Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is in Berlin and along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel he will inaugurate the 9th Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum. This is very a significant event as it proves the strong economic standing of Qatar in the world.
The whole world was looking at Qatar in recent times as its neighbours had imposed an unjust blockade and was trying to squeeze Doha financially. Proving the nay-sayers wrong, Qatar grew stronger economically and didn’t back away from any of its commitments or global investments.
In fact the bond issue by Qatar saw tremendous response from world over that it overshadowed many other bond issues by countries in the region. Even the credit rating of the country and institutions based in Qatar
saw positive change, while companies in some of the siege countries saw their rating lowered.
A strong economy and investment appetite makes it perfect timing for a meeting by some of the biggest and most respected companies and financial institutions in the world.
The two-day forum also provides a platform to promote bilateral relations between Qatar and Germany, which has seen steady growth over time.
Qatar is an important partner of Germany in the Middle East and North Africa region. The trade relations between both countries date back over 60 years and strong diplomatic relations have been in place for over 40 years.
Qatar’s investments in Germany exceed €25bn in various sectors like automobile, information technology and banking. At the same time, Qatar is an attractive market for German companies and hundreds of them have become partners in Doha’s development goals.
There are around 300 German companies currently operating in Qatar in various sectors like railways, trade, services and infrastructure. The trade volume between Doha and Berlin is around $3bn, making Germany one of Qatar’s most important trade partners.
The cooperation between Qatar and Germany also includes various partnership agreements in different fields such as science, education, technical training, research, development and new and renewable technologies and others.
The forum will see new economic partnership between the two countries in various fields, particularly infrastructure, industrial development, investment, tourism, health, sports and projects related to the 2022 FIFA World
Cup in Qatar.
Qatar and Germany also share a strong bond culturally as was seen when the Qatar-Germany Year of Culture was held in 2017. This forum will help cement these ties even more stronger in all spheres of life.
