (Q4) at 39% over the corresponding period of 2009. Net interest income of the

banks also improved in 2010 and with their loan portfolios rising considerably.

Allowances (admissible to management and staff ) and other allocations of the banks were high in the last quarter of 2010, which led to reduced profits for the whole year. It is, however, not known if the above figures also included provisioning of the banks for doubtful or bad loans.

It is interesting to note here that the Is-lamic banks and the Islamic arms of con-ventional banks together accounted for a hefty 35% of the collective net profits of the local banks in 2010.

The figure was QR4.25 billion. The Is-lamic branches of commercial banks which are in the news recently now due to the country’s banking regulator asking them to close by the year-end, had a share of QR1.15 billion in the total. The share of the annual profits of these branches (Islamic units of conventional banks) collectively worked out to 9% of the total.

tQataRi Banks shine aWaRd foR QiB

Bank notes

conventional Banks lose islamic advantage 22

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up 25% oveR 2009

iSlamic bankS & iSlamic aRmS of convenTional bankS

QR 4 .25 billion

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B a n k n o t e s

islamic advantage

‘overlap’ issues that forced the surprise decision to close down Islamic units of conventional banks, six years after they were al-lowed to operate, has baffled the market as well as the lenders, wondering whether zero sum game holds good or not.

Financial accounting problems notwithstanding, arguments and counter-arguments fly thick and fast; compounding the doubts about the decision, which according to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is to strengthen the monetary policy, which itself is often constrained by the fixed exchange parity with the US greenback.

High stakesCertain key queries, especially relating to the ways and means of compartmentalisation, amid an era of consolidation and compe-tition, remain unanswered; even as QCB said, “The use of mon-etary policy instruments face significant challenges due to the current overlap, which hinders the optimal use of these tools, negatively impacting the monetary policy performance and im-peding the creation of new tools.”

However, the market is abuzz with rumours that commercial banks are joining hands to create a mega Islamic bank, considering the potential arising out of the mammoth infrastructure require-ments, especially in the wake of the bid win. In this context, it will be worthwhile to remember the words of Doha Bank Group CEO R Seetharaman, who said “Islamic banking provides a more via-ble alternative to conventional banking and is less cycle-prone”.

International credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s pegs additional government infrastructure spending for the World Cup at about QR233 billion ($64 billion, or 47% of 2010 GDP)

THE

conVentional Banks Forced to scamperthe QataR centRal Bank has given time until decemBeR 2011 foR the conventional Banks to close doWn theiR islamic financing WindoW. What Will Be the implications?

m a r c h 2 0 1 1 QataR today 23

the RegulatoRnew instruction prohibits conventional banks from extending new islamic loans and require that they repay all islamic deposits as they come due

with new stadiums and other basic infrastructure (such as the metro rail system and road extensions) are expected to be built. Over the next few years, the country is planning to spend more than QR365 billion for infrastructure and other projects as parts of lessening dependence on its oil revenues.

Qatar’s banking sector, which has seen many sovereign stra-tegic interventions since the advent of global financial crisis, is rather dominated by conventional lenders whose assets consti-tute three-fourth of the total industry assets; whereby doubts again linger over whether the Central Bank’s new mission could ensure a level playing field.

Top honchos in the (conventional) banking circle have been very cautious while commenting in public but in private they do admit on the hit but differ on the magnitude; while tight-lipped on the chemistry of segregation.

Global credit rating agency Moody’s has said, the conventional lenders could lose between 8%-16% of their deposit base, total as-sets and profits. “The loss of Islamic banking franchise is credit negative for Qatari conventional banks, which derive 10%-15% of their yearly earnings from Sharia’a-compliant banking,” Moody’s credit analyst Elena Panayiotou said.

Qatar has 14 conventional banks (six domestic, one specialised and seven foreign-owned) and four Islamic banks; all of which come under the ambit of the QCB.

Domestic banks are QNB, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, IBQ, Ahlibank and al khaliji. A specialised lender is Qatar Develop-ment Bank. Foreign banks are HSBC Middle East, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, Arab Bank, Saderat Iran Bank, United

Bank and Mashreq Bank. Islamic lenders are Qatar Islamic Bank, International Islamic, Masraf Al Rayan and Barwa Bank.

Stakes are high for the country’s largest lender QNB, which has a 39% share in total banking system assets and a high 20% in Is-lamic banking assets. Islamic assets and deposits of Commercial-bank and Doha Bank, which are the second and the third largest conventional lenders, made up 7%-10% of their balance sheets, according to Moody’s.

Come December...The Central Bank has given time until December 2011, for the conventional banks to close down their Islamic financing win-dow. The new instruction prohibits Qatari conventional banks from extending new Islamic loans and require that they repay all Islamic deposits as they come due.

The commercial lenders may not foresee much issue on the liabilities side since most deposits are typically short-term, as they would be repaid by the end of 2011. Although Qatari banks may be in a position to convert part of their Islamic deposits to conventional deposits, repayment of the Islamic deposits will have a negative impact on their liquidity over the short-term, which nonetheless should remain at adequate levels,” according to Moody’s.

The issue largely pertains to the assets or credit portfolio side and on the best possible way to lessen the hit on commer-cial banks; especially considering that many of the conventional lenders have invested heavily for the infrastructure required for Islamic windows and has already advanced quite substantial


amounts, apart from jointly developing certain Islamic financing products.

Conventional wisdom suggests plausible routes such as con-version into Islamic bank, applying for a separate license, trans-ferring the Islamic business to a separate subsidiary and Islamic asset sale to Sharia’a-principled banks, each of which itself is time consuming and fraught with many legal, ethical and other issues.

The QCB has been rather conservative in granting license, said a top banker, indicating fresh licenses may not figure in the scheme. One of the options, doing the rounds, is that of creating a mega Islamic bank by the commercial lenders.

Various unconfirmed media reports suggest that the initial capital of the mega Islamic bank would be divided among the commercial banks in proportion to their volume of Islamic banking businesses.

The QCB has made it clear that it is currently working on the preparation of separate capital adequacy norms for Is-lamic banks; in line with the standards set by the Islamic Financial Services Board of Malaysia, which is considered as the pioneer of Islamic finance, which has the potential to reach $1 trillion globally.

However, clarity is again lacking as to how there could be two set of capital norms, considering that the country’s banking industry is all set to embrace Basel III norms by 2018, even as Finance Minister HE Yousef Hussein Kamal said it could be achieved in 2013 itself.

Another school of thought is that there could be further segregation of personal and wholesale banking businesses within the Islamic units and the wholesale assets could be bundled into a new entity, which could be operated from the Qatar Financial Centre, which does not allow retail banking operations; while retail assets being could be sold off to Islamic lenders.

Qatar Islamic Bank has already evinced interests in buying up Islamic units of the conventional banks but did not disclose fur-ther details.

International Bank of Qatar had said selling Islamic units have been viewed as one of the options while he did not explain the other options.

Analysts have cautioned that selling would not be as simple as it may sound since it not only involved complex valuation but also needed effective regulation, including those relating to securitisation, owing to the longer term maturities of the loan portfolio.

Moreover, they apprehended that the decision to ban Islamic

financing windows of conventional banks may ‘rock the boat’ considering the mammoth capital expenditure required for the infrastructure development, including that for the World Cup; even as International Bank of Qatar Managing Director George Nasra held project financing will not be affected as lenders were rather ‘over capitalised’.

The conventional banks usually leverage their businesses through Islamic banking because of the exposure limits to proj-ects and the ban will mean a total cut off of alternative route to strengthen their balance sheets; implying more business pros-pects for regional and global banks.

Highlighting that the banks in Qatar will be a direct beneficiary in funding for World Cup 2022, Global had said this is likely to spur the credit growth of Qatari banks further and ‘the domestic banks along will not be sufficient to fund the expenditure and as a matter of fact there will be active participation from the foreign and other GCC banks.’

On the other hand, Islamic banks should benefit from the new directive given that the segregation of Islamic and conventional banking will provide access to a large pool of customers, strengthen their franchise dynamics in Qatar as few-er institutions will be competing for the same business and potentially provide greater bargaining power with customers, resulting in better profit margins.

Finding that Qatari banks have been lending more than 100% of their depos-its, indicating incremental borrowings

through wholesale funding, Global in its latest report said the strong credit growth has resulted in piling up of these costly de-posits owing to which they can witness some pressure on net in-terest margins.

Although sceptical on the practicability of conventional banks to close down their Islamic financing operation, analysts said Islamic banks, especially highly capitalised new entrants, would stand to gain as they could procure readymade customer, deposit and asset bases.

It appears that the commercial banks’ loss may not be Islamic lenders’ gain, considering the vast opportunity costs of the con-ventional bankers in the fastest growing economy, apart from their infrastructure and transaction costs. Clarity again lacks, especially at a time when risks on delinquencies are on the rise, on a possible Islamic assets sale of commercial banks.

A clear picture would emerge in the coming days as the QCB has convened a meeting with the heads of conventional banks

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39% i n t o t a l B a n k i n g s y s t e m a s s e t s

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“the use of monetaRy policy instRuments face significant

challenges due to the cuRRent oveRlap, Which hindeRs the optimal use of these tools,

negatively impacting the monetaRy policy peRfoRmance and impeding the cReation of

neW tools.”


ahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has issued direc-tions for a cabinet reshuffle, as pressure continues to mount on the government

from anti-government protesters. Hamad issued the orders for a reshuffle

in four ministries - labour, health, cabinet affairs and housing, according to Bahrain news agency.

Protesters continued their demand for the resignation of the entire cabinet, which they want to be replaced by individuals elected by citizens.

Meanwhile Libya in recent days has be-come a battlefield with more than a thou-sand dead, amid fears of a much greater massacre and expectations of a full-fledged civil war.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved sanctions against Libya, includ-ing an arms embargo and the referral of the situation to International Criminal Court.

The council voted 15-0 to adopt Resolution 1970 imposing a comprehensive arms embargo, a travel ban and freeze of assets on the Gaddafi regime.

Council members called for the full implementation of the sanctions in an effort to stop Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi from fur-ther killing civilian protest-ers seeking his ouster.

Some council members, including the US, Britain, Germany and France, spoke in favour of the move to refer to the International Criminal Court the killing of civilians by Gaddafi’s forces in the repression of pro-democracy protesters. It was the first time a country has been unanimously referred to the court by the council.

However, the sanctions’ effect would be

limited. Freezing Gadhafi’s accounts, en-forcing a weapons embargo and not grant-ing visas to his officials will not deter him from continuing his war against his civil-ians, say analysts.

tate-run Saudi Aramco will start storing oil in Japan from February. The first ship carrying about 1.9 mil-lion barrels of crude ar-

rived in Japan, end of February. The move is aimed at helping Japan stock up its re-serves while giving Saudi Arabia, the top oil exporter, better access to Asian markets, Reuters reported. JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation) and Saudi Aramco signed a contract in Decem-ber allowing the latter to store about 3.8 million barrels of crude in Okinawa, south-west Japan, for three years.

The move follows a deal Japan inked with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company two years ago to store crude in Japan, as part of the Middle East producers move to bol-ster their onshore crude storage capacity in Asia.

call foR change

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he Government of Abu Dhabi has started handing over more than 1,000 newly-built villas each costing about Dh1.3 million

to UAE nationals in Al Ain free of cost. The distribution of 1,008 houses

among residents who have applied for new houses in Al Ain’s suburbs started on February 9.

“Each villa has been constructed for about Dh1.3 million on an average for over 900 needy families in the suburbs of Al Ain City. The project also includes other infrastructures such as roads, parking areas, community centres like wedding halls and schools. The houses have been built and is being distrib-uted under an Emiree Decree issued by the President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan under his capacity as the Ruler of Abu Dhabi Emirate,” a senior official from Al Ain City Municipality.

villas given fRee to nationals in al ain

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W o R l d v i e W

125 yeaRs sInce Benzgermany, stuttgart : (from l) german chancellor angela merkel, moderator and actress desiree nosbusch and ceo of the daimler ag, dieter Zetsche, during the ceremony of the 125th birthday of the automobile at the mercedes-benZ world in stuttgart, southern germany, on january 29, 2011. 125-years ago, carl benZ filed the patent for his ‘vehicle with a gasoline-powered engine’ which marks the official birthday of the automobile.

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taB BandWagonunited states, san francisco : us tennis player

serena williams (r) tries an hp palm’s tablet, touch pad, during the introduction of touch pad at the

webos event at fort mason’s herbst pavilion on february 9, 2011 in san francisco, california.

Pay Back tImeecuador, quito : amaZon defence front lawyer pablo fajardo shows a copy of

the sentence of the sucumbios provincial court ordering us giant

chevron to pay $9.5 billion as compensa-tion for environmental damages caused

between 1964 and 1990, in quito, on february 15, 2011. chevron blasted the

decision as a ‘product of fraud’, while lawyers representing the ecuadoran

amaZon communities that filed the decades-old lawsuit claim the amount is

far too low.

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wolverson is an independent financial advisor with pinnacle asset and wealth management with over 20 years’ experience. he

welomes enquiries for financial advice. peruse the website at: www.yourmoney-matters.com

by gRaham WolveRson

feedBack

[email protected]

THErE is a general misconception in the Middle East that in the event of death, the laws of your home country will apply to your estate. These are cer-tainly the guidelines but they do not have to be adhered to by the local courts when de-

ciding what to do with your assets. The way estates are dealt with after a death varies all over the world and if you die overseas, the local court’s ruling can ap-ply. If you die at home, it is likely that your estate would pass directly to your surviving spouse. This is not the case here. If the local court is willing to con-sider what your wishes are, then a clear written indication needs to be given.

A ‘properly’ written Will is the basic requirement. We stress here the word ‘properly’ as there is more money made by lawyers sorting out estates after bad-ly-written Wills than they would make drawing up a proper Will in the first place. In this region, many companies claim to be ‘Will specialists’ but the fact is that their Wills have yet to be tested to see if they work. You get what you pay for and although you can produce your own Will, you need to die to see if has worked. For you, this is not a problem, but for your nominated beneficiaries it could be a nightmare.

Having a correctly written Will from your home country is not enough to have it accepted here, it needs to be put into a format that is accepted locally. This would normally mean that it needs translating into Arabic and attested as an accurate translation that the local court approves. This can be done as the Will is produced but it does increase the costs, or it can be left until a claim needs to be made. The company that we recommend

produces the Will and then completes the process should a claim need to be made. They have been proven to be acceptable in the region. We dealt with a British lady whose husband passed away and the local court (in the UAE) gave custody of their son to the lady’s father-in-law, the young boy’s grandfather. They had a UK Will that would have been accepted locally had it been presented to the court correctly. We would suggest that caution rather than cost be the key issue.

With estate planning, it is possible to distribute your assets before you die yet still have access to them when you are alive. A Will is an instrument that dictates how your estate is to be distributed on your death and it only comes into effect when you have thrown a seven.

A trust is a way of giving something away while you are still alive and may be created at anytime. Depending on the way the trust is established, the trustees (those that look after the trust) will act according to your wishes and in certain circumstances you can still change your mind. In the (European) Middle Ages monks were not allowed to own property so they placed it in trust to be held legally on their behalf.

Likewise when knights went off to bat-tle they placed their property in trust so that should they not return, as was often the case, their property did not default to, say, the King but would remain for the benefit of their family.

These ancient principles still exit. You can also have a life insurance policy that is held in trust. The main reason for doing this is that in the event of death the pro-ceeds of the policy can be paid out speed-ily since that all that is required is the death certificate and tax may be avoided as the proceeds do not form part of the es-tate, and it does not fall within the remit of a local court. If you have an existing life insurance policy, it can still be put into a trust. We can help with this

will powerv i e W p o i n t

“a ‘pRopeRly’ WRitten Will is the Basic ReQuiRement. We stRess

heRe the WoRd ‘pRopeRly’ as theRe is moRe money made By laWyeRs soRting out estates

afteR Badly-WRitten Wills than they Would make dRaWing up a pRopeR Will in the fiRst place”

v i e W p o i n t


time immemorial, building a house meant that before long, there would be a track to and from its front door. As buildings grew into hamlets, people often built next to each other for family support and security. Clusters created intersections for important tracks and the seeds of commercial and social crossroads, future towns and cities. Historically visible all over the world, especially in the ancient settlements of the Middle East, this pattern shows that transportation and land use are inextricably linked. It is no dif-ferent in the 21st century. One of our greatest dilemmas is how to move people around cities efficiently and comfortably.

In Europe, researchers have found that ancient hamlets, vil-lages, towns and cities evolved in a grid of time – space where

SincE

the city in transithistoRically, tRanspoRtation and land use aRe inextRicaBly linked. it is no diffeRent in the 21st centuRy. one of ouR gReatest dilemmas is hoW to move people aRound cities efficiently and comfoRtaBly.

duBaI metRostations of these mass transit systems become focal points

v i e W p o i n t


folloW us on tWItteR@qatartoday

by Ian lyne

farmers could get their fresh produce to market and back home within a day. The invention of the steam engine meant thousands were suddenly able to escape the monotony of those animal pow-ered journeys. These rail-based networks grew across several continents and in their wake created new hubs of activity around grand new stations.

The MetroThe advent of the metro or, as it is known in London, ‘the under-ground’ brought a plethora of new stations. When Frank Pick de-ployed the London system back in 1920s many of the well-known urban places of today were just a station building in a field. The mass transit of people from home to work brought about a whole-sale restructuring of cities like Paris, London and Moscow with the creation of new ‘urban villages’ focused around metro stations. In the 20th century, rapidly growing cities like Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore have successfully developed mass transit systems.

The introduction of the private car brought even greater freedoms but also heralded the start of road building and the development of the ubiquitous ‘burbs’ on a massive scale. In order to support the amenities and services that are the real benefit of city living, many more people per hectare are required, many more than we find in typical suburbs. Yet, despite this lack of ‘density’ throughout the 20th cen-tury the sub-urban area of cities has grown and grown to create huge problems for the future. Gulf cities are no exception and with the gift of increased mobility and the choice of where to live comes the price tag of congestion, pollution and increasingly, more wasted time in travel.

Most people in the Gulf already know about the time cost of congestion but few recognise the real cost of airborn par-ticulates that originate from car exhausts. Respiratory diseases are on the increase throughout the region, particularly amongst the young. Even if new vehicles become cleaner, the problem of congestion will not go away.

The answer is to persuade as many people as possible to travel by much more efficient, affordable, clean and comfortable ‘mass’ or public transit. Systems are already in place in Dubai with sta-tions quickly becoming the focus of new places. Just like in Lon-don 100 years ago, these ‘nodes’ of transportation will become centres, distinctive places each with their own identity. And, apart from the stations themselves, the opportunity of co-locat-ing services and facilities, such as schools and healthcare nearby means that as many people as possible can easily access and even walk to them.

Transit Oriented DevelopmentResearch shows that with transit systems in place, journey times become shorter and less frequent. Less time is wasted and local communities become more supportive of the place where they live. This phenomenon is called ‘transit-oriented development’ (TOD) and it is a successful pattern that is clearly visible in most of the world’s great cities. But, car salesmen should not worry; research also shows that the number of cars doesn’t necessarily reduce! Although this pattern of transit-based development is more efficient, people tend to use their more environmentally friendly cars for leisure and recreation rather than commuting. They make shorter journeys with fewer overall miles per year but car sales keep rising.

Talk to any knowledgeable planner these days and you will quickly be regaled with the need and virtues of TOD. It is not a new idea and has been around for more than a century. What is different is that metro systems are now clean, comfortable and

massively efficient compared to private vehicle transport for work-based travel. Swish new systems like that in Dubai are soon to be emulated in Doha. Improved localised services also depend on clean and efficient bus system of the kind being introduced by Mowasalat in Qatar. Bus systems include bus rapid transit (BRT) such as that made famous in Curitiba, Brazil. These systems are very well-suit-ed to urban conditions in the Gulf.

Buses and light rail systems can be de-signed to provide highly efficient trans-portation that enables different priced tickets and levels of service so that manual workers returning home do not impact upon families and the social mo-res of the region. Air conditioned cab-ins even have live television and timely announcements of events and public information.

Qatar is embarking upon a compre-hensive integrated transportation plan using bus, light rail and people movers (monorail, travelators) to move as many people as possible in comfortable and affordable conditions. Walking and cycling will be encouraged with safe and friendly streets where shade and right of way are properly considered.

This shift towards a modern sophisticated city with state of the art transit systems will hopefully be accompanied by a move towards the use of much more environmentally-friendly hybrid private vehicles.

Doha should shortly be on the map as a world leader in trans-portation planning and high quality of city life, it will be a jour-ney that requires a major transition in mind-set if the real ben-efits are to be realised for everyone

lyne is managing director of future-dynamix – providing strategic change management for sustainable development.

ian can be reached at [email protected]

“QataR is emBaRking upon a compRehensive integRated

tRanspoRtation plan using Bus, light Rail and people mov-

eRs (monoRail, tRavelatoRs) to move as many people as

possiBle in comfoRtaBle and affoRdaBle conditions.”

v i e W p o i n t


Operators embarked on international expansion programmes of their own in the mid-2000s. To date, these companies have expanded their presence across emerging markets from Indo-nesia to South Africa, passing through South Asia, the MENA region, and sub-Saharan Africa. GCC telecom operators includ-ing Etisalat, Saudi Telecom, Qtel, Zain, Batelco, and Omantel now have a presence in 63 markets.

In expanding globally, GCC operators are hoping to reap the same benefits as European operators, such as Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, and Vodafone, that began building global companies in the mid-1990s. Investors have favoured these expansion-minded companies; collectively, the operators with large multi-market presences have markedly outperformed lo-cal and regional telecom competitors as well as major financial stock market indices. Investors have rewarded the global opera-tors both for increasing revenue right away and in anticipation that scale will lead to increased profitability.

Indeed, international expansion contributed substantially to the operators’ financial results. In our analysis of 25 large, ma-ture markets, the top four operators in terms of revenue outside their home market had better EBITDA (Earnings before inter-est, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins than their regional or local competitors. Similarly, these high-performing

global operators were able to capture a larger slice of mar-ket share than smaller, regional players when launching new operations.

The results of the successful companies underscore global operators’ potential to outperform the competition, based on a few factors. Global operators can take advantage of their man-agement experience when they enter new markets by tapping into their experiences in doing so previously: Several global operators have created centralised functions that focus on the design, deployment, and operation of telecom networks.

Additionally, these global operators are likely to have better operational processes than their competitors, a result of adapt-ing the best practices from their extensive experience in differ-ent markets across an array of functions such as IT, network, and customer service. This is an especially critical advantage during the first six months or so of operations, because opera-tors need to make an immediate and lasting positive impression on customers.

Finally, global operators have more experience in mar-keting, and again can learn from past successes and failures when it comes to introducing products and services that of-fer the best value proposition in each new market where they start to operate.

Gcc

the Value oF Being gloBal

oveR the past decade and a half, an unpRecedented Wave of expansion has alteRed the gloBal telecom industRy. as paRt of the sectoR’s tRansfoRmation, seveRal gloBal telecom opeRatoRs have emeRged and some have footpRints that span seveRal continents.

v i e W p o i n t


BookmaRkwww.issuu.com/oryxmags

by kaRIm saBBagh, partner and the gloBal PRac-tIce leadeR foR the communIcatIons, media and

technology and amr goussous, senior associate.

Potential for SynergyOperators cannot assume, however, that by expanding internationally they will automatically capture all of the value of having a global operation. The most suc-cessful global operators have realigned their operational structure, enabling them to fully realise the potential of their global presence. Accordingly, GCC operators will need to realign their organisations and institute synergy programmes to benefit from their international expansion and justify the premiums paid for their cross-border acquisitions.

Organising for AdvantageOperators’ second step, after determin-ing their synergy potential, is to organise their operations and design a synergy pro-gramme to maximise this potential. The telecom operators that evolved successfully into profitable, well-functioning global giants focused on building the right organisa-tional model to manage their sprawling operations in different countries and, at the same time, developed governance and oper-ating models to leverage scale and realize synergies.

Synergy programmes tend to evolve in stages. Many operators take an ad hoc approach during the early stages of globalisation: There is no executive oversight and support, no incentives to realise synergies, no global processes, and an undefined interac-tion model between the subsidiaries. The few synergies that are realised usually are driven by the agenda of the dominant oper-ating company, likely the home country of the operator. Opera-tors then migrate to a collaborative approach at the group level; this approach is common in a nascent global organisation. Com-

panies often create virtual structures or global committees composed of executive members from each operating company who together develop the global synergy agenda and ensure its effective execution. The key challenge of the collaborative ap-proach remains balancing the strategic objectives of the group with the objec-tives of individual operating companies, as some initiatives will benefit some more than others.

The final stage, which only a few global operators have currently achieved, is a fully integrated organisation, in which op-erating companies are synthesised in the group, sharing systems and IT platforms. In these organisations, synergy-related processes are embedded as part of busi-ness-as-usual operations, thus allowing these companies to derive full economies

of scale from their operations. The ideal model for each opera-tor will depend on the size of its international programme and its corresponding synergy potential. Those companies that have little control in their operating companies, limited scale, and low strategic alignment are unlikely to achieve synergies even if they are fully integrated and can thus get by with an ad hoc model.

GCC telecom operators are continuing to expand aggressively beyond their home markets. These operators are poised to reap many rewards from their international reach as there is signifi-cant value in going global. Clearly, operators that are already glob-al in reach have the early competitive advantage. But all operators that can transition successfully from collections of independent local companies into truly integrated global companies will sus-tain competitive advantage for years to come

booZ & company is a leading global management consulting firm, helping the world’s top

businesses, government ministries and organisations.

“the ideal model foR each opeRatoR Will depend on the

size of its inteRnational pRogRamme and its

coRResponding syneRgy potential.”

to cReate syneRgies

the first step for operators is to identify

their individual opportunities to create

synergies, or their synergy potential. to

do so, they need to look at the relative

scale of their international portfolio:

the larger the revenue contribution of

international operations, the more

synergies can be realised through

overall economies of scale.

they also need to examine how

much control they have in the

companies they have acquired:

having a large stake allows

global operators to integrate op-

erating units into its group more

swiftly and effectively.

another consideration is the level of coher-

ence across a global operator’s internation-

al portfolio; this could be determined, for

example, by its level of consistency across

service capabilities (fixed, mobile, or both), its

market profile (i.e., mature or emerging), and

its competitive positioning (premium, value, or

budget operator). the more homogeneous the

assets within the portfolio, the more likely it

is that operators can achieve synergies.

s o f t s k i l l s1 2 3

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ver 30 years ago, in the wake of Anwar Al- Sadat’s assassination, Hosni Mubarak a celebrated war hero came to power on great public support. His vision and mass appeal, however, stood him in good stead for less than a decade. What followed was a mock-ery of democracy, and stagnation of devel-opment. For the Egyptians it was an era of oppression, arrests, martial law, forced disappearance, poverty, corruption, illit-eracy, disease and control over arts and the media. With the infamous rigging of the last elections, the people became ever more dis-content. Human rights violations continue. The latest victim of the Ministry of the In-terior was a 20-year-old Khalid Saeed.

Saeed was abducted by the secret police by force because he had used his mobile

phone to film one officer in Alexandria tak-ing bribe and sharing the money with his colleagues. He posted the video on the in-ternet, drawing the ire of the police officer. He was beaten to death and thrown in the street in a public spectacle. Such criminal acts, and the impetus of the Tunisian revo-lution, sparked the Egyptian youth to take a stand.

They tapped into the power of social net-working – putting the ‘social’ on the back-burner – and using sites like Facebook and Twitter to garner support for a political movement. As Egyptians took the streets, regardless of their affiliations, they came together to bring down what for decades seemed an unshakeable seat of power. In-spired by the values of a 7,000-year-old civilisation, on January 25, in response to the calls of a number of young activists through Facebook, thousands of youngsters flocked to Al Tahrir (Liberation) Square, de-manding the ouster of Hosni Mubarak and his regime. Egyptians from all walks of life joined the youth over the 18 days of peace-ful demonstrations and sit-in at Al Tahrir Square – round the clock, over 5 million

people united to achieve one key demand. But what makes it the greatest revolution of the era?

US President Barack Obama, after Muba-rak stepped down said, “The people of Egypt gave a powerful lesson in how to get the globally legitimate rights. We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like.”

The revolution was a peaceful one, de-spite provocation from the system that was under threat. Attempts to bring about chaos was stifled, because the youth sensed the danger, by placing extra emphasis on security operations. So we witnessed the emergence of people’s committees that or-ganised the traffic and took over the role of security after the withdrawal of the forces.

Obama noted that the Egyptian people created a model that has potential to be em-ulated across the world. “We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect. And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded. We saw peo-ple of faith praying together and chanting

o7000 yeaRs of civilization; 18 days of Revolution

birth of a new eygpt?

b y m u S T a f a Z e i D a n

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– ‘Muslims, Christians, We are one,’ though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world.

“These scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share,” he maintained.

Obama stressed that a new generation emerged through this revolution... “A gen-eration that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a govern-ment that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence- not terrorism, not mindless killing – but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more,” he added.

A model of integration, harmony and organisation In a telephone interview with Cairo-based journalist Bassem Hussein, one of the par-ticipants in the revolution, he described the wonderful cooperation, integration and or-

der among the different groups of people in order to achieve one goal – to overthrow the regime. “We had composed different work-ing groups such as a group to provide medi-cal and therapeutic services, a group for security and order, a group to bring in sup-plies, a group for media, a group for arts and songs, and so on. We formed an integrated society dominated by the spirit of love, steadfastness and unity based on a single goal despite the different backgrounds of the people involved.”

A revolution for freedom and democracy Wael Ghoneim, one of the young activists that called for this revolution and a Market-ing Manager with Google Middle East, said he did not need to improve the conditions of life as his standard of living was excellent, but he was eager to bring in the change for freedom, democracy and dignity. So a lot of honourable businessmen, rich people, stu-dents studying in the finest universities and scientists participated side by side with the poor and ordinary people with one goal in everybody’s mind – freedom.

Qatar Today met with Hussam Sabri, a young Egyptian engineer living in Qatar.

“Now I have my dignity and I feel proud to be an Egyptian. Various Arab and foreign nationalities shared their beautiful feelings of love and joy with me and I feel that the whole world is happy for this great revolu-tion.” Mohsen Marzouk, Arab Foundation for Democracy Secretary-General, said: “What the youth of Egypt and Tunisia have brought about will lead the Arab world to change towards freedom and democratisa-tion. Our very important role now is to doc-ument these two revolutions, raise aware-ness, and ensure this results in something concrete.” Dr Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a famous political sociologist and Chairman of Ibn Khaldun Centre for Development Studies, nicknamed Egypt’s youth revolution ‘lotus revolution.’ He stressed that it is the great-est revolution in the world as it produced self-denying real heroes that didn’t seek to show their heroism.

What next?The revolution is not an end in itself. Cor-ruption has to be rooted out, and the cor-rupt will have to be held accountable. Egypt needs a new constitution, new leadership, and a greater dialogue to take serious steps in political, social and economic reforms

‘lotus Revolution’ is the gReatest Revolution in the WoRld as it pRoduced self-denying Real heRoes.”

dR saad Eddin ibRahim,

political sociologist, proffesour in usa universitys and the chairman of ibn khal-dun center for development studies

ouR veRy impoRtant Role noW is to document these tWo Revolutions, Raise aWaReness, and ensuRe this Results in something concRete.

mohsEEn maRzouk

secretary general of arab democracy foundations



ShiftinggearS

rev up and go...

b y S i n D h u n a i R


c o v e R s t o R ys h i f t i n g g e a R s

a motoR shoW held in QataR is not gRound-BReaking neWs. But When the gloBal pRemieR of the most fuel efficient hyBRid caR fRom one of the leading automotive BRands happens as paRt of the same motoR shoW then that’s neWs indeed.

he bigger news of course is the establish-ment of Qatar Ag, under whose auspices a multi-billion riyal cluster of units will op-erate. These units will design and manu-facture key automotive components in the country.

For a country that loves to burn rubber, moving away from being a mere consumer to an active participant in the industry is only to be expected.

However, Qatar’s auto ambition is noth-ing new. In August 2009, it became a 17% shareholder of Volkswagen AG, as a direct result of which Doha played host to the world premiere of the company’s most fuel

efficient car. While buying into VW and Porsche was

more of an investment strategy, Qatar Ag is inspired by Qatar’s Vision 2030 which places great emphasis on a diversification of the economy. Among other things, the company plans to manufacture lithium-ion batteries and aluminum components for the automotive industry. Qatar Ag hopes to be component manufacturers for the industry, supplying the parts globally, and later on diversifying to bring the whole automotive cluster and an industry value-chain to the country.

Huge ambitions for sure, but backed

by fortitude, funds and research, the authorities assure.

And some collaborations are in the pipe-line with two major technological partners, and will soon be announced. This could also be put down as a direct result of the motor show, where the vision of Qatar Automo-tive gateway (Qatar Ag) was made clear for the players in the sector, thus opening the path for companies with technological know-how for collaboration.

Even with buying stakes or setting up industrial units, Qatar’s primary appeal in the industry would be its potential in lux-ury and high-end automotive sector. With



a stable economy, and a positive economic outlook, that interest will only grow.

“The automotive industry is in the midst of one of the most significant transition in decades,” says Ahmed Sorour, CEO, Qatar Ag, a company which will set the wheels of change in motion in the country.

“The financial crisis hit the automotive sector severely. Some of the big companies, Chrysler, Toyota, GM were all hit. While some of them were even close to being bankrupt, others shifted focus to countries with more investor strengths. As a result of this, emerging markets like China, India etc witnessed a lot of growth in terms of pro-duction and sales. The main players were no longer concentrated in the US or Europe alone,” he says.

The global automotive retail statistics speaks volumes.

China retailed more than 18 million ve-hicles in 2010 and produced around 40 million in the same year. Much more than the North Americas which sold close to

14 million vehicles.Porsche Middle East & Africa FZE, Man-

aging Director, Deesch Papke is optimistic of strong sales growth in the automotive sector especially in developing markets. He says, “The demand for vehicles in the Middle East and especially in China has grown exponentially over the past few years and currently faster than anywhere else in the world. China’s and India’s econo-mies are booming and the average income is rising, so too is the demand for luxurious products.”

Bring it onThe Qatar Motor Show (QMS) held last month, according to Papke, though not a direct sales platform served as a medium to showcase new models. “However, we were able to meet a high number of new potential customers who expressed interest in buy-ing a vehicle from us. We will see the result of this exhibition over the coming months.”

“Our very attractive model line-up and

(contd pg 45)

“the demand foR vehicles in the middle east and especially in china has gRoWn exponen-tially oveR the past feW yeaRs and cuRRent-ly fasteR than anyWheRe else in the WoRld. china’s and india’s economies aRe Booming and the aveRage income is Rising, so too is the demand foR luxuRious pRoducts.”

dEEsch papkE

managing director, porsche middle east & africa fZe

“to suppoRt the vision of a knoWledge-Based economy of the countRy, We Want to Build a knoWledge-Based industRy (kBi) and aRe looking to attRact high skilled and specialised individuals foR this niche sectoR. We have plans to Build R& d facilities foR the emeRging automotive segment thRough Which We could develop local talent too.”

ahmEd soRouR

ceo, qatar ag.



diverSification on a roll“QataR ag is aligned to the one of the fouR pillaRs of QataR 2030 national vision, sustainaBility,” states ahmed soRouR, ceo of QataR ag.

in today’s unstable world, one has to rely on the resources and build from that for a sustainable future. In 2010, Qatar’s non-oil revenue was higher than the rev-enue from oil at 54%. This was the first time it happened. The government’s goal of diversifying the economy has already started to take shape. We at Qatar Ag in-tend to take this further.

“We cannot rely entirely on fossil fuel for our development, we have to think beyond. And Qatar Ag unlocks the doors of an industry that is unique yet dear to us, the automotive industry. And the market that we have identified aligns with the changing trends while it makes use of the resources available in the country,” he says.

The company said it was consider-ing joint ventures, technology licensing,



R&D partnerships, venture and equity investments etc.

The initiative was the brainchild of Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad (Chairman of Qatar Ag) a Qatari businessman who is in charge of the real-estate arm of the govern-ment through Barwa and Qatari Diar.

With his 20 years of automotive experi-ence of which the last 15 were in the country, Sorour is passionate about the sector and is familiar with the mechanics involved. He ex-plains the vision of Qatar Ag.

Does Qatar have the potential, man-power and expertise to get an industry going in the automotive sector?In order to start an industry in any coun-try, three major fundamentals have to be scaled. The first is a well-regulated finan-cially strong economy, the second is the availability of a market volume to benefit from the industry and the third is skill. These are called the industrial triangle.

The next question is whether Qatar qualifies to initiate an industry? Considering the number of vehicles added each year, which is close to 80,000 (pas-senger and LCV vehicles), Qatari market is quite small as compared to large markets like Germany that retailed close to 3.2 mil-lion, China at 18 million or even Turkey at around 645,000 (based on 2010 figures). But if you take GCC as a whole we have a market of 1.2 million, which qualifies as a big enough market for setting up an in-dustry. Saudi Arabia is the biggest market retailing around 600,000; UAE around 312,000; Kuwait 130,000; Bahrain close to 600,00, Oman around 70,000. Qatar is also part of the Arab League and if we look at the Arab & Islamic League countries to-gether then the market share comes to 3.5 million.

Another element that has to be manda-

tory is technology, and Qatar lags behind in this too. But this can be imported. Com-panies with the required know-how are looking at countries that have investment opportunities and Qatar can leverage on its economy and attract investors.

The third element, of a strong econo-my is what the country possesses. With changing technologies, it is challenging for OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufac-turer), suppliers and Tier 1 & 2 manufac-turers (parts of the value-chain that makes this industry) to be isolated and located in their home country. Most of them are looking for the more competitive options and locations. Qatar is a viable option, giv-en its competitive tax initiatives etc.

How was the industry identified?Qatar Ag deployed SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) to advice and guide the Company and after a detailed study, two areas have been identified with maximum potential

There is a visible shift towards e-mobil-ity, clean transportation, or vehicles with very low emissions. There are some factors which pushes the world to opt for e-mobil-ity mode. In a world that is forecast to have 2.5 billion vehicles in operation by 2050, zero-emission vehicles are the answer to reducing CO2. We feel that electric cars with very less emissions will be the cars of tomorrow. As the demand for electric and hybrid vehicles ramps up, and electric cars become a standard product offering, it is expected to create a new value chain worth approximately QR910 billion by 2020, of which more than QR236.6 billion will be for Lithium Ion batteries and com-ponents, growing from today’s demand at a dramatic CAGR 65%. Many brands have already invested in electric cars hoping to mass-produce them.

In the traditional technology, we are

the first generation toyota prius,

at its launch in 1997, became the

world’s first mass-produced

gasoline-electric hybrid car.

T o y o T a

mitsubishi motors corporation (mmc)

plans to introduce eight hybrid (hev),

plug-in hybrid (phev), and battery-pow-

ered (bev) models by fiscal year 2015 in

anticipation that demand for low-

carbon, fuel-efficient automobiles will

expand worldwide.

m i T S u b i S h i

nissan leaf is the first fully electric

-vehicle produced on a mass scale.

the wind-explorer, a wind-pow-

ered car, driven by dirk gion and

stefan simmerer, both of germany,

across australia. the car, fuelled

by batteries are recharged by

windmill every night, and it trav-

elled more than 5,000km from

perth and arrived in sydney last

month.

w i n Dp o w e R e D

n i S S a n



(contd on pg 52)

looking at a downstream aluminium components manufacturing, engine blocks for example by leveraging on the existing aluminium smelter at Qatalum.

Tell us more about lithium-ion bat-teries? Will it give substantial driving power?The electric vehicle has the same chassis as the ICE car. But in a pure electric ve-hicle some mechanical components can be eliminated when a lithium-ion battery is used, thus the power lost is also very minimal.

Currently in a pure electric ve-hicle the lithium-ion battery takes 40% of the total cost of the car and hence is one of the most important components. Imagine a regular car, but strip out everything needed to generate power and transfer it to the wheels, no engine, no transmission assembly, no drive axle etc. Throw away the conven-tional drivetrain, and with it the weight, moving parts, and friction losses inher-ent in today’s drivetrains. Then imagine a new powertrain, a powerful electric mo-tor at each wheel. Each electric motor is light, highly efficient, with ample torque, extremely responsive to the vehicle’s on-board computer, and fully controlled by electric power management system and highly advanced ECU’s.

Would it be better to have an assem-bly line mechanism here than pro-ducing one of the components?No, for the model to succeed, we have to enter the industry-value chain from the beginning and then build up.

We have followed the Turkey model. They started more than 50 years ago. They started the automotive industry by assembling vehicles under license. At

the same time they started manufactur-ing parts to fuel the domestic product content in the vehicles manufactored in Turkey. This is why they produced more than one million cars in 2010. Egypt started around the same time with the assembley lines and then moved on to manufacturing parts but did not pursue this aggressively as Turkey. The Egypt model will soon face a lot of challenges. Not because of the crisis but because Egypt had established most of the as-sembly plants (BMW, GM have plants there) to overcome the current tarrif on imported vehicles. Egypt has signed an agreement in 2004 with the EU that “by 2019 all European vehicles will be free of customs for the country.” In this sce-nario, vehicles produced in Egypt will be more expensive than those from Europe. That is why we at Qatar AG want to build a IP intense and a knowledge-based in-dustry. The components that will be pro-duced in Qatar will be exported to OEM’s across the globe.

What about aluminium components? How will this fit in? We find that aluminium components are light in weight and most cost effective considering other products like carbon fibre. For the aluminium components – die castings, forgings, and extrusions – the global market is expected to grow sig-nificantly from QR138.3 billion in 2010 to QR265.7 billion by 2020. Most experts also expect that this increase in demand due to the increasing use of aluminium components will cause a significant short-age of global capacity by 2016, creating an opportunity for us to produce hi-quality automotive aluminium components that will leverage Qatalum’s significant alu-minium capacity and capabilities

especially our super car, the 918 RSR, attracted a lot of people over the three days,” he added.

Porsche Middle East and Africa, is the fourth largest subsidiary for the brand on a worldwide basis. The five biggest markets for the brand are United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, South Africa and the King-dom of Saudi Arabia.

Alfardan Automobiles, dealers of BMW and Mini in Qatar, said that its 2010 sales achieved a 9% increase over 2009 figures.

“The positive sales growth for BMW and Mini vehicles signals the importance and strength of the Qatari market despite another challenging year for the auto-motive industry,” according to Moham-med Kandel, General Manager, Al Fardan Automobiles.

Contributing to Alfardan Automobile’s solid performance in 2010, the BMW 7 Se-ries achieved a 6% increase in sales, making it Alfardan Automobile’s bestselling vehicle of the year.

“Mini was as popular as ever in Qatar, with an 85% increase in sales comparing with 2009.”

Greig Roffey, Sales and Marketing Man-ager for Domasco Honda is equally ex-cited with the prospects presented by the region.

Talking about the shift he says, “Obvi-ously China is a huge market which will be a prime target of auto manufacturers, most of whom have production facilities in China to tap into that market. As China opens up and aligns itself with accepted trade prac-tices around the globe, increasing interest will be observed to make the most of op-portunities there. Most Asian markets have seen strong growth and the Middle East as a growing market is increasing in impor-tance for future sales growth.”

The completely redesigned 2011 Honda Odyssey was also launched at the QMS.

“Qatar accounts for a significant part of Honda’s regional sales. We have the highest Honda market share in the GCC,” says Rof-fey. And the response for the new launched model has been ‘phenomenal’, he says. “We sold all our stock before we even launched the new Odyssey and sales are strong, in Qatar and across the GCC. We have sub-stantially increased our sales forecast and bumped up stock orders to meet demand. Our plan is to double sales over the previ-ous model. We are seeing retail custom-ers moving from sedans and SUV’s into the new Odyssey as it is such an excellent and versatile car. It is also worthy to note



olkswagen unveiled a prototype of the most fuel efficient car of our times during QMS. The new XL1 with the combined fuel consumption: 0.91/100km was unveiled by HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al- Missned. No other hybrid car powered by an electric motor / internal combustion engine combination is more fuel efficient. Conceptually, the XL1 represents the third evolutionary stage of Volkswagen’s 1-litre car strategy. When the new millennium was ushered in, Prof Dr Ferdinand Piech, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, formulated the visionary goal of bringing to the market a production car that was practical for everyday use with a fuel consumption of 1 litre per 100 km. In

the new XL1, Volkswagen is demonstrating that this goal is now within reach.

The new Volkswagen XLJ attains a CO2 emissions value of 24g/km, thanks to a combination of lightweight construction (monocoque and add-on parts made of carbon fibre), very low aerodynamic drag (Cd 0.186) and a plug-in hybrid system – consisting of a two cylinder TDI engine (35 kW/48 PS), h-motor (20 kW/27 PS),

7-speed dual-clutch transmission (DSG) and lithium-ion battery.

The results: with fuel consumption of 0.9 1/100 km, the new Volkswagen XL1 only emits 24 g/km CO2. Since it is designed as a plug-in hybrid, the XL1 prototype can also be driven for up to 35 kilometres in pure electric mode, i.e. with zero emissions at point of use.

The battery can be charged from a

future MobilityvW unveiled a pRototype of the most fuel efficient caR at the Qms 2011

ve-moBIlIty at Its Best

the emir hh sheikh hamad bin khalifa althani, hh sheikha moZah bint nasser al-missned along with

the pm he sheikh hamad bin jassim bin jabr al-thani and other officials at the world prmiere of vw xl1



technology PRototyPehh sheikha moZah was the first

to test this innovation

conventional household electric outlet. Naturally, battery regeneration is also employed to recover energy while slow-ing down and store as much of it as pos-sible in the battery for re-use. In this case, the electric motor acts as an electric generator.

Despite the very high levels of efficien-cy, developers were able to design a body layout that offers greater everyday prac-ticality, incorporating side-by-side seat-ing rather than the tandem arrangement seen in both the first 1-litre car presented in 2002 and the Li presented in 2009. In the new XL1, wing doors make it easier to enter and exit the car. Further progress has been made by manufacturing body parts from carbon fibre reinforced poly-mer parts (CFRP), a technique used in Formula 1 car construction.

Once again, Volkswagen has success-fully achieved significant reductions in production costs – an important step for-ward to make viable a limited production run of the XL1.

The new XL1 shows the way forward for extreme economy vehicles and clean tech-nologies. It also demonstrates that such cars can also be fun. The feeling when driving the XL1 is truly dynamic – not based on pure power, rather on its pure ef-ficiency.

When the full power of the hybrid sys-tem is engaged, the Volkswagen prototype accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 11.9 seconds; its top speed is 160 km/h (elec-tronically limited). Yet these numbers alone do not tell the whole story: Since the XL1 weighs just 795 kg, the drive system has an easy job of propelling the car

V w X l 1

c o 2 e m i s s i o n

24 g/kmF u e l c o n s u m p t i o n

.91/100kms p e e d a c c e l e r a t e s F r o m 0 t o 1 0 0 k m / h i n

11.9 s e c o n d s



the Honda Odyssey remains the best VIP transport option for company executives, guests, etc.”

Acquisitions mark the trendAcquisitions in the industry give the story a further twist.

Tata Motors of India has acquired two iconic British brands Jaguar and Land Rover from US-based Ford Motors; Geely, a Chinese car company, has bought the Swed-ish company Volvo; and Qatar Holdings owns 17% of VW AG and 10% of Porsche AG and is looking out to buy more... VW AG, meanwhile, has set targets for it-self, to have the highest vehicle production in the world by 2018.

Porsche too is in the process of merging with VW AG, though the details are not yet revealed. The automotive industry is no more a strong-hold of the West, the Japa-nese brands have already made that obvi-ous, but recent acquisitions and the slip of euro underscores the trend.

Technology drift “Change in the automotive sector is three-fold, from the players’ perspective, from the geographical perspective and also from the technological perspective,” says Sorour.

QMS brought the spotlight on this tech-nological shift. Hybrid cars were the focus at QMS with numerous prototypes re-vealed.

“Hybrid and electric vehicles are being adopted because they are more environ-mentally friendly and fuel-efficient. Even though commercial production started only in 2010, extensive government sup-port from around the world is expected to speed up adoption, so much such that by 2020, nearly 40% of all passenger vehicles

sheIkh mIshal BIn salman al-thanI testing the honda odyssey at qms

orsche does everything with a dash of panache. The Porsche Museum is now housed in a beautiful architectural

delight but its ‘Museum on Wheels’ is equally enthralling and getting its ex-hibits, racing cars, to do what they were meant to do, which is of course racing. The Museum travels around the world to give journalists and a lucky few a feel of the old classics. And when these clas-sics are driven by sportsmen who made it to the history pages in racing, then you can call yourself privileged. The Porsche ‘Museum on Wheels’ took the press around the Lusail Circuit in two classics. The Porsche 550 Spyder and the Porsche 911 Carrera, the first 4 X 4 at that time.

The Porsche Type 550 Spyder that

made its first appearance in October 1953 was not simply the first sports car designed for motor racing by the carmaker; it laid the foundations for a whole succession of spectacular racing triumphs. As well as excellent driving characteristics, lightweight construc-tion was the objective that was met in this car which weighed just 550kg. The 550 Spyder was also the first to sport the names of sponsors on its body and it was driven by Hans Hermann, emerging as class winner and finishing third overall.

But when I was taken on a cold win-ter morning by Hermann on a spin in the Spyder 550 around the bends of the Circuit, I had just one thought, and that had more to do with my safety than the beauty of the machine...

hiStory on the Move

a classIc RIdehans hermann poses with another member of his racing team beside the historic porsche 550 spyder

p

(contd from pg 49)



“the positive sales gRoWth foR BmW and mini vehicles

signals the impoRtance and stRength of the QataRi

maRket despite anotheR challenging yeaR foR the

automotive industRy,”

mohammEd kandEl,

general manager, al-fardan automobiles.

will be some form of hybrid or electric ve-hicle. Governments all over the world are subsidising and supporting manufacturers of electric vehicles,” he says.

Automotive companies have already taken a step in this direction and all of them have a research division to delve into differ-ent possibilities for their engine configura-tion. BMW, in late 1987, centralised its R&D resources and opened the BMW Research & Innovation Centre (FIZ) in Munich, Germa-ny. Papke stresses that Porsche’s traditional strategy is to offer more sporting driving pleasure with less fuel consumption.

“Porsche was the first manufacturer

to present a hybrid car with the Lohner Porsche ‘Semper Vivus’ produced in 1900. Such an ongoing increase in efficiency is the quintessence of 60 years of sports car manufacturing, now described most appro-priately by the slogan ‘Porsche Intelligent Performance’.

“We have introduced the Cayenne S Hybrid and have announced plans for a Panamera Hybrid. Our company is highly engaged in the development of new, envi-ronmentally friendly technologies for top performance sports cars. With the Porsche GT3 R Hybrid as well as concept cars such as the 918 Spyder and 918 RSR, shown at the

QMS, Porsche proves its continuous ambi-tion in this field,” he adds.

Roffey believes that the global trend in eco-friendly motoring has not yet come to centre stage in Qatar.

With fuel prices still cheap (though a litre cost around QR0.85 with the recent hike) the market is yet to realise that it is not about money out of the pocket, but more importantly the environment.

“But we expect this will happen in the not-too-distant future. Honda has a num-ber of eco-friendly cars like the FCX, Civic Hybrid and Insight, but these are currently not available in the GCC,” he says

[email protected]

t h e F i r s t i n t e r n a t i o n a l e d i t i o n o F t h e q a t a r m o t o r s h o w h e l d i n

F e B r u a r y , e X h i B i t e d

80,000 V i s i t o r s

36 m a j o r c a r B r a n d s

q m s s u r p a s s e d t h e o r g a n i s e r s ’ e X p e c t a t i o n s

w i t h a r e c o r d n u m B e r o F

QMS


t a g t h i s

rriving in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the real storm clouds that seemed to be hanging over the Congress became something of a meteorological metaphor for this article on the Mobile Cloud.

Pathetic fallacy aside and donning my walking shoes, I set out to uncover the stories against the backdrop of the vast overwhelming expanse that is the Fira Barcelona http://www.firabcn.es/ to seek out the answers to this latest phenomenon called the mobile cloud.

Having weathered the economic storm of the last few years, network operators are now eagerly seeking out new revenue opportunities or looking for some-where to invest their hoarded cash reserves knowing the winners that do rush to embrace mobile cloud ser-

vices will not only deliver new services but establish new business models, generate new revenue streams and manage the costs of their legacy services.

I didn’t have long to wait. Just from speaking to a variety of Organisations in the Cloud Zone area of the MWC you get a sense that there is a lot of energy and investment currently flowing into ‘mobile cloud’ projects and mobile companies and all players in the eco-system are betting big on these trends.

The proliferation of smart mobile devices of all types fuels massive demands for data needed to pow-er social networking, sensors, and video and digital entertainment. This demand is powering an expo-nential need for compute, storage, and bandwidth – which, in turn, is leading to an explosion of new ap-plications and platforms.

a

mobile Cloudthe gathering stormWe could be looking at potentially one trillion internet connected deviceS by 2015, WriteS Barry Flaherty, froM the Mobile World congreSS in barcelona.


t a g t h i s

A Morgan Stanley study from September 2010 found 41% of mobile peak hour traffic is due to ‘real-time entertainment’, most of which is video. This statistic is not surprising considering that YouTube is adding approximately 35 hours of video every minute.

To service this demand on the backend, the indus-try is rapidly moving from individual craftsmanship and proprietary IT ‘assembly lines’ towards a public utility model with massive scale, highly automated, self-service consumption. Mobile developers need cloud computing to increase the end-user experi-ence by lowering latency to the devices, increasing throughput, and reducing costs.

How is the ‘mobile cloud’ different from the ‘cloud’? Ask 10 different tech experts and you’ll get 10 different answers. Often, the term ‘mobile cloud’ simply indicates the most common end point access-ing a particular cloud, although as the mobile cloud evolves expect some subtle differences in regard to security, back-end infrastructure, app design and so on to emerge.

A recent report from Yankee Group from analyst Brian Partridge entitled ‘The Mobile Cloud: Unlock-ing new profits’ from February 2011 sheds some light on the numerous possibilities and challenges for the mobile cloud and believes it has the potential to change how we work, transact commerce, socialise and entertain ourselves in every conceivable way. Yankee Group defines the mobile cloud as a ‘federated point of entry enabling access to the full range of ca-pabilities inherent in the mobile network platform’.

Yankee Group in a separate paper predicted that global tablet revenues will also rise from $16 billion in 2010 to $46 billion in 2014 with the Asia-Pacific re-gion eventually dethroning the current market leader North America to dominate tablet revenues, account-ing for 58% of worldwide sales revenues in 2014.

One of the sponsors of the Yankee Group paper,

Neustar were in attendance at the Cloud Zone at the recent MWC. Neustar has been actively working on assembling the network and human assets and real world experience required to step into the role of mo-bile cloud service provider for the past few years. They are aiming high with its managed service offering, Neustar Intelligent Cloud which targets enterprises, brands, mobile marketers, content and application owners, network owners as well as solution providers and developers.

We caught up with Lisa Peterson, Director of Busi-ness Development for Neustar, and one thing became apparent they have the ambition to expand across all the global regions with their newly formed Intel-ligent Cloud solution to become a major Industry player. She describes Neustar’s role as almost ‘a bro-ker enabling a one-stop-shop that integrates multiple networks’ APIs within one commercial agreement’ by bringing the ‘internet world together with the mo-bile world and unlock and unleash the potential that the Operators have with their network capabilities, including the Infrastructure and of course customer data’.

Peterson agrees that since the Operator walled gar-den’s have come down and the developers have gravi-tated to Google (Android) and Apple (iPhone) since they are easier eco-systems to work with, the Opera-tors have realised that they have to work together to win back this community and find new ways to once again monetise their investments and makes things simple again. Neustar plays a key role in removing the complexity of dealing with multiple Operators and the myriad of policies and agreements that can be sti-fling for more developers.

Downstream, this of course impacts the end user experience as Operators engagement can improve the overall developer and brand experience who in turn make more relevant and profitable service offerings, applications and services for customers. So it’s clear

“the inteRnet Will Be moBile, the mon-etisation Questions Will Be ansWeRed When the commeRce piece matuRes...”

lisa pEtERson,

business development director, neustarís

moBIle cloudsclouds hang over gsma world mobile congress in barcelona


t a g t h i s

that all the players in the mobile cloud value chain have a key role to play in improving the experience for everybody. Peterson remains steadfast that the in-ternet will be mobile; the monetisation questions will be answered when the commerce piece matures and that the industry will undergo greater consolidation. Neustar optimistic about the future despite the dra-matic changes and upheaval over the last few years, conceding that it will still take some time to get all the Operators upto speed and moving on stream and in alignment across the regions.

Even though the mobile cloud is still in its infancy, there are many things it will impact in the future:

Accelerates ‘consumerisation of IT’As knowledge workers increasingly rely on non-PC devices like smartphones and tablets as their go-to computing platforms, IT is being forced to change and change quickly. Lucky for them that the move away from shrink-wrap software to SaaS and Web Services has been well under-way for several years.

“IT can’t think about things on a node-by-node basis any-more. They must think of re-sources as aggregate services that they must make securely available to a number of de-vices, including phones and tablets,” said Yoram Mizrachi, CTO and Co-Founder of Per-fecto Mobile a provider of IT operations and cloud moni-toring solutions.

“There’s not much we can-not do. For example, in techno-philic organisations, you’ll see people accessing social me-dia and corporate apps from smart phones and tablets. The demand from employees for iPhones, Androids and tablets places tremendous pressure on IT,” Mizrachi said. “We must deliver functionality from the cloud and implement the support for multiple end devices into our applications. If we weren’t doing that, we’d lose ground to our competitors.” IT has been slow to ad-just these changes, so the prospect of a ‘mobile cloud’ could seem downright horrifying.

Torsten de Riese, Digital Director for CNBC in EMEA agrees. We met up with him in the VIP Mem-bers area lounge, as we sat next to Foursquare’s CEO Dennis Crowley (another aspiring Californian entre-preneur who will be on his own Cloud 9 soon if the market valuations of at least $250 million of Four-square are to be believed) Asked about the mobile cloud, de Riese is certain it is here to stay and will impact the rise of consumer services as consumers ultimately use services that are intuitive and useful to them. De Riese has vast experience with building mobile solutions for both CNBC and the Guardian Newspaper in the UK and cites several key factors

that really drive the adoption of success of mobile services. Firstly, he exercises caution, citing the real-ity is different from the promise still in terms of con-nectivity and access to a 3G network as the user expe-rience is interrupted.

“There’s no point having beautiful shiny products, or the best content playing on the best mobile device or tablet if you have intermittent connectivity, which is still the case even in the developed countries where we all suffer, not just in the developing countries. I live in London and struggle to connect to my iPad in many areas,” laments de Riese.

Secondly, he warns we cannot get ahead of our-selves. No sooner are most of us adjusting to the latest tranche of mobile products or services, pow-ered by mobile cloud solutions then we have more innovation piled on innovation. De Riese men-tions 4G with all its promises of better coverage and speed but not everybody has the same product or experience.

Turning to CNBC as a broadcaster, he sees this as the main revolution of mo-bile cloud computing as it has been able to immediately deliver cost savings for the or-ganisation and allow him time and money to experiment in other areas, launch new prod-ucts just as much as a start up would be able to. He reflects on his previous roles where ‘start up costs normally asso-ciated in starting up a news-paper business, distribution networks and servers would run into millions and now we’re really in a world where we almost need nothing and everything becomes scale-able and that is good news for all publishers, and our fi-

nancial people like it’, he laughs. So I think it would be accurate to say that the Mobile Cloud will change how we work.

The mobile cloud will change how we access email and how IT manages it. Today, location-awareness is pretty much inherent in mobility. Location-aware-ness will change how sales teams’ prospect, how IT delivers security, how marketing and advertising firms interact with customers. “Mobile devices are going to create some challenges for IT, but they’re going to create a different working ‘sensation’ for individuals,” de Riese said. It’s not just services that we need to worry about anymore from a management perspective. So just how big can all this get? Looking at the various reports coming out of IBM, Ericsson and Cisco, we could be looking at potentially one tril-lion internet connected devices by 2015. To put that in perspective, we passed the five-billion milestone in late 2010 and this number keeps growing.

IBM predicts that there will be 1 trillion connected

“When you can do things like connect

youR social netWoRk to youR caR, all

soRts of BehaviouRs Will change.”

toRstEn dE RiEsE,

digital director emea, cnbc

“it can’t think aBout things on a node-By-node Basis anymoRe. they must think of ResouRces

as aggRegate seRvices that they must make secuRely avail-

aBle to a numBeR of devices, including phones and taBlets”


t a g t h i s

tel is tapping into the potential of both Twitter and Skype, by signing a strategic partnership with both.

With a service partnership with Twitter, the Qtel group brings Twit-

ter Mobile to customers across MENA and Asia. The move will see Twitter reach more users, en-abling increased communication between commu-nities on a local, national and international scale.

Through the agreement signed in Barcelona, the Qtel Group will provide Twitter SMS to mo-bile customers, so that they can tweet via SMS and receive updates from the people they follow. The Twitter service will also be integrated within the Group’s social networking service (TAP), where customers will have Twitter as part of their TAP offering alongside other social communities that they can access via their smartphones. Globally, SMS is among the most popular methods to access Twitter, where there are now 110 million Tweets sent per day. The MENA region has lagged behind this key trend slightly in recent years, and the Qtel Group/Twitter partnership has been designed to help speed up adoption.

The first company in the Qtel Group to launch Twitter SMS was Indosat in Indonesia, which is growing quickly with regard to registered Twitter accounts.

The Skype partnership will see Qtel’s mobile broadband subsidiary wi-tribe promoting Skype and its related products over wi-tribe’s networks

in Jordan and the Philippines; two key markets for wi-tribe. Under the agreement, wi-tribe; a provider of wireless broadband Internet, will enable cus-tomers in the respective markets to easily down-load Skype software and connect with their family and friends.

Group CEO, Qtel, Dr Nasser Marafih said, “The Qtel Group’s strategy for innovation is driven by the needs of our customers, and enabled by part-nerships with like-minded companies. We recogn-ise the changes taking place in the market and the increasing customer demand for rich communica-tions solutions, and so have decided to partner with Skype – one of the pioneers in the industry. This is a first-of-its-kind in our Middle East region and we look forward to working closely with Skype to de-liver the best possible customer experience.”

neW PaRtneRshIPruss shaw vice president and general manager for

mobile, skype and dr nasser marafih, group ceo, qtel sign the agreement.

What’s up QataR?

devices by 2015. Cisco moves that up to 2013. Erics-son looks further ahead and believes there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, displacing today’s native and downloadable mobile applications.

Devices Accelerate Cloud ServicesPeople often overlook the explosion of mobile device and applications when talking about cloud comput-ing. There will be 1.1 billion smart phones by 2013. This year at the MWC it rained tablets. And 2011 and 2012 will be the “Year of 4G” with greater bandwidth, more mobile applications. All these mobile devices will eclipse PCs and will become the predominant mode of connecting to the Internet in the next few

years. Agility and innovation will be key drivers for companies leverage in order to stay ahead in these times of economic uncertainty and global change.

With the convergence of smart mobile devices of all shapes and forms, anywhere, anytime access via high-bandwidth connectivity, and massive-scale cloud-powered datacenters and applications, CIOs have an impressive array of technologies to drive business at their disposal today.

Brian Partridge, Analyst at Yankee Group con-cludes that the possibilities are endless with a com-bination of powerful mobile cloud services working together with a motivated ecosystem As fluid and fast changing as things continue to be in the mobile space, we can only sit back and watch in bewilder-ment. Time will tell. Now all we need is for everybody to work together

Q

barry flaherty is grow qatar’s digital media expert and has been an avid technol-ogy blogger and trend spotter for over 12 years, driving solutions in all areas of

digital media, mobile and technology around innovation. he’s currently working with mediaventura in london on fund raising for digital businesses as well as crowdsourcing digital case studies for inclusion in a new

book entitled ‘the best digital campaigns in the world’.

By BaRRy flaheRtyfolloW

twitter@ baZflaZ75


t a g t h i s

hen was the last time you spent more than 30 seconds on a mobile-based website to find some content? You may try using your iPhone, Android or Blackberry to get a daily dose of news, social media or other information, however the experience may not be pleasant if the website is not mobile friendly and takes time to load?

As new mobile devices, development platforms are introduced it is difficult to keep pace with the technology. A classic example is a Financial Institution plan-ning to introduce mobile banking; however the management is not able to make up its mind on various options like

Developing an iPhone ApplicationCreating a customised mobile website for devices like Blackberry, iPhone, Android etc

A recent study by a Dubai-based PR firm

‘Spot On Mobile Internet Usage’ proved that 45% of the MENA Internet users use mobile phones to access Internet. This means there will be less dependence on the use of desktop computers as people prefer to access information on the move. The question is how your website will appeal to those 45% users who access it from a mo-bile device. Despite the fact that the expan-sion of a mobile web business has been on the industry list for a while; the dazzling adoption of smart phones will see it actual-ise in this decade. As per Mary Meeker, the Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and an active Internet analyst, the world is go-ing through a fifth major technology cycle within last five decades. The 60s was a main-frame era, the 70s was a mini computer era, and 80s was the personal computing whilst 90s was the desktop Internet era. The cur-

mobifiCation of your website!

waS neW Mobile deviceS and developMent platforMS are introduced it iS difficult to keep pace With technology.

t a g t h i s

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kapil bhatia is an e-business executive, working in the financial services industry. his work ranges across digital marketing, e-channels and development of online

strategies, with a sound information technology base. he will be writing a regular technology column for qatar today.

he is an avid blogger @ http://iwep.blogspot.com.

By kaPIl BhatIafolloW

twitter@kapilkb

rent cycle is the Mobile Internet era, as per Mary Meeker who was dubbed as ‘Queen of the Net’ by Barron’s magazine in 1998. With the help analytical tools you can identify the pages that are frequently visited by the users. If the users immediately navigate away from your landing page, it may need to be redesigned. Another reason why you should consider launching a mobile website is because Qtel may launch Long Term Evo-lution (LTE) in 2011, which was announced

in the World Mobile Congress, 2011. LTE is 4G technology which will result in: -

High-Speed data connection can de-livers speeds than can be 10x faster than 3GLower operating and expansion costs for the operator may lead to reduction in customer usage prices

To conclude, mobile websites are here to stay and if you are new in the business en-sure that your new website doesn’t get out-

dated before its launch. The mobile internet is so addictive that

the embracing of the Apple devices is taking place at the rate of 11 times faster than that of AOL, as per Meeker.

Helping to drive this is the 3G technol-ogy, which is expected to reach a penetra-tion rate of 19% by 2011 in Middle East and Africa. Wait and watch as the global mobile usage is expected to surpass desktop inter-net usage by 2013

having the best of technology doesn’t guarantee traffic on your mobile website. with the massive influx of

iphones and other smart devices, users are migrating from desktop to these devices at a rapid pace. some of

these devices like iphones don’t support the multimedia platforms like flash and others may have issues with

javascript, to date approximately 85 million iphone devices have been sold and your website may not reach

these customers due to flash limitations. a few alternative programmes like html 5 and css 3 can do the trick

1

simplify your website. the mobile version of your site needs to be simple with minimal graphics. eliminating

graphics is an effective way to optimise your website. you may redo your website layout, menus, content etc2

develop an application for various platforms. as previously mentioned in the article; influx of various mobile

development platforms has left many websites in a dilemma. many organisations are not willing to pursue

an app for various platforms/mobile devices. however it is wise to invest in the popular device like google

android and definitely iphone to extend your reach.

3

irrespective of the devices, visitors are using, give them a link to access your standard website and vice

versa. this can be done be placing a small link at the bottom of your application. 4

track your visitors. i am rather concerned but not surprised that many

commercial websites don’t have metrics software installed to help them track usage. there are some good

analytical software’s like google analytics and piwik that can be used by your website to track number of

visitors, daily traffic, etc at no cost.

5

the 60’s was a

mainframe era

the 70’s was a mini

computer era

the 80’s was the per-

sonal computing

the 90’s was the desk-

top internet era.

the current cycle is

the mobile internet

era.

“as peR maRy meekeR, the WoRld is going thRough a 5th maJoR technology cycle Within last five decades.

heRe aRe a feW Bite-sized tips Which may help you catch up With the fifth tech cycle and enhance youR moBile Based WeBsite:

1 9 6 0 1 9 7 0 1 9 8 0 1 9 9 0 2 0 0 0

t a g t h i s


s p o t l i g h t

dJWeeight yeaRs and spaRkling...

xclusivity, elegance and élan marked this year’s most awaited luxury extravaganza, the 8th Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhi-bition (DJWE), billed as one of the region’s leading exhibition of its kind. The DJWE which was held from February 14 to 20 was an event that was attended by the crëme de la crëme of the Qatari population.

The officials say that this year’s edition is the biggest yet eight years of operation

with more than 300 exhibitors and 50,000 visitors. After the inauguration, Qatar Tourism Authority, Chairman, Ahmed Al-Nuaimi said, “We are proud to organise such a prestigious regional event in Doha. The high quality profile of the exhibitors continues to attract interested and enthu-siastic consumers from around the region, which has helped to make this show one of the most successful and sought after in the

Gulf and the world for retailers and those who appreciate fine jewellery and watches.

“The timing of the DJWE is significant in that it falls between the two most important jewellery and watches exhibitions in Swit-zerland: the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva and Baselworld in Basel. This Exhibition has thus become part of the preview series for the latest collections.”

e

i n T e R v i e w S b y c a S S e y o l i v e i R a , p R a g a T i S h u k l a , S h a l i n e e b h a R a D w a j a n D S o n a l i R a m a n

an oPulent affaIRhis excellency the prime minister and foreign minister sheikh

hamad bin jassim bin jabr al thani officially inaugurating the 8th edition of the djwe at the doha exhibition centre in qatar in

the presence of other officials.


s p o t l i g h t

audemaRs piguet: Watches have no BoundaRIes

The makers of Audemars Piguet watches know how to blend traditional and contemporary designs with technical innovations – an art that was perceived through their exhibits at the DJWE.

This season, the watch makers have extended all their important lines to next year. This includes the Royal Oak, the Royal Oak Offshore, Millenary and Jules Audemars. Next year marks the 40th anniver-sary of their most successful line – the Royal Oak – an iconic design in the watch business.

“In Qatar, customers know about our brand and our products. They have a fine taste and knowledge about movements and calibres. Some of the success-ful lines in Qatar have been the Royal Oak line for ladies, entirely set in diamonds and the Millenary line with its voluptuous and sophisticated oval case.” But the brand doesn’t have any particular designs for the region. “Beauty has no boundary or geographical limits. Hence we don’t design watches for a particu-lar market,” said Nicolas Garzouzi, CEO, Audemars Piguet Middle East.

“Geographically, the Middle East region represents less than 10% of the global area. However, Arab cus-tomers comprise a major portion of our turnover. Not only do they buy from us in the Middle East, but from all over the world,” said Garzouzi. Reflecting their strong foothold in the region are the number of boutiques in Dubai, Kuwait, Riyadh, Jeddah, Bahrain,

Abu Dhabi, Jordan and Syria that are well-operated by their franchisees. And now they plan to have a new boutique in Qatar as well by the end of next year.

With DJWE, the brand aims at increasing its awareness. “We have been exhibiting since the first year and an expansion in the retail market has been observed over the years. People are becoming more aware about our brand and those who are loyal to us continue to reward us with purchases each year. This year too the exhibition has been successful. We are represented locally by Ali Bin Ali,” says Garzouzi.

aRnold & son:cRaftIng soPhIstIcatIon

Arnold & Son is the fruit of England’s wide-ranging interest in the manufacture of marine timepieces. And keeping the tradition intact, the brand at DWJE presented three splendid timepieces namely HMS Collection, the limited Hornet History Collection in-spired by English explorer Captain James and a Dead Beat Turbillon collection. The collections displayed are a blend of the rich English rich heritage and cut-ting-edge Switzerland technology.

The limited collection has been designed for a se-lect market. Talking to us at the exhibition, Executive Vice President, Philippe Boven says, “The collection we have is a very high-end, sophisticated segment and not everyone will understand our concept. Thus we have targeted a few of the elite only. We want ex-clusivity.”

As the brand has a specific high-end target, Middle-East offers a tremendous opportunity to expand busi-ness since the market is open to such brands and the customers are well-informed.

“We believe deeply in the potential of the Qatari market due to the internationalisation and the power of the market. And now that the country has bagged the rights to host the 2022 World Cup it confirms to our interest in the market, and we foresee some de-

velopment in all sectors, be it product or brand image. We are expecting to increase our turnover through out partnership with Ali Bin Ali” says Boven.

“Beauty has no BoundaRy oR geogRaphical limits. hence We don’t design Watches foR a paRticulaR maRket,”

nicolas GaRzouzi, ceo, audemars piguetmiddle east.

“ouR collection is veRy sophis-ticated and not eveRyone Will undeRstand the concept. thus We have taRgeted the elite only. We Want exclusivity.”

philippE bovEn

executive vice president, arnold & son


s p o t l i g h t

avakian“colouR foRms an essentIal comPonent”

Avakian is celebrating 40 successful years of exclu-sive jewellery and watch making.

Edmond Avakian, CEO, Avakian Group of Com-panies, started his career with a store in Lebanon. Through the many ups and downs, this innovative and determined gemmologist and jeweller managed to not just survive but brought his business to the forefront even in the face of tough competition.

“The strength of our collections is the design and extreme emphasis on the use of only the finest of the stones. I have travelled a lot of places that inspire and these are reflected in our designs and styles. Colour forms an essential component in our jewellery col-lection. Besides dealing in limited edition upper-end luxury jewellery and watches, we have a high-end corporate gifts design department through which we cater to governments, royal families, important busi-nesses,” informs Avakian.

With boutiques in Beverly Hills (California), Ge-neva, London, Moscow and one recently opened in New York, Avakian has no plans for expanding in the Middle East as of now.

“Qatar promises a safe business environment but, right now our strategy will be to be familiar with this region. Mark our presence through exhibitions where

we intend to have bigger stands in future. We have been dealing with a limited clientele in Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the past 20 years or so. Now our focus will be on broadening the customer base.”

Baume & meRcieR: lIfe In moments

Baume & Mercier, world renowned for their gor-geous watches and exquisite craftsmanship, recently launched its new line of luxury watches called the Baume & Mercier’s Hampton Watch Collection at the watch exhibition in Geneva – the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, January 2011. Following close on its footsteps, this collection has again been in the spotlight at the DWJE, with its new concept reflect-ing a relaxed, seaside living in the Hamptons in the warmth of family and friends.

“Life is about moments. Concept sees the begin-ning of a new chapter in the history of the brand. It brings together the tranquillity of the beach, the sand and the relaxed decor of the wooden beach house in its watch designs. The sun decked decor at the back of the dial can be engraved, capturing your special moment forever while the colour of pink gold ac-centuated by steel gives the impression of sand,” says Philippe Caron, the Regional Brand Manager, Baume & Mercier.

Baume & Mercier is offering a contemporary inter-pretation of two of its most celebrated collections, the Capeland and Linea, along with new and more stylish examples of Classima. “Capeland, with its sport-chic design, retro accents and warm tones reflects the re-lationship between man and his customs. ”

With a substantial presence in the Middle East and in Qatar through local dealers Al-Fardan, Caron

points at focussing more on the quality of display of products than opening any new boutiques in the near future.

“Qatar market is seen in the world as bullish and with the winning of 2022 World Cup Bid, we foresee a steep rise in our potential clientele, both local as well as expats”.

“the stRength of ouR collections

is the design and extReme emphasis on the use of only

the finest of the stones.”

Edmond avakian

ceo, avakian group of companies

“QataR maRket is seen in the WoRld

as Bullish and With the Winning

of 2022 WoRld cup Bid, We foResee

a steep Rise in ouR potential

clientele, Both locals as Well as

expats.”

philippE caRon,

regional brand manager,

baume & mercier


s p o t l i g h t

BeRtolucci:exclusIvIty In desIgns

“The brand was founded in 1987 and our motto is ‘Mediterranean inspiration with Swiss craftsman-ship’. Our founder Bertolucci was an Italian designer who married the daughter of a Swiss watch manu-facturer. That’s why the Italian Riviera influence is seen in the concepts and design,” says Fabian Lacroix, Sales Manger, Bertolucci.

Speaking about the trends Lacroix says, “We are very focussed on the ladies upmarket range of prod-ucts and our designs are very elegant and colourful. We have realised our niche so we are not interested in the mass market or classic collections.”

“This year we are showing some exclusive pieces. The Giocco is a beautiful upscale piece with rare black and white diamonds. We also have it in white and yel-low gold.

“We have a lot of new pieces in our core range as well. One amazing piece in particular has 36 large di-amonds, amethysts, rubies and small VVS diamonds, reflecting the Mediterranean spirit in an organic shape. The Serena Garbo watches are also popular, with the coloured straps and matching coloured dia-monds; we have it in bright blue and fuchsia.

“We also stock the more masculine Forza and Giro lines, which are aimed at men, while we have a special edition piece with a heart brought out for Valentine’s Day,” he says.

The customer always expects exclusivity from

Bertolucci.“Our policy is to only have one of each piece at the

exhibition, so that our customers can feel an air of ex-clusivity with their purchase,” he says.

On local partnership, Lacroix says, “We have been working for many years with Ali Bin Ali and we are very pleased as the collaboration is working well. It’s good for brand awareness and they present us very favourably.”

chaumet: the tIaRa Becomes a RIng

To celebrate the 230th anniversary of Chaumet, the Paris brand pays tribute to its first muse, JosÈphine - a name given by Napolean Bonaparte to his wife. The new Josephine collection comprises of 30 pieces re-flecting the high jewellery excellence of the brand.

Chaumet, Middle East General Manager, Salam Tannir described Chaumet as “a brand which has re-ally made history.”

“We have existed for a long time in the Middle East, but we are revamping our presence here. We want to maximise the rich tradition behind our brand.”

According to Tannir, the Middle East region is an important player in the growth of any jewellery brand. For Chaumet, it represents nearly 7% of the global market.

Centred on the concept of the tiara, the collection is one “in which the tiara is turned into a ring and crowns the finger.”

12 unique platinum rings adorn the collection with a variety of styles and diamond cuts incorporated in it. Some of the rarest centre-stones chosen are the purest diamonds, pigeon blood rubies and deep blue sapphires. The centrepiece of the collection is a spec-tacular tiara featuring a yellow, pear-shaped diamond, worth $1.2million (QR4.37 million).

Despite having a presence at the exhibition every year so far, Chaumet had its own dedicated shop at the Al-Fardan Jewellery stand for the first time. The brand also has a presence at The Pearl-Qatar.

“ouR policy is to only have one of each piece at the exhiBition, so that ouR customeRs can feel exclusive aBout theiR puRchase.”

Fabian lacRoix,

sales manger, bertolucci.

“the middle east Region is an impoRtant playeR in the gRoWth of any JeWelleRy BRand. foR chaumet, it RepResents neaRly 7% of the gloBal maRket.”

salam tanniR

general manager, middle east chaumet


s p o t l i g h t

david moRRis: settIng BenchmaRks

Since its inception in the late 1950s, David Morris has been setting benchmarks in provid-ing excellence in jewellery. The company which was started in a small manufacturing unit in Hayden Garden in 1962 has today reached great heights. A flagship store on the Bond Street and sev-eral other boutiques worldwide are some examples. Middle-East has not been left untouched by the esteemed brand and it has showrooms in Dubai and Qa-tar. But the company is eager to expand their business to other parts of the region as well.

Speaking to Qatar Today about the Qatari market the David Morris, Managing Director, Jeremy Mor-ris said, “We have been exhibiting in Qatar for many years now and have a long and strong association with Ali Bin Ali group. Qatari market is one of the best mar-kets in Middle East and has a lot of potential to grow even more. We are in constant talks with Ali Bin Ali and if everything goes well, we might be able to open

another outlet very soon here.” “Our collection has received some rave reviews

from the buyers and we appreciate the response we have been receiving from the people here. Though I did not design any particular piece for the region, the response has been amazing and that confirms that the taste of the people here is very international and hence we are expecting good response from the exhibition.”

deWitt: cReatIng a nIche In hIgh-end Watches

A month before the prestigious Basel World Fair, Qa-tar received a preview of what the luxury watchmaker, DeWitt had in store. The Twenty-8-Eight line and the white gold version of the Tourbillon Force Constante with chain were exhibited at this year’s DJWE.

“Also this year, we are manufacturing two new tourbillon movements in-house in addition to a new ladies collection. Inspired by the different personali-ties of a woman, this collection would be unveiled at the Basel Fair,” says Thibaud Jaouen, International Sales Director, DeWitt.

According to Jaouen, what makes DeWitt a class apart are three factors.

“DeWitt watch-makers are passionate about high-end luxury and employ machines from the 18th and 19th century. Secondly, we manufacture everything in-house. We are efficient in dial manufacturing – we are known for our decorations on the dials. Thirdly, we don’t intend on democratisation. While other brands plan on reducing prices to attract more peo-ple, we want to remain in the niche of high-end, ex-clusive watches in limited editions.”

The Academia line has been one of the most suc-cessful collections so far, claims Jaouen.

To further boost its presence in the region, De-Witt is working with retailers to enhance its brand awareness. In Qatar thier partner is Ali Bin Ali.

“The clients from Middle East always focus on

novelties. Hence it’s important to get a feedback from the local crowd, to amaze them with new exclusive items,” said Jaouen. And DJWE provided the brand with the right platform.

“The exhibition has given us an opportunity to meet top clients and explain the philosophy behind DeWitt and improve the knowledge about our prod-ucts. We are not here to create a turnover, we are here to meet clients who are passionate about our brand, to show them the novelties and meet their expectations as collectors.”

“QataRi maRket is one of the Best

maRkets in middle east and has a lot

of potential to gRoW even moRe.”

JEREmy moRRis

managing director, david morris

“the clients fRom middle east

alWays focus on novelties. hence it’s impoRtant to

get a feedBack fRom the local

cRoWd, to amaze them With neW

exclusive items,”

thibaud JaouEn

international sales director, dewitt


s p o t l i g h t

gaRRaRd:keePIng WIth the Royal tRadItIon

Garrard is known for its long and historical relation-ship of 276 years with Britain’s Royal family. From be-ing the maker of the precious ring that adorned the fingers of Prince Diana which was later bestowed to the to-be-princess Kate Middleton by Prince Wil-liams on their engagement, Garrard has a tradition that goes back a long way. The company is also among a handful of jewellers hoping to design the wedding ring for the coup“It’s been a 276 years of relationship with the royal family and aristocracy. We have been officially the crown jewellers for over 160 years, starting from 1843 when Queen Victoria bestowed the honour on us of being the Crown Jewellers of the company. Since then, we have served six successive monarchs. Each era produced the pieces which are the most sough-af-ter pieces by jewellery specialists today. Nobody else in the market could claim of being crown jewellers for more than five years,” said Eric Deardorff, CEO, Gar-rard who was in Qatar to showcase the new Wings col-lection at the DJWE.

“Garrard has earned a reputation of not only pro-ducing quality jewellery but also beautiful designs of splendour, opulence and craftsmanship. What makes us stand apart from the rest is that we have a combination of lavish jewellery decorated with valu-able stones,” he added. Talking about the Middle East Market and the expansion plans here, Deardorff says,

“Our brand is well-known. It is recognised because we have been in Dubai for over five years, we have been in this show for the past four years and people know that we are one of the oldest jewellers with a reputation of producing the most precious pieces of the most exact-ing standards. But we have to expand distribution and marketing in Middle-East.”

“I have a very keen interest in significantly growing our business in Qatar. Our relationship with Ali Bin Ali has been a phenomenal one and in the long run we will see how we can develop it further.” Talking about his expectations from DJWE, Deardorff says, “Being a part of this grand exhibition I am looking forward at finding opportunities to expand my business here. And last but not the least I am looking forward to some good sales from the show.”

gRaham-london: flyIng hIgh WIth chRonofIghteR

The Chronofighter fortress which was presented by Graham-London at DJWE is a tribute to the stop-watches wore by the aircrews of RAF Bomber Com-mand. These stop watches which were worn by the flying officers at that time were in fact large pocket watches which were strapped over the bomber jackets and were known for their reliability and precision.

Based on the same concept, the collection presents a perfect blend of British aviation history through its vintage look with the minute detailing of the modern era. The 43mm case presents a subtle mix of brushed and polished steel, playing with light, combined with completely transparent case back.

Talking about this one-of-a-kind collection, the Brand Manager of Graham-London, Pietro Toma-jer said, “The collection is the best expression of the George Graham attitude and genius in watch making. Chronofighter in itself is a total style statement and distinctive from any other timepieces available in the exhibition.

“Since the Qatari market is expanding and adapt-ing to new and international styles, it is our pleasure to be a part of this grand exhibition and showcase our collection here. We have a great collaboration with Ali Bin Ali and we are happy to be a part of this great

family. Through this exhibition we are trying to give an international preview of the brand to the Middle Eastern market.”

“We have our branches in almost all the parts of Middle East including UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We are planning to get stronger at the places where we already are. We want to be really se-lective and offer something which is good in quality and liked by the customers.”

“gaRRaRd has eaRned a Reputation of not only pRoducing Quality JeWelleRy But also Beautiful designs of splendouR, opulence and cRaftsmanship.”

ERic dEaRdoRFF

ceo, garrard

“We aRe planning to get stRongeR at the places WheRe We alReady aRe. We Want to Be Re-ally selective and offeR something Which is good in Quality and liked By the customeRs.”

piEtRo tomaJER brand manager, graham-london


s p o t l i g h t

JeageR-lecoultuRe:PIoneeRs In WatchmakIng

Established in Switzerland in 1893, Jeager Le Coul-ture presented their esteemed collection of rare timepieces at the DJWE recently. A pioneer, who has made an indelible imprint on the watchmaking sec-tor, Jeager-LeCoulture is known for their innovative approach and precision.

JLC Sales & Marketing Director, Jerome Favier said, “The timepieces available in our brand are all manufactured in-house, and so are a symbol of reli-ability and integrity. In a world that is moving so fast we need something which is long-lasting and reliable, and JLC is a perfect example of that. Being around for the last 126 years, and having a reputation for produc-ing long-lasting and trustworthy products, the com-pany has become an icon in its own right. Our time-pieces are not just watches, but they have become jewels for those who buy them.”

The company has had a long-term partnership with Al Majed Group and the brand is now looking for-ward to expanding its business to other parts of the Middle-East.

“The Qatari market has responded very positively to our collection and we are hoping for a substantial amount of sales this year. This exhibition has pro-vided us with an opportunity to meet people and exchange ideas.

“The Middle-East market provides what our brand looks for and has shown an interest in fine watch-making, married with technical and aesthetic de-

tail, which is our signature mark. The market here is growing fast; there seems to be an air of evolution and the buyers are becoming more curious about dif-ferent kinds of brands and are gathering extensive knowledge about horology. This is good for brands like ours, as the buyers understand the mechanisms, concepts and minute detailing of the watches and so understand their worth. This will open up doors for many other international brands.”

keRn: novelty In classIcs

For a company that was founded in 1974 by August L. Kern perfection, exclusiveness and individu-ality form the basis of high-end luxury jewellery timepieces.

“Exclusive design and quality workmanship differ-entiate Kern in its specialisation in exquisite ladies jewellery watches. Our upper-end, limited edition time pieces are very feminine, classical and yet with a taste of fashion. They keep with the times and are yet impregnated with a classic touch. Our new collec-tion is inspired by the classical elegance of traditional ornaments,” comments Stefan Kern, son of August L. Kern who now manages Kern’s sales and marketing division.

He observes, “Qatar’s appetite for upper-end luxu-ry pieces is incredible. In future, we seek at continu-ing our cooperation and follow partnership with Ali Bin Ali where we have considerable visibility. There are no plans of expansion as of now in terms of open-ing new boutique. We are focussing at maintaining our existing relationships with clients and also in the course forming newer relationships with potential clientele.”

“the QataRi maRket has

Responded veRy positively to ouR

collection and We aRe hoping

foR a suBstantial amount of sales

this yeaR. ”

JERomE FaviER

sales and marketing director, jeager-

lecoulture

“theRe aRe no plans of

expansion as of noW in teRms

of opening neW BoutiQue. We aRe

focussing at main-taining ouR exist-ing Relationships

With clients.”

stEFan kERn

son of august l. kern


s p o t l i g h t

messika: Woman’s PRIde

Messika is the story of the passion of jewellery mak-ing, transferred from a father to his daughter. Messi-ka presents jewellery pieces which are sumptuous, el-egant, opulent, yet easy to wear and very trendy. The pieces have been designed, so as to keep in mind the woman of the contemporary world, so they are very feminine and comfortable to wear and could be used for any given occasion.

Messika – which was in Qatar for the grand Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition – had the signa-tures ‘Move Collection’ and ‘Butterfly collection’ on display. Talking about the response the brand received, Brand Development and Supply Chain Di-rector, Aurelie Darmon, said, “We are pleasantly sur-prised to see such a positive response from the people here. Despite being a new brand, people like our de-signs and honestly speaking, the people here have a very international taste and they look for designs that are contemporary, trendy and reflect their personali-ty. Our designs are very universal, and to see that they are being accepted by every part of the world is in it-self is a great achievement. Having said that, people’s taste is becoming universal now so there is no need for designing special jewelleries for every particular area; we are still trying to learn what people like – in this region in particular – and we will be coming out with some special designs next year.”

The company that already has established their

showrooms at Dubai, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia are now looking forward to opening new bases in Qatar and Bahrain, as well. They are in talks with Ali Bin Ali and will launch a showroom here very soon.

mikimoto: seRvIng PeaRls WIth lustRe

For a country whose heritage is marked with a fasci-nation for pearls, Mikimoto lives up to this tradition. It was in 1893 that founder Kokichi Mikimoto cul-tured the first pearl in Japan, and now the brand is revered as the ‘originators of cultured pearls’.

“Qatar has a strong appreciation for pearls of all kinds. We have been exhibiting at DJWE right from the beginning, and every year we see a different kind of choice from the customers. They are becoming more refined in their taste. Customers now demand for more delicate and soft sets, rather than the big bridal collections. Even bracelets have seen a demand this year,” said Jeremy Burbanks, European and Mid-dle East Sales Manager, Mikimoto. The local dealers for the brand is Ali Bin Ali.

On display at DJWE were all kind of pearls – natu-ral, Japanese Akoya pearls, Tahitian black pearls and Indonesian Golden pearls. The brand also deals with Keshi pearls – obtained as a natural by-product of the culturing process and has a beautiful lustre. “Though the brand is renowned for its pearls, it also offers ex-clusive gemstone pieces mainly pink sapphire that beautifully offsets the silver rosette tinge of a pearl,” added Burbanks.

“About 30% of the exhibits were designed for the

region with architectural motifs incorporated in them. Despite the change in designs, the quality is consistent. Here people focus on the entire set rather than individual pieces. Also, long necklaces with mul-tiple rows seem to be the latest trend for this season,” said Burbanks. The most interesting of the necklaces is the ‘Shooting Star’ with seven rows of pearls shin-ing from a cluster of diamonds. Mikimoto also offers cufflinks for men with mother pearls and diamonds.

Burbanks advices, “While buying pearls, one must check for a bright shiny surface, a silver rosette colour, a perfectly round shape and very few spots on the sur-face. Also, you need to ensure that the person selling you pearls knows what he is selling. Pearls are usually an emotional purchase especially during weddings, and to be a part of it is an honour for Mikimoto.”

“despite Being a neW BRand, people like ouR designs and the people look foR designs that aRe contempoRaRy, tRendy and Reflect theiR peRsonality.”

auREliE daRmon

brand development and supply chain director, messika

“QataR has a stRong appRecia-tion foR peaRls of all kinds.”

JEREmy buRbanks

european and middle east sales manager, mikimoto


s p o t l i g h t

picchiotti: sPReadIng euRoPean taste to the WoRld

“Picchiotti is not for everybody – it is for a connois-seur; for a lady who knows a lot about jewellery and what she wants to buy,” says Umberto Picchiotti, Vice President, Picchiotti.

The high-end jewellery brand approached the Mid-dle East market just six years ago and the region too has started to recognise and appreciate the brand and its product. “We are happy with our partners Ali Bin Ali in Qatar,” Picchiotti added. “We are planning to open a boutique in Dubai soon.”

The brand attempts to present its European taste to the world. At the same time, it has unique and ex-clusive collections for the Middle East. “For DJWE we are presenting the Iris collection – it’s fresh, flex-ible and has a touch of both classic and contemporary design that has been modified to the taste of the re-gion. We even have simple and chic collections of rare coral pieces,” said Picchiotti.

Other highlights for the exhibition were rings with eight-carat emeralds, pink sapphires, yellow dia-monds, turquoise and pearls. Picchiotti said, “You will always find the best quality with us because we focus on perfection. Every single piece has been crafted with the same importance. Whoever gets a Picchiotti jewellery gets the best!”

“the smallest size of the dial is only

40mm.”

milvin GEoRGE

managing director, officine panerai

“foR dJWe We aRe pResenting

the iRis collec-tion – it’s fResh, flexiBle and has Been modified to the taste of the

Region.”

umbERto picchiotti

vice president, picchiotti

officine paneRai:sea of luxuRy

What was once crafted exclusively for the Royal Ital-ian Navy, now dons the hands of royal customers. The watches offered by Officine Panerai are huge mascu-line time-pieces with a luminescent ‘sandwich’ dial that was made for greater visibility in the nights for the navy.

“The smallest size of the dial is only 40mm,” says Milvin George, Managing Director, Officine Panerai.

George says that since the brand is global, their de-signs don’t change according to the region. “But we do work on lot of innovations in technology. We are working on different materials for our cases – tita-nium, steel and platinum. We have also experimented mixing ceramic with aluminium. This year, we made watches even in bronze.”

The brand has a strong presence in the region and Qatar too is in focus. “Since Qatar is a rapidly grow-ing market, this is the right time to enter it. We would like to work with highly professional people like Ali Bin Ali who know how to do the luxury-oriented busi-ness. We are trying to hire well-trained staff, profi-cient in various languages as Qatar is becoming more and more of a cosmopolitan city. It is important for us to give customers an exclusive experience, have a dedicated staff who can take our customers to the

Panerai world.”The brand was relaunched in 1998 when it was sold

to Richmonte group the year before. Heavy invest-ments were made in the research and development of new novelties. The brand now boasts of a superior mix of Swiss technology and Italian design and au-thenticity.

“Through DJWE we were able to meet collectors and connoisseurs, VIPs, royal members of the fam-ily and other customers in Qatar and show them our collections as well as learn ways to improve. The Gov-ernment has done a great job in organising this exhi-bition and has shown great support for our industry,” said George.

s p o t l i g h t


Ralph lauRen: the aRt of fIne WatchmakIng

For DJWE 2011, followers of Ralph Lauren’s timeless aesthetic style and fine watchmaking heritage were treated with three new iconic watch collections.

The Ralph Lauren Sporting Collection makes a bold statement with wooden dials bordered by a stainless steel ring that strongly evokes the elegance of sports.

The second collection, the Ralph Lauren Slim Clas-sique, introduces a composition of concentric squares

from its case shape to the linear dial markings of this slender timepiece.

The last of the collections is the Ralph Lauren Stirrup Collection which has been inspired by the equestrian heritage of Polo Ralph Lauren with a uniquely shaped silhouette. The timepieces come in stainless steel and full-pave diamonds with a masculine black dial that is contrasted with off-white Roman numerals. The local dealers in Qatar is Ali Bin Ali.

RichaRd mille:celeBRatIng 10 yeaRs In the IndustRy

“This is Richard Mille’s 10th anniversary; having started in 2001 with the RM001 watch and this year, they are delivering the RM038. We’ve gone from making 300 watches a year to 3,000. Technically we are working with the space, industry, the aerospace and the car industries to introduce new materials and technology to the watches. We are very happy with the success of the brand and have taken on a new am-bassador from the world of golf; Bubba Watson from the USA will now wear our watches while playing. Previously we’ve had Rafael Nadal (tennis) and Fil-ipe Massa (motor racing) as ambassadors,” says Peter Harrison, CEO, Richard Mille.

Customers look for technological innovations from Richard Mille.

“Traditionally extra weight means extra value; at Richard Mille less weight means more value. People have come to appreciate that,” he says.

“Qatar remains very strong as a market; the people here are compared to the royalty of Monaco. We’ve taken a lot of orders, although we haven’t made any special edition watches for the exhibition. We’re very happy.”

On the association with Ali Bin Ali, he says, “Ali Bin Ali were the first to embrace the fact that Richard

Mille made good ladies’ watches. We’re bringing out a new ladies’ tourbillon this year, the RM026, using precious stones; it’s a variation of the RM019 with the Celtic Knot.

“Our local partnership here is one of our stron-gest and Ali Bin Ali does a great job. They represent the brand well and they are professional with well-trained staff. They are always open to innovation, which is what we look for.”

“We’ve taken a lot of oRdeRs, although We haven’t made any special edition Watches foR the exhiBition.”

pEtER haRRison,

ceo, richard mille

s p o t l i g h t


schReineR fine JeWelleRy: gems of desIRe

Since the times of Ali Baba and the magical cave, precious jewels, gems and stones have been a subject of ut-most desire and passion for human beings. Such penchant for precious stones pulled Gerhard Schreiner, President of Schreiner Fine Jewel-lery into the exquisite world of fine jewels. From humble beginning – in the land of emeralds – Colombia in 1988, his company now employees over 300 skilled people headquar-tered in Germany and crafting one of the world’s high end jewellery collections - the ‘neo haute joaillerie’.

“The 2011 fine jewellery collection is inspired by the vivid elements of nature – water, earth and fire, in its design. Colour has always been the focal point in our jewellery. We keep ourselves in tune with the changing fashion trends as projected by the fashion capitals of the world; London, Paris, Milan and New York. This is one pivotal element behind our jewel-

lery designs that gives us a leading edge. You will see the use of pink gold in our jewellery, which is in vogue today,” explains Schreiner with a glint of passion shining as brightly as the diamonds in the showcased jewellery.

He sees Qatar as a market with huge potential where people are trend conscious and they are buy-ing high-end fine jewellery not just as pleasure pieces but from an investment point. The local partners for the brand is Ali Bin Ali.

ulysse naRdin:ReseaRcheRs In tImekeePIng

“Ulysse Nardin were the official supplier of the chro-nometer to the Russian and Japanese Navy in the 18th century. At that time they didn’t have any radar to check their position at sea and were using a com-pass and other tools. This brand produced a marine chronometer to calculate the equation of time with real precision. The second hand would beat to half a second, because if you are out by one second at sea, it equates to a misjudgement of 483 metres at the equa-tor. Now we have introduced the same kind of sys-tem in a watch,” says Christophe Chorao, Area Sales Manager, Ulysse Nardin.

“We have been in the Middle East for 10 years now and it counts for 15% of our annual turnover; Dubai and Saudi Arabia being the most lucrative markets. Qatar is new, but there is a real interest in these watches among its many watch collectors.”

“Qatar has a lot of projects in the near future, but we hope that our business will improve here as much as it has in Dubai and other Middle Eastern countries. It’s definitely growing here, but slowly. We have col-laborated with local dealer Ali Bin Ali.”

Customers, according to Chorao, are watch con-noisseurs, “They know about these high-end, me-chanical watches, they want to be different, and don’t want to be wearing the ubiquitous Rolex all the time.

On their special collection for the exhibition, he says, “We have developed a new style called ‘Freak Diavolo’ and the special thing about it is that it has

no time hands and no crown. It’s a mechanical watch, the full movement rotates around the case (the axis doesn’t rotate). It’s a flying tourbillon, which was originally made to compensate for the earth’s gravity, and has been made with silicon components for bet-ter movement. We are the first to have developed this technology as silicon does not require any lubrication. Normal watches would get dry in the Middle Eastern hot climate within two or three years and would need to be serviced. It is wound from the back and is really a watch for a collector. It comes only in white gold or platinum; it’s a limited edition and it retails for some-thing like $135,000 (QR491,000)

The El Toro is also a new line of ceramic watches and is fitted with the complicated GMT movement. It has a perpetual calendar that you can adjust with a simple crown forward and backward movement. It even recognises the leap year!

“you Will see the use of pink gold

in ouR JeWelleRy, Which is in vogue

today”

GERhaRd schREinER

president, schreiner fine jewellery

“ali Bin ali is a good amBassadoR of the BRand. you can see fRom the

enviRonment We have heRe – it’s veRy luxuRious

With upscale BRands. it’s in ouR

inteRest to Be theiR paRtneR.”

chRistophE choRao

area sales manager, ulysse nardin


s p o t l i g h t

van cleef & aRpels:cRaftIng stoRIes

“We are not following or setting any trends as we are a Maison with more than 100 years of history and heri-tage and we have a unique style. We are here to bring emotion, to tell stories with very unique craftsman-ship and style,” says Alban Belloir, Brand Director- Middle East & India, Van Cleef & Arpels.

On the new trends, Bellior says, “We are telling new stories every year with our new styles. This year, the story is about extraordinary travels. We will reveal at Art Dubai in March ‘Voyages Extraordinaire’, which is inspired by Jules Verne’s novels. Van Cleef & Arpels is not about the world as you see it, but the world, as it should be – the ideal world. We have a very idyllic vi-sion of the world, so when you look at our pieces, you will see they are very smooth, delicate, colourful, and exude optimism and a positive feel, which is unusual in this dangerous world today. This is what Van Cleef & Arpels is all about.”

The Jardin Collection has a typical French spirit, inspired by nature and is one of their speciality.

Van Cleef also brought to this exhibition the special Mystery Setting pieces.

“We are the only ones doing this kind of setting – it’s invisible and you only see the stones and not the prongs holding them. It’s not easy to find stones of the same quality, colour and size for this setting. It takes more than a year to make each piece because you need to cut and assemble each stone in a very specific way.

A new segment in the watch industry has also been introduced with the Poetic Complications Collection. “We have a demand for The Mystery Setting pieces, especially as the level of refinement here is very high. They are looking for pieces they can’t find anywhere else – like the Zip, the Mystery Setting, the Jardin col-lection and the Victoria necklace.

“We have a veRy close paRtneRship With ali Bin ali and the Result of this has Been the opening of the thiRd van cleef & aRpels BoutiQue in doha, in villaggio mall. i Be-lieve We Both shaRe the same vision aBout What a luxuRy maison should Be.”

alban bElloiR

brand director- middle east & india, van cleef & arpels

al zain:BuyIng customeRs’ tRust

DJWE has come at a perfect time this year for Al Zain. The brand is planning to launch its first flagship store in the country in April at the Lagoona Mall which will offer customers its signature bridal and everyday jew-ellery collections.

“Through this exhibition we are fortifying our rela-tionship with our customers – those who already ex-ist in Qatar and some potential new ones. This would also help in cementing the base for our launch in the country in April,” says Yousif Al-Ghawas, Brand Manager of Al Zain.

Created in 1930 by Abdullah Al-Zain, a renowned pearl merchant, the brand now has 14 stores across five different countries while it continues to serve the Middle Eastern clienteles. “Our jewellery is designed by the Arabs for the Arabs. About 80% of our clients are Arabs who love the Arabseque designs that we create,” he says.

The brand also has its own share of expats and Asian customers who simply love the Middle East touch of the collections. .

A striking feature of Al Zain is that all its designs are custom-made.

“We are not retailers, we are jewellery designers. We design jewellery based on our customer’s de-

mands. Also, our prices are very reasonable despite being a high-end piece, because we want our custom-ers to buy our products, not our brand name. We are honest with our customers.”

For this exhibition, the brand had its latest bridal line on display with huge diamonds, ruby, emerald and pearl sets dazzling the customers.

Meanwhile, the everyday items were offered in semi-precious stones. “We also have bronze and body jewellery collections. We are also one of the few jewel-lers who produce items for children,” said Al-Ghawas. “And every item has been crafted with love and care because our clients are like family. Our brand person-ality is that of ‘an old family friend!”

“ouR JeWelleRy is designed By the aRaBs foR the aRaBs. 80% of ouR clients aRe aRaBs Who love the aRa-Bic designs that We cReate.”

yousiF al-GhaWas

brand manager, al Zain


a perfect blend of trade, art and panache

dIgnItaRIes gRace the shoWdeputy prime minister and emiri diwan chairman

his excellency abdullah bin hamad al-attiyah visits the stalls at djwe

dJWe 2011 stRengthened QataR’s position in the gloBal maRket as an attRactive destination foR high-end luxuRy exhiBitoRs and flamBoyant, tasteful BuyeRs fRom acRoss the Region.

s p o t l i g h t


BReakIng RecoRdsthe mouawad 1001 nights diamond purse’ was unveiled at djwe. the purse worth qr13.84 billion recieved certification from the guinness world book of records for the most valuable handbag in the world

fIne shoWmodels exhibit the sparkling collection from ali bin ali brands

soPhIstIcatIonthe cartier display at djwe

RePResentIng gloBal BRandsnabeel ali bin ali, ceo of ali bin ali group of companies

elegancethe alfardan display at djwe

s p o t l i g h t


ercedes Benz has just intro-duced a special model in its G-class which is specifically designed for the Middle East.

To add an air of exclusivity to the model, Mercedes say they will only be running 100 models through production, all of which promotes its name: The G-Class Arabia 100 Limited Edition.

Its unique and rugged design is intended to aid the Middle East journeyman, but it also portrays a sporty, curvy look and feel. This rugged and powerful-looking exterior is backed up by its 19-inch AMG wheels in a special matte finish, and it’s available in cashmere white or night black.

meRcedes to make an exclusive aRaBian g-class

m

BlisteRing BRusselsBRakingneWs 84

adillac will release the Black Diamond Edition of their CTS-V Sedan, CTS-V Coupe to local dealerships later this Spring, but it can be pre-or-

dered today.Customers, who are keenly searching for

models which promote paints that are not just distinguishable by their colour, but also by their special effects, will be excited by this news.

Michelle Killen – Cadillac exterior paint designer – uses an interesting analogy: “The CTS-V Black Diamond Edition is like a fine-ly crafted, tailored tuxedo; the base colour may be a simple black, but the details and richness of the material set it apart.”

Black Diamond is essentially a dark, tri-coated paint which is embedded with Spec-traFlair Silver pigmentation, which is me-ticulously produced by optical technology provider, JDSU, in California.

The aluminum flakes in the dark, tri-coat-ed paint - which are encapsulated in a glass-

like substance called magnesium fluoride - sparkle when natu-ral light hits them from acute angles. The CTS-V also pro-vides such features as satin graphite 19-inch wheels with yel-low, Brembo brake calipers, and French-stitched leather and microfiber suede seats and cushions to complement this new chic look which the Black Diamond reveals.

“We’ve already established the V-Series as a serious sub-brand for Cadillac,” said Rich Pinto, Cadillac Creative Designer. “Black Diamond further establishes V-Series in the market as a performance-minded line of vehicles with a luxury twist.” The CTS-V was launched in the Mid East in 2009, fol-

lowed by the 2011 CTS Coupe and CTS-V Coupe, for which sales had exceeded fore-casts in September 2010. The CTS-V Sedan and Coupe feature a supercharged 6.2L V8 engine with 556-horspower, Magnetic Ride Control suspension that reads and reacts to the road 1,000 times a second and Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tire.

Black diamond Will add spaRkle to cadillac

c

76


l-Naael Co is rolling out the latest Citroen model for the demanding Qatari market. The new DS3 model reveals everything that Citroen be-

lieves in and promotes; elegance, moderni-ty, aesthetic exterior, dynamic performance and innovative features.

The DS3 is a particularly distinctive ve-hicle and it exudes original concepts, such as the ‘floating roof’ and the ‘shark fin’. Indeed the DS3 is not one, but a number of Citroen concepts rolled into one. Each customer can lend their own impression to how they would like their model; the versa-tile DS3 is set up so the roof, body, rear-view mirrors and wheels can be altered. One can choose from seven personalised themes for the interior, while the dashboard and other equipment can also be customised.

design youR oWn citRoen

a

he GMC Yukon was re-cently awarded with Intel-liChoice’s 2011 Best Overall Values of the Year (BOVY) in its full-size SUV category.

This prestigious award is based on how a vehicle performs in line with its analysis of ownership costs, such as depreciation, maintenance, repairs fuel efficiency, financ-ing and insurance.

This award wasn’t a surprise, as the Con-sumer Guide called the Yukon a ‘best buy’ in its segment last year. The 2011 editions continue to augment Yukon’s reputation for distinctive styling, spacious and cul-tured interiors, exceptional handling and safety features, and these have made the

Yukon GMC’s best selling model in the Middle East.

All GMC warranties in the Middle East have been increased to ‘three-year or 1,000,000 kilometres’, as part of the brand’s objective to meet and exceed customers’ expectations.

gmc yukon giving value foR money

t

ord will be delighted with their return on the effort they afforded the new Mus-tang. It has already scooped a number of awards since it

rebounded onto the market last November. Among the awards were Gulf News’ Wheels Magazine Sports Coupe Car of the Year, and EVO Middle East Magazine’s 2010 Muscle Car of the Year.

Bassam Kronfi - Editor-in-Chief of EVO Middle East – stressed that that new Mus-tang was indeed a deserving winner, that the “vehicle has reignited people’s passion for the pony car” and the new 5.0-litre en-gine was a revelation.

The new Ford Mustang is available with all new 3.7L V6 and 5.0L V8 versions and is enthusing customers with it exciting inno-vations and technologies.

foRd Reigniting passion foR the ‘pony caR’

f

Black day foR poRsche BoxsteR she eagerly awaited market launch of Porsche’s new and limited Boxster S Black Edi-tion is this May. Only 987 units are being produced,

so Porsche are striving to make the model unique and distinctive in its design and feel. The designers certainly didn’t compromise on their colour concept. It’s ubiquitously cloaked in black, from the body and hood to the four 19-inch Boxster Spider wheels. The rear side intake grills and rollover bars are as black as the twin tail-piped exhaust. This colour impression is not limited to the exterior, because the various devices and implementations of the interior also adhere to the strict concept. The Boxster S Black Edition comes with the otherwise optional ‘comfort’, ‘infotainment’ and ‘design’ equip-

ment packages – as standard – which means you’re getting more bang for your buck. The wind deflectors, the anti-dazzle interior and exterior mirrors, and the Porsche Com-munication System (PCS) are also ‘built-in’

to the Black Edition model. Meanwhile, the standard bi-Xenon lights mean a safer and more pleasant journey for the driver.

The chassis certainly promotes a sporty feel, as the driving dynamics are enhanced by its 235/35 ZR 19 front and the 265/35 ZR 19 rear tyres on lightweight wheels, while the flat engine gives the unit a low centre of gravity, improving its levels of agility and performance when cornering.

With its standard six-speed manual transmission, it can accelerate from a standing start to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, which is one-tenth of a second swifter than the original Boxster S model. It can reach a top speed of 276 km/h. This extra power doesn’t compromise its fuel efficiency how-ever, maintaining parity with the Boxster S in this regard.

t

B R a k i n g n e W s

80 QataR today F e B r u a r y 2 0 1 1

ater is such a simple word, but like every simple word it has a profound significance as where there is safe water there is health, energy and

a serene encounter with nature,” said the Italian Fashion Designer Giorgio Armani.

Today when large part of the world is struggling for safe water, Armani has come up with an innovative and humanitarian idea of providing healthy drinking water to people worldwide. Giorgio Armani has recently launched a campaign ‘Aqua for Life’ which mainly focuses on spreading knowledge about the scarcity of water that has emerged all around the world and to provide minimum of 40 millions litres of drinking water to the area which has been deprived to its access.

To achieve the objective of this momen-

tum effort, Armani has selected two of his infamous fragrances Acqua di Gio and Ac-qua di Gioia, inherently in harmony with this theme, a comprehensive and innova-tive network of support and solidarity has been devised, with a particular focus on the Internet.

From March 22, World Water Day, a special Acqua For Life edition of the two fragrances will be available exclusively at Debenhams and VaVaVoom in the Middle East. Every bottle sold will generate a do-nation of 100 litres of drinking water per year to children and their communities. Each perfume purchased entitles the buyer to double their donation of 100 litres via in-ternet by putting the code given on differ-ent cartons. These codes will also help the buyer to form their own team to support the campaign.

aRmani goes aQua foR the cause

meet the man of hope

92maRketWatch

W

G takes another step to-wards the green environ-ment by introducing Green Air conditioners with en-vironmental friendly re-

frigerants. Unlike the first-generation and second-generation air conditioners, the third-generation air-conditioner is espe-cially suitable for hospitals, hotels and ar-eas where area-based cooling and heating is required.

The Wall Mounted Split type units are equipped with hermetic multi-cylinder reciprocating compressors manufactured by LG are charged with environmental friendly refrigerants, such as R134a or R-407C and are designed for continuous op-eration at outdoor ambient temperatures as high as 52C. The cabinet of the outdoor unit is constructed of steel, finished with baked synthetic resin paint and the fan guard wire net mounted on top or side of the unit depending on the unit capacity adequately protects the unit against cor-rosion. This makes the unit withstand the tough weather conditions especially in the coastal areas

LG has always been involved in Green practices. Last year, also LG introduced its line of energy-efficient air-conditioners called Tropical Multi V, which has been found to curtail power consumption by a whopping 70%.

lg aiR-conditioneRs go gReen

l


G Electronics recently launched the World’s big-gest full LED 3D TV, a 72-inch LZ9700 and is available in Jumbo electronics show-

rooms across Qatar. This 59-inches wide and 40-inches tall TV, will let its viewers to see a life-sized action on a beautifully crisp picture.

Watching pictures on this full HD reso-lution TV would give its viewers a sense of large and colourful paintings at an art gal-lery. The extra spacious screen size also makes the picture more immersive than ever, offering viewers a 3D experience every

bit as good as the screen in the local multi-plex.

Not limited to just clear and big screen, the state-of-art TV will also provide its viewers with latest technologies, making it possible to access information about travel, health and anything else by using the con-tents cube feature. Viewers may also enjoy videos and pictures from sites like Youtube and picassa.

LZ9700 also provides connectivity op-tions in the shape of smart DLNA func-tion, which lets users wirelessly access files stored on other media devices to enjoy them on the big screen.

lg launches 3d noteBook at JumBo

lt

G, the global dealers and the technology innovators in mobile communication is one of the few leaders to come out with a 3D Note-

book and a compact LED projector. The launch was held during an IT Dealer Semi-nar organised by Jumbo Electronics last week at Ramada hotel, recently.

LG Electronics Gulf, IT Business Man-ager, Michael Kim said, “LG is working on expanding their business in the Middle East market in 2011, and have many projects with wide range of products in the pipe-line.” During the Seminar the Roadmap of

the LCD & LED Monitors for the year 2011 was also unveiled along with elaborate mar-keting plans for the Projector Biz from LG Electronics.

Awards were distributed by Executive Di-rector of Jumbo Electronics, Sajed Jassim Sulaiman and Director & General Manager, C.V. Rappai, to the Top Performing Dealers and Hypermarkets for their contribution to the market growth during the event.

Wide range of LG brand LED Monitors and Multi-colored Slim DVD Writers along with External hard-disks are now available in all Jumbo Electronics outlets and with leading IT Dealers & Hypermarkets.

l

lg to launch WoRld’s Biggest led 3d tv

he Society For Protec-tive Coatings Worldwide (SSPC), Qatar Chapter held its inaugural meeting on the 24 January 2011 . It was at-

tended by around 100 coating-profession-als working in the different organisations in Qatar.

The SSPC UAE Chapter Chairman, Pradeep Radhakrishnen, attending the function stated “The purpose of SSPC is to advance the technology and promote the use of protective coatings to preserve industrial, marine and commercial struc-tures, components and substrates. SSPC currently has 8768 individual members and 792 corporate members worldwide.”

The SSPC Qatar chapter was formed in October 2010 with the help of a few dedi-cated individuals, notwithstanding the full support from the SSPC Pittsburgh PA, USA Headquarters & the UAE chapter. Their goal is to assist the Corrosion & Coating industry in Qatar in achieving and main-taining excellence in this field through the industry’s best practices.

sspc, QataR chapteR holds inauguRal meeting

m a R k e t W a t c h


g l o B e t R o t

t the end of five days, I can truly say I’ve experienced just about everything Brussels has to offer. F16s es-corting us in Belgian airspace. Axelle Red live. Stay-ing in an erstwhile jail. Chocolates by the tonne, speculoos by the carton, unmentionable beverages, truffles, mussels, art nouveau architecture, brilliant comics, efficient paramedical service and the not so

efficient emergency care.True, two F-16 fighter jets piloted by Belgian air

force officers welcoming the inaugural Qatar Airways flight to Europe’s capital is a tough act to follow. But Brussels put up a fight, despite the average tempera-ture staying between -5C and 2C.

The trip came to an end with a bang, as well. Trip-

a

blistering brussels!More than JuSt ‘frite’ revolution and funny buSineSS

b y v a n i S a R a S w a T h i


g l o B e t R o t

ping on an almost invisible road divider, flying across the street, landing on the pavement nose first, right in front of a fine dining restaurant, where a group of us were planning to celebrate our last night in Brus-sels. How aptly slapstick that this should happen in a country whose pride is its comic heritage.

Brussels’ appeal is not just its rich and complicated history, it’s also about the rather incomprehensible present. To put it simply – the French speaking and Flemish speaking parts of Belgium are not quite see-ing eye to eye. So nine months after an election, the country still doesn’t have a government – the longest a country has gone without one. The previous record holder was Iraq, so a rather dubious distinction, this.

Surprisingly, the lack of governance doesn’t seem to have affected the functioning of the capital city – home to the EU Parliament, where at any given point a dozen dignitaries are visiting. Possibly, only the emergency services have felt the brunt of non-gover-nance. One of the leading MICE destinations in the world, Brussels thrives on its citizens’ passion for it. There is a stunning lack of nationalism amongst a lot of the people we interacted with. No Hercule Poirot-like Belgian pride; but more of “I am European, and I love Brussels. That’s all,” as one tour guide said. About the city, however, there is no ambivalence. Even a re-cent economic migrant to the city cannot help but

sing its praises. Its sheer compactness, its connectivity within and

to other European destinations, the civility of its resi-dents, its eclectic – and sometimes not so pretty – ar-chitecture, the array of cuisines on offer, little wonder that it’s rocking the MICE charts.

Old railways stations converted to trendy venue for events like the Royal Depot of Tours & Taxis.

Outside of business there is plenty to see as well. And you can do most of it by foot. But the Grand Place is where evenings are meant to be spent, branching off from the main square are little alleys where you can get hot frites (thicker, meatier version of the French fries) and fresh waffles; cheap made in China rip-offs of Bruges lace and authentic Belgian tapestry; price-less antiques; Tintin merchandise, gorgeous Delvaux bags and cheap rexine jackets; thirst quenchers; and chocolates in every corner.

But what is really going to inspire people to stop over in Brussels is probably Spielberg taking on Herge. Having got the rights to make movies of three Tintin books, Steven Spielberg and Sony have fina-lised Brussels as the location to shoot the films. Next up, the city is trying to win the rights to host the world premier as well.

If you do decide to go there before Tintin is immor-talised on the silver screen, there is still plenty to do.

gRand Place by night


g l o B e t R o t

QR’s continental odysseybudapest, bucharest, brussels, stuttgart...

The third European destination to be launched in January itself, Qatar Airways obviously is relishing cocking a snook at its continental adversaries.

Always up for a challenge, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker spared no opportunity to retaliate against ‘unjust’ allegations made by European legacy carriers.

“They accuse us (fast expanding Middle Eastern carriers) of being subsidised and coddled by our

governments. That’s bull**** (sic). How did they start off? And we don’t even get the kind of aid they did,” he said to a packed press conference in Brussels, the day after the launch.

He ruled out multiple hubs – reciting the fail-ure of airlines that have attempted this – and said Doha would continue to be the hub, feeding other sectors.

Of course, no QR pre-sentation is complete without its GTL-fuelled sprint from London to Doha in October 2009. Al-Baker told Qatar

Today that 2012 will see several more commercial flights fuelled by GTL with the arrival of the A340s.

Cleaner air travel fuelled his continuing tirade against European airlines at the Gala dinner. “Then there is this whole talk of our carbon emissions – when figures only show them in poor light.”

“Our emissions are only 94.5g CO2/RPK com-pared to over 100g for European legacy carriers,” he stressed.

The heated welcome to the Gala was only matched by Axelle Red’s performance late into the night.

akBaR al-BakeR, ceo, qatar airways

f16f16s piloted by the belgian air force welcomes qatar airways inaugural flight to brussels into the country’s airspace.

eu PaRlIament

and other offices of

the european union

and european commis-

sion are worth a visit,

to understand how in

an era of dissonance,

there are attempts to

do away with

boundaries.

galeRIe st huBeRt: a glaZed shopping

arcade, the galerie

is considered one of

the earliest shopping

malls in europe.

magRItte museum: the renÈ magritte

museum occupies the

house in which the

belgian surrealist

painter worked nearly

24 years of his life.

otheR not to miss spots include:


g l o B e t R o t

Villa EmpainA gorgeous example of Art Deco architecture, the Vil-la Empain is now a centre for cultural exchange be-tween East and West. The pet project of the Boghos-sian Foundation, we not only met Diane Hennebert who was in charge of the renovation (she incidentally also directed the Atomium renovation) but also had the unique pleasure of meeting Jean Boghossian one of the two brothers behind the vision of this project.

Created in 1992, the Boghossian Foundation has been involved in contributing to the improvement of the living conditions of those affected by war and natural disasters, especially in Lebanon and in Arme-nia. In 2006, the foundation acquired Villa Empain, and after complete restoration opened its door to the public in April 2010.

Auquier recounts his family’s flight from native

Armenia to Lebanon and Syria, and then arriving in Belgium in 1975. The family of jewellers established the exclusive Bogh-Art brand (available in Qatar at Al Majed Jewellery).

Having seen strife and war throughout his life, he wanted people to grow past enimity and conflict and find a common language – art in this case – that ig-nores differences in religion and culture. “We don’t want millions more dead before we find that language. And this was our family’s commitment to that end.”

Apart from collections from the Arab region, there are temporary exhibitions that touch upon a lot of sensitive and topical issues. During our visit, it was the Colours of the Orient: Arts and lifestyles in the Ottoman Empire. Next month, the exhibition enti-tled ‘Of Women’s Modesty and Anger’ will talk of ritu-als, garbs and convictions.

vIlla emPaIna cultural exchange centre, envisioned by jean boghossian (inset) and his family

SablonIf you do have an eye for antiques and deep pockets to go with it, then the street is worth visiting. We also stopped for some aperetifs at the beautiful where from what you sit on to what you brush against has a history and value that can overwhelm you.

heRge museum

though not in brussels, it’s just a short

drive out of the city to louvain-la-neuve.

the museum was established by fanny

rodwell, herge’s widow and her husband

nick rodwell.

rodwell wanted a modern, airy, bright

space that spoke of herge without restrict-

ing him to his masterpiece, tintin.

and that’s what the exhibits do – speak of

him as the illustrator, caricaturist, adver-

tiser, graphic designer, and the creator of

other characters such as jo, Zette, quick

and flupke.

designed by christian de portZamparc, the

museum is an elongated prism that seems to

float in a forest of ancient trees.

geTTingTheRe

foR bookingS

Q a T a R a i R w a y S f l i e S

5T i m e S a w e e k T o b R u S S e l S

W W W. Q ata R a i R Way s . c o m . Q a


g l o B e t R o t

WheRe to eat and of course what

to eat. do try fresh

chocolates from the

finest – marcolini, neu

haus, gerbaud (where

you can even attend

a chocolate making

workshop).

stop at the roadside

cafes for hot waffles

or fritaes – when the

temperature is relent-

lessly below Zero and

the sky a steady shade

of grey, chocolates,

waffles and chips can

brighten the day.

for sheer novelty and

an unbeatable view

of the city, lunch at

the restaurant on the

topmost sphere of the

atomium.

kwint and museum

brasserie (near the

musee magritte) pro-

vide excellent belgian

cuisine.

WheRe to stay:

hese are just two of the many rea-sons why you could choose to stay in Hotel Amigo.

First, its location. It’s just a stone’s throw away from the Grand

Place, and walking distance from several shopping areas, museums and fantastic restaurants. Getting crisp speculoos from Dandoy or chocolates from Neu Hause demands nothing more than 10 steps out of the doorway. The quirkier reason is the kick of staying in what used to be a prison. The origi-nal building predates 1522, when the city council bought the building from a wealthy merchant and converted it to a prison. The Spanish rulers at that time mistook Flemish for prison to mean ‘friend’, and made it ‘amigo’. As the guide joked, then it wasn’t easy getting out of Amigo, now it’s difficult to get into it.The Hotel was built by the Blaton family in 1957 on the occasion of the World Fair. In 2000, it became a part of the Rocco Forte collection. For bookings check www.roccofortecollecton.com.

t

amIgothe former jail is now a luxury hotel

Belgian Comic Strip Center Even if you are not into comics, this place is not to be missed. As the promotional brochure claims, it is the ‘Kingdom of the Smurfs, Tintin, Lucky Luke.’ It is not only about what is housed at the centre alone, it is also about where it is housed. It is a masterpiece of Art Nouveau architecture, designed by the famous Belgian architect Victor Horta (one of the most im-portant names in the movement). A haven of natural lighting, the building once used to be a boutique for silk fabric.

The 4,000 sq mts of space is used for both perma-nent and temporary exhibitions. It brings together everything related to comic strips, from its begin-nings, through its persistence during periods of war, and to recent developments, not only from Europe but even from emerging comic centres like Japan (Manga).

As Jean Auquier of the Center says, “Our little country, that probably has the world’s highest density of paper heroes and story tellers per sq km, owed it to itself to create this centre.

comIc stRIP centeRwhere characters from childhood come alive


g l o B e t R o t

eu expeRience to a seamless gcctime for a study

Home to EU parliament, Brussels – even without a government of its own – is where diplomacy, compro-mises and doing away with boundaries can be studied.

That apart, trade between Qatar and Belgium has been on the rise. Imports were around 193 million euros in 2006, and it touched €337 million in 2009, covering trade in machinery and chemical products.

Exports had risen from €188 million (2006) to €989 million (Jan-Oct 2010), and about 95% of this was in LNG trade. There are a few big players in the construction industry in Qatar. However, the Belgian Ambassador to Qatar Luc Devolder is confident that in light of the 2022 FIFA world cup, there could be more opportunities.

“Sixconstruct and CFE in construction and Jan-DeNul and DEME in dredging and Landwinning are some of the biggest companies here. There are doz-ens of other companies who export products and ser-vices to Qatar but on the basis of smaller and specific contracts and without permanent representation in Qatar.

“There is certainly scope for expansion. They should take part in the large infrastructure projects connected to the World Cup 2022. As for the World Cup itself, the Belgian Sports Technology Club, an association of companies specialised in services and products for international (sports) events, is very in-terested in participating.”

Apart from MICE, there are regional similarities that could make for good exchange in learnings.

The common currency for one. “This is as much a political as a financial and monetary project. The euro has been a success but the recent past has learned that to be sustainable, the monetary union has to be supplemented by a stronger harmonisation of the na-tional economic, fiscal, tax and social policies,” says Devolder. On the common market that the GCC states have been working on, he feels it is another long-term project. “It involves not only the abolition of internal custom borders and the creation of a unique common border with the outside world. The most difficult part is the harmonisation of legislations, regulations and rules concerning production, safety, marketing etc. of products and services. It involves also the introduc-tion and implementation of strict rules to guarantee free and fair competition.”

MICE capitalWith an annual MICE turnover of €4 million, about 25,000 people are employed in the industry in Brus-sels alone. In 2009, 70,000 meetings were held in the city, which resulted in more than 1.8 million over-nights in 165 hotels, according to official statistics.

The similarities between Doha and Brussels are many, which is why it would pay to pay attention to how the European city pushes ahead of other hot MICE destinations in the EU. In general terms, Brussels’ main rivals for hosting MICE events are Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam. In 2009, Paris was the most popular choice for those organisations/ businesses that did not choose Brussels. In 2009, Brussels welcomed 2,728,516 visitors of whom 2% were from the Middle East

atomium he Atomium was build for the 1958 World Fair, and was not meant to survive beyond the exhibition period. The Atomi-um symbolised an iron crystal (magnified 165 billion times), to

show the power of nuclear energy, and its use for peaceful purposes, which was the subject of the exhibition that year.

Of the nine spheres, three are supported by the other six. Except for those three, the rest are now used for exhibitions, restaurants and events. A permanent exhibition is dedicated to the ‘58 Expo.’

The spectacular view from the top (including over Mini Europe theme park), and the ride in the elevator – which in 1958 was the fastest, are the highlights of a visit to the site. The Atomium was refurbished in 2006.

t

atomIum an architectural wonder

manneken PIs: there is no escap-

ing this little naked

boy – he is there on

fridge magnets and

chocolate moulds.

his imagery will

stalk you – even tire

you a bit. legend

has it that he saved

the city of brussels

from a bomb by wet-

ting it. and though he

flaunts his

nakedness, he has a

wardrobe of close

to 1,000 formal

uniforms, gifted by

visiting heads of

state from around

the world.


d o h a d i a R y

he unprecedented flowering of Islamic cul-ture over the course of centuries and across geographies gave rise to a rich legacy which has no equivalent in other traditions of ar-tistic endeavour.

An exhibition which Sotheby’s will mount at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha on March 5 and 6, will be highlighted by an extraordinary group of objects ranging from striking and beautiful Quranic scripts and other works of calligraphic inspiration through remark-able illuminated manuscripts and weap-onry created for the Safavid, Mughal and

Deccani courts. All of these works will be of-fered at Sotheby’s London April 6, 2011 sale of the celebrated collection of Islamic Art assembled by the late scholar and collector, Stuart Cary Welch. One of the leading art historians of his generation who devoted his life to the study and teaching of Islamic art and culture, Welch was also an inspired collector renowned for his brilliant eye and exquisite taste.

The exhibition will include an illustrated folio from what is universally acknowledged as one of the supreme illustrated manu-

artistiC treasures

t

the gReat tRaditions in islamic histoRy

sultan alI adIl shah II huntIng tIgeRdeccani courtly painting that has survived from the 16th and 17th centuries

d o h a d i a R y


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scripts of any period or culture and among the greatest works of art in the world – The Shahnameh made for Shah Tahmasp of Persia, the son of the founder of the Safa-vid Dynasty. The Shahnameh or ‘Book of Kings’ is the Persian national epic and that made for Shah Tahmasp between 1520 and 1540 in its complete form contained 258 ravishing illustrations. It is a monumental achievement of artistic skill and patron-age, and a work of breathtaking quality and exquisite beauty. Depicting Faridun in the guise of a dragon testing his sons, the folio in ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper is estimated at QR11,720,000-17,580,000 and is attributed to Aqa Mirak who worked in the Safavid Royal Atelier. Its glittering provenance includes three emperors, Shah Isma`il, Shah Tahmasp, Sultan Selim II of the Ottoman Empire, as well as one of the great bibliophilic families of the modern era, the Barons de Rothschild.

A magnificent Ruby-Set Dagger with gilt-copper zoomorphic hilt made in the second half of the 16th Century is a superb example of another great artistic tradition of Islamic history, the Deccani Sultanates of South India. With a pommel which depicts a composition of fantastical and naturalis-tic beasts, including a deer attacked by a ti-ger which is itself being bitten by a dragon, the dagger is a most powerful and exuber-

ant display of royal grandeur and visionary craftsmanship. In it, an extraordinary range of artistic stratagem and motifs are unified into one object that encapsulates, in its dy-namism and decorative range, the epitome of Deccani art. What is most fascinating about the dagger is the way in which the conscious imagery of hunting and dynas-tic power prevalent in Islamic courtly art reflected political and social events of the second half of the 16th century in India. In-deed, it can be argued that the dagger forms part of a conscious royal style for the reign of Ali Adil Shah I and his successor, Ibrahim Adil Shah II. It is estimated at £50,000 – 80,000(QR290,000-470,000).

A striking painting of Sultan Ali Adil Shah II hunting tiger is a relatively rare example of Deccani courtly painting to have survived from the 16th and 17th centuries as well as being one of the most glorious, rich and mesmerising of Deccani portraits. It depicts the glittering, radiant, and yet almost dreamlike figure of the Sultan as he looses his arrow towards a tiger crouching on the rocks in front of him. Showing both Iranian and Mughal influence, the techni-cal virtuosity of the artist is on display in the exquisite quality, accentuated forms and colours, lyricism and sensuousness of a work which still retains a rewarding sense of intimacy. Following on from Sotheby’s

successful sale Hurouf: The Art of the Word in Doha this past December, the exhibition will offer some exquisite examples of cal-ligraphic art. A large illuminated Qur’an Folio in eastern kufic script on paper made in ink and gold on paper in Persia or Central Asia, circa 1075 – 1100 is an exam-ple of one of the most striking and beauti-ful Qur’anic scripts. Estimated at £60,000 - 80,000, (QR350,000- 470,000)it originates from a Qur’an of majestic elegance and breathtaking graphic power and is one of the most luxuriously decorated Qur’ans of the mediaeval period.

The Throne Verse (Ayat Al-Kursi) in the form of a calligraphic horse, in ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, in India circa 1600 is a calligraphic master-piece (estimate: QR117,000- 175,000). In a superb technical and artistic achievement the artist has written the entire Throne Verse, one of the most popular verses in the Qur’an, forming the gold letters and words in an extraordinarily inventive and skilful manner into an elegantly prancing horse

by edWaRd gIBBs senior director and head of

sotheby’s middle east department

[email protected]

deccanI daggeR made in the second half of the 16th century

the thRone veRse In the foRm of a callIgRaPhIc hoRsea calligraphic masterpiece which is another great artistic tradition of islamic history

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n 1982, Nick Vujicic was born limbless . Though everyone around him was gripped with fear over his severe disability, Vujicic dismissed

the fears to become a man who inspires and motivates people from all walks of life.

During his motivational seminar at the in Qatar as part of the Message of HOPE 2011 event, he kept the audience in awe with the story of his challenging journey in life. He credited his attitude to life and the chal-lenges that he faced as the reason for his success, and urged the audience to take a similar stand whenever they are faced with challenges, be it at school, college, daily life, or at work. Vujicic reiterated that, “it is not important whether you have fallen down in

life, but what’s more important is whether you will have the determination to stand up and keep going forward.”

The session was attended by various top executives of private and government or-ganisations who were asked by Vujicic to focus on opportunities that come along with challenges, rather than the challenges alone. He explained that such determina-tion would help people be successful in life.

By the end of this session, the audience learnt key lessons in life – To be thankful; To overcome fear of failure; To be a miracle for someone else and to perceive obstacles as opportunities in life. At the inauguration of the year’s programmes, HE Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, the Indian Ambassador to Qatar, called upon the audience to take the life of

Vujicic as an example of how with determi-nation and the right attitude, anything can be achieved in life.

This event was organised by the HOPE Qatar Centre for children with special needs, while HSBC Bank was the title spon-sor and Mannai Corporation as the support sponsor of the session.

meet the man of hope

doha diaRy

top 10 hyBRid caRs 96

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aspetar Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital held a sports car-diology conference to discuss the is-sue of sudden cardiac death among

young Middle-Eastern athletes. The con-ference attracted 12 international cardi-ologists and pathologists to Qatar from UK, France, Ireland and Belgium.

Aspetar, Chief Medical Officer, Pro-

fessor Gerard Saillant, said “The sudden death of a young, athletic individual is a tragic and often highly publicised event. Young athletes have now called for the implementation of organised and proac-tive screening programmes. We are com-mitted to improving the knowledge base, athlete awareness and the mitigation of sudden cardiac death, and we believe this

conference is a significant step forward in achieving these goals.”

Aspetar is collaborating with Shafal-lah Medical Genetics Center, St Georges Hospital London, Liverpool John Moores University, and PitiÈ-SalpÍtriËre Hospi-tal, Paris to explore recently discovered genes believed to be associated with this medical condition.

aspetaR hosts sudden caRdiac death confeRence

lessons to leaRnvujicic with the hsbc team after his speech

an InsPIRatIonnick vujicic gives a motivational speech as

part of the message of hope 2011 event


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clean sWeep foR the chinese at the QataR open

hinese left-hander Xu-Xin claimed the Qatar Men’s Table Tennis Open in Doha on February 13.

The 20-year-old emphati-cally beat Timo Boll of Germany, the World Number one, in four straight sets, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 and 11-8.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Liu Shiwen, wrapped up her fifth International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) title, beating

compatriot Ding Ning in the Ladies final in a five-set classic.

Xu-Xin later did the ‘double’ when he paired up with Wang Liqin to claim his sec-ond title of the week, while Ding Ning was once again feeling the pain of a final defeat, as Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxai beat herself and Guo Yan in five sets.

The Open was dominated by the Chinese, with Timo Boll being the only non-Chinese player to reach the final day of competition.

s part of its short film pro-gramme, the Doha Film In-stitute (DFI) has launched new courses for 13 aspir-ing filmmakers that will

offer them an opportunity to participate in high-quality workshops and hands-on professional training. The five-month programme will have students attending evening and weekend sessions on script-writing, directing, cinematography and working with other actors. They will also

learn about casting, location scouting and what needs to be done for pre-production. At the end of the workshops, they would be able to produce 10-minute films using other students for crew and support. Candidates were selected after a thorough evaluation by a script reading committee of their 10- minute scripts that each had to submit. DFI received over 90 submissions from 25 nationalities including 18 Qatari applicants, representing a diverse mix of age groups (19-39) and cultural backgrounds.

dfi intRoduces neW couRses foR filmmakeRs

a

around 85 students and faculty from Education City participat-ed in this year’s ‘Make a Differ-ence Day’ (MADD) to kick-start

a number of community improvement projects in Doha and Al Khor. The event was organised by ROTA in part-nership with Education City Campus Life (ECCL). Activities for the day in-cluded visits to the Qatar Foundation for Elderly People Care and the Qatar Animal Welfare Society, cleaning and painting the Sri Lankan Stafford In-ternational School and the Al-Khor Municipality.

“MADD is an important event for the students of Education City to come together and give back to the Qatar community. It is our hope that through these service projects and other opportunities throughout the year our students will develop a life-long passion for service,” says Lindsay Coco, Coordinator, ECCL.

ROTA Director, Essa Al-Mannai said, “A big thank you to everyone who took part and ensured that MADD 2011 really did make a difference. People helping even for just one day can make a big impact.”

volunteeRs ‘make a diffeRence’

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ark Renshaw of Team HTC-Highroad won the five-stage Tour of Qatar held from February 7- 11.

The Australian, who is more renowned for being Mark Cavendish’s lead-out man in big sprint finishes, won the penultimate stage into Al Kharaitiyat, and this was enough to set him up for the Over-all victory the following day. He peddled

down the Doha Corniche on Stage five with relative ease, finishing ahead of his compa-triot Heinrich Haussler by 8 seconds, in an overall time of 15h, 31’, 04.

Tom Boonen from Belgium won two stag-es, while Mark Cavendish – who has won 15 stages of Le Tour de France – disappointed fans, finishing well down on General Clas-sification and failing to figure in any of the sprint finishes.

RenshaW takes the lead

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touR of QataRparticipants peddle down corniche in the final stages of the competition with mark

renshaw finishing first

the ten Best hyBRidsthese ten hybrids try to entertain

practical issues using innovation and enterprise, to ultimately provide for a cleaner, greener planet.

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2010 toyota PRIusthe prius gives you terrific fuel efficiency. toyota has aggregated its

power and fuel economy displays onto one monochrome screen, whilst they have also diluted the amount of graphics that can be on display,

for safety reasons. the steering wheel has a very sporty feel to it.

2010 honda InsIght exthe insight ex promotes a fuel economy which is difficult to match, and its torque and throttle response is quite commendable. it can be quite fun to drive, as dropping the shift stick into “sport mode” affords the

continuously variable transmission (cvt) more independence and also liberates the steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

2010 foRd fusIonthe fusion hybrid can run in either pure-electrical (ev) or gasoline

mode or an aggregation of the two and ford maintains the fusion is reliable in ev mode up to 75kph. the smartguage interface – which

comprises of two colour lcd screens – allows you to choose between four configuration screens, which tell you all you need to know

about the hybrid’s performance.

2010 lexus Rx 450hthe rx 450h is a technological dream. this particular 5-passenger suv

includes a hard-drive based navigation system, ipod integration and bluetooth stereo streaming. the 3.5 litre, v6 engine is redundant until the hybrid accelerates or traverses the land at speeds above 48kph.

2010 lexus hs250hthe hs250h might be a very luxurious and technological conveyance,

but if, as i suspect, it’s the green statistics you are interested it, then the fuel efficiency isn’t anything to shout about. however, such is the tech-

nological advancements, the driver is able to customiZe its efficiency against performance.

2011 lIncoln mkz hyBRIdas a commuter car, the mkZ hybrid ticks all the boxes. it’s terrifically

fuel efficient with a very comfortable interior, and its cabin tech is on a par with other vehicles in its price range. its style and aesthetic look

do fail to excite though.

2010 nIssan altIma hyBRIdthe altima’s ability for quick acceleration at mid-range speeds is com-

mendable. the gas engine gets a boost from the electric motor at 90-100kph and the suspensions were well able to cope with this. the

steering handles swift lane changes well. it uses the same full hybrid system as the camry

2009 toyota camRy hyBRIdthe power button doesn’t exactly crank the hybrid into action; the

displays and configuration screens light up, but the vehicle remains silent. the 2.4 litre engine doesn’t start working until you have the car

rolling along at a comfortable speed. the transition from electric to battery is smooth and relatively seamless, although you will know

when it happens.

2009 foRd escaPe hyBRIdcommuters and urbanites will take to the ford escape’s great fuel ef-ficiency and, of course, the technological sophistication which is very evident when you sit inside. but once it gets out on the open freeway, it

can frustrate with its performance and reliability at mid-high speeds.

2010 cadIllac escaladein only its second year of production, this 8-passenger beast takes

the same gasoline/electric discipline as the chevrolet tahoe and the gmc yukon, but adds its own distinctive style to its make-up. its 6.0 litre

v8 engine is relieved by two 60 kilowatt electric motors to produce almost 400 horsepower and 370 lb-ft of torque.

Documents

Qatar Today March 2011