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Under the context of unleashing the potential of women in the investment sector, the Qatar Exchange invited the Qatari Businesswomen Association to an introductory visit that was held at QE premises on Wednesday April 25th 2012 to enhance their knowledge of the business at Qatar Exchange and the various services and products provided by the Qatari stock market.
This introduction visit is also part of the ongoing plan of the Qatari Businesswomen Association aimed at providing members with skills, tools, and learning opportunities that they need to enhance their performance and contribute to the economic growth.
A welcome speech was given by QE’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. André Went, who extended his appreciation for the businesswomen’s interest in learning more about Qatar Exchange. A briefing on QE was then given by Mr. Went, who talked about the company’s history from establishment of the DSM to the development of QE through the extension of trading hours and the dividend payment process to the recent products that were launched, such as the T-Bills and the prospective products to be introduced in the upcoming period after obtaining the required regulatory approvals such as the bonds and sukuk, Lending and Borrowing and the Direct Market Access granted to enhance the investments of international foreign firms in the Qatari market.
Mr. Rashid Al Mansouri, QE’s Deputy CEO, also welcomed the businesswomen who showed great interest in attending this meeting and gave an outline about QE, the strategic partnership with NYSE and the various developments witnessed at QE, from the launch of the UTP system, to the upcoming initiatives, namely the ETFs and REITs. The Deputy CEO later shifted to the main focus of the meeting and shed light on the SME Market, which is the recently adopted international trend amid the current economic conditions.
Miss. Hamda Al Enazi, Business Development Manager at QE’s Listing Department, underlined the global shift towards supporting the SMEs, being the up-to-date trend in the financial markets. In this respect, Miss. Al Enazi said that businesswomen haven’t been in the business for a long time and assumed that their capital wouldn’t be as competing as other large companies’ capital, which is why the SMEs would be more interesting for them especially with the lighter terms thereof, not to mention the Listing Advisor that will help the company meet the related requirements.
Mr. Kevin Day, Business Development Manager at the Product & Marketing Development Dept. gave a briefing of the products brought onboard and the recent developments, which range from the launch of new indices and T-bills to the future government and corporate bonds. Mr. Day also discussed the ETFs, the REITs and the derivatives, saying that this latter is a very important tool for risk management and would lead to greater turnover and consequently higher liquidity if traded in an exchange with transparency and CCP services.
The highly interactive meeting revealed how businesswomen in Qatar were enthusiastic to learn more about QE and the various products available therein and engage in the investment process that will pave the way for the growth and development of their association. At the end of the meeting, Mrs. Aisha Al Fardan, Vice-President of the QBWA extended her deepest gratitude for the invitation addressed by QE and said in this respect: “We are so pleased with the outcome of this introduction visit, the session was so informative and very beneficial to our members, we see this as a beginning of a long term successful partnership with Qatar Exchange”
The QBWA has recently launched “members only” monthly meetings and put on its agenda a range of different important topics for future meetings which can be organized and hosted by the individual members or by the corporate members.
The Qatari Businesswomen Association had also opened its membership to companies and institutions operating in the country last January, after it was limited only to individuals. The QBWA also succeeded in launching many events and activities, and on top of these initiatives comes Qatar Business Women Award, which concluded its activities recently by honoring eight elite business and professional Qatari women, and also the second Qatar International Businesswomen Forum which was on May of 2011, and attracted more than 750 of the elite business men and women of Qatar and the region and the world.
