ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Sunday 20 January 2013 8 Rabial I 1434 - Volume 17 Number 5585 Price: QR2 Qatari bank Hosts India asset quality take ODI set to improve series lead Business | 17 Sport | 28 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Firms seek manpower from Europe Growth boosts salaries in Asia BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB several years. These two Asian countries are among the fastest DOHA: The booming economies growing economies in the region. of Asia are heralding a change in So people are getting good salaries the job sector in Qatar and the and other benefits in their home Gulf, with employers here fac- countries and are reluctant to ing difficulties in hiring qualified take overseas jobs,” he added. hands from these countries due The Gulf region is attractive for to the high salaries and increas- the Europeans because they are ing job opportunities there. able to save more thanks to tax-free As a solution, employers are incomes in the GCC countries. “It now looking for people from is not only about money, the expe- European countries that are fac- rience of dealing with Arabian and ing high rates of unemployment Asian guests is an added advantage due to economic recession. for them,” said Vetry. Hostages are seen with their hands in the air at the In Amenas gas facility in this still image received yesterday. A senior official from the hos- Due to difficulty in getting skilled pitality industry in Qatar said the workers from countries like India, industry was gradually replacing many employers and manpower Asian workers with Europeans agencies often end up recruiting Bloody end to Algeria hostage crisis due to the difficulty in getting unskilled or semi-skilled workers qualified hands from the tradi- from some other Asian countries. IN AMENAS, ALGERIA: taking hundreds of workers hos- not surprised by the Algerian about 10 of his country’s nation- tionally human resource-rich “There is a shortage of Indian A dramatic four-day hostage tage when they overran the In army’s ruthless final assault. “It als who were still missing. Asian countries. Big hotels and visas here, and if at all we have the crisis at an Algerian gas plant Amenas complex. Belmokhtar’s was predictable that it would On Friday the gunmen, cited tourist facilities are now exploring visa, it is not easy to find qualified ended in a bloodbath yesterday “Signatories in Blood” group had end like that,” he said. Most of by Mauritania’s ANI news agency, new sources of manpower, such people because they are demand- when Islamists executed all been demanding an end to French the hostages had been freed on said they were still holding “seven as Spain, Greece and Portugal, ing very high salaries. The reason seven of their remaining foreign military intervention against Thursday when Algerian forces foreign hostages” — three Belgians, said Hoss Vetry, Cluster General is that they are already getting captives as troops stormed the jihadists in neighbouring Mali. launched a rescue operation, two Americans, one Japanese and Manager of The Ritz-Carlton good salaries back home. So we desert complex. In yesterday’s assault, “the which was widely condemned as a Briton. However, Brussels said it Doha and Sharq Village and Spa. are forced to bring semi-qualified Twenty-one hostages, including Algerian army took out 11 terror- hasty. had no indication any of its nation- Speaking of the challenges facing workers from other Asian coun- an unknown number of foreigners, ists, and the terrorist group killed But French President Francois als were being held. the industry, Vetry said: “As source tries like Nepal,” said a senior offi- died during the siege that began seven foreign hostages,” state Hollande and US Defence Algeria was strongly criticised country economies, from where cial in a manpower agency. when the Al Qaeda-linked gun- television said, without giving a Secretary Leon Panetta refused for launching the initial assault, we used to recruit people, such as He said all sectors, including men attacked the facility deep in breakdown of their nationalities. to lay the blame on Algeria. The which the kidnappers said had Indonesia, India, the Philippines construction, were hit by the man- the Sahara at dawn on Wednesday, As experts began to clear the Algiers government’s response left dead 34 of the hostages and 15 and Sri Lanka, are growing fast, power shortage. The rapid economic the interior ministry said. Thirty- complex of bombs planted by the was “the most appropriate” given of their own fighters. Belmokhtar it is becoming a little bit harder growth in some Asian countries is two kidnappers were also killed, Islamists, residents of In Amenas it was dealing with “coldly deter- also wanted to exchange American to bring quality people. So we are also attracting skilled and semi- and special forces were able to breathed a collective sigh of relief. mined terrorists ready to kill hostages for the blind Egyptian exploring new sources in European skilled workers from neighbouring free “685 Algerian workers and “We went from a peaceful situ- their hostages,” said Hollande. sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and countries. And I just delivered an Asian countries. “Many Asians now 107 foreigners,” the ministry said. ation to a terror situation,” said Foreign Secretary William Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, jailed in orientation lecture to 20 students prefer such destinations due to their The kidnappers led by Algerian one resident who gave his name Hague said five British nationals the United States on charges of ter- hired from European schools.” proximity and because they find Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former as Fouad. “The plant could have and a British resident are dead or rorist links. At least one American “Countries such as Indonesia them more culturally friendly,” said Al Qaeda commander in North exploded and taken out the town,” unaccounted for. Prime Minister had already been confirmed dead and India have been witnessing another recruiting agent. Africa, killed two people on a bus, said another. Shinzo Abe of Japan said he had before yesterday’s assault. AFP tremendous growth over the past THE PENINSULA a Briton and an Algerian, before Brahim Zaghdaoui said he was received “severe information” See also page 7 Qatar to spend Gadgets driving Qatari $27.5bn on youth away from majlis DOHA: The relevance of the ‘majlis’ gatherings. road upgrade ‘majlis’, the traditional hall in Many families have upgraded homes where family members sitting arrangements in the tra- DOHA: Qatar’s road sector will and friends sit together, is ditional family halls by install- witness a sharp increase in con- gradually diminishing as the ing television sets and indoor tract awards this year as the issues and challenges faced by games in them. government initiates a major young Qataris are not taken “The youth today prefer to infrastructure upgrade of the up in them, say young Qatari go to the kind of ‘majlis’ that is country’s road network. men. equipped with modern technol- Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, This is also in part because ogy. You will even find people has one of the GCC’s busiest road youngsters prefer to spend time from different neighbourhoods markets to date, with contracts with gadgets such as smart- visiting them,” Rashid said. valued $1.8bn awarded so far. phones and tablets rather than Abdullah Mohammad, one of According to MEED Projects, with their family members in a the community elders, said the spending on future projects will ‘majlis’, some elders complain. issues discussed at ‘majlis’ gath- significantly increase this year as “No intelligent man can deny erings had changed. more than 30 highway projects, the importance of the ‘majlis’ Earlier, a ‘majlis’ gather- valued at $27.5bn, are awarded. Snowmen in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris yesterday. because it keeps families and ing, for both men and women, Full report on page 17 the social fabric of a country served as a platform where together,” Tariq Rashid, a young families discussed the history Doha to host 2nd Gulf Europe hit by blizzards, air traffic havoc Qatari, was quoted as saying by of tribes and nations, economic an Arabic newspaper yesterday. issues as well as stories of hunt- Economic Forum LONDON: Extreme winter on the floors of Heathrow Airport ordered a 40 percent cut in take- Rashid, however, noted that ing. Youngsters, in turn, learned weather swept across western overnight as hundreds of flights to offs and landings at Paris’ Charles most elders did not consider the about their traditions and cus- DOHA: Under the patron- Europe yesterday, leaving thou- and from the British capital were De Gaulle and Orly airports. The opinions of young men at ‘majlis’ toms by being in the company of age of the Prime Minister and sands of passengers stranded at cancelled. “There are lots of bodies snow and ice covering large parts gatherings. He said the ‘majlis’, their elders. The focus of these Foreign Minister H E Sheikh London’s main international air- lying around in the airport. If feels of France led to several fatal car which is by convention seen as gatherings nowadays seems to Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al port and claiming several lives in like there’s been a natural disas- crashes, one of which killed three a source of learning, needed to be national and international Thani, the Federation of GCC Spain, Portugal and France. ter,” Jerry Meng from Los Angeles, French soldiers. offer more in order to capture news. Chambers of Commerce and The frigid temperatures also whose flight to New York was can- In total, six people were killed the attention of youngsters.