Qatar Daily News

Gulf banks are expected to ease a tight lending noose they formed in late 2008 and through 2009 as they appear to be treading into a better year in terms of economic growth and domestic demand, according to analysts.
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Qatar and India signed a slew of bilateral trade agreements at the second meeting of Qatari-Indian Ministerial Committee held here yesterday. The Minister of State for International Cooperation and Acting Minister of Business and Trade, H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah led the discussions on behalf of Qatar. The Indian delegation was led by T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Talking to reporters, Al Attiyah said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India would sign the proposed free trade agreement in the immediate future. He said bilateral trade between India and Qatar has been steadily growing over the last few years. “The trade volume rose by 14.3 percent in 2008 to reach $3.7bn. This indicates the expected increase in trade in the current year”, he said.
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Qatar on Thursday expressed a regret to some Iranian officials’ “infringement” against Bahrain’s sovereignty and independence, reported the Qatar News Agency.

“Such negative statements constitute an infringement on the sovereignty” of a member state of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an official source at the Qatari Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying.

A number of Iranian officials have reportedly claimed that Bahrain was an integral part of the Islamic Republic of Iran and questioned its Arabic identity.

Voicing a regret from the Qatari side, the Foreign Ministry source said that the Iranians’ remarks hampered effort made by GCC states and their sincere interest in building relations of friendship and cooperation between them and Iran.

The GCC-Iranian ties has been marked by amity, mutual respect, good neighborliness and non-intervention in states’ internal affairs to strengthen relations of cooperation and to serve the region’s peoples, said the source.
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The recently-released 2008 Article IV review of Qatar by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is full of praise for the country’s economic management.

The IMF is positive on the outlook for Qatar’s economy in 2009 on the back of successes achieved in the gas industry.

Qatar boasts of an oil production capacity of nearly 800,000 barrels per day. In addition, the country has earned the status of the largest global exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Qatar produces some 38 million tonnes of LNG annually, but is expected to produce 77 million tonnes a year by 2012. Over the past several years, Qatar expanded its gas business through joint production agreements with international oil firms.

Among others, the report put the growth of Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) at 16 per cent in 2008. Ostensibly, the figure is in real terms adjusted for inflation. Yet, Qatar suffered from a high inflation rate of 15 per cent last year. Altogether, Qatar’s economy grew by a remarkable 29 per cent in 2008 in nominal terms.
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The Sidra Medical and Research Centre, under the Qatar Foundation, is the biggest healthcare project in the Gulf region, according to a research published recently.

Countries in the region are spending almost $14bn in the healthcare sector according to the Proleads, which maintains the most comprehensive database of the projects in the region.

The spending shows that despite the economic downturn, investment on healthcare is continuing across Gulf countries with a mixture of public, private and joint-venture initiatives.

Sidra, scheduled to open in 2011, is the first academic medical centre announced in the region based on the North American model. It is funded by $7.9bn endowment from the Qatar Foundation, the largest endowment of a medical and research centre anywhere in the world.
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