Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Qatar Chamber Vice- Chairman Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Towar and other officials during the Philippine Qatar business form meeting held at the Four sesson Hotel. Photo by Kammutty VP
It gives me a great pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to HE. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of Philippines and the accompanying delegation to the State of Qatar, wishing your esteemed visit help further promote our bilateral relations at all prospects of cooperation.
Honorable attendees,
Qatar and Philippine are friendly countries. Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1981, they have exerted significant efforts to keep their bilateral relations developed; they exchanged mutual visits of high level seniors, signed number of MOUs and agreements to cement their economic and trade ties to higher levels.
Relations between Qatar and Philippines are characterized by convergence of views on many international issues, and are going in the right direction towards highest stages at all levels in common interests, which serves as the peoples of the two countries.
Their trade volume is still below expectations. It reached last year only (QR 218 million). Philippines is the 26th trade partner to Qatar. Over 200 Philippine companies are operating in Qatar in many fields. I take the opportunity to invite you to increase your businesses in Qatar and build joint ventures with Qatari businessmen.
Around 200,000 Filipinos live in Qatar and work as engineers, domestic helpers, health workers or in the travel industry. As of early 2017, Filipinos are estimated to be the fourth-largest group of foreign workers in Qatar which is the third-largest destination of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW's) in the Middle East and also the fourth-largest destination of OFW's worldwide
Dear attendees,
Qatar pays attention to Asia as a vital and important party in promoting regional and global economy, as well as an important destination for investments. There is keenness and interest from Qataris to discover new destinations of investments. Qatari businessmen are known to be more liquid and aggressive in investing overseas these days.
Qatar Chamber urges both country’s businessmen to enhance cooperation across all economic sectors. The gateway is open for Philippines companies to expand presence in Qatari market.
In conclusion, I’m confident this meeting will be a new phase of our bilateral economic and trade cooperation and I hope to see more mutual visits between both countries businessmen which will help establish base for joint enterprises.
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