ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Friday 29 March 2013 17 Jumada I 1434 - Volume 18 Number 5653 Price: QR2 Fitch affirms Berki and Ooredoo at A+; Zanetti bag Outlook Stable gold medals Business | 13 Sport | 22 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Deputy Emir honours outgoing Lebanese envoy Qatar-backed investor Govt urged to buys luxury London hotel in $605m deal liberalise work LONDON: Qatari-backed investor Constellation Hotels has bought the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel in a deal worth about £400m ($605m), a source close to the transaction visa policy told Reuters. Constellation paid £301.5m for InterContinental Hotel Group’s (IHG) 57-year lease on the 447-bedroom property close to Hyde Park, IHG said yesterday. Manpower agencies facing crunch In a separate deal, Constellation paid about £100m for the freehold, which was owned by the DOHA: Construction industry One of the reasons, accord- Crown Estate, the property company that con- insiders say they anticipate the ing to sources in the manpower trols the assets of Queen Elizabeth II, the source onset of a ‘real’ boom next year recruitment business, is liter- said. The £301.5m price tag is 62 percent above the when the launch of mega devel- ally an exodus of semi-skilled hotel’s book value. opment projects begins making Nepalese workers to Malaysia and Under the terms of the deal, it will manage the an impact, but insist the gov- South Korea, since pay is quite hotel for up to 60 years for an annual fee of about ernment should liberalise its high in those countries. £4m. There were about six bidders for the IHG work visa policy to make things Moreover, the majority of property, said George Nicholas at selling agent easier for them. workers heading to South Korea Jones Lang LaSalle. Most of the visas issued to and Malaysia are engaged in jobs Overseas investors have parked billions of construction companies are for related to interior fittings, so they pounds in London real estate. Qatar has been par- Nepalese and Sri Lankan work- are saved the hardships associ- The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani presenting the ticularly active, investing in the Shard skyscraper, ers, many of whom, taking undue ated with open-air site work. Sash of Merit to outgoing Lebanese Ambassador Hassan Youssef Saad, at Emiri Diwan Harrods department store and athlete’s village in advantage of the situation, have As a result, not many Nepalese yesterday. He also wished the envoy success in his future assignments. See also page 3 the Olympic Park in east London. REUTERS been demanding higher wages. workers are willing to come to Gone are the days when a semi- take up jobs here on lower sala- skilled Nepalese worker would ries, say sources in the manpower agree to a monthly pay of QR700 recruitment circles. to QR800. “They are now insist- In the construction industry, ing on double that amount,” an semi-skilled workers from India industry insider told this news- are considered the best in terms 2 million expats may lose jobs in Saudi paper yesterday. of both efficiency and skills, but “No semi-skilled worker industry insiders say it is hard to DOHA: Thousands of Asian Law enforcement officials have provisions, the ministry will not chunk of expatriates in Saudi from Nepal is now willing to get Indian visas. expatriates in Saudi Arabia are reportedly booked a large number renew work permits of employ- Arabia, and among them Keralites come here for a pay of less than “If you ask for 100 Indian visas, facing the prospect of unem- of expatriates for violating the ees in the ‘red’ category. This are the largest group. According QR1,200 or QR1,500,” a senior you might get five. Maximum ployment and deportation with residency law over the past week means they will have to leave the to a recent study by Kerala-based official from a large construction numbers of visas are issued for the Saudi government going and many more are expected to be country. The Saudi cabinet has Centre for Development Studies, company said, asking not to be Nepalese and Sri Lankan work- ahead with its job nationalisa- declared illegal residents. already passed a law to arrest and the number of Keralites in Saudi identified due to the sensitivity ers. That is affecting our produc- tion drive, called Nitaqat. The labour ministry has iden- deport such workers. Arabia in 2011 was 574,739, said of the issue. tivity,” said the source. This has sent shockwaves tified about 250,000 small and According to Saudi newspa- the daily. Nitaqat will hit Keralites He said he visited Nepal “I can tell you this after being across the tiny south Indian state medium-sized enterprises that pers, about two million expatri- the hardest as a substantial recently to recruit workers as in the building industry here for of Kerala, which has more than have failed to comply with the ates are likely to lose their jobs number of them are working in part of his company’s plan to a quarter century.” half-a-million of its people work- Nitaqat provision of employing at as a direct result of implemen- small and medium-sized enter- be ready with additional man- Besides, a semi-skilled Indian ing in Saudi Arabia. least one Saudi national in the ‘red’ tation of the Nitaqat policy. The prises. The majority of Keralites power, as a boom is expected worker is available for up to The Saudi authorities are category. The deadline for comply- workers are mainly from India, in Saudi Arabia are from the to begin next year. “I was left QR1,200. “We, therefore, urge the cracking down on companies that ing with the provision passed on Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, northern Malabar region of the shocked as the workers insisted government to liberalise its visa have failed to achieve a job nation- March 27, said a report carried by the Philippines, Egypt, Yemen, state, said the report. on being paid up to QR1,500,” policy,” the source added. alisation target, the deadline for Khaleej Times yesterday. and Indonesia. THE PENINSULA said the official. THE PENINSULA which passed last Wednesday. According to Nitaqat Indians constitute the largest Continued on page 3 QInvest plans to launch 30 Islamic funds in three years DUBAI: QInvest, majority owned by Qatar Islamic Bank, said yes- terday that it plans to launch at least 30 Islamic funds over the next three years on a managed account platform which it introduced this week. If they go ahead, the launches could play a significant role in reviving the Islamic funds industry, which has been hit by the global financial crisis. Four Islamic funds already exist on QInvest’s plat- form. “All of the funds are actively managed and the focus is on deliv- ering strong returns over the mid- to long term, without focusing on a specific benchmark,” said Ataf Ahmed, head of investment solutions at QInvest Wealth Management. See also page 13 Qatar has lowest corporate tax: Report DOHA: The GCC countries are studying the possibility of intro- ducing Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2015, which may have a huge impact on the tax landscape of the region, according to experts from the international audit firm Ernst & Young. Qatar has the lowest corporate tax at 10 percent in the GCC and Mena region, followed by Oman at 12 percent, Iraq and Kuwait at 15 percent, and Saudi Arabia at 20 percent, a report posted on forbesmiddleeast.com said. Full report on page 14 Children release balloons at the fourth Qatar International Food Festival which opened at the Museum of Islamic Art Park yesterday. QASSIM RAHMATULLAH Mortar fire kills 15 students in Damascus DAMASCUS: Mortar fire killed at least 15 students in Damascus, with state media blaming “terrorists”. The Damascus University Dine on land, in sea and sky at food fest attack came as battles raged between insurgents and loyalist troops, and as warplanes targeted rebel enclaves in Irbin and other towns BY RAYNALD RIVERA together experience a scrump- In addition, the festival offers dancers, who will perform east of the capital. Syrian Daraa MP Walid Al Zohbi said insurgents tious five-star meal from the W ‘Tea on the Sea’, a 30-minute throughout the four-day food have seized large parts of the south. “Syria is no longer going through DOHA: The fourth Qatar Doha Hotel. The dinner will be cruise in which traditional festival, enhance the dining a crisis. It is plunged in total war. Terrorism has spread in Syria and International Food Festival, served hourly up to seven times a English tea and cakes with a experience. The festival com- so has chaos. This is reality, and all Syrians know it,” he told parlia- which opened yesterday at the day throughout the festival. Qatari twist, featuring Arabic prises various zones including ment. A total of 104 people were killed yesterday. See also page 4 Museum of Islamic Art Park, For those who love the sea, the coffee and Qatari desserts, are International, VIP, Snack, Family, offers food lovers a unique gas- Diplomatic Club’s BBQ Donut, a served. Qatar UK and Healthy food zones. Iran, N Korea object to UN arms trade deal tronomic journey on land, in the floating food barge, is the perfect Over 40 stalls from 20 of the Entry to the event is free. sea and the sky. choice. Seating up to eight peo- best hotels in Doha, in addition Vouchers for food and drink at the UNITED NATIONS: Iran and North Korea yesterday objected to A first at the festival is the ple, the barge features a specially to renowned restaurants in the festival will be sold on site at the the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70bn glo- Dinner in the Sky, which offers installed barbecue grill equipped country, are selling international event.