SUPPORTING ECONOMY: Page 2

1 Saturday, December 11, 2021 Jumada I 7, 1443 AHBUSINESSGULFTIMESUK economy almost fl atlined in October, adding to interest rate hike doubtsGDP GROWTH SLOWS SHARPLY: Page 4 China seeks to curb relentless yuan gains with surprise fi xSUPPORTING ECONOMY: Page 2 QatarEnergy expands its presence offshore Cyprus with new exploration blockA consortium comprising aff iliates of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil signed an exploration and production sharing contract (EPSC) with the Republic of Cyprus for the off shore Block 5 located southwest of the island. This is QatarEnergy s second exploration block in the Republic of Cyprus, in addition to Block 10, which was awarded to the same consortium in 2017 and resulted in the Glaucus gas discovery announced in February 2019 with estimated in-place resources of 5tn to 8tn cubic feet of gas.

2 Further assessments are planned over the coming months to further refine this the EPSC terms, QatarEnergy will hold a 40% working interest in Block 5, while ExxonMobil will be the operator and will hold a 60% working on the signing, HE the Minister of State for Energy Aff airs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, who is also president and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: We are pleased with the signing of this EPSC, which expands our footprint in Cyprus. As confirmed by our discovery in Block 10, this region is promising and has very good potential for hydrocarbon exploration. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the government of Cyprus and with our long-term strategic partner ExxonMobil to contribute to the exploration of natural resources in the Republic of Cyprus, and bring a significant addition to our growing international portfolio.

3 Block 5 covers an area of 4,500sq km in water depths of up to 2,500m, and is adjacent to Block investors back headquarters move to UKBloombergLondonRoyal Dutch Shell Plc shareholders approved the relocation of the company s headquarters to London from The Netherlands, a country with which rela-tions have become increasingly strained due to environmental said it will retain a large presence in The Netherlands and the move is intended to simplify its corporate struc-ture, as well as accelerate re-turns to investors while cutting their taxes. Yet it also follows a Dutch court s ruling that the oil and gas giant must speed up its carbon emissions cuts, and a decision by the country s largest pension fund to sell its holdings in fossil fuel producers due to climate concerns.

4 The company is seeking to convince investors - such as activist Dan Loeb - govern-ments and environmental groups that it can transform it-self into a clean energy producer while still providing generous payouts. Key to that plan, the company says, is consolidating all of its shares in one country, making it easier to buy and sell assets as well as return cash to shareholders. A single line of shares will allow us to be much more fl ex-ible, Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie said at a meeting in Rotterdam yesterday. The re-structuring will accelerate our ability to move into the goals of the energy transition and also benefi t shareholders, he resounding of votes cast by investors were in favour of the proposal, Mac-kenzie said.

5 The resolution also drops Royal Dutch from the company name, because Shell expects it will no longer meet the conditions for using the honorary designation. Shell s board still needs to hold a meeting to give fi nal ap-proval to the decision. The company expects the process to be completed in early 2022. The move won t have any impact on Shell s compliance with the Dutch court ruling on emissions cuts, Mackenzie said. Shell s current dual-listing has existed since the unifi cation of Royal Dutch and Shell Trans-port & Trading Co in 2005, an arrangement the company says was never envisaged to be per-manent. A key drawback of this struc-ture is that share buybacks are subject to a withholding tax in The Netherlands and not in the UK.

6 Until now, Shell has only repurchased stock in London, limiting the volume it can ac-quire at a given time due to low-er liquidity, and market-abuse Shell Centre in London. Royal Dutch Shell shareholders approved the relocation of the company s headquarters to London from The , big data analytics vital for SMEs digital transformation: Expert By Peter AlagosBusiness ReporterAdopting transforma-tional technology is becoming a necessity for the small and medium-sized (SME) sector to elevate its contribution to the econ-omy, an expert at the Min-istry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has at a recently held online forum, Yazen al-Safi, adviser for Digital Industry Development at MCIT, em-phasised that SMEs are con-sidered as a key to ensuring economic growth and fos-tering innovation, in addi-tion to being the backbone of Qatar s forum titled Big Data.

7 How can SMEs Benefit from Big Data, Best Practices, Pol-icies, & Show Cases was or-ganised by MCIT, in collabo-ration with the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA).Dr Haidar Fraihat, leader of Statistics, Information Society & Technology Clus-ter at ESCWA delivered the welcome address. The first session on Big Data Con-cepts, Policies, Readiness Assessment was delivered by Dr Nawar al-Awa, regional adviser on Technology for Development at ESCWA, while the second session ti-tled Big Data Applications and Frameworks was led by Ahmed al-Awah, ICT Sec-tion chief at ESCWA, and Roaa al-Feel of ESCWA s ICT Section. According to al-Safi, the MCIT s digital forums this year have been focusing on the role and the benefits of digital transformation and cloud adoption for SMEs in terms of renovating their business model, optimising their costs, and adding agil-ity to their operations.

8 The fourth edition of our digital forums, which will be the last one for this year, is dedicated to data and since they are the foundation of every system, they create a minimum societal or eco-nomic added value. However, we can max-imise their value after com-bining and turning them into information and then knowledge with the means of enrichment and contex-tualisation, thus data and big data analytics is considered as the centrepiece for SME digital transformation since combining and analysing the enterprise data with other sources will enable SMEs to discover many new pos-sibilities for adding value to the customers with better products and services, al-Safi said: This forum is about our new reality that is leading comprehensive changes in all areas of our society.

9 Therefore, we would like to urge our SMEs and en-trepreneurs to benefit from today s presentations and capture the experience of our distinguished speakers to transform their business-es and harness technology to deliver new value to our so-ciety for a better tomorrow. Mohamed al-Assi, DTSME project manager at MCIT, added: The development of SMEs and their role in dig-ital transformation is cer-tainly an essential element in contributing to building a knowledge-based econ-omy and achieving the Qa-tar National Vision 2030. The MCIT is committed to achieving the goals of this vision. The DTSME programme encourages SMEs to use In-formation Technology and raise awareness on the ben-efits of using modern tech-nology in the business sec-tor.

10 From the beginning of the programme, more than 3,000 SMEs have participat-ed and over 1,000 have dig-itally transformed through more than 300 workshops. ICAI Doha Chapter holds FINNOVATION Summit on Innovation in Finance The Doha Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has organised the FINNOVATION Summit on Innovation , which gathered nearly 100 chapter members, past chairpersons, and Us Sadik, president of the Indian Business & Professional Council (IBPC), was the chief guest and was introduced by DCICAI chairperson Nirlep Bhatt. Sadik said the chapter and IBPC will continue to collaborate by organising events, conferences, and knowledge-shar-ing sessions for the benefit of business-men and professionals. Bhatt highlighted the activities of the chapter and how its more than 400 mem-bers are contributing to the ever vibrant and progressive Qatari economy.