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GCC REPORT<br />
lied upon to prosper without cons-<br />
A mere 110 tant monitoring from Doha, says<br />
financial experts Shen. At the moment only 110 finance<br />
experts are employed by<br />
allocate the QIA to manage the distribution of<br />
its billions.<br />
billions – and Observers following the invest-<br />
speculation is ment policies of Qatar see the Emirate<br />
and China as having even more<br />
frowned upon common interests – including investment<br />
in Africa. Qatar Airways<br />
now offers flights via Doha between<br />
many Chinese and African cities. In December 2010,<br />
Air China announced it would be expanding the<br />
Doha hub in a joint venture with Qatar Airways. The<br />
QIA‘S INVESTMENTS SINcE 2010<br />
28 BusinessReport 1/2011<br />
planned investment, which includes a new terminal<br />
exclusively reserved for Chinese airlines, is said to<br />
run to about USD 1 billion. In the Sudan, according<br />
to market observers, Chinese oil firms are also relying<br />
heavily on the help of the Qataris, who have considerable<br />
political influence in Khartoum and often<br />
act as the intermediaries between former civil war<br />
factions.<br />
The QIA is also toying with the idea of becoming<br />
more involved in Germany over the next few years,<br />
Finance Minister Youssef Hussein Kamal recently<br />
told the Financial Times Deutschland. Baden-based<br />
software developer SAP was currently top of its wishlist.<br />
They were interested in sectors that »would also<br />
have a direct impact on the Qatar economy«. This<br />
indirectly included Hochtief. After Qatari’s successful<br />
bid to host the Football World Cup 2022, the<br />
government in Doha is now looking for strategic<br />
partners to build several stadiums and other major<br />
projects in an effort to prepare the country for the<br />
influx of tens of thousands of football fans. Ahmed<br />
Mohammed al-Sayed, CEO of Qatar Holding, would<br />
like to involve Hochtief as a »key partner« in the 2022<br />
World Cup. The games venues are nothing more than<br />
computer-generated sand castles at the moment – in<br />
the case of the 86,000-capacity stadium for the finals,<br />
the actual city hosting the venue is yet to be built.<br />
Named after the historic term for the region north of<br />
Doha, »Lusail« is set to become the home of 200,000<br />
people, if the Qatari government has its way. The developer<br />
of this purpose-built city is once again the<br />
QIA via its subsidiary company, Qatari Diar Real<br />
DATE coMPANY coUNTRY BRANcHE SHARE IN PER cENT VolUME IN BIllIoN USD<br />
March 2010 Bulgarian Qatar Company Bulgaria investment 100 0,4<br />
May 2010 Qatar Holding Indonesia Indonesia investment 85 1,0<br />
May 2010 Malaysia Development Board Malaysia investment 80 5,0<br />
May 2010 Harrods United Kingdom retail 100 2,3<br />
August 2010 Agricultural Bank of China China finance n.a. 6,0<br />
September 2010 Qatar Holding Greece Greece investment 100 5,0<br />
October 2010 Banco Santander Brasil Brasil finance 5 2,7<br />
December 2010 Hochtief Germany construction 9 0,4<br />
December 2010 Filmyard Holdings USA movie production n.a. < 0,7<br />
February 2011 Credit Suisse Switzerland finance enlarged to 9 > 6,0<br />
sources: QIA, Reuters, taighde.com
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