DOHA, 30 September 2009
QFINANCE – The Ultimate Resource website and book for finance and business undergraduates, professionals and business writers
QFINANCE.com, an online financial resource and knowledge bank launched today by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority, in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing is a unique and definitive guide and reference to best practice in the world of finance. Focused on practicality and thought leadership, rather than theory, it offers financial professionals, senior executives and students of finance both in Qatar and internationally, a one-stop best practice and thought leadership knowledge bank.
QFINANCE.com is a particularly valuable learning resource for the growing number of Qatari finance and business professionals. It complements the great strides Qatar has made in the field of business education.
The free access website at www.qfinance.com offers users the opportunity to view contributions from 300 of the world's leading financial practitioners, visionaries, writers and educators on the crucial issues and challenges facing finance managers, entrepreneurs and business executives today. QFINANCE is also available as a reference book, which will be updated annually, and sold through leading bookstores world-wide.
QFINANCE is aimed at all finance professionals from the most senior investment banker or CEO and CFO of a global conglomerate to the most junior accountant or student. It is intended not only for the finance industry but also business schools, universities, research institutions and business writers.
Stuart Pearce, CEO and Director General at the QFC Authority, said: “The QFC Authority agreed to partner with Bloomsbury Publishing in creating QFINANCE because of Bloomsbury’s exemplary record in publishing major reference titles, and because QFINANCE demonstrates the core development principles that Qatar embraces as a nation. It is progressive in that gives the world a finance platform of knowledge that until now does not exist in one place anywhere else. It is reliable in that those who have contributed to QFINANCE are all recognised as experts in their respective fields. And it is educational, to ensure that this and future generations have the best sources of learning at their disposal. The adoption of best practice is a central pillar of the QFC’s role in Qatar, and this project also demonstrates our commitment to best practice on a global scale”.
Commenting on the website, Sir Howard Davies, Director, LSE and contributor to QFINANCE said, “The events of the last two years have shown very clearly that financial systems are not infallible and when they do fail, they can do so on a global scale. Students of business and finance must understand the context of the financial crisis, the questions being asked surrounding the thinking and practices of finance professionals, and the lessons that must be learned from bad, and more importantly, from best practice. New ideas need to be shared globally and students form a vital part of this discourse. QFINANCE aims to provide a global forum in which best practice can flourish and new ideas and approaches to finance can emerge.”
Scott Moeller, Director, M&A Research Centre at the Cass Business School and contributor to QFINANCE added, “At business schools we are educating the business leaders of tomorrow, and at Cass Business School in London especially in the financial services industry, but learning doesn’t stop here, it has to continue throughout life. QFINANCE should act as a resource to facilitate that lifetime learning in finance, acting both as a comprehensive reference tool to individuals at all stages in their career and as a thought-leadership platform. It should also be a very useful tool for executives striving for excellence in their professions and looking for a deeper and fresh understanding of the financial environment they are operating in and the potential risks they face.”
QFINANCE provides:
- A database of over 2 million words, covering a huge range of finance-related topics, with over 280 best-practice, thought-leadership and viewpoint essays that distil and summarise the most important aspects of finance.
- Over 300 supplementary "how to" guides covering the everyday challenges facing the finance professional
· A directory of 60 topics containing essential resources globally, from behavioural finance to budgeting - 103 countries and 26 sectors profiled, providing essential primary research resource for direct or indirect investment
- A dictionary of 9,000 terms with quick, clear definitions
- Biographies of 60 of the leading theorists and practitioners who helped create modern finance
- A library of 130 digests of the most influential reads in finance
- Over 2,000 business-relevant quotations.
To ensure the QFINANCE free access website will continue to be a vital and relevant resource, the content will be updated daily. This will include new best practice/checklist material, newsletters, blogs and key finance-related concepts.
Commenting on the QFC partnership, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive Officer, Bloomsbury, said, “QFINANCE is Bloomsbury’s first project with the Qatar Finance Centre Authority. We are delighted to have worked with them to create this online and print knowledge resource based on best practice for finance professionals around the globe. In the Middle East the book will be published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, Bloomsbury’s new venture with the Education Institution, the Qatar Foundation.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
About QFINANCE
QFINANCE is the brand name of Qatar Finance - The Ultimate Resource. It is a dynamic and comprehensive financial knowledge base and reference source containing contributions from some 300 of the world's leading financial practitioners, visionaries, writers and educators. Created by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority, QFINANCE online will provide finance professionals, academics, students, journalists and writers worldwide with free access to the huge breadth and depth of its content, together with compelling additional daily content updates and functionality. QFINANCE will also be available as a reference book, which will be updated annually, and sold through leading bookshops internationally.
The partnership to create QFINANCE was announced by the QFC Authority and Bloomsbury Publishing in September 2007. The project has been overseen by a Strategic Advisory Panel of leading practitioners and thinkers in the world of finance including, Jim O’Neill, head of Global Economic Research for Goldman Sachs, Sir John Stuttard, vice-chairman, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Robert Gray, chairman, Debt Finance & Advisory at HSBC Bank.
To mark the launch of QFINANCE the Financial Times and CNBC are partnering with the QFC Authority in conferences in Doha on 30 September and 1 October, looking at the Future of Finance and focusing on some of the key topics covered in QFINANCE.
www.qfinance.com and http://www.qfc.com.qa/output/QFINANCE-Film.aspx
About the QFC Authority
The QFC Authority is the commercial, administrative and legislative body of the QFC which is responsible for driving its commercial strategy, developing its commercial laws and forging relationships with the global corporate community and other key institutions both within and outside of Qatar. The QFC is a financial and business centre established by the Government of Qatar and located in Doha. It has been designed to attract international financial services institutions and major multi-national corporations and to encourage participation in the growing market for financial services in Qatar and elsewhere in the region. The QFC operates to international standards and provides a first class legal and business infrastructure for those operating within the QFC. The QFC was created by Qatar Law No.(7) and has been open for business since 1 May 2005.
About Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing is one of the world’s leading independent, publicly quoted publishing houses with a reputation for a high quality management team and a highly valuable portfolio of intellectual properties including the Encarta World English Dictionary, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Margaret Atwood, John Irving, David Guterson and Ben Schott. Other databases include Who’s Who, Whitaker’s Almanack, Reed’s Nautical Almanac, Black’s Medical Dictionary, the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners of English, Business: The Ultimate Resource and the RSPB Guide to Birds. (www.bloomsbury.com and www.bloomsbury-ir.co.uk)
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