By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter



The Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (Goic) and special economic zone developer and operator, Manateq, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to attract “added-value companies” to the country.
Manateq CEO Fahad Rashid al-Kaabi said the MoU will provide Manateq access to Goic’s data base, which could help identify industrial investment opportunities in “key promising industries” in Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
“Goic has a huge data base, and they have maintained good communication with a variety of industries in Qatar and the rest of the GCC. We are targeting certain clusters or the so-called ‘added-value companies’ and encourage them to invest in our economic zones,” al-Kaabi told Gulf Times on the sidelines of the opening of the “Invest in Qatar 2015” forum held yesterday in Doha.
Goic secretary general Abdulaziz bin Hamad al-Ageel said, “Goic carries out studies to identify opportunities that could be offered to investors and businessmen in GCC countries and Yemen based on its analysis of supply and demand, identification of developed technologies related to advanced industrial practices, and introduction of value-added products by using available resources in GCC countries.”
He explained that these investment opportunities were determined in close co-operation with private and public sector investors and continuous collaboration with state-of-the-art technology suppliers.
Al-Kaabi said Manateq aims to encourage high-technology companies, “specifically those that require less labour and that are energy efficient in terms of operations,” to locate in Qatar’s special economic zones.
He said Manateq’s special economic zones, namely the 4.1sq km Ras Bufontas, Um Alhoul (33.52sq km), and Al Karaana (48sq km), have been clustered to accommodate specific types of businesses.
“Ras Bufontas is strategically located near the Hamad International Airport, therefore some of the businesses that could locate there would be in logistics, while those in Um Alhoul, which is near the new Hamad Port, would consist of industrial facilities and services.
“We are optimistic that the MoU would also help us attract more investors to the special economic zones, especially those in the manufacturing and renewable energy sectors,” al-Kaabi explained.
He added that plans to hold roadshows promoting the three special economic zones to investors in the GCC and outside the region are already in the pipeline.
Al-Ageel said, “In the past three years, Manateq was successful in building the necessary infrastructure for the three special economic zones, whose results are already unfolding before us. Hopefully, investors would be able to take advantage of the expected completion of some of these facilities next year,” al-Ageel said.


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