Qatar

The lines are running hot in the Qatar telecommunications sector, with the industry fully engaged in a massive burst of expansion at home and abroad.

It has been a mixed week for Qatar's banking sector, with one major takeover being given the initial thumbs up while another finally slipped beneath the waves after weeks of discussion, claims and counter-claims.

The Qatari investment body Delta Fund has made a $24bn bid for one of the United Kingdom's best known brand names, the supermarket chain Sainsbury.

The Qatari government must give more support to small- and medium-sized enterprises, according to a United Nations Development Programme report.

According to a recent economic report compiled by the International Bank of Qatar (IBQ) and its partner National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), Qatar's economy, the fastest growing in the Middle East in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP), is expected to see the pace of growth sustained at high levels over the next five years and as a result, its economy could double in size by 2012.

Qatar, the biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Middle East, now leads the world in LNG exports.