Author: OBG Admin

Emmanuel Macron-President of France

Qatar’s construction growth fuelled by health and education sectors

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Continuing to focus on improving social infrastructure, Qatar is investing billions of dollars in new health care facilities, schools and recreational developments under the overarching Qatar National Vision 2030. A host of awards for social development facilities were made in 2014, including health care developments, spearheaded by the state’s Ashghal (the Public Works Authority). With spending in the 2014/15 fiscal year expected to reach an all-time high of $59.9bn, of which $20.7bn has been allocated to infrastructure, the state will see dozens of new schools and thousands of housing units completed in the next several years, offering numerous opportunities to construction stakeholders. SOFT TARGET:

Ali Bongo Ondimba-President of Gabon

Qatar grapples with rising inflation in construction

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  As already seen in Qatar’s real estate segment, inflation is becoming a challenge to future growth. Although it has yet to reach the same highs as in 2008, inflation has been rising in recent years, with contractors facing escalating labour, land and materials costs as the state rolls out wave after wave of infrastructure builds. Although the ongoing problem of supply bottlenecks will be alleviated to some degree when Hamad Port comes on-line in 2016, growing materials and labour needs are still set to see prices rise, leading the government to push forward new investments in local industry, aimed at increasing domestic supply and

U Nyo Myint-Vice-Chairman-Myanmar Insurance Association

Qatar implements new measures to improve working conditions

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The construction industry is one of the largest employers in Qatar, with the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics reporting that sector employment stood at 547,504 in 2013, spread across 2483 registered construction businesses. Of these, 93.6%, or 512,430, were employed at 928 companies with more than 50 employees, while 35,074 were employed at one of 1555 companies with fewer than 10 employees. An estimated 88% of Qatar’s working population, which stood at 1.2m in November 2014, is composed of expatriates, most of whom are employed in construction and industry, and come from Asian countries including India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, China and Nepal.

Sheikh Ahmad Duaij Jaber Al Sabah-Chairman-Commercial Bank of Kuwait

Qatar’s retail space set to expand

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  With Qatari residents benefitting from one of the world’s highest levels of GDP per capita, and enjoying the resultant disposable income, demand for new retail space has reached historic highs. The retail segment is set to welcome more than 1m sq metres of net leasable area (NLA) before 2020, adding much-needed space to a fast-growing market, with long-term sustainability expected on the back of strong population growth and a consumer preference for high-end facilities. CURRENT SUPPLY & RENTS: Qatar is currently home to 13 shopping malls, with existing supply at 629,000 sq metres of gross leasable area (GLA). Doha’s City Centre accounts for 20%

Stuart Tait-Regional Head of Commercial Banking-Asia Pacific

Qatar ensures support for SMEs

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up the vast majority of business in Qatar, as is the case in the broader MENA region. Enterprise Qatar, the state-backed SME support vehicle that was established in 2011 and has since been absorbed by Qatar Development Bank, reported that SMEs constitute some 97% of the private sector. Qatar Development Bank further notes that between 8000 and 10,000 SMEs currently operate in the country, contributing some 15% to 17% of non-oil GDP, markedly lower than regional and international benchmarks. The development of this sector is therefore a core part of Qatar’s development plan, Qatar National Vision 2030, the

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Telecoms providers in Qatar build infrastructure networks

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Developing telecommunications has been a priority for Qatar. Ooredoo, formerly Qatar Telecom (Qtel), led investment for several decades until the government sought to eliminate Qtel’s monopoly. Competition was introduced through legislations which increased private sector participation, leading to Vodafone’s entry. The World Economic Forum’s “Global Information Technology Report” for 2014 highlights the impact of these early investments, ranking Qatar first in “government procurement of advanced technology” and second for the importance of ICT to the government’s vision. HIGH SPEED & RELIABLE: Rolling out a reliable high-speed network is the next major step. The country’s first National Broadband Plan, released in 2013, underscores the ambition

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Qatar caters to the upper end of the tourism market

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Qatar’s economic diversification plans combined with robust population growth require the construction of additional infrastructure, including an extensive hotel network that will support the country’s burgeoning travel market. The country’s tourism authority anticipates a rapid increase in the number of visitors in the build up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and is also actively supporting the development of a number of hotel properties. Catering to demand from Qatar’s wealthy clientele, the majority of these developments are four-and five-star luxury offerings that are geared towards serving the upper end of the market. TOTAL HOTEL STOCK: The total stock of existing hotel rooms points to

Daouda Coulibaly-Managing Director-Société Ivoirienne de Banque

Qatar offers new cultural offerings

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The value of cultural institutions is often ignored, particularly in rapidly growing economies, because of the intangible benefits they bring. Qatar, however, has proudly declared its ambitions of becoming the most important cultural hub in the Gulf and has accordingly allocated significant resources to collect, preserve and display its cultural heritage. The royal family’s patronage of Islamic art culminated in the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art in 2008. SMITHSONIAN IN THE DESERT: Described as the Smithsonian in the desert, the museum was designed by I M Pei, the Chinese-American architect responsible for the Louvre’s iconic glass pyramid in Paris, and garnered attention

Sheikh Ahmad Duaij Jaber Al Sabah-Chairman-Commercial Bank of Kuwait

Qatar offers post-graduate programmes

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Qatar University (QU) and Qatar Foundation (QF) are leading the development of Qatar’s higher education programmes. While the bulk of the students enrolled at the university and at the various colleges located at QF’s Education City are pursuing undergraduate degrees, there is growing demand for graduate and post-graduate education in Qatar. QU alone offers more than 20 Master’s, three PhDs and one PharmD across a variety of disciplines. Responding to demand from the health sector, QU established the country’s first College of Medicine in October 2014. A recent report by McKinsey highlighted than more than two-thirds of doctors working in Qatar are expatriates. The

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Old and new: As the media landscape evolves, advertisers’ spending shifts

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Like Qatar’s media sector, the advertising market is evolving quickly. While newspapers continue to take the lion’s share of advertising spend, new media are on the rise, and competition is growing between agencies. In the first three quarters of 2014, total ad spending in Qatar amounted to $461m, down 1% from $466m in the same period in 2013, according to the Pan Arab Research Centre. Newspapers were, by a large margin, the dominant medium on the advertising market, accounting for $353m, or 77% of overall spend. Magazines accounted for $11m, or 2%, and television for $10m, while other media (including radio) saw $86m of