Qatar

Seizing opportunities to build its position as a global centre for ICT, Qatar is focusing on niche markets where there is currently a lack of content and services.

As the overall economy continues to pick up steam, Qatar’s insurance sector looks set to benefit greatly, with strong growth and profits predicted for 2012 and beyond. However, for the sector to truly grow, the industry is conscious that it needs to encourage greater uptake of policies.

Home to the region’s second-largest airline and with a new airport due to open shortly, Qatar is setting its sights on becoming an international leader in air transport. Qatar Airways now serves more than 100 destinations worldwide and is becoming a key player in linking the Middle East to Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond.

For Qatar’s real estate sector, 2012 is expected to be much the same as the preceding 12 months, with most forecasts projecting a year of steady progress, though there are concerns that oversupply in some segments could keep prices down in the short term as the flow of new developments more than matches current demand.

Undertaking a large-scale expansion of its chemicals industry, Qatar is aiming to increase the value of hydrocarbons-related exports. Production of chemicals and petrochemicals will more than double by 2020, reaching 23m tonnes per year (tpy), up from 9.3m tonnes at present, the nation’s minister of energy and industry, Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada, announced in mid-January.

The announcement of a major downstream project has been the highlight of a busy period for Qatar’s hydrocarbons sector. An agreement, signed on December 4 between Saleh Al Sada, the minister of energy and industry, and Shell’s CEO, Peter Voser, lays out the commercial principles and scope of a proposed petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City in northeast Qatar.