100% Ownership for IT Companies in Qatar

We are very impressed with the most recent change in Qatar's foreign ownership laws, which now allows 100% foreign ownership of Information and Technology companies.

Of course, you would still have to cough up QAR200,000 for a company here, and rent an office, but then Qatar is looking for serious investors in the country.

This is one of three sectors which have been thrown open to full foreign ownership - the other sectors being distribution services and consultative and technical work services. These join a number of existing areas where this is already allowed.

Giving up 51% of your business, even with a revenue sharing agreeement which allows you to keep the bulk of the profits, puts off some investors, and it's a smart move to remove this obligation from areas of the economy which could do with a boost - or which could boost other industries in Qatar.

We also suspect that ICT Qatar, a fairly forward thinking organisation which seems faster on its feet than some Qatar beaurocracy, may be behind the move to encourage IT investment.

You can read the original article in the Peninsula. You can also read David Chaddock's article on How to Set Up a Business in Qatar.

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Behind the Ghutra

Marjorie in Qatar has an excellent post today on the discrimination faced by men in Qatar.

Many of us Westerners are apalled by the subjegation of men in Qatar (only the other day I saw an angry Qatari woman berate her obviously intimidated husband in public), and it is great that finally an expat woman has the courage to speak out about it.

As Marjorie writes:

Since it would be preposterous to believe any person would choose to wear an item of clothing that I personally don't wear, I am led to the self-evident conclusion that the men of the Gulf region are being forced to wear the ghutra by their oppressive female overlords.

Check out the full post here: Behind the Ghutra

Villagio Cinema

While everyone cultured went to see Amelia, my wife and I went off to check out the new cinema at Villagio.

A few people complained that the entrance to the cinema and the foam seats looked cheap and tacky. I can't say I particularly noticed that, although it didn't look anything special.

To be honest, I don't care. This is an IMAX 3D cinema, and I wanted to see a 3D film, not gaze at cinema architecture.

We went to see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". Given the title, it's not the sort of film I would usually choose (sounds too cultured, though as it turned out it wasn't), but was the only 3D option available.

The 3d effects were just awesome. At the start of the film you are sailing through clouds before you sudddenly dive and race towards the ground. That's pretty impressive in 3D - in fact, everyone in the cinema gasped.

At times, I was also struck by how realistic, apart from the actual characters, the sets were.

And at the end, the water in the film seems to lap out of the screen and up over the seats.

The film was also good - imaginative, funny and touching. I'll have to make more effort in future not to judge books by their covers...

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Vodafone Scores a Point

I think a lot of us have been surprised by how well Qtel has responded to competition.

From a fairly lackadaisical organisation, (one friend in Qtel remembers going to seminars to teach employees the meaning of competition, and described the employees as bewildered at the concept), Qtel have become much more aggressive at marketing.

One huge advantage they have got is a captive market.

After years of dominating the market, most customers have Qtel accounts - meaning that Qtel can and does bombard them with text marketing, whereas Vodafone has to go all out to reach the same people.

Nevertheless, Vodafone has scored a point today.

On twitter and elsewhere users are pointing out that while Qtel has texted users telling them to use up their free minutes by Sunday, Vodafone have just extended their mobile phone promotion till December, giving Red and Freedom users 300MB of free internet usage.

Qatar Book Competition

Our latest competition is a really easy one to enter. All you have to do is visit our book competition page, and choose the book you would most like to read. If you get picked in our prize draw you'll win the book!

Check out our Qatar Book Competition for details.

Qatar's Increasing Conservatism

When I first moved here I thought Qatar was becoming more liberal.

Head scarves seemed to be moving back, the Ministry of Information had been abolished and expats could dance the night away at numerous clubs.

More recently the establishment of a church in Qatar, despite some loud local opposition, was a brave and tolerant move by the administration.

Slowly, things seem to be changing.

Dress Code

It's perhaps inevitable that the dress code should be tightened up.

Some people were taking advantage of the relative freedom of the country to wear clothes that were offensive to local people.

A tightening up started with the publication of a dress code, although at the time this sounded more like a guideline than a rule.

Now, though, a strict dress code is imposed upon clubbers and bar goers. Knees and shoulders must be covered by clothes, and dresses should not expose too much flesh, either at the front or at the back.

Drinking

The first rule I noticed regarding alcohol was an edict banning drinking by swimming pools.

The number of bars have also shrunk, with Garvies losing its licence, two hotels with bars closing down and the old... also shutting.

There are also plans to shut down the cheaper alternatives.

Those remaining are increasingly hard to get into.

You now need an id card to enter into a bar, and you have to have membership of the bar or club before you are allowed to drink.

Some visitors have been turned away from bars on the basis that their visa was not sufficient. It seems that if you have a tourist visa you may be turned away unless you are in your own hotel, whereas if you have a business visa you have a licence to drink.

The Future

So far, most of these changes do not impact too much upon our lives.

These edicts are likely to continue, though.

The crucial point for most expats is alcohol.

Currently, whereas a sojurn in Saudi Arabia is often viewed as an ordeal to be undergone for some specific financial goal, Qatar is still considered a pleasant, if expensive, place to live.

A ban on alcohol would leave to many Western expats leaving, or demanding a premium on their salaries.

A Choice Only Qataris Can Make

Of course, the direction Qataris take Qatar is a decision that only Qataris can make.

We and most of our readers are visitors in a place which is not our country and is not our culture.

And, at the end of the day, we are free to leave if things become too conservative for our liking.

Qatar Jobs

Indonesian Breakfast

Those Indonesian ladies are at it again!

Classy are holding their famous Indonesian Breakfast again next month, where Qatar's Mums can indulge themselves in traditional Indonsian cookery and enjoy a collection of traditional batik garments and furnishings.

The event, which is for Mums and Kids only (blast!) will be held at Al Waab 2 Gardens on Thursday 12 November from 10.00 am to 12 noon. Tickets, which are limited, will cost QAR40 and to buy them you will need to ring Sisca on 5634649.

Enjoy, and don't forget to bring some leftovers for the poor husbands left behind at home...

England Brazil Football Tickets Now On Sale

Also checkout: Qatar 2022 Bid: Qatar's not fooling around

Tickets for the England Brazil football match to be held in Qatar have finally gone on sale.

A friend saw a booth for the tickets yesterday - only to find that yesterday's batch had been sold out in three major malls.

Apparently, tickets will start at QAR100, not QAR50 as noted in our previous post.

Update: Football Qatar also points out that you buy the tickets via the Al Jazeera website, while there is a comment below with another website retailer.

2nd Update: According to Qatari Adventures you can now buy the tickets online via the Qatar Football Association.

Marhaba

A comment I noticed on recently on the books section of our website asked us which was the most comprehensive guide book, Marhaba or Qatar Explorer.

There's just no doubt about it - Marhaba, though poorly marketed outside Qatar, is head and shoulders above any other print guide to Qatar.

It's not perfect. My main complaint about is that everything it writes about does have to be perfect. A couple of years back (or is it three or four?) I read a description of Al Wakra and they made it sound like Las Vegas. (Allow for a little exaggeration on my part, of course.) I went to visit the town and, well, it was quite nice (the beach and the mangrove swamps were lovely before they were dug up), but a little bit boring.

Still, the book is absolutely crammed full of information about Qatar, and is very comprehensive. It is carefully and lovingly updated three times a year, and each publication has more information than the last.

The writing is often of an extremely high quality (anyone who can make Al Wakra sound exciting has got to be talented) and there are often some excellent features included.

There's also the price - a ridiculously low QAR20 (it's worth at least five times that.) Obviously, the book is paid for by advertising, but it's the type of advertising (schools, nurseries e.t.c.) that is pretty useful for expats, at least when they are new in town. We, at least, buy a new copy every time it's out, and we recommend new expats do the same.

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Marhaba books

Dinner by the Canal

In Dinner by the Canal we enjoy a romantic candle-lit meal for two at the Grand Hyatt's latest restaurant, Rocca. A superb ambience by the water and the swimming pools, with a view of the Pearl development in front, makes this a great place to relax after the hustle and bustle of the city. Read Dinner by the Canal for our full review.

Also see: Qatar Restaurants

Qatar Visitor Friends

Qatar Jobs

Doha Hotels



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restaurant review

Does anyone know where Doha is?

That's what Serena Williams tweeted when she got to Doha Airport.

It seems like a bit of a kick in the teeth for the country hosting her.

Certainly Serena knows where Doha is, as she has been here before. In fact, any big tennis fan will, and soon every England and Brazil fan will.

However, I don't think I did before I found a job here. I had heard of Qatar, but only because of the bombing that had been here.

When I tried to do some internet research on Qatar, I could find very little. The one website with useful information was a blog by an expatriate housewife, and its probably part of the reason why I decided to come here.

Living here several years later, things seem very different.

One thing you notice is the extraordinary lengths Qatar goes to in order to promote itself.

Currently we have the Tribeca film festival, the Qatar women's tennis championships and, next month, the England Brazil football match.

In the Arab world Al Jazeera has put Qatar firmly on the map while much of Asia will have watched the Asian Games.

The net is also a very different place, with Qatar Living users posting, it seems, thousands of times a day, blogs, facebook and twitters users springing up everywhere and websites such as our own, Qatar Happening and I Love Qatar all providing information about the country.

(One thing I have never managed to find is that first blog. Perhaps deleted, or perhaps just buried under the mountain of material published since then.)

Of course, what you forget is while you and I are at the center of our world, Qatar is not at the center of the world, even if it is winning a little more recognition.

Given that Qatar is such a small , though rich, country, perhaps the best answer is the one given by Qatar Airways, and one which Serena must have seen on her way here:

Doha is half way to anywhere.

Which, coincidentally, makes it a great place to stop off and spend your money!

Qatar Visa Confusion

The Qatar embassy in London used to be one of the most helpful places when finding out visa information for Qatar.

Whereas immigration would say "No English" and slam the phone down, the embassy would answer the phone, provide information and, upon sending an SAE, send out a visa form.

That sadly seems to have changed.

One Qatar Visitor reader from the UK wrote to us saying that previously she got a six month visa from the London embassy, but can now no longer get in contact with them.

Another said that he finally managed to get through on his 17th call, but was told he could no longer have a three month visa.

Now he wants to know if he can renew his one month visa on arrival.

Unfortunately, information is contradictory.

You certainly could in the past, and according to the official Hukoomi website you can renew your visa at the airport.

However, Qatar Airways, who are normally very up-to-date on these issues, had no knowledge of this.

We haven't managed to get through to immigration or the Qatar embassy in the UK, but will continue to investigate!