By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Qatar Chamber (QC), the country’s oldest private industry representative body, and the International Center for Sports Security (ICSS), have signed a multi-faceted cooperation agreement to launch a joint initiative titled “Sport and Commerce”.
The agreement was signed by Saleh Hamad Al Sharqi, Director-General of QC, and Mohammed Hanzab, President of the Doha-based ICSS, in the presence of Ali bin Abdulateef Al Misnad, Honorary Treasurer at QC.
Under the agreement, each party will participate in events held by the other party and QC will support ICSS’ activities held in Qatar and overseas by inviting businessmen to take part in the ICSS programmes.
“QC is a very big umbrella organisation of private sector, which is playing a vital role by extending its support in hosting big events in the country. Therefore, we are also trying to win the support of private sector through this initiative,” Hanzab told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the signing ceremony held at QC headquarters.
He added: “Sports need financial support both at local and international level. The private sector, as part of its CSR activities, can play a major role to make sports better by ensuring safeguards. In addition, sports can learn a lot from private sector in terms of maintaining transparency and good governance.”
Highlighting the role of ICSS, he said that the Centre acts as a bridge between people and the private sector to discuss and explore opportunities and also find ways to make sports clean, transparent, safe and fair from all aspects to ensure that whatever is invested in the sector it makes real impact on the ground.
Commenting on the legal mandate of his organisation, he said that ICSS is a Qatar-based non-profit organisation sharing the mandate of a host of international entities on several issues, including sports’ security and safety.
“We managed to set up the safety and security standards for several major events, which was missing earlier. Recently, over 50 leading representatives from sports, government, academia, sponsors and other international and corporate organisations gathered in Madrid to progress first-ever Sport Integrity Alliance to drive reform in sport, which included World Bank, OECD, Spanish Government, and many private companies of international repute such as Master Card and Deloitte,” he added.
“We did a comprehensive study with Harvard University to measure the economic impact of sports in major events. Similar studies can be done in collaboration with QC to prepare a data base.”
QC shall also use its various tools to promote ICSS international activities and events through foreign trade chambers, especially in countries where events are organised by holding bilateral meetings between Qatari businessmen and their counterparts in the countries concerned.
In turn, the ICSS shall provide all possible forms of facilities for QC to take part in the center’s activities.
The two sides will exchange information and data available to utilise in the fields of studies and research or to perform any actions or take decisions relating to the functions and competencies of each party.
The two sides will coordinate the events organised by any of them, whether inside or outside Qatar.
Each party shall name the other party as a partner and official sponsor to their activities. In addition, the parties will work on qualifying and capacity development of their staff through training programmes, offered by QC.
The Peninsula
