Doha – Projects for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, houses in construction, and a future neighbourhood for university students are some of the projects underway in Qatar that may hold business opportunities for Brazilian entrepreneurs. So said the senior project manager at KEO Consultants, Rick Sassin, this Saturday (3rd) in Doha, during the seminar “Qatar: a changing country – 2022 World Cup host,” organized for a business delegation of the Federation of Industries of the State of Santa Catarina (Fiesc) now visiting the country.
KEO participates construction projects and works in Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Al Ain, Washington, and Qatar, where it is based.
As an example of a major project, Sassin cited The Pearl, a partially completed neighbourhood that will comprise 55,000 real estate units. In Doha, works have begun in another neighbourhood with capacity for 250,000 units, and the Education City, designed to attract universities from around the world, is scheduled for completion in 2020.
“While Dubai invests in tourism and Abu Dhabi sets out to become a cultural hub, Doha is getting ready to be a regional centre for universities,” Sassin told the mission members. For such, the city needs material and project suppliers, architects, engineers, and workers.
Two Brazilian companies already operating in Qatar also attended the seminar. OAS and Odebrecht arrived at Doha a year ago to carry out infrastructure works. The companies have no projects in Qatar yet, but are bidding in different tenders. “Qatar is a new country and is still structuring itself out. Doha wants to do more than Dubai is doing [in order to grow],” said the local business development manager for Odebrecht, Georges Karam.
At the seminar, Karam and the OAS director for the Middle East, Antonio Roquim Neto, informed that to carry out works in Qatar, foreign companies must associate with a local businessman. Sassin said tax breaks are made available, for the duration of the projects, for companies which own plots in Education City.
The businessmen in the mission believe they can close good deals in Qatar. “I envision opportunities to the Brazilians in sectors such as raw material supply. Other than that, meeting the leading companies and a local businessman is good because we get to learn different construction techniques, see how the documentation works, and make contacts. It’s a start,” said the head of the mission, Marco Antonio Corsini.
Luciano Watzko, the executive director for Joinville-based company LHW Engineering, said the Qatari businessmen are not plagued with a major problem that their Brazilian counterparts face routinely: money. “The pace at which they churn out works here is amazing. It’s all very fast. In Brazil, we must calculate costs several times before we start a project. That’s not the case here,” he said.
The regional director to the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), Sidney Alves Costa, said his organization can help Brazilian businessmen operate in the country, and that the Apex opened an office in Doha a year ago because of the existing demand. “We can take part in the projects. We want to help them explore all opportunities,” he said.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce supports the mission and its CEO, Michel Alaby, is among the members. After Doha, the businessmen will travel to Dubai to visit the Big5 construction fair.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomeranclum
