Qatar signs MoU with Lebanon

i think it's bad idea. we should direct our investements to countries that enjoys high political, social & economic stability, with a fast fiscal results and profits, like north america, europ & asia.

lebanon is a bad choice. it has a bad infrastrcture, high corruption & old economic laws. so, it's a waste of money to investe there.

i sometimes don't understand the logic behind our gov. decision to investe in countries like syria, egypt & morroco. the cases with these countries is similar to those in lebanon, and i was shocked when i learnt that the total qatari investements in syria may reach $7 billion. i'm now asking, what syria can afford to the investors in return? i went to syria 2wice, the country was destroyed by socialism, and it would take long years of serious social & economic reforms to recover.

i only believe that our country investe in these countries simply to win it's friendship, or at least neutrality, especially syria, who used to bugg qatar because of its relations with usa & israel.

as for my, i won't investe 1 single riyal in any arab country, and i think what happend to the investements of faisal bin qassim (owner of city center) in algeria, is a good proof.

wakrah-wi-bas said:

i think it's bad idea. we should direct our investements to countries that enjoys high political, social & economic stability, with a fast fiscal results and profits, like north america, europ & asia.

lebanon is a bad choice. it has a bad infrastrcture, high corruption & old economic laws. so, it's a waste of money to investe there.

i sometimes don't understand the logic behind our gov. decision to investe in countries like syria, egypt & morroco. the cases with these countries is similar to those in lebanon, and i was shocked when i learnt that the total qatari investements in syria may reach $7 billion. i'm now asking, what syria can afford to the investors in return? i went to syria 2wice, the country was destroyed by socialism, and it would take long years of serious social & economic reforms to recover.

i only believe that our country investe in these countries simply to win it's friendship, or at least neutrality, especially syria, who used to bugg qatar because of its relations with usa & israel.

as for my, i won't investe 1 single riyal in any arab country, and i think what happend to the investements of faisal bin qassim (owner of city center) in algeria, is a good proof.

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That's exactly why they SHOULD invest in these countries. Dont you think if you invest in a country or market that is still unexplored, untouched, or underestimated, you can gain a huge profit on? Lebanon, is still a newly emerging market gaining regional importance. Morocco and Tunis are tourist hot-spots, especially for Europeans (only an hour by plane).


I agree Syria is destroyed. I have been to Syria and it is still lagging decades behind Qatar, UAE, and the Gulf. But, this gives us the opportunity to benifit from this lagging and both benifit ourselves and Syria (for example).

wakrah-wi-bas said:

i think it's bad idea. we should direct our investements to countries that enjoys high political, social & economic stability, with a fast fiscal results and profits, like north america, europ & asia.

lebanon is a bad choice. it has a bad infrastrcture, high corruption & old economic laws. so, it's a waste of money to investe there.

i sometimes don't understand the logic behind our gov. decision to investe in countries like syria, egypt & morroco. the cases with these countries is similar to those in lebanon, and i was shocked when i learnt that the total qatari investements in syria may reach $7 billion. i'm now asking, what syria can afford to the investors in return? i went to syria 2wice, the country was destroyed by socialism, and it would take long years of serious social & economic reforms to recover.

i only believe that our country investe in these countries simply to win it's friendship, or at least neutrality, especially syria, who used to bugg qatar because of its relations with usa & israel.

as for my, i won't investe 1 single riyal in any arab country, and i think what happend to the investements of faisal bin qassim (owner of city center) in algeria, is a good proof.

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u r right wakra there is no good benefet in these countrys even there govs r not let u feel safe to invest... if u dont know big ppls over there u dont feel secure... and these ppl think that we r (( 7meer floos )) went bkrama, god I hate them they dont deserv 1 fils from ouer mony i have a bad experiant weth these !!! holes

akrimt!
i know 2 qatari businessmen who ventured to invest in egypt & sudan in the field of agriculture & cattle breeding. they say that around 10% up to 15% of the capital went as bribes to the officials, so the project can go through.

one of them said, that releasing a cargo in dubai port may take 1 or 2 days, in doha port maybe 2 or 3 days, but in port said port in egypt, it took around 1 whole month for the cargo to be released (of course thnx to the usual method, ma tkhali ya beyh).

finally, the businessmen, got sick'n'tired and cancelled the who idea. i don't blame them, ras al mal jaban!

dave550 said:

What happened to him in Algeria???

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in 1997 i went on a visit to algeria to attend a confrence. our ambassador took us to the seaside area of algers, the capital, and told us that the algerian gov. has granted faisal ben qassim a huge piec of land along the courniche for him to invest, including i think building a new sofitel hotel. the total of the investemnts were put up at $800 millions.

but, due to the socialist nature of the algerian market & economy,the beauracracy, delay of giving approval to the projects, & among other reasons, faisal decided apparently to cancel , or maybe postpone his plans to invest, because, so far, he didn't mention anything regarding his plans of going ahead with investements in algeria, in every press release.

this kind of investments is called "Syasat al Mignas",or Policy of Falconery. you see, our sheikhs would go on a long and nice hunting trips to the algerian desert, where the algerian governement would be so much helpful in making these trips unforgetable. so, in return, our sheikhs would resort to investements and pump cash into the algerian economy, as a gesture of appericiation, not because the country deserve any kind of investements, and that's, my friends, is the worst kind of investement a person should make, because it's based on pleasure and gratitude, not on mutual benefits, demand & supply policy, & making profits.

wakrah-wi-bas said:

i think it's bad idea. we should direct our investements to countries that enjoys high political, social & economic stability, with a fast fiscal results and profits, like north america, europ & asia.

lebanon is a bad choice. it has a bad infrastrcture, high corruption & old economic laws. so, it's a waste of money to investe there.

i sometimes don't understand the logic behind our gov. decision to investe in countries like syria, egypt & morroco. the cases with these countries is similar to those in lebanon, and i was shocked when i learnt that the total qatari investements in syria may reach $7 billion. i'm now asking, what syria can afford to the investors in return? i went to syria 2wice, the country was destroyed by socialism, and it would take long years of serious social & economic reforms to recover.

i only believe that our country investe in these countries simply to win it's friendship, or at least neutrality, especially syria, who used to bugg qatar because of its relations with usa & israel.

as for my, i won't investe 1 single riyal in any arab country, and i think what happend to the investements of faisal bin qassim (owner of city center) in algeria, is a good proof.

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Sorry, but you are quite mistaken about Lebanon.

The Canadian-based Fraiser Institute ranked Lebanon #1 in Economic Freedom in the entire Arab World just recently.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=23727

Also, you cannot compare Lebanon with Syria. Syria is socialist, Lebanon is not.

Lebanon has been booming for the past 5 years and this year is the best year in Lebanon's history. Just today, a $1.3 billion project called The Phoenician Village was announced for downtown Beirut that will consist of 6 high-rises.

Earlier this month, the $600 million Beirut Gate project was launched.

ok, then consider me as grade "2" student and explain to me how a country ranked no.1 in economic freedom in the whole arab world, as you said, has a debit worth $40 billion?

explain to me, how come all those projects you mentioned were generated by gulf investements, not lebanese?

explain to me, how come that all parts of lebanon witnesses power failure on daily basis, yet there's shortage in electricity annual income? where's the money goes?

expalin to me, how come when kuwait, algeria & qatar offerd to supply lebanon with good shipments of feul with very competitive prices, your gov. refused, because the fuel "mafia" in lebanon, led by 3 persons, one of them is dead now, didn't want to lose the monopoly of supplying the fuel to the local market?

i remember few years back, and this secret is announced for the 1st time, that qatar wanted to donate $12 million to build a complex consists of health centre, school & social centre in south lebanon, as a gift to the people. but mr. nabieh barry, the speaker of the lebanese parliament, declined the offer unless his company would built the complex. we told him that the complex is a gift for his peopele and that he shouldn't be such a selfesh. we went to the point of suggesting to chose the right contractor through a tender. but mr.barry insisted upon his terms. so the qatari gov. pulled out the whole project, and the poor and needy people of south lebanon lost a chance to enjoy a good education, good free medical care, because of the stubborness of a corrupt lebanese politician.

so much for your economic freedom....mish haik ya to2bourni?

wakrah-wi-bas said:

ok, then consider me as grade "2" student and explain to me how a country ranked no.1 in economic freedom in the whole arab world, as you said, has a debit worth $40 billion?

explain to me, how come all those projects you mentioned were generated by gulf investements, not lebanese?

explain to me, how come that all parts of lebanon witnesses power failure on daily basis, yet there's shortage in electricity annual income? where's the money goes?

expalin to me, how come when kuwait, algeria & qatar offerd to supply lebanon with good shipments of feul with very competitive prices, your gov. refused, because the fuel "mafia" in lebanon, led by 3 persons, one of them is dead now, didn't want to lose the monopoly of supplying the fuel to the local market?

i remember few years back, and this secret is announced for the 1st time, that qatar wanted to donate $12 million to build a complex consists of health centre, school & social centre in south lebanon, as a gift to the people. but mr. nabieh barry, the speaker of the lebanese parliament, declined the offer unless his company would built the complex. we told him that the complex is a gift for his peopele and that he shouldn't be such a selfesh. we went to the point of suggesting to chose the right contractor through a tender. but mr.barry insisted upon his terms. so the qatari gov. pulled out the whole project, and the poor and needy people of south lebanon lost a chance to enjoy a good education, good free medical care, because of the stubborness of a corrupt lebanese politician.

so much for your economic freedom....mish haik ya to2bourni?

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About the $40 billion debt, in case you didn't know my friend, Lebanon went through a 15-year civil war that devastated the country. That is the reason why the country is in debt. The government has launch an ambitious 5-year economic reform program that will reduce the country's debt.

There are numerous investments being contributed by Lebanese, but the big gigantic projects are being contributed by the gulf which is where the real money is. That's what foreign investment is all about. Investors go off and invest in other countries.

The Lebanese real-estate company (100% Lebanese), Horizon Holdings which is developing numerous projects in Lebanon just launched the biggest real estate project in Jordan's history in Aqaba, a $5 billion project.

It is unfair to hold Lebanese investors to the same standards as Gulf investors. Lebanon doesn't have any oil which is how the gulf got to where it is today and before you accuse me of not knowing anything about the gulf countries, I will kindly let you know that I was born in Saudi Arabia and I lived there for 10 years.

Electrical shortages are getting less and less each year. The shortages are due to infrastructure that got destroyed in the civil war and by Israeli air raids until recently. The Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR) which was formed after the war to rebuild the country's infrastructure is slowly restoring infrastructure across the country from roads to electricity.

Oil is always political, and for the record, Lebanon is trying to reduce its reliance on oil which is why they are developing facilities for natural gas. They are going to build a floating Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) station soon and a natural gas pipeline from Turkey is going to be extended to Lebanon to supply natural gas with hopes of significantly reducing reliance on oil.

Nabih Berri is a stooge who only cares about himself and his own interests. What you mentioned is not the first time such a thing has happened. Many things get political in this country and there is a lot of political corruption, but when it comes to private investors investing in Lebanon, the country is extremely open and the dirty politicians often can't get a piece of the pie much to their dismay.

The Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) has attracted billions of dollars worth of private investment (both foreign and Lebanese) over the past few years. It's a government department that has actually been very effective.

http://www.idal.com.lb

Here is the full report about economic freedom in the Arab world and why Lebanon ranked #1:
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/files/arabfreedomeng.pdf

LOL. The biggest BS project in the world. The fact is Al Attiyah is very found of Lebanon and does sincerly wants to help it economically. Even though all the heads are shaking "no" and advisors are suggesting otherwise the choice was still made.

I remeber one of my very last projects before I left doha was to research the possibilty of exporting natural gas to lebanon. I was told to throw a positive light on it. The only positive light I gave it was the colorful seaside pics of lebanon. Nothing ... M telling you nothing encourges us to invest hundreds of million.

Sry not that I hate lebanon, but this project will fail without a doubt its a loss from the get go and nothing more than 6eeb 5a6er 7ag lebanon.

Qatar4Ever said:

LOL. The biggest BS project in the world. The fact is Al Attiyah is very found of Lebanon and does sincerly wants to help it economically. Even though all the heads are shaking "no" and advisors are suggesting otherwise the choice was still made.

I remeber one of my very last projects before I left doha was to research the possibilty of exporting natural gas to lebanon. I was told to throw a positive light on it. The only positive light I gave it was the colorful seaside pics of lebanon. Nothing ... M telling you nothing encourges us to invest hundreds of million.

Sry not that I hate lebanon, but this project will fail without a doubt its a loss from the get go and nothing more than 6eeb 5a6er 7ag lebanon.

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Yes, I might agree with you. but Lebanon is currently in debt and some of my Syrian friends tell me that Syria "gives" a lot of its energy such as electricity to its neighbor in exhange for little money. That means Lebanon is still not self-sufficient. It depends on other nations/donations to keep its self going.

Believe you me, this refinery project is studied a lot and people will make decisions based on economical aspects more than the sentimental aspects.

In other words, show us the money and then we'll invest.