DOHA: Qatar is one of the leading investors in the agricultural sector in Sudan, says a former minister of irrigation of Egypt.

Mahmoud Abu Zaid is currently chairman of Arab Water Council. The Arab world is rich in water resources and agriculture. It’s lands are fertile. This is especially true of Sudan which is indeed the food basket of the Arab world.

Such resources are in need of capital-intensive investment as well as management. So the government and the private sector have already begun setting up food growing and processing projects in Sudan.

The investors in Sudan, which are commercial entities and not individuals, are all from Arab countries. Qatar has the largest investment in Sudan’s agricultural sector besides having investment in other areas of economy.

Other GCC states which have sizeable presence in Sudan through their investments in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Abu Zaid said in Cairo that there is the need to support the private sector by providing the necessary political backing to protect and encourage investments.

He pointed out that the Arab world is the largest importer of food in the world and is so affected by international food price fluctuations.

Speaking about water, he said that 80 percent of water requirements of the Arab world is sourced from other countries. A good example is the Nile which is the longest river in the world but its source is from the Victorian lake and Ethiopian highlands.

Also, the water available to Syria and Iraq are sourced from Turkey. So Abu Zaid said that there is the need to have a strategy in place to preserve and exploit the water resources of the Arab world.

In remarks to Al Sharq correspondent in Cairo, the former Egyptian minister talked of various projects being launched with NASA and World Bank to use satellite images to estimate the water resources of the Arab world for preservation and exploitation.

A number of programmes have been launched to train people in the Arab world in the realm of water management in collaboration with international organizations. Irrigation systems in the Arab is generally outdated so there is a need to modernise them, said Abu Zaid. Source: (The Peninsula)

Doha, October 06 – President of Eritrea Isaias Afewerki left Doha Tuesday morning winding up a three-day official visit to Qatar.

The Eritrean President and his accompanying delegation were seen off upon departure at Doha International Airport by Minister of State H.E. Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassem Al Thani, who is also head of the accompanying mission of honor, and Eritrean Ambassador to Qatar Ali Ibrahim Ahmed. Source: (QNA)

Eritrean President and Emir of Qatar

Doha, October 04 – H.H. the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki held an official round of talks at the Emiri Diwan on Sunday. H.E. the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani attended the talks.

The audience was also attended by H.E Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassem Al Thani, Minister of State and head of the accompanying Mission of honor, Chief of the Emiri Diwan H.E. Sheikh Abdurrahman bin Saud Al Thani, Director of H.H. the Emir”s Office H.E. Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, H.H. the Emir”s Secretary for Follow-Up H.E. Saad bin Mohammad al-Rumaihi, Director of H.E. the Premier and Foreign Minister”s Office H.E. Abdullah bin Eid al-Sulaiti, Director of Asian and African Affairs at the Foreign Ministry Ambassador Abdurrahman Mohammad al-Khulaifi and CEO of Qatari Diar and Chairman of Barwa Ghanem bin Saad Al Saad.

On the Eritrean side, the talks were attended by Eritrean Minister of Agriculture Arefaine Berhe, Secretary of the Eritrean President”s Office Al Amine Hassan al Amine and Eritrean Ambassador to Qatar Ali Ibrahem Ahmad. The Talks covered cooperation relations between the two countries and a number of issues of common interest. H.H. the Emir hosted a luncheon banquet in honor of the Eritrean President and the accompanying delegation. Source:  (QNA)

The Gulf state of Qatar has taken a 10 percent voting stake in Porsche Automobil Holding SE as agreed, the German automotive group said on Wednesday.

It gave no financial terms for the sale, which was announced last month and gives outsiders a say at the family-owned company for the first time.

Qatar will hold the stake via a series of investment arms. The deal is part of a broader accord that will see Porsche eventually merge with Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker.

Porsche owns just over half of VW, but its attempt to seize full control backfired as its debt mounted just as car markets collapsed. Source: (Reuters)

RIYADH, Aug 3 (Reuters) – A group of Saudi-based investors, including the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), will launch later this year a seven-year plan worth $1 billion in Africa to reduce dependency on rice imports and supply the Middle East region.

The so-called 7X7 project aims at developing and planting 700,000 hectares of farm land to produce within seven years 7 million tonnes of rice, said Salim Lalani, head of investments at Foras International Investment Company, one of the partners in the project.

“We are looking at three to four countries: Mali, Senegal and may be Sudan and Uganda,” Lalani told Reuters.

Food security has topped the policy agenda in the arid Gulf Arab region following rampant inflation in 2008 that underscored its dependence on imports and forced countries to invest abroad to ensure supplies of staples such as rice and wheat.

The project’s political backers are the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which groups more than 50 countries, and the governments of Mali and Senegal, both of which are OIC members.

“On the financial front, there is the IDB and the Private Sector Islamic Development Corporation,” Foras said in written replies to Reuters’ questions.

ISLAMIC TARGETS

The project’s focus on rice aims at catering to the needs of West African and Middle Eastern countries in the commodity.

“West Africa’s annual deficit in rice reaches about 2 million tonnes,” Foras said.

Saudi Arabia imported a little over 1 million tonnes of rice in 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture. West African giant Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation and an OIC member, produces only a fifth of its 2.5 million tonnes annual rice needs.

“This (project) is among targets set by the OIC and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry to confront the food shortage crisis, increase agricultural output and improve rice productivity,” it added.

A feasibility study led by a team of Thai experts will be completed this month and the project will start with a pre-execution phase covering 5,000 hectares in Mali, close to the Niger River Basin. “We will then move to the execution phase of the project covering 50,000-100,000 hectares, which will be gradually increased over a seven-year period. Effective work will begin by the end of this year,” Foras added.

Of the 50,000-100,000 hectares, 20,000 hectares will be planted with rice at the cost of $200 million, Foras said. It did not say under what form of ownership the land will be granted to the partners.

Saudi Arabia has urged companies to invest in farm projects abroad after deciding last year to reduce wheat production by 12.5 percent per year, abandoning a 30-year-old programme to grow its own which had achieved self-sufficiency but depleted the desert kingdom’s scarce water supplies.

In January, the government cited Ethiopia, Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Sudan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines and Vietnam as some of the countries that Saudi investors and officials might look at.

Several Saudi firms have already started investing in agricultural projects from Indonesia to Ethiopia. The world’s top oil exporter said in January it had received the first batch of rice produced abroad by local investors.

Working in the Gulf

Qatar has launched a crack down campaign on labour rights abuse by employers across the country. The Ministry of Labour is going to check each month around 100 companies on violating employees’ rights.

For many years law of the business owner ruled over general legislation in respect to employee rights and freedom at work place.

Especially, in the Gulf States immigrant workers from Africa, India and South East Asia often used to have a “no rights” status while doing their job.

Many of the workers had been exposed to the good will of the employer regarding, payment, holidays, safety at the work place as well as hiring and firing.

Thousands of Eritreans work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as house mates, construction workers, taxi drivers and factory workers.  Most of the foreign workers went to these countries on the basis of the widespread perceptions in their home land of lucrative and exciting jobs abroad.

Unfortunately, finding a situation that meets minimum standards of decent work is often a matter of luck and not a guarantee. Those who are not so lucky may become trapped in highly exploitative situations with few exit options.

Many workers have to go through conditions, which remind on slavery and a second class society. Only until last month domestic workers were excluded from labor laws in Saudi Arabia, denying them rights such as a weekly day of rest, limits to hours of work and overtime pay.

However, the Gulf States have taken the right direction by introducing more and more labor protection laws into their legal system. This will help the government to stop the increasing number of staff turnover amongst qualified foreign workers.

Big and important companies in the region need to have a very active human resource department, because work conditions make people come and go in no time. Hence new labor legislation in the Gulf States might help to improve the situation by improving conditions for the employees.

Qatari and Eritrean Foreign Affairs Officials met to discuss issues on the Horn of Africa as well as the situation in Darfur Sudan. Read more: Quatar News Agency