BUSINESS | Page 1 SPORT | Page 8 Sanna starts new season INDEX DOW JONES QE NYMEX QATAR 2, 15 COMMENT 14 Qatar highly values its ARAB WORLD 3 BUSINESS 1-8, 10-12 with 23,460.85 8,146.23 54.55 INTERNATIONAL 4-12 CLASSIFIED 9 energy relationship +25.84 -24.97 +0.25 ISLAM 13 SPORTS 1-8 +0.11% -0.31% +0.46% double Latest Figures with customers: Al-Sada published in QATAR since 1978 FRIDAY Vol. XXXVIII No. 10626 November 3, 2017 Safar 14, 1439 AH GULF TIMES www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals In brief Barshim soars QATAR | Technology to the top New version of Metrash2 mobile app launched Qatar’s world champion high day of the ANOC general jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim assembly, the largest meeting of A new version of the Metrash2 mobile poses with his Best Male Athlete the Olympic movement outside application (app) has been launched from Asia trophy at the annual the Olympic Games. Qatar with service and design improvements ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committee President and touch ID login facility, the Ministry Olympic Committees) gala HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad of Interior (MoI) has announced. A awards in Prague yesterday. al-Thani, Qatar’s ambassador Residence Permit issuance facility and The two-time Olympic medallist to Germany and former QOC user notification services have also and 2017 IAAF world champion Secretary-General Sheikh Saoud been added, while a number of inquiry accepted the award from bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were services can be accessed in the new Ukrainian pole vault legend among those present on the version without logging in, the MoI has Sergey Bubka on the opening occasion. Also see Sport Page 1 said in a post on social media. To activate the touch ID, users have to record their fingerprint in the app settings after signing in with their password. Once this is done, they can log in with their touch ID, the MoI adds QATAR | Language Qatar aims to add Arabic to British curriculum Palestine plans legal proceedings Qatar is generously splashing out to put Arabic on curriculum in British Eff ects of schools, The Times of London has against British govt over Balfour reported. Amid long-term decline of French and German in the British school system, Qatar is donating 400,000 QNA sterling pounds to a British Council Ramallah programme that promotes Arabic siege fading, teaching in British schools. Less than 1% of schools currently teach Arabic, and egal proceedings against the Qatar is rebranding Arabic in the hope British government will be soon that it will “capture the imagination” of Lbrought before British, European British schools and parents as one of and international courts to lift the in- the foreign language options, according justice infl icted on the Palestinian peo- says BMI to The Times. The report added that ple by the Balfour Declaration, Pales- reaction was largely positive in schools tinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki that started to introduce Arabic to its said yesterday. zAlternative supply chains will prevent curriculum. The State of Palestine “made every eff ort possible to persuade the Brit- disruptions to activity in key sectors QATAR | Siege ish government to abandon plans to celebrate the centennial of the Balfour he eff ects of the quartet’s boy- to resume drilling at the North Field Minister briefs Unesco Declaration because such a celebration cott against Qatar on the coun- may not happen before 2020, it said. on rights violations shows lack of sensitivity to the Pales- Ttry’s import levels are “fading”, Meanwhile the construction sec- The siege countries have violated all tinian people,” al-Malki said. facilitating “continued growth” in the tor, which grew by 15.3% y-o-y in Q2, human rights principles and values, However, because these efforts construction and manufacturing seg- 2017 – looks set to remain a key driver including the right to education with the have failed to yield results and be- ments, BMI Research has said in its lat- of growth as projects linked to the 2022 measures they have taken against Qatar, cause of its moral and national obli- est report. FIFA World Cup progress. HE the Minister of Education and Higher gation towards its people, the Minis- Palestinian children hold signs during a protest marking the anniversary of the The Fitch Group company forecasts Any major shortage of materials re- Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali try of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs Balfour Declaration, in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday. Qatari real GDP to expand by 1.9% this sulting from the cut-off of regional al-Hammadi said yesterday. will soon act to bring legal proceed- year and 2.5% in 2018, from an estimat- trade links (resulting from the dip- Speaking at the 39th conference of ings before the British courts against gise and make reasonable reparations addition to British citizens who were ed 2.2% in 2016. lomatic crisis and resultant boycott) Unesco here, HE al-Hammadi said the the British government to remedy to make up for that tragedy, including aff ected by the policies of their gov- It said the “successful” establish- appears temporary: the sharp 39.1% siege countries’ measures included not its mistake of 100 years, al-Malki recognising the State of Palestine,” the ernments towards Palestine as a result ment of alternative supply chains fol- m-o-m import rebound in August, fol- allowing Qatari students to continue added. foreign minister said. of this promise, Wafa reported. lowing the outbreak of the GCC dip- lowing an initial drop of 37.9% in June, their studies in those countries and The ministry will contract a Brit- Al-Malki further stated that minis- Al-Malki noted that the ministry will lomatic crisis in June will prevent the suggests the process of establishing al- not providing Qatari graduates any ish law fi rm to follow up on these legal try will work on encouraging Palestin- complete its legal procedures by exam- resultant boycott against Qatar from ternative supply chains has been large- certificates. The minister noted that proceedings “in order to bring justice ians who were aff ected by the imple- ining the possibility of bringing legal causing severe disruptions to activ- ly successful. the siege has led to a social and and lift the historic injustice infl icted mentation of the Balfour promise to proceedings before the European and ity in key non-hydrocarbon segments A government-reported uptick in psychological fracture in the GCC on the Palestinian people, and com- bring similar claims, particularly by international courts to achieve justice. such as construction and manufactur- manufacturing sector growth (to 2.7% society, besides the emotional and pel the British government to apolo- those who hold British citizenship, in Pages 3, 14 ing. in July, from 0.0% in Q1, in part driven educational damage caused to Qatari However, BMI noted hydrocarbon by a sharp rise in food processing, as students who used to study at the siege sector’s performance in Qatar will be Qatar works to become more food-se- countries. weak in the second half of this year, a cure) also appears to support this view. trend it expects to continue. BMI continues to expect Qatar’s QATAR | Diplomacy BMI researchers expect the Opec construction sector to grow by a strong Turkey-Gulf Defence forum opens in Istanbul agreement to be rolled over to H1, 2018, 10.1% in 2018, and 11.6% annually on Qatar-UK bilateral and “for cut barrels to return to mar- average in the fi ve-year period between relations reviewed kets” only at a gradual pace in the sec- 2017 and 2021. British Minister of State for the Middle he Qatar Armed Forces’ Centre the Turkish Tasam Centre. ond half of next year. Given BMI’s expectation for the East and North Africa Aff airs Alistair for Strategic Studies inaugu- In the light of the importance of the While gas production will see mod- diplomatic crisis to be resolved within Burt has met with Qatar’s ambassador Trated yesterday in Istanbul the Turkey-Gulf Defence and Security Fo- est growth from late-2017 (when the months (rather than years), and for to the United Kingdom Yousef bin Ali Turkey-Gulf Defence and Security rum and its objectives, the Centre for fi rst phase of the Barzan project comes hydrocarbon prices to gradually rise, al-Khater in London. Discussions during Forum on the sidelines of the Istanbul Strategic Studies Commander Staff online), any “substantial uptick” in it believes sentiment will improve sig- the meeting dealt with bilateral relations, Security Conference, Directorate of Brigadier General Dr Hamad Mohamed output from recently announced plans nifi cantly over 2018. and ways of developing them, in addition Defence Communication at the Min- al-Marri described it as the result of to issues of mutual interest. istry of Defence announced in a state- research co-operation between Qatar ment. and Turkey. BRITAIN | Politics The two-day Turkey-Gulf forum is “It will enable the two centres to New UK defence the fi rst of its kind and specialised in solve important defence and security military and security cases in the Mid- cases for Qatar and Turkey particularly, Bahrain faces fi nancial crisis minister named dle East region. It is the result of co- in addition to the important cases of Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday operation between the Qatar Armed the Arab Gulf and Middle East in gen- A senior off icial addressing the forum ahrain has asked Gulf Arab allies and regional political instability than named Gavin Williamson as Britain’s Forces Centre for Strategic Studies and eral,” he added.