Content about FIFA

Robert Tarazi, managing director of Qatar’s leading ready-mix concrete company Beton WLL, talks to Gay Sutton about preparing the company for significant growth.

Since opening its first warehouse in 2005, Doha-based Gulf Warehousing Company has grown at an impressive rate. Chief executive officer Ranjeev Menon talks to Gay Sutton about building the new Logistics Village and plans to replicate this highly successful business model internationally.

It has already won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup; and when it comes to liquefied natural gas (LNG), Qatar is the undisputed world leader. Ras Laffan City has scored a hat trick over the last year by achieving 77 million tons of LNG production capacity, 5,000 LNG tanker calls, and the loading of six massive LNG tankers at the same time.

2010 was South Africa’s year of pride: it was never going to be easy to get back to business as usual following the World Cup but building world class infrastructure is still a work in progress for Goba, the country’s leading consulting engineering firm.

South African president Jacob Zuma told an audience in Belgium today that South Africa offers mining investors huge growth potential and proven economic and political stability.

In Antwerp for the third annual European Union-South Africa summit, Zuma said the successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup had "demonstrated to the world that we are a country that can deliver on its undertakings."

E.H. Hassim Builders World is one of a number of Indian owned businesses that has successfully steered its way through South Africa’s turbulent history for over     100 years.
Alan Swaby talks to business development director Hassim I. Dockrat to find out more.

Full time
With the World Cup now only six months away, the pieces are falling seamlessly into place, as Alan Swaby learns.
During the week of writing this, the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, venue for one of the World Cup semi-finals, was being handed over to its new owners a good two months earlier than required by the original FIFA schedule. There’s still a bit of titivating needing to be done on some of the boxes and a few of the approach roads outside the stadium; but the grass is down, the seats are in place and everything is ready for the teams to run onto the pitch.

A platform for the world
The eyes of the sporting world and beyond will shortly be cast upon South Africa, as the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is imminent. One stadium that will be thrust into the limelight is in the municipality of Nelson Mandela Bay.
South Africa is playing host to next year’s colourful carnival of the FIFA World Cup, which has become one of the biggest events of its kind to bring the world together. As such, the tournament provides an enormous welter of opportunities for the South African people and economy and it has therefore been vital to ensure everything is in place before the big kick-off on 11 June, 2010.

A sporting chanceTiming is critical in business—and perfect timing has been an essential component in The Laser Group’s success, particularly as the logistics firm vows to exceed customer expectations. Andrew Pelis talks to chief executive Philip Hayes.With its headquarters in Cape Town, The Laser Group has been around since 1971, having initially started out as a household removals business. Today, the company is one of South Africa’s leading logistics experts; and a series of partnerships and opportunities is now heralding a number of new and exciting business developments.

Specialist in all styles
The slogan of the great African band Orchestre Baobab applies well to South Africa’s premier firm of architects: its strength lies in its diversity, as TPS.P Architects director Guy Steenekamp explains to John O’Hanlon.
There are buildings rising up in Johannesburg, South Africa and many other parts of the African continent which, for excellence of design and function, rival the best that can be found in Europe, Asia or America. The stark frontier functionality of a few decades ago is fast disappearing; however, the continent’s needs are varied and specialised. An architectural practice here needs above all to be adaptable, and that is where TPS.P Architects scores. It has had a hand in some of the region’s outstanding icons, such as the AngloGold Ashanti headquarters in Johannesburg, the new conference centre in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam and the Marriott Hotel at Accra, Ghana; at the same time it is involved in fundamental infrastructure projects, industrial development and mining.