Qatar Daily News

With plans to add two more destinations in India this winter as a part of its global expansion plans, Gulf-based air-carrier Qatar Airways will start its Goa operations by the end of this year.

According to reports, Qatar Airways will be adding five new destinations across the globe in 2009, including two in India.

The new destinations to be commenced in India will be Goa and Amritsar, which will be launched during the winter of 2009, senior airline officals said, adding that introduction of the proposed routes is part of the airline’s “continuous focus on enhancing connectivity and network.”
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Arab leaders are gathering in Doha, the Qatari capital, for a two-day summit likely to be dominated by the international arrest warrant issued against Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president.

But the run-up to the summit, which opens on Monday, has been marked by stark differences among Arab leaders, particularly over how to deal with Iran.

Underlining the discord has been the decision by Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, not to attend the summit. He is sending a low-level delegation instead.

Meanwhile, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has decided to stay away from the summit and has instead sent his brother Moulay Rachid, who has no official title.
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Unfazed by the crisis, Qatar welcomes Turkish investors, in its drive to construct infrastructure. With an improved approach, the business volume of Turkish construction firms in Qatar could reach $10 billion in four years, says the chair of the Turkish Businessmen Association in Qatar.

Qatar welcomes Turkish partners Aiming to diversify to a more knowledge-based economy from energy dependency, Qatar is largely unfazed by the current global turmoil and stands as an oasis of stability.

Aware of this vision, Turkish investors are encouraged by the investment drive in the Gulf nation for their own development prospects. Undertaking considerable projects especially in construction, Turkish firms are aiming to inspire their own “renaissance.”
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Gas-rich Qatar expects to shrug off the global financial crisis and post healthy economic growth of up to 9% this year, according to the country’s central bank governor.

Speaking to Zawya Dow Jones on the sidelines of a banking conference in Bahrain Sheikh Abdullah Saud Al-Thani said the country’s growth will be “between 7% to 9%” this year.

Al Thani also said that expected no further calls on the government to inject funds into the market and financial companies in Qatar this year.

The Qatari government proposed on March 8 to buy parts or all of the Doha Stock Market equity investment portfolios of eight local banks as the global financial crisis touches the energy-rich Gulf region.
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Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro said on Tuesday that its project to build a huge smelter in Qatar remains on track for a start-up at the turn of the year 2009/10.

Norsk Hydro is building the 585,000-tonnes-per-year Qatalum smelter in a joint venture with Qatar Petroleum.

A Qatar Petroleum official earlier on Tuesday was reported as saying the aluminium plant would start up in the first quarter of 2010. Hydro has earlier said it expected first metal from the plant in 2009 and a ramp-up to full output in 2010.

“It can depend on how one defines a start-up, but according to our plans we will start up at the turn of the year 2009/2010,” Norsk Hydro investor relations chief Stefan Solberg told Reuters. “We have not specified a month.”

Qatar National Bank has opened the QNB Card Centre at its C-Ring Road branch to provide services to its credit card and debit card customers, as well as to merchant partners.

The card centre will provide centralised card services on behalf of both Qatar National Bank (QNB) and QNB Al Islami. It handles all queries related to card billing, payments and requests for emergency and replacement cards as well as related functions such as the issue and distribution of PIN numbers to new and existing credit and debit card holders.

The bank has said that the customer service officers in the card centre will provide information on the various card services and promotional offers by the bank and also help customers enroll for various e-banking services which are offered under the EAZYLife brand.
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Qatar’s al Shaheen refinery project is under review as state oil firm Qatar Petroleum looks into construction costs, a company official said on Tuesday.

Energy companies worldwide have revised plans for new projects due to the lower oil price and falling demand, but also in view of cheaper costs for raw materials.

Middle East oil producers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have used the fall in commodity prices to drive down costs for new projects.

Qatar was looking for similar cost savings at al Shaheen, said Jassim Darwish, senior project development engineer at QP refining and manufacturing ventures.

“The project is under assessment due to changes in market conditions … cost is the main thing, the main task is to optimise costs,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference.
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Commercialbank of Qatar, the largest private sector bank in Qatar, today announces its participation in the Government of Qatar’s proposal announced on 8 March 2009 in which the Government offered to buy part, or all, of the Qatar DSM equity investment portfolios of eight local banks.

Commercialbank has decided to take up the Government’s offer and has sold its entire portfolio of Qatar equities which had a net book value of QR 937.9 million at both 31 December 2008 and 28 February 2009. The Government will pay QR 417.8 million in cash and provide a five-year bond of QR 520.1 million which carries a coupon of 5.5%. The Bank has the right to re-purchase the entire portfolio, or any part of it, after a twelve month period from the date of sale and within a maximum period of five years at the original sale price.
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One of the world’s most powerful energy industry executives believes Qatar will emerge as a world-class science and technological cluster.

Rex W. Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation, the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company hailed Qatar’s emergence as a science and technology hub with the inauguration of QSTP on 16 March.

Michael J. Dolan, Senior Vice President of Exxon Mobil Corporation, will be among 1200 guests in Doha to witness the inauguration of QSTP in the presence of His Highness The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation.
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Plans for the Doha Metro Network have been presented to the Qatar government and are currently under consideration, it was reported on Saturday.

The contract could be awarded by the end of this year, a consultant working on the project said.

The plans form one “cluster” of a wider consolidated national railway network.
The wider network is designed to integrate five railway systems planned across Qatar into a ‘comprehensive and consolidated national railway system’.

It was prepared by DB International, the international wing of German railway company Deutsche Bahn, and state-owned firm Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company.
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