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Qatar’s media faces challenges: NU-Q Dean

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Category: Local News

Created on Friday, 24 May 2013 10:05

Dr Everette E. Dennis, Dean and Chief Executive Office of Northwestern University in Qatar, speaking at the Doha Marriott Hotel. Qassim Rahmatullah
 

DOHA: The media scene in Qatar is promising, but it faces challenges such as the need to develop talent and a new media law, said Dr Everette E  Dennis, Dean and CEO of Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), at the monthly Distinguished Speaker Series held yesterday by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Speaking about ‘The Promise of Qatar’s Media Scene’, the dean added that the country “has the scene of destiny to be the greatest and the resources to achieve this goal.” Dennis also highlighted that media development often goes hand in hand with economic development and, currently, all the functions of media are present here, namely information, entertainment, advertisement and marketing. 

However, he said that, unlike in other cities, such as Abu Dhabi or Dubai media is quite fragmented here with a mixture of state controlled, private enterprise and recent entrepreneurship.” The dean also stated that there’s few economic data about local media, with the advertisement account being of approximately 1 million dollars a year. “It’s a small industry by Western standards, but it has aspects of really great media,” he continued.

“Qatar has the capacity to be a world class media hub, with efforts being made to foster new media and counting already on several well-established traditional media infrastructures,” Dennis said.

 

Source: The peninsula

Second edition of World Stadium Congress in June

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Category: Local News

Created on Friday, 24 May 2013 09:33

DOHA: The second edition of World Stadium Congress, dedicated to design and development of world class stadiums, will take place from June 3 to 5 at The Torch Doha.

The inaugural event last year attracted over 200 international industry leaders in both the global sporting event industry and the architecture and design sphere.

Over 200 attendees have already confirmed their participation for the event including Qatar Olympic Committee, Astad, Qatar Design Consortium, Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation, Qatar University, Qatari Diar, Qatar Project Management, Lusail Consultants, Hochtief, RFA Iribarren Architects, EURO 2012, International Cricket Council, AECOM Global Sports, GMP among others.

The Congress will act as a forum to discuss the key challenges and successes to date, including presentations from local and global experts such as; Andrew Amery, Head of Security, London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG); Ali Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO, ASTAD; Samantha Cotterell, Founder and CEO, DESIGNSPORT; J.Parrish, Director, AECOM Global Sports and Slobodan Delic, Venue Technology Management and Result Services, Organising Committee for Sochi 2014 XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games.

 The event will feature two days of in-depth presentations and case studies both at the local, regional and global level. Some of the topics on Qatar include “Fulfilling ASTAD’s project management role of construction and infrastructure developments in Qatar; “Achieving sustainability of sport facilities for Qatar 2022 through QSAS Sport”, “Project progress review of Qatar’s first World Cup Stadium - Education City” and “Construction and engineering masterclass – key considerations and specifications for materials and design in Qatar”, among others.

“With two days of interactive discussions from key stakeholders from Qatar and across the globe, this event will provide attendees with the perfect opportunity to discuss the latest advancements in stadium design and development, the latest most cutting-edge technology available to enhance fan and athlete experience and the recent updates in regulation, technology and stadium management. It will be great to see the various host countries such as Qatar, Turkey, United Kingdom, South Africa and Russia coming together to discuss solutions for challenges faced by the industry,” said Ashley Phillips, Conference Director.

Source: The Peninsula

GCC traffic systems to be linked

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Category: Local News

Created on Friday, 24 May 2013 09:59

MANAMA: Traffic systems will soon be linked across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, security officers have said.

A technical team will oversee the implementation of the link that will be used as a core for other services aiming to reinforce cooperation between the member countries, the heads of traffic said as they convened in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah for their 30th meeting.

The GCC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

“The UAE had proposed the link between the traffic systems in the GCC and it has been approved by all members,” Ghaith Hassan Al Zoabi, the head of the UAE delegation, said. “The first phase is to link the traffic systems to be followed by a link for the fines across the GCC countries,” he said, quoted by Saudi daily Al Eqtisadiya on Tuesday.

Traffic authorities in the UAE last year reported a deficit of millions annually with thousands of GCC motorists failing to pay their fines before leaving the country.

The steady increase in the number of GCC-registered vehicles entering the UAE could compound the situation if no appropriate measures were taken to address the unpaid fines, they said.

Qatar last year pushed for barring GCC vehicles from leaving the country until their drivers, mainly from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, paid the fines imposed mainly for exceeding speed limits.

Officers at the meeting said that measures adopted by the GCC to share services for Gulf nationals included the possibility to renew the driving licence, drop the vehicle, inspect it and sell it in any of the six member states.

The meeting said that the GCC traffic officials were also working on increasing awareness about the different types of violations in each of the member countries.

GCC drivers often complained that they did not deliberately break traffic rules and that they were not aware of the systems applied in some GCC countries, such as Salik in the UAE and Saher in Saudi Arabia.

Source: Zawya

ExxonMobil holds training course

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Category: Local News

Created on Friday, 24 May 2013 08:53

Participants of the training course.

ExxonMobil Qatar has conducted the first training course under its Tamayoz programme, which was launched in April to help share the company’s technical, commercial and operational expertise with its partners in Qatar.

The programme comes as an extension of ExxonMobil’s commitment to build the capacity of individuals in the energy sector, in alignment with HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s vision for the Human Development Pillar of Qatar National Vision 2030.

The four-day Project Controls Overview course was held at ExxonMobil Qatar’s headquarters in Doha and attended by professionals interested in developing skills required in a project controls environment.

The course targeted cost, schedule and controls engineers responsible for executing upcoming capital projects, as well as professionals from engineering, construction and project management functions.

The participants benefited from information and guidelines through classroom lectures and group exercises delivered by ExxonMobil subject matter experts working in the industry for more than 20 years. The course covered various project controls principles, including planning, tracking, analysing, forecasting, progress measurement and reporting. 

Abdulla al-Attiyah, senior engineer for venture projects with RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) and a participant in the course, said: “Being an asset to my company is important to me, as is finding opportunities I can share with others so that they can benefit as well. The knowledge I have gained from the Project Controls Overview training will enable me to go back to RasGas with valuable references and experiences. Based on the knowledgeable instructors and relevant course material, I would recommend this course to others wanting to develop their skills.”

“We are extremely pleased to have completed the first training course under the new Tamayoz programme,” said Alistair Routledge, vice-president of production for ExxonMobil Qatar Inc. “ExxonMobil is committed to helping develop Qatar’s growing workforce in the best way possible. We will continue to work with our top trainers in the field to do so.”

Source: Gulf Times