The Pearl Qatar

If you are looking for a potential property investment location, Viva Bahriya, the second phase of The Pearl Qatar, just got a massive boost. German Realty Fund, Trend Capital has just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Durat Al Doha, a Qatari real estate developer to buy one of the five Imperial Towers on a turnkey project basis. The signing ceremony took place at the 3rd Qatar International Real Estate & Investment Conference & Exhibition. Mr. Ali Sayed Teymur, member of the Executive Committee signed on behalf of Durat Al Doha while Mr. Frank Simon, Chairman and General Manager represented Trend Capital.
Scheduled to be ready by 2010, the five Imperial Towers are being constructed on Viva Bahriya, the second phase of The Pearl Qatar. Each of the towers has been designed in an architectural style belonging to one of the five continents so that each tower will be distinctively different from the others. This fresh approach will inject diversity and individuality into each of the buildings. Each tower will have between 154 and 166 apartments and two luxurious four-bedroom penthouses. A choice of 1, 2 or 3 bedroom apartments will be available, in addition to a few very special units with private access to the beach. All in all, the Imperial towers will be perfectly suited for families wishing to live the Riviera lifestyle. “The Imperial Towers is our flagship project, and we are naturally thrilled that it is attracting international investments,” said Mr. Teymur, “although it is to be expected, considering that The Pearl Qatar is one of the most prestigious addresses in the region.” He added: “Trend Capital has been a prudent investor in the region for the past five years, and we’re confident this investment will also turn out to be very profitable for them. The strength of imperial towers is its unique design and style and this is what is making so far a success and attraction among both investors and direct clients wishing to live in Viva Bahriya in the future.” Mr. Simon of Trend Capital on this occasion said: “The agreement marks our first major foray into the Qatari market, and we couldn’t have made a better choice. The Pearl Qatar is an address that needs no introduction anywhere in the world, and the progress that Durat Al Doha is making on the Imperial Towers is commendable.”
He added: “We are confident this will turn out to be a lucrative venture for us, and surely the first of many more to come in Qatar’s booming market.” Founded in 2000, Trend Capital is a German investment house with a keen focus on real estate and renewable energy, particularly in the Middle East. Operating out of its head office in Mainz, Germany, Trend has developed a strong reputation in the German financial markets for their expertise on international real estate investments & developments in emerging countries. Trend Capital has had a well established presence in the Dubai real estate market for the last five years, and the investment in the Imperial Towers marks their entry into Qatar.

Ben

Marketing Principles...

Marketing is about understanding the customer’s needs and ensuring that products and services are of the highest possible standards in order to satisfy the potential customers wants and needs.
Marketing also focuses on ways in which the business can influence the behaviour of customers.
Marketing is essential to the success of all businesses. Its primary aim is to enable businesses to meet the needs of their actual and their potential customers and should be able to:
Understanding Customers Needs
It is very important to understand the needs and wants of customers. The needs of customers may vary between different groups of people.
Customers needs include:
Good customer service – This would include the after care service and the service provided when the purchase of the goods is made. This may be friendly environments, return policies, good clear advice and good services such as express tills.
Understanding & keep ahead of competition
The business may consider their competitive markets and may evaluate the competitive prices in order to provide a better service and better quality. They can use these strategies to meet the needs of their customers.
They need to have unique goods in order to stay ahead of competitors. For example a game shop can get the latest games so more customers can come there because no one else will have them
Communicate effectively with its customers to satisfy customer expectations
The business will need to think of innovations, which they could use to help with communication between suppliers, contractors and customers.
There are a ways in which the business could communicate with its customers, this could be through the use of phone, fax and Internet.
· Co-ordinate its functions to achieve marketing aims
Firms may need to diversify the way they operate in order to achieve marketing aims and objectives. Company may change the way they deal with the level of production in order to achieve higher and more efficient production levels. This could include the diversification of the work force and the diversification with the allocation of the resources available to the company.
· Be aware of constraints on marketing activities
In other words be aware on the operations including the problems, which are associated with marketing activities and once evaluated then make sure they can change their marketing activities in order to achieve higher profit margins.

Offensive marketing style is vital in many organisations....Benson

1. Strong involvement of marketing staff in developing corporate objectives and strategies
2. Marketing staff to be trained in communication
3. Broader knowledge base for marketing staff – they should know about technology, finance and operations
4. Development of a cross departmental style – keeping everyone informed about the market place – by word of mouth, newsletters, presentations and giving recognition to others for success
5. Move people across departments
6. Spread bonuses so that all staff involved benefit rather than a few performing stars
7. Locate all departments on the same site

NRM-Natinal Resistance Movement 1986

Yoweri Museveni was briefly Uganda's minister of defence during the interim government after the fall of Amin. When Obote returns to power as president in 1980, and his party (the UPC) wins a majority in elections widely regarded as fraudulent, Museveni refuses to accept this turning back of the clock. He withdraws into the bush and forms a guerrilla group, subsequently known as the National Resistance Army (NRA).During the 1980s the NRA steadily extends the area of southern and western Uganda under its control. And Okello, after toppling Obote in 1985, proves no match for Museveni.

By January 1986 the NRA is in control of the capital, Kampala. Museveni proclaims a government of national unity, with himself as president. It is a turning point in Uganda's history. A decade later the country is back under the rule of law (apart from some northern regions, where rebellion rumbles on). The economy is making vast strides (an annual growth rate of 5% in the early 1990s and of more than 8% in 1996). There are improvements in education, health and transport. International approval brings a willingness to invest and to lend. The nation, emerging from two decades of appalling chaos, is suddenly almost a model for Africa.

The only flaw, to western eyes, is that this remains one-party rule. It is an essentially pragmatic state in which good ideas from any part of the political spectrum are welcome (even Uganda's kings now have a role restored to them). But the new constitution of 1995 limits executive power to the National Resistance Movement, the party emerging from Museveni's guerrilla army. Democracy is a subject on which Museveni has strong and interesting views. He criticizes western insistence on the multiparty model, seeing it as simplistic to assume that a single pattern can be appropriate in every circumstance. In his view parties in Africa, often based on tribal allegiances, are often likely to frustrate democracy.

Museveni argues instead that the important elements are the benefits taken for granted in a functioning multiparty democracy - universal suffrage, the secret ballot, a free press and the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers. He describes his Uganda as a 'no-party democracy', claiming that people of widely differing views can argue their case to the electorate as competing individuals (it is campaigning as a party that is banned). This is a somewhat utopian blueprint depending, like enlightened despotism, on people of good will at the top. It may be in token of this that Museveni regularly promises a date in the future for the legitimizing of opposition parties.

History of Uganda

Buganda: 19th century AD
Uganda, on the equator and surrounded by the great lakes of central Africa, is one of the last parts of the continent to be reached by outsiders. Arab traders in search of slaves and ivory arrive in the 1840s, soon followed by two British explorers. Speke is here in 1862. Stanley follows in 1875.
The ruler visited by both Speke and Stanley is Mutesa, the king (or kabaka) of Buganda. His kingdom is one of four in this region which have become firmly established by the mid-nineteenth century. The others, lying to the west, are Ankole, Toro and Bunyoro

The existence of these African kingdoms has a profound influence on the development of Uganda during the colonial period. But when the scramble for Africa begins, in the 1880s, this remote interior region is not immediately in the sights of any of the colonial predators. It is seen at the time merely as a distant place lying beyond the territories of the sultan of Zanzibar, which are in dispute between Britain and Germany. When separate spheres of interest are agreed, in 1886, the area of modern Kenya falls to Britain. Beyond it, round the north shore of Lake Victoria, lies Buganda. Britain expects this to be little more than the far corner of its new colony. Events prove otherwise.
British East Africa Company: AD 1888-1895
As with the areas being colonized by Rhodes at this same period in southern Africa, the British government is reluctant to take active responsibility for the region of east Africa which is now its acknowledged sphere of interest. Instead it assigns to a commercial company the right to administer and develop the territory. The Imperial British East Africa Company is set up for the purpose in 1888, a year ahead of Rhodes's British South Africa Company.The region given into the company's care stretches all the way from the east coast to the kingdom of Buganda, on the northwest shore of Lake Victoria. ...................................