DOHA: Getting away with hydrocarbon sector and grooming local talents are the twin challenges that Qatar face in its long-term sustainable development journey, a top IMF Executive said here yesterday.
Attending a panel discussion on the opening day of “The Euromoney Qatar Conference”, Ananthakrishnan Prasad (pictured), Deputy Division Chief, Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF, said Qatar should empower its own people instead of attracting foreign talents and avoid the demographic imbalance. Strengthening of local talents is key for Qatar. “For Qatar, economic diversification means nothing but reducing its reliance on hydrocarbon and how to empower its youth by creating jobs”, he emphasised.
Joannes Mongardini, Head of Economics, Qatar National Bank said Qatar is expected to receive 300,000 people in the next few years to fill up 250,000 new vacancies. In 2012 non-hydrocarbon sector accounted for 42 percent of the total GDP. By 2015, non-hydrocarbon sector would contribute nearly half of Qatar’s total GDP.
Addressing various sessions, experts noted that Qatar would emerge as a financial hub, despite the strong presence of Dubai. Of course, Dubai is an interesting place in terms of connectivity. But the fund companies in Europe and Asia are increasingly looking for pools of liquidity in Qatar. Qatar can be a major financial hub. The liquidity in the market is pretty good. The regulations are improving. The unification of regulation makes added sense, they said.
Qatar Exchange has been growing leaps and bounds since 2007. With more foreign institutions expected to come in, QE will become a “jewel in the Emerging Market Crown”, said Nicholas Wilson, Chairman, Qatar Investment Fund, earlier in the day in an interview.
Qatar’s capital market is expected to attract huge liquidity. The Emerging Market status will give the market more depth. The move to Emerging Market will have huge implication on longer term for Qatar capital market, he said.
On the IPO drought in the region, he said there are huge prospects for IPO in the pipeline. IPO activities will pick up in the next couple of years. “Government must actively encourage IPOs. It should actively encourage family businesses and state businesses too to go for IPO, he said.
Nicholas noted that there is a huge room for fund expansion in Qatar. The market sentiments are strong in terms of capital raise as an estimated $243bn worth infrastructure project is going to effect the economy. He said the fund companies in Europe and Asia are increasingly looking for pools of liquidity in Qatar. The regulations are improving. The unification of regulation makes added sense
However, Ahmad Anani, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP said Qatar’s legal infrastructure in terms of financial regulations of Islamic Finance are not quite strong.. There are gaps in the laws, it should be looked into.
“The regulations have still problems in supporting the growth in Islamic Finance. There has to be a collective will to regulate this sector in a better way for the overall growth of Qatari economy”.
The Peninsula
