New law on anvil to govern realty deals
Qatar would have a new real estate development law, other than the current real estate registration law. The new project law is based on the selling out of real estate on maps, where any person or entity who wants to sell real estate should sell it on an approved map that accurately determines its location.
This has been dictated by the recent construction boom in the country, affirmed Muftah Thamir al-Badi, director of real estate registration department at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
He pointed out that such a project is currently under review by the concerned authorities and it is not yet determined when it would be issued.
Al-Badi stressed that the new law would guarantee all the rights of the buyer in case of any problems or disputes because it has various assurances that guarantee the full refund of the paid amount of money.
For example, in some construction projects, the owner or the company could sell real estate units on the designated maps even before commencing the building process of the projects and the full rights of the purchaser are guaranteed according to the stipulations of the law.
Al-Badi was speaking on the sidelines of a forum organised jointly by MoJ Centre for Legal and Judiciary studies and the French National School for the Judiciary on ‘The guarantee of real estate security’, held last week.
The forum aimed at devising secure and accurate real estate solutions with the participation of various experts from MoJ, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and the Qatari Lawyers Society, besides a number of French legal experts.
Wise panel seeking names for ’13 award
Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter
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World Innovation Summit for Education (Wise), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, has called for global nominations for Wise Prize for Education 2013. The applications can be submitted till April 30 midnight.The next WISE Summit will be held from October 29 to 31 in Doha.
The annual WISE Prize for Education is the first distinction of its kind to recognise an individual or a team of up to six people for an outstanding, world-class contribution to education. Established in 2011 by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, the prize sets the standard for excellence in education, giving it similar status to other areas for which international prizes already exist, such as literature, peace and economics. The Wise Prize winner receives $500,000 and a gold medal which will be awarded during the Wise summit each year.
The criteria for awarding the prize are that the achievements of the nominated individual or team should have had a significant and lasting impact upon education at any level and should demonstrate an inspiring and visionary approach. Wise Prize has already recognised founders of two leading NGOs from the Indian Subcontinent in the last two years.
The inaugural award in 2011 went to Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairman of the NGO Brac from Bangladesh while Madhav Chavan co- founder and CEO of Pratham from India won the Wise Prize in 2012.
Nominations for the Wise Prize will be screened by an 11-person Wise Prize Committee which will make a pre-selection of no more than 15 candidates. An international Jury of distinguished individuals will consider the finalists and select the 2013 Laureate who will be announced at the 2013 Wise Summit. Government departments, NGOs with educational background universities, teacher’s associations as well as research organisations from all around the world can submit nominations for the award.
In the meanwhile the latest Wise Book, Learning a Living: Radical Innovation in Education for Work, published by Bloomsbury, was officially launched in London in February at National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). Wise also took part in the ‘One Globe: Uniting Knowledge Communities’ conference, in New Delhi, an annual two day event focused on building a 21st century knowledge economy in India and South Asia. Dr Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for human resource development, India, gave a keynote address on the crucial importance of girls’ education and he was presented with a copy of the Wise Book.
Community service entities announced
The Attorney General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Merri has issued a decision on the entities who can implement the penalty of community service in the country.
According to the penal code and with the addition of the community service penalty to the already stipulated punishments in the law, Dr al-Merri has assigned the following entities the tasks to be undertaken.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has been tasked with memorisation of the Holy Qur’an or helping others to memorise it as well as cleaning and maintenance of mosques; the Supreme Education Council will take part in illiteracy eradication programmes; the Ministry of Interior will take care of juveniles and in assisting civil defence personnel in their work; Hamad Medical Corporation has been tasked with transporting patients and to assist in the administrative activities at health centres and the Ministry of Environment has been given charge of cleaning up public beaches, parks and natural protectorates. The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning will take charge of cleaning of public roads, streets and squares, maintenance and planting at public parks, paperwork and driving vehicles at the food control domain and the Ministry of Cultural, Arts and Heritage has been given charge of organisation, cleaning and maintenance of public libraries.
In several countries, people charged with a petty criminal offence are ordered to do some service for the benefit of the community, in exchange for a complete or partial reduction of fines and/or imprisonment. In some legal systems, such community service usually accompanies other forms of alternative penalties such as suspended jail sentences, probation and fines.
Such a practice aims at making minor offenders perform community service, that gives the society more benefits than imprisonment of these people. Further, this would save the cost of keeping them in prison and could work as a corrective action to help them to integrate positively in the society and increase their sense of social responsibility.
Community service programmes began in the United States with female traffic offenders in Alameda County, California in 1966, with local initiatives following in several counties throughout the United States.
Legislators considered the programme to be an opportunity to address the problem of overcrowding of prisons in US.
Research project to gauge nursing job satisfaction
University of Calgary - Qatar (UCQ) has joined hands with Rumailah Hospital for a research project to gauge nursing job satisfaction.
UCQ nursing instructor Christine said: “Nursing job satisfaction has been found in research to affect many patient and nurse outcomes. Higher levels of satisfaction have been shown to improve the quality of care for patients, and patient satisfaction with care, decrease patient mortality, and improve nursing retention. So, if we can find out how nurses feel about their job, we will know if we need to work on nurses’ work environment in order to improve patient outcome.”
Rumailah Hospital’s nursing director Nazila Afghani stated that establishing a nursing research committee has been one of the hospital’s goals for a long time and with the partnership with UCQ, the plan is coming into fruition. “The nursing research committee is committed to pioneering in research and evidence based practice at Rumailah Hospital and HMC,” she said.
Nurses from the Rumailah research committee came to UCQ for a literature review and electronic databases workshop. The committee, headed by Afghani, consists of eight nurses and UCQ faculty members Ou and Dr Brad Johnson.
In attendance at the literature review workshop were psychiatry unit charge nurse Jerome Mzia, day care surgery head nurse Saadiya Alhebail, burns unit staff nurse Johncy Paulose, a quality management reviewer Jessy George and Children’s Rehabilitation unit staff nurse Dorina Oprea.
“The enthusiasm of the nurses was clearly evident, and they came prepared to build their understanding of carrying out research,” observed Ou.
Dr Johnson said: “I felt that we made great progress today in our understanding of what job satisfaction consists of, different ways to measure it, and how to go about conducting our research into job satisfaction. Our work together is a great example of how we can work together to develop an evidence-based project aimed at answering questions relevant to Rumailah, HMC and Qatar.”
QSA to launch investment survey
The Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) will launch the 2013 Foreign Investment (FI) Survey, today for one month.
This will be the second FI survey in Qatar. The first FI survey was conducted in March 2010 covering 2008 and 2009. The main objective of the survey is to collect comprehensive data on foreign investment positions and transactions for the years 2010 and 2011, and summary estimates for 2012.
The results will help improve the quality of statistics on the different types of foreign investment inward and outward, in particular, foreign direct investment (FDI).
Qatargas support for AmCham golf tournament
Qatargas has announced its support for the third Annual AmCham golf tournament, which will be held at Doha Golf Club today. Qatargas is a platinum sponsor of the event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce Qatar. Mansour Rashid al-Naimi, Qatargas public relations manager, said: “We are very pleased to support the AmCham golf tournament. We believe that our support will help increase the popularity of golf in Qatar. Promoting and supporting sporting activities is an important element of our corporate social responsibility programme.”
Awareness programme at Pakistan embassy
An awareness programme on blindness is being organised by the Pakistan Welfare Trust and Halqa-e-Ahbab Qatar at the Pakistan embassy today at 6pm. Dr Intizar Hussain Butt, chairman of the Lahore-based Prevention of Blindness Trust, would be the main speaker at the event.
Dr Butt is a well-known assistant professor at the Department of Ophthalmology in the Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore. The invitation is open to all Pakistani community members in Doha. For details contact: 44422699 or 33284108.
Survey on foreign investment
The Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) will launch today a month-long Foreign Investment (FI) Survey. This will be the second FI survey - the first was conducted in March 2010 covering 2008 and 2009. The main objective of the survey is to collect comprehensive data on foreign investment positions and transactions for the years 2010 and 2011, and summary estimates for 2012. The results of the survey will help improve the quality of statistics on different types of foreign investment inward and outward, in particular, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The survey results will also help in the setting up of the appropriate environment to attract more investment and enhance development of existing investments. During the data collection period, enumerators will visit a large number of companies.
Diplomatic ties established
Qatar and the State of Saint Lucia have formalised diplomatic relations. Qatar’s permanent delegate to the UN Sheikh Meshaal bin Hamad al-Thani signed the accord setting up the diplomatic relations in a ceremony held at the headquarters of Qatar’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, while the permanent delegate of Saint Lucia to the UN Menissa Rambally signed for her country. The two sides underlined their common desire to strengthen ties in various political, economic, commercial, scientific , technological and cultural fields.
US scholarship opportunities
The International Student Network (ISN) will conduct the American Education Scholarship Expo at the Sheraton Doha tomorrow from 6pm to 9pm.
The highlights of the event include the merit-based scholarships that are offered to both undergraduate and graduate students. The American Education Expo is supported by the department of commerce at the US embassy in Doha.
The event will see representatives from many US universities, who will be giving out applications for scholarships, which range from $10,000 to full tuition.
Indian expat dead
Indian expatriate Santhosh Velayudhan Kalooparambil (43), who was working as a technician with a contracting company in the Industrial Area, died of heart attack at his accommodation on Friday.
He hailed from Udayamperoor in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, according to one of his friends. The deceased had been in Qatar for seven years, he said. Santhosh leaves behind his wife and two children.
The body was flown to Kerala last evening and burial will be held in his native place today.