By Joseph Varghese

Staff Reporter

 

HE the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari  has highlighted the “strategic”  role played by  the private sector in enriching the country’s human capital.

He also said that Qatar had considered   human capacity long back as  the core value of development.

Al-Kuwari was speaking at the inaugural session of the “Total Alreyada: Connecting Young Leaders Summit” at the Ritz-Carlton Doha on Thursday. The educational platform was held for four days and concluded yesterday.

About 25 Qatari youngsters were part of the second Total Alreyada leadership programme in which more than 50 young students and entrepreneurs from a number of countries in the Middle East took part. The event is an initiative by Total E& P to shape up future leaders of the region.

During his inaugural address,  al-Kuwari  said that private sector companies such as Total E&P were playing a pivotal role  to promote human capacity in the country and region. “Private sector is the mainstream of creative initiatives, competitiveness and the fast achievement that has become the equivalent of the common sector in creating development in most world economies.”

The minster also said “Alreyada aims to promote the process of balanced development in the Middle East through education, and  human capital development. This conference focuses on the most significant challenges that face the energy sector in the region and aims for human resources’ solutions by reconsidering education, training and human resources development policies”.

Guillaume Chalmin, managing director of Total E&P Qatar and Total Group representative in Qatar, said the organisation wanted to promote the leadership qualities of the youngsters of the region. “We aim to promote the skills of the youth in a big way through this programme. They are the young talents of today and we would like to nurture them into future leaders of the Middle East.”

University students and youngsters from all the GCC countries, Lebanon and Jordan took part in a number of activities and discussed various industry challenges that need to be addressed to meet rising local and global energy demand. During the course of the training they were briefed on the rising demand for energy as well as the shrinking supply of traditional energy resources.

The inaugural Total Alreyada was held in Abu Dhabi last year, which had a similar number of participation from eight Middle East countries. The summit was named best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme in the Middle East at the 2013 ADIPEC Awards, one of the region’s leading awards for the oil and gas sector.

 

Summit ‘in line with QNV 2030’

 

The Alreyada summit was in line with the  human development pillar of  Qatar National Vision 2030, said  Guillaume Chalmin, managing director of Total E&P Qatar and Total Group representative in the state. He added that the programme would provide opportunities for Qatari youngsters to meet with experts and understand more about the energy sector and leadership building.  Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the second edition of the Alreyada summit in Doha, Chalmin said: “Alreyada is a key event for us. We propose to contribute to the development of the youth in the country and the region. The summit has the potential of human capacity development which is one of the four pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The official highlighted that the large number of participants from Qatar was a welcome sign.  “The main purpose of the event is to familiarise the youngsters with energy facts and leadership building,” he said. “The youth are given opportunity to meet with leaders and experts from the energy sector of the Middle East.” Chalmin said that Alreyada would become an annual event hereafter. “The first edition of the leadership summit was a huge success and was awarded the best CSR programme in the Middle East last year. We have not yet decided on the venue of the next event. It will be in one of the countries in the region or North Africa,” he added.