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Qatar Airways will commit to greater financial transparency and to not run any indirect flights to the US through other countries as part of an agreement with the Trump administration addressing US carriers’ accusations that their Gulf competitors get unfair government help.

US airlines are hailing the agreement as a victory, if not a complete one, in one of the biggest trade disputes in US history. They’ve estimated that Qatar gave $17 billion or more to Qatar Airways over a 10-year period.

“This would be a landmark milestone for the American airline industry that will protect our workers and ensure that our foreign competitors play by the rules and do not undermine our international agreements,” said Peter Carter, chief legal officer of Delta Air Lines.

“We all support the administration as it holds their feet to the fire to ensure they live up to their commitments.”

Senior State Department officials said that within a year, Qatar Airways will adopt internationally recognised accounting standards, and issue annual reports and audited results, to the extent they’re not already doing so.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will announce the arrangement on January 30, following weeks of negotiation among the State Department, White House and Qatar.

No ‘Fifth Freedom’
Within two years, the airline will disclose any major financial transactions with state enterprises to ensure those are being done on commercial terms, said the officials, who declined to be identified ahead of the official announcement.

Qatar Airways also informed the US that it has no intention, for now, of conducting “Fifth Freedom” flights to the US Under commercial aviation protocols, those flights are ones which start in an airline’s home country and touch down in a different nation before continuing on to a third country — in this case, the US

Tillerson will announce the voluntary agreement when he meets his Qatari counterpart during a US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue, said a senior State Department official who asked not to be identified discussing a deal that hasn’t been publicly announced.

Source :http://www.arabianbusiness.com/transport/388640-qatar-agree-to-disclosures-to-resolve-us-airline-dispute-us-officials

Kuwait-based Global Capital Management (GCM) has concluded a successful exit of its controlling stake in Al Jazeera Steel Products Company, a Omani company listed on Muscat Securities Market.

The transaction was made with Sheikh Suhail Bahwan and Sheikha Amal Suhail Bahwan, chairman and vice chairperson of Suhail Bahwan Group.

Sulaiman Mohammed Al-Rubaie, deputy CEO of Global Investment House and managing partner of GCM said: “We are extremely delighted to have completed this exit and provide our investors with liquidity in such challenging geopolitical and economic environment. We expect to distribute the proceeds from this transaction to clients investing in the fund within the second quarter of 2018”.

The fund acquired 51 percent stake of Jazeera Steel in 2007 and the management team of GCM implemented a growth program for the company. The program focused on enhancing its penetration in regional and international markets namely Saudi Arabia and North America.

During the past five years, Jazeera Steel managed to maintain its growth trajectory despite tough financial and economic times, Al-Rubaie said.

He added: “We are confident that the commitment, track record and expertise of the acquirers will provide Jazeera Steel with the required support and guidance to further grow the company.”

The Global team said it has concluded 33 exits, the highest among all private equity firms in the region, and distributed more than $360 million to its clients, raising the total distributions since inception to more than $580 million.

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/banking-finance/393052-kuwaits-global-exits-controlling-stake-in-omani-steel-company

Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air has announced that its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will serve its double daily London Heathrow service.

The new aircraft, which conducted a fly pass before the Bahrain Grand Prix race on Sunday, will join the fleet on June 15, the airline said in a statement.

A total of five Dreamliner aircraft will enter Gulf Air’s fleet by the end of 2018 with an additional two aircraft arriving during 2019 and three arriving by the end of 2020.

Gulf Air CEO Krešimir Kucko said: “We are only weeks away from officially taking delivery of Gulf Air’s first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – a historic moment for Gulf Air and Bahrain and yet another important step in our strategic direction towards furthering Gulf Air’s fleet modernization process and supporting our network and overall passenger experience enhancement strategies.

“Only a few weeks ago, we unveiled a new Gulf Air corporate strategy, 2018 network expansion plans to 8 new routes, details surrounding our incoming fleet, new, best in class products and services, our new overall direction and where we hope the future will take us all. It is time for change and we are embracing change today.”

This summer, Gulf Air will also expand its network with flights to Bangalore, Alexandria, Casablanca, Baku, Abha and Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, Calicut, and Sharm El Shaikh.

Gulf Air’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will offer 282 seats in a two-class configuration, with 26 Falcon Gold Class seats and 256 Economy Class seats.

Marty Bentrott, vice president, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Sales for Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Central Asia and Africa, said: “The number of airlines operating this super-efficient airplane is increasing across the world and we look forward to the Dreamliner joining Gulf Air’s fleet.”

Source:http://www.arabianbusiness.com/transport/393801-bahrains-gulf-air-says-first-dreamliner-to-launch-on-london-route

Bahrain hopes that the tourism and hospitality sector will contribute “double digits” to its GDP over the next several years, according to Ali Ghunam Murtaza, the director of real estate, tourism and leisure business development at the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).

According to official figures, tourism contributed 6.3 percent to Bahrain’s GDP in 2017.

Speaking to Arabian Business at the Arabian Travel Market, Murtaza said that the figure is likely to grow as ongoing tourism projects are completed.

“We foresee the contribution to go up for many reasons. Part of that is that we are actively working towards it. We want the contribution of tourism to increase along with other sectors in Bahrain,” he said. ” It’s an active strategy.”

“Through direct and indirect investment to tourism, I think it will be a big part of GDP,” he added. “Our aim is to get into double digits soon.”

In the longer term, Murtaza said he hopes that tourism’s contribution to GDP will reach as high as 20 percent, as much as other sectors such as banking.

“We aim to get it there in the long run,” he noted, adding that the county also hopes to attract 15 million tourists a year by 2020, up from approximately 12.7 million in 2017.

Additionally, Murtaza noted that investment in Bahrain’s tourism sector has reached $13 billion, a figure which encompasses 14 separate projects in the country’s tourism and leisure sector.

The tourism projects, in turn, form part of a larger infrastructure development campaign across a number of sectors, which is collectively valued at more than $32 billion.

“We have fantastic five-star resorts coming in, such as the Address, the Vida, the Jumeirah [Royal Saray], and so forth,” he said. “In addition to that, we’ve also started adding to our retail offerings, such as The Avenues, and we have a couple of others.”

To encourage more visitors to come to Bahrain, Murtaza noted that Gulf Air has invested nearly $7.2 billion to expand its fleet and “modernise the Gulf Air brand”, as well as $1.1 billion investments into expanding and improving Bahrain’s national airport, a project which Murtaza said is approximately 60 percent complete.

Looking to the future, Murtaza said that partnering with foreign investors is a key pillar of Bahrain’s strategy to increase visitor numbers and revenue from tourism.

“We work with them [companies based outside of Bahrain] very closely to identify opportunities where they can bring synergy to the table, where they bring quality investment, quality operations,” he said. “There are a lot of firms around the world with a lot of specific experiences.”

“We work to identify the top ones, and we work to get them to like Bahrain, get them to understand the opportunities, and then we enable the investment,” he added. “We are partners for the long-run.”

Source:http://www.arabianbusiness.com/travel-hospitality/394790-tourism-to-contribute-double-digits-to-bahrains-gdp-in-coming-years

Doha: Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC) CEO Faisal Rashid Al Sahouti said that 120 companies have registered with Qatar Financial Center (QFC) since the siege was imposed on Qatar, an increase of 200 percent in investment volume compared to the same time last year.

In an interview with Al Raya Newspaper, Al Sahouti said the increase in investments despite the unjust siege reflects the investors’ trust in the Qatari economy and the failure of the siege countries’ plans to harm the economy.

He added that QICDRC was a main factor in marketing QFC globally thanks to the role it played in resolving different civil and trade disputes. Since its establishment, he added, it has engaged in a number of major cases using senior judges with proven experience and international competence.

Al Sahouti said that describing QICDRC as international is not only a result of the diversity of its judges but also because the followed system is the same as in most courts in the world’s largest cities that attract capital. Al Sahouti explained that it has 16 judges from 10 different countries, all of whom have long standing experience in the judicial work in their countries adding that the QICDRC is headed by the former Lord Chief Justice of the United Kingdom. He revealed that there are two levels of litigation before the court, after which the judgments become final and enforceable, and may not be appealed to any other party.

He added that the number of cases heard by the court has increased by 15 to 20 percent annually, noting that there was a significant increase of 70 percent between 2016 and 2017 in comparison to the previous years. This is due to the investors’ trust in the court and the increase of investment in Qatar, he added.

Al Sahouti said that Qatar International Court has contributed to doubling the number of registered companies with QFC between 2010 and 2015 as the increase took place since establishing the court created confidence for the investors.

With regards to the future development plans of the court, he said that its development must proceed in a gradual and stable manner, adding that a new law will be issued for QFC and is currently in its final stages.

The QICDRC CEO explained that the law will expand the court’s jurisdiction making it supervisor not only of QFC but is likely to oversee companies operating elsewhere in the country to enhance the confidence of foreign investors to work in Qatar.

He added that the new law will allow the court to expand the scope of the arbitration process, where it will be activated through the establishment of an independent center under the umbrella of the court and will operate independently. In addition, the largest international arbitration centers will be attracted to open branches in QFC and Dispute Resolution Centre, following the transfer of the court next year to the financial district of Msheireb, he said.

Al Sahouti said the financial district will hold a building exclusively for the court and the international arbitration centers which have showed interest in opening branches here in Qatar, which will make Qatar an international hub for settling trade disputes, where major companies will head to for regional or national or international disputes. Qatar International Court will be supervising the arbitration, he added.

In addition, he announced the signing of bilateral agreements in the near future with a number of the most important business capitals in the world of finance and business at the international level. Such agreements would serve as bridges of justice between the most important capitals of the world, contributing to the transmission and implementation of judgments, he added.

As for cooperation between Qatar International Court and Foundation of Qatar Sports Arbitration (FQSA), Al Sahouti said the foundation opened a branch in the Dispute Resolution Centre of the court, in aim to resolve sports disputes. He added that this comes in the future plans of moving to the new building of the court in Msheirab, including headquarters for courts, dispute settlement centers, arbitration institutes and arbitration centers, so that the building is an international point for settling disputed and a place for cases since its start to the implementation stages.

On opening a branch of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) in Qatar, he revealed that the institute is the first in the world in the field of training and qualification of arbitrators. The institute has 80 branches worldwide with Qatar’s branch being the first in the Middle East and North Africa and will organize training courses and prepare awareness lectures for arbitrators or persons who want to work as arbitrators.

Source:https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/18/04/2018/120-companies-register-with-Qatar-Financial-Center-since-siege-began-Official

Steel is a major component in buildings, tools, automobiles, and appliances, hence making steel consumption an important indicator of economic growth and prosperity. GCC steel production is fairly fragmented, and UAE’s steel demand has made it one of the largest consumers in the GCC region. The region is investing Billions of Dollar in construction projects, mostly in preparations for World Expo 2020 in Dubai and FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. It is anticipated that steel consumption in UAE will grow at a CAGR of 8% during 2016-2020.

In the latest research report “UAE Steel Industry Outlook 2020”, our analysts have studied the UAE steel industry’s performance, which is currently a key growth market in terms of production, consumption, import and exports due to the fast-expanding construction & infrastructure sector. The research is an outcome of extensive primary & secondary research, and thorough analysis of industry trends.

The UAE steel industry worldwide has been experiencing growth in the region, and the country’s key players are holding a strong imprint in the steel market globally. In addition, it also covers the production and consumption forecast till 2020 of crude and finished steel. Finished steel has been further segmented into long and flat products. Long products have been further classified into rebar and structural sections. Extensive research and analysis revealed that long products occupy the maximum share in finished steel consumption. In long products, rebar dominates finished steel consumption in UAE. Similarly, flat products have been segmented into coils, strips & sheets and plates. Our comprehensive report has closely studied and provided market forecast till 2020 for production and consumption of both long & flat products and their types.

It further provides a comprehensive analysis of UAE’s steel export and import, which includes the steel trade scenario by product, covering ingots and semi-finished steel, long products, flat products and tubular products. In addition, the section provides a list of major countries involved in the export of steel to UAE.

The report has also provided a brief overview of the drivers and competitive landscape covering the profiles & key management people of various industry players. Thus, the report covers all the important aspects of the UAE steel industry, which will prove decisive for the clients. Overall, the report is an outcome of extensive research and prudent analysis, and is meant to offer suitable knowledge base to those who are interested in the UAE steel industry.

Source:https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/3633967/uae-steel-industry-outlook-2020