Commercialbank “Gold Sponsor” of Qatar Projects 2012 Conference

21 February 2012
Source : Commercial Bank

“Commercialbank was very pleased to participate in the Qatar Projects 2012 Conference. Our focus is to support the Qatari economy and social infrastructure, participating in the event strengthens our resolve to put Qatar and the Qatari community at the forefront of our activities. Commercialbank endeavours to continue meeting the needs of its customers by offering bespoke banking solutions to the rapidly growing Qatari market.” said Fahad Badar, Executive General Manager, Government and International Banking, Commercialbank, at the recently conducted Qatar Projects 2012 conference held in Doha.

Fahad was speaking at a panel that discussed the ¬current economic advances and development of Qatar’s financial sector. The panel also discussed the financing requirements to support the development of planned and future mega projects, managing risk through sound financial policy, and long-term strategies for sustained rates of economic growth.

On the subject of the ability of the local banks to finance the future project requirements, Fahad mentioned that many people will recall how, back in the late 90s, the local banks participated in financing the massive investment in oil and gas.  All the local banks were able to fund the investment and worked and continue to work in close partnership with project owners, contractors and sub-contractors.  We at the local banks learned a lot from those experiences and they were just the start of a series of partnership opportunities that have led us to the exciting challenges we have today, just lately the local banks successfully participated in the massive Barzan Gas project financing.  The local banks can meet the requirements of financing the future projects because we have the necessary sophistication, resources and experience.  There is certainly a case for saying that local banks are better placed to meet the future requirements than some of the international banks. Whilst local banks have not been totally immune from the global financial crisis, the impact has been extremely minimal.  As a result, many local banks currently have better credit ratings than a lot of the European banks

Commercialbank was a gold sponsor of the Qatar Projects 2012 Conference, which is being held from 5-8 February 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha. The main theme of the conference is “The journey to 2022,” and the focus is on $106 billion worth of projects that are expected to be awarded to Qatar in the run up to 2022.

Building upon the success of 2011, the Qatar Projects 2012 organised by MEED Events was held under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy & Industry and Chairman and Managing Director, Qatar Petroleum. The conference was organised to showcase the growth in emerging opportunities in Qatar, which is the world’s fastest growing economy.