The President of Qatar Olympic Committee, HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani and the President of International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach during the opening day of the inaugural Arab-German Sports Summit in Berlin, on Thursday.
Berlin: The first Arab-German Sports Summit began in Berlin on Thursday, with President of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani attending along with President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach.
The former Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development Peter Ramsauer, who is also the President of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ambassador of the State of Qatar in Germany H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Chairman of Qatar Chamber H E Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani were also present at the occasion.
The two-day summit identified the most important sporting achievements of Qatar. A large number of German and Arab officials took part.
The German officials attending were keen to recognise the development of Qatari sport on all fronts, and not just in terms of World Cup 2022 that Qatar will host.
The summit is also attended by representatives of Aspire, Aspetar, the Women’s Sports Committee and the organising committee members of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha as well as the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Sheikh Joaan addressed the attendees and said that the summit provides a unique opportunity to gather the greatest minds in sports over the next two days to exchange ideas and expertise, as well as to identify the biggest potential areas for cooperation. He added that Qatar and Germany share their view of sports as a pillar in building a healthy, prosperous society. He highlighted the great effort put by the QOC over the past 40 years, through programmes that enable the Qatari people and people of the world to do more sports.
The QOC President also said that Qatar also opened the Anti-Doping Lab Qatar at Aspetar hospital. It is the only one of its kind in the region.
The Qatari Olympic Academy was the first one in the MENA region to provide educational programmes for pursuing a career in sports fields. It will help train and educate sports administrators, officials, and coaches from all over the region.
The president of Qatar Olympic Committee added that hosting major sporting events and building world-class facilities help create many job opportunities for tourism, trade and investment fields, in addition to expanding the horizons and improving the skills of the Qatari people.
He also highlighted the State of Qatar’s commitment to the development of youth sports to increase their participation in sports activities through several programs and initiatives such as the Olympic school program. He stressed that the State of Qatar is striving to discover the talents of girls and to support women’s participation in sports activities and won an award from the IOC for those efforts.
Sheikh Joaan also said that QOC will continue its efforts in promoting sports, which represents a cornerstone of Qatar National Vision 2030, highlighting that the country is aiming to provide the highest standards of living for its people in the future generations. He then stressed the need for forming new partnerships with international parties to exchange expertise, as that will help in hosting big and successful sporting events.
