The British engineering giant Atkins has won a deal to help Qatar plan billions of dollars of infrastructure projects. The £70 million (Dh395.8m) contract is the second major order in Qatar won by Atkins in recent months and will include the planning of projects linked to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
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The central planning office (CPO) will help the ministry of municipality and urban planning create the infrastructure to support the country's diversification drive.
"The establishment of the CPO is the next step for Qatar in driving their 2030 vision, the transformation into a non-carbon economy," said Keith Clarke, the Atkins chairman for the Middle East, after the deal was announced yesterday. Under the Qatar National Vision 2030, the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas is intent on further improving living conditions in the country, building Doha into a thriving metropolis that will compete with Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a business hub.
"They see themselves as a place where people would like to do business.
"It's the same vision that the UAE had in the early 2000s," said Gurminder Sagoo, the head of business development at WSP Middle East.
The new Atkins contract follows a £65m deal in November to upgrade Doha's roads and drainage system, and earnings results last year that were impaired by a slowdown in Abu Dhabi.
A swelling project pipeline in the emirate had provided Atkins and its competitors with some relief after the property market in Dubai collapsed in 2008, leading to a drastic decline in building activity there.
In November, Atkins reported a 3.7 per cent drop in profit for the first half of the fiscal year as a consequence of "a slowdown in the release of projects" in Abu Dhabi. Several flagship projects, designed to boost Abu Dhabi's appeal as a tourist destination, have recently been delayed. These include the Zayed National and Guggenheim museums on Saadiyat Island.
"The real growth will come from Qatar, and maybe a little bit from Oman," Mr Clarke said.
"The Emirates will be relatively quiet for a few years."
Mr Sagoo believes Saudi Arabia will also be a growth market in the coming years.
WSP recently won a five-year contract worth an annual 120 million rials (Dh121m) with the public works authority Ashghal.
Qatar's growing infrastructure will connect and accommodate big projects such as the Education City complex and the Pearl residential development in Doha, all leading up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
[ fneuhof@thenational.ae ]
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The specs
Engine: 1.8-litre 4-cyl turbo
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Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
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Sector: FinTech / PropTech
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Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
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Investors: Self, family and friends
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Serie A
Juventus v Fiorentina, Saturday, 8pm (UAE)
Match is on BeIN Sports
Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
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