MultaQa Qatar to attract representatives of top global insurance and re-insurance firms to Qatar DOHA, 12/3/2008 The Qatar Financial Centre Authority will be hosting a major international business event on 15-17 March 2008, named MultaQa Qatar, at Al-Sharq hotel in Doha. This year MultaQa Qatar will bring to Doha top representatives of major international insurance, re-insurance and brokerage firms who are already licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre or looking at the prospects for business in Qatar and the region. The event is being organised in association with Global Reinsurance magazine, one of the world’s leading publications for the insurance industry. Multaqa means meeting place or rendezvous, and in that sense it will showcase Qatar to the world’s top insurance representatives and provide them with a unique networking opportunity with representatives of Qatar’s and the region’s business and financial community. Fetooh Al Zayani, the QFC Authority’s Managing Director Business Development Insurance and Re-insurance, says “The increasing attention being shown in the Middle East markets by such global insurers as AXA, AIG, Alico and Zurich suggests that a paradigm shift is taking place in the region’s appetite for insurance. This is driven by developments in the international insurance industry, as well as the increasing maturity of the GCC’s economies and the improved business and legal environment being established in these markets. “To date, the GCC insurance industry has only a 0.17% share (valued at $6.2 billion in 2006) of the world insurance market. Recent research shows that the regional growth of demand for insurance is higher than the growth rates seen in most large insurance markets across the world. We believe that this demonstrates that the prospects for more foreign entrants into the region, and the awakening of our insurance markets, are bright. MultaQa Qatar is an important step in this direction.”