BUSINESS | Page 1
‘Completely
ready’, says
al-Kuwari
INDEX
QATAR
2 – 7, 28
8
REGION
9, 10
ARAB WORLD
INTERNATIONAL
11 – 25
26, 27
COMMENT
BUSINESS
1 – 8, 14 – 16
CLASSIFIED
SPORTS
9 – 13
1 – 11
SPORT | Page 1
Govt ‘may see deficit if
oil stays at $50 in 2015’
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QATAR | Event
Arab-German
conference
An Arab-German relations
conference starts at Katara the
Cultural Village tomorrow. The
two-day event, organised by the
Forum for Arab-International
Relations, is to discuss various
aspects and perspectives of
the relations on the political,
economic and cultural levels. A
number of German academics and
political experts will participate.
Coming-of-age drama Boyhood
has emerged triumphant at the
Golden Globes, Hollywood’s
biggest awards show before the
all-important Oscars. The film
won three Globes including the
coveted best drama prize and
best director honours for Richard
Linklater at the star-studded
ceremony at the Beverly Hilton
hotel in Los Angeles. Community
NYMEX
TUESDAY
Vol. XXXV No. 9601
January 13, 2015
Rabia I 22, 1436 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Mishal is a dear
guest of Qatar,
says Minister
InIn
brief
Brief
Boyhood wins
big at Globes
QE
Latest Figures
GULF TIMES
AMERICA | Cinema
DOW JONES
Dr al-Attiyah stresses the support
for the Palestinian cause as being at
the heart of Qatar’s foreign policy
QNA
Doha
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani with Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. They held a round of official talks, attended
by HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani along with a number
of ministers. Senior members of the official delegation accompanying President
Maduro were also present.
supplement pages 4, 5
SRI LANKA | Diplomacy
Sirisena to
visit India
Sri Lankan President Maithripala
Sirisena will travel to New Delhi
next month on his first state visit
abroad, a political aide of the
newly-elected president said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi invited Sirisena when
he called to congratulate the
latter on his election victory on
Friday, Sri Lankan news agency,
Lankapuvath, reported. Page 25
HH the Emir with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez.
H
amas chief Khalid Mishal remains welcome in Qatar, HE
the Foreign Minister Dr Khalid
bin Mohamed al-Attiyah said yesterday,
brushing off claims that the Palestinian
leader had been asked to leave.
“Khalid Mishal is a dear guest in Qatar. He is in fact at home,” Dr al-Attiyah
said, stressing the support for the Palestinian cause as being at the heart of
the state’s foreign policy.
Mishal is the head of the politburo
of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance
Movement (Hamas).
Mishal’s departure was just a “rumour” aimed at pushing Qatar to
“abandon its stance on the Palestinian question, and this is impossible,”
the Foreign Minister said, answering a
question during a joint press conference
with his Venezuelan counterpart Delcy
Rodriguez on the occasion of President
Nicolas Maduro’s visit to Qatar.
Asked about developments in Qatari-Egyptian relations, the Foreign
Minister stressed that “there is no rift
between the State of Qatar and Egypt”,
adding that “there are some differences
in viewpoints on certain issues”. He
praised Saudi Arabia’s role in achieving rapprochement between Qatar and
Egypt and in the management of dialogue in order to bring their viewpoints
closer.
“We are with the Egyptian people
and we harbour all respect and appre-
ciation for them,” Dr al-Attiyah said,
adding that “the wellbeing of Egypt is
part of the wellbeing of the rest of the
Arab world. This is a ﬁrm position of the
State of Qatar.”
He praised relations between Qatar
and Venezuela, underlining that President Maduro’s visit to Doha would
boost co-operation between the two
countries.
Describing the ties between Qatar
and Venezuela as “long-standing and
deep”, he noted that the exchange of
visits and meetings would help in developing co-operation and consolidating ties.
Dr al-Attiyah said that HH the Emir
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and
President Maduro, during their talks
yesterday, reviewed bilateral relations.
The Emir congratulated Venezuela on
winning a non-permanent seat in the
UN Security Council.
The Minister said the outcome of
the visit was satisfactory, stressing the
personal relationship between HH the
Emir and President Maduro.
Dr al-Attiyah said the talks touched
on Venezuela’s “distinguished stance
regarding Arab issues, particularly the
Palestinian cause”.
The two countries, he said, showed
interest in enhancing co-operation in
different areas, including investment,
oil and gas, and agriculture. “The leaderships of both the countries are keen
on continuing talks and discussions in
order to raise the level of co-operation.”
Asked about the handling of terrorism, especially in light of the recent
events in France, Dr al-Attiyah said everyone should be part of the ﬁght against
terrorism and renunciation of violence.
“We in Qatar always reaffirm that
handling the phenomena of terrorism requires examining the roots and
causes,” he said, adding that “we can’t
counter terrorism unless we learn its
root causes so that we can constantly
and successfully handle it.”
On her part, Rodriguez expressed her
gratitude and appreciation for Qatar’s
generosity and hospitality that were offered to the Venezuelan delegation during the visit.
She said the Qatari and Venezuelan
sides had held several “fruitful meetings that discussed different aspects of
co-operation with both parties agreeing to enhance ties and strengthen diplomatic representation of Venezuela in
Qatar”.
The meetings succeeded in bringing
viewpoints closer on several issues and
the two sides agreed to work together in
different ﬁelds, particularly in the energy sector, the Venezuelan minister said.
Asked about Venezuela’s participation in the conference on terrorism
that the United States called, Rodriguez
said her country had “followed with
great sadness the recent terrorist acts
in France, adding that Venezuela condemns all acts of violence and terrorism
anywhere in the world, and we are ready
to co-operate with any country in order
to uproot terrorism and ﬁght against
this scourge”.
On his country’s stance regarding the
Syrian crisis and the four-year suffering of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, she said that Venezuela considered
those affected by the dispute as brothers and shared their predicament, adding that her country had diplomatic ties
with the Syrian regime but that didn’t
change its stance on humanitarian issues. Page 2
COMMODITIES | Energy
Oil tumbles
5% to new low
Oil prices slumped more than 5%
yesterday after an influential Wall
Street bank cut its forecasts and
Gulf producers showed no sign
of being willing to curb output.
Brent was down $2.36 to $47.75 a
barrel, after dropping to $47.16, its
lowest since April 2009. Business
Page 3
PAKISTAN | Tour
Kerry set to visit
militant-hit school
Washington is to unveil today
some $250mn in aid to back
Pakistan’s fight against militants
and develop its tribal areas as top
diplomat John Kerry reportedly
plans a visit to a militant-hit
school in Peshawar. Page 23
Android users in Qatar spend four hours a day on their smartphones
A
ndroid users in Qatar spend
nearly 25% of their wake phase
(i.e. more than four hours a day)
actively on their smartphones, according to a study released yesterday.
This is higher than in other countries like Malaysia, India and Indonesia
where Android users spend approximately only three hours on their smartphones.
Gaming is a big activity across consumer proﬁles in Qatar. Social networking starts as soon as the day begins
and peaks around 10pm while other online activities like videos peak at different times.
The study was conducted by Nielsen,
a global information and measurement
company with a presence in approximately 100 countries, using Informate
On-Device Meter that captured the
behaviour and actual usage of 500 respondents across different nationality
groups in Qatar, round-the-clock, on
Android devices.
Further ﬁndings revealed that consumer mobile behaviour shows different
patterns by different proﬁles on major
occasions like Ramadan. During Ramadan in Qatar, youth increased their
mobile engagement by 12% while other
proﬁles, such as the female population,
reduced their engagement. Also mobile
behaviour, patterns and peaks are strikingly different by nationality groups like
Qataris, Arab and Asian expats.
While puzzles and arcade games are
most popular among Android smartphone users in Qatar, Candy Crush
Saga has the highest reach with 17%
followed by Clash of Clans (14%) in October 2014. These games are played at
least once a month.
The Informate On-Device Meter
captured the usage of Android devices
monitored under the study. All the activities carried on using the devices,
including both online and offline, were
collected. Nielsen adhered to privacy
policy as per Qatar law and did not
share any personal information. The
collected data was shared only on an
aggregated level.
“It is important to provide additional
insights into evolving consumptions
patterns of mobile device users to understand their needs and behaviour
better,” observed Amit Singh, executive
director (telecom), Nielsen.
“With higher levels of smartphone
penetration and high engagement in
the GCC markets, smartphones offer a
twofold advantage in reaching the consumers – high reach but yet personalised messages and engagement.
“Marketers realise this immense potential and are looking at various avenues to understand the mobile behaviour better,” he added.
Android, a smartphone operating
system developed by Google, is also
the most widely used. Android’s source
code is released by Google under open
source licences, although most Android
devices ultimately ship with a combination of open source and proprietary
software.
Android is popular with technology companies which require a readymade, low-cost and customisable
operating system for high-tech devices.
Android’s open nature has encouraged a large community of developers
and enthusiasts to use the open-source
code as a foundation for communitydriven projects, which add new features
for advanced users or bring Android to
devices officially released with other
operating systems.
Philippines to send more professionals to GCC
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
T
he Philippines will focus on
sending more professionals and
skilled workers to Qatar and other GCC countries this year, labour attache Leopoldo De Jesus told Gulf Times.
“We are expecting more ‘high-end
workers’ to be deployed due to the construction boom,” the official explained,
citing an instruction from Philippine
labour secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
Before going to Kuwait for the handing over of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue
chairmanship, Baldoz visited Qatar
in November last year and met with
senior labour officials, employers
and foreign placement agencies.
The labour attache noted that the
Philippines had many highly-qualiﬁed
professionals who were keen to work in
the Gulf and in the Mena (Middle East
and North Africa) region.
Besides thousands of fresh graduates
from reputable universities, he said
they had a lot of engineers, architects,
accountants, nurses and those in the
medical and health sector with years of
experience working in different countries.
He also cited the increasing number
of skilled Filipino workers in the construction sector, such as plumbers,
electricians, and safety officers, among
others, being deployed to Qatar.
The Philippine Overseas Labour Of-
De Jesus: labour attaché
ﬁce (POLO) in Doha recorded a rise in
the number of individual job contracts
it processes daily, going by statistics
from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), posted
on its website.
The Philippines deployed a total of
94,195 land-based overseas Filipino
workers (OFWs) to Qatar (hired and rehired) in 2013. Saudi Arabia topped the
list of countries where OFWs are sent
with 382,553 workers while the UAE
follows with 261,119. Singapore is third
with 173,666 followed by Hong Kong
with 130,686.
A total of 1,469,179 Filipino landbased OFWs were deployed in various
parts of the world, including Kuwait,
Taiwan, Italy, Malaysia and Bahrain.
This excludes the 367,166 Filipino seafarers working in different ships.
De Jesus expected the Qatar-Philippines Joint Labour Committee meeting
to take place in Qatar next month.
Baldoz, in a letter to Qatar’s Minister of Labour, has proposed to hold the
meeting from February 4 to 5 to review
and ﬁnalise the bilateral labour agreement.
The speciﬁc agenda proposed by Baldoz include: 1) Update on labour market
opportunities in Qatar; 2) Update on
recent policies on recruitment and employment in the Philippines and Qatar;
3) Development of electronic recruitment guidelines such as e-veriﬁcation
and onsite accreditation; 4) Regulation
of recruitment cost; 5) Development
of dispute settlement guidelines; 6)
Household service worker agreement,
protocol and contract; and 7) Implementation of the comprehensive information and orientation programme
under the Abu Dhabi Dialogue.
De Jesus said that part of the agenda
would include issues arising from the
bilateral labour agreement signed in
2007 such as salary, deployment procedures and some irregularities in the
recruitment of workers in the Philippines.
Ambassador Cresecente Relacion
also expressed optimism that the committee would convene again before he
leaves the country in March.
He earlier said that a provision in the
bilateral labour agreement should be
implemented to further protect OFWs
from “contract substitution”.
$14.6BN PLAN | Page 3
GOLF AWARD | Page 15
Dubai World
gets backing
for debt deal
VW aims to
tune in to local
tastes in US
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Rabia I 22, 1436 AH
GULF TIMES
MEED DATA: Page 16
BUSINESS
Qatar set to see new
project deals worth
$30bn in 2015
Al Dhameen ’14 aid for 69 SMEs total QR174mn
Q
atar Development Bank’s ‘Al
Dhameen’ programme has
guaranteed some 69 small and
medium enterprises (SME) with a total value of QR174mn last year, said
QDB’s Al Dhameen manager Jawaher
al-Noaimi.
She was speaking at an SME customer meet related to the projects
ﬁnanced under QDB’s Al Dhameen
Guarantee programme and organised
by Doha Bank in Doha.
“By providing ﬁnancial guarantees
for projects, QDB seeks to promote the
entrepreneurial spirit of the private
sector and offer services that will facilitate the development, growth and
diversity of the national economy,” alNoaimi said.
“Al Dhameen has helped SMEs in
Qatar overcome the challenges they
face when seeking commercial ﬁnancing. The programme has also helped
banks overcome reservations about
ﬁnancing SMEs due to the high-risk
ratio of some in the sector.
“One of the most important objectives of Al Dhameen is to work with
partner banks and supporting institutions, and not compete with them. Our
Seetharaman and al-Noaimi with senior Doha Bank and QDB officials and SME representatives at a customer meet hosted by Doha Bank in Doha recently.
mission cannot be achieved without
strong and committed partners like
Doha Bank, who remain at the forefront of powering Qatar’s private sector and wider economic journey,” alNoaimi said.
The meeting began with an introductory speech by Doha Bank Group
CEO, Dr R Seetharaman who un-
derlined the role played by the bank
in supporting SMEs in Qatar, in line
with the Qatar National Vision (QNV)
2030.
SMEs are expected to play an important role in supporting Qatar’s diversiﬁcation and hence various initiatives
have been proposed by QDB to stimulate them. Doha Bank would be looking
‘Qatar may see deﬁcit if
oil stays at $50 in 2015’
By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
A
s oil prices now hover around a
ﬁve-and-a-half year low with
the possibility of dropping to
$40 a barrel, Qatar may see budget
deﬁcit of $5bn-$10bn in 2015 if crude
remains at $50 for the entire year, but
massive sovereign wealth fund (SWF)
assets provide the country with sufﬁcient cushion to support capital
spending for infrastructure, according to Amwal.
Assuming $50 a barrel, Qatar may
see budget deﬁcit, but it is very small
compared to the estimated $115bn
worth SWF assets; at $57; it will be
breakeven; Afa Boran, Amwal head
of asset management, told reporters
here in the presence of Amwal CEO
Fahmi Alghussein.
Even at lower oil prices, he said
Amwal does not expect current expenditure (excluding capital spending) to be immediately affected as the
Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)
countries have “signiﬁcant” savings
to weather a period of low oil prices.
Expecting oil prices could go down
as low as $40 a barrel; he, however,
said crude could not stay at that lower levels for long and may eventually
stabilise at $70.
Boran (right) cautions that Qatar may see budget deficit if oil remains at $50 in
2015, but massive SWF assets will provide cushion to support capital spending.
The current low oil prices have
been due to an appreciating dollar and increased production, which
largely came from the US, where average cost of production is about $50
and that of shale oil is about $75, he
said.
Even prior to the drop in oil price,
Amwal believed that the $100 level
was too high and would eventually
normalise. “We do believe that the
current $50 a barrel is likely below oil’s
fair value” because long term analysis
adjusting for the dollar volatility and
time value of money suggest oil price
is below long term average, Boran said.
Highlighting that oil producers are not
earning much (in the current scenario); he said either the price has to go up
or production has to be curtailed for
the market to realign itself.
On the impact of low oil prices on
the GCC as a whole; he said spending
will be likely more controlled going
forward.
“Qatar is in a better position” because the projected government revenue (at $50 oil price) is still higher
than the non-capital expenditure,
he said, in an apparent reference to a
large Gulf economy, where sovereign
revenues are projected to have impacted both capital and non-capital
spending.
Even at the conservative oil price
assumption of $65 a barrel, Qatar had
projected a budget surplus of QR7.3bn
in the current ﬁnancial year.
Overall, spending is the key driver
of economic growth in the GCC region and both the budget and current
account surpluses as well as SWF assets are “healthy” to meet planned
spending, Boran said.
Amwal ‘cautiously selective’ on Qatar equity
By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
Amwal is “cautiously selective” on
Qatar’s equity sphere; given the uncertainty in the global energy market and
its impact on chemical and oil services
companies in the Gulf region.
Qatar may well see the advent of corporate debt this year with banks’ inherent
limits to provide loans even as low
interest regime augurs well for equity
valuation, according to Afa Boran, head
of asset management in Amwal, which
manages assets worth QR400mn.
Appreciative of the Qatar Stock Exchange’s ongoing efforts to introduce
exchange traded funds and short selling; he, however said the entry of more
overseas funds (in view of allowing up
to 49% foreign ownership limit in the
listed companies) was dependent on the
certainty and stability in the oil prices.
“At this point (of low oil prices), we have
to be cautious and selective,” he said,
adding Qatar’s equity market is already
down 15% from its September highs
and the strategy would be cautious as
the fall in crude will have varied impact
across the sectors.
“If near term government spending
does not “significantly” change, then
near term earnings for most companies are not likely to be affected
except for directly affected businesses
such as chemicals and oil services,”
he added.
Referring to the market heavyweight
Industries Qatar – a holding entity of
Qatar Petrochemicals, Qatar Fertiliser,
Qatar Steel and Qatar Fuel Additives;
he said a 10% decline in product prices
would result in a 24% decline in profits.
He said the profit decline would likely be
at a higher pace than revenue decline due
to fixed feedstock and operating costs.
Boran was of the view that banks as well
as consumer goods sectors would not
see any major short term impact to their
earnings; while real estate prices and
stocks could feel the pinch.
“At lower oil price, we would not expect
GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) market
to see the same kind of equity valuation
premiums we saw previously. Foreign
investor attention on the GCC in the
recent years is driven in part by high oil
prices,” Boran said.
In view of the low oil prices, the private
sector could play a greater role in bridging the funding gaps, he said, referring
to the need for more project finance and
deepening the debt markets.
Amwal’s Qatar Gate Fund (in partnership
with Ahli Bank) has over the last five
years delivered 110% returns vis-à-vis
average 95% of other funds. It also consistently outperformed the index and is
the only Qatari fund to have beaten the
index every calendar year since inception (nine year ago).
forward to participate in Qatar’s diversiﬁcation story by encouraging the
SME sector. The SME sector will play
a key role in Qatar’s Sustainable development, Seetharaman said.
He said, “Doha Bank already enjoys
a sizeable SME customer base and a
strong corporate and retail business
franchise with branch presence across
the country to meet customers growing requirements.
“At Doha Bank, we know that doing
business in today’s economic climate
is challenging and that situations and
business needs can change overnight.
The SME sector in Qatar is promising,
and is expected to grow rapidly and will
play an important role in Qatar’s overall
growth,” Seetharaman said. Doha Bank
said it is committed to continue meeting the requirements of the SME sector
in Qatar and also through its offices in
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Kuwait.
Doha Bank has started its operations in
India, which will help businesses coming from India to start in Qatar as well
as corporates who wants to do business
with corporates in India.
Doha Bank has recently ﬁnanced
some ﬁve new projects under Al
Dhameen programme. They include a
state-of-the-art auto battery factory;
a dental clinic employing the most advanced equipment; welding electrodes,
a bitumen unit; and a tourism project.
The projects are equipped with most
advanced equipment and machines.
The total outlay on these projects will
exceed QR50mn, Doha Bank said.
All these projects will not only generate local employment but will also
enable consumers to meet their consumption demands from locally produced products. Such projects are seen
helping the country to reduce its reliance on oil and gas-based industries
and bring the know-how to the country’s doorsteps.