Qatar and India to strengthen trade ties

Qatar and India enjoy a strong strategic partnership in trade and investment, affirmed HE the Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani yesterday at the Qatari-Indian Business Forum in the Indian capital New Delhi.

“A considerable number of Indian companies are undertaking the implementation of many major projects in Qatar in infrastructure, information technology, energy, construction and water and electricity fields,” he stated. 

Further, there are a total of 26, 100% Indian owned companies working in Qatar in various fields such as contracting, information technology, gold trade, and food stuff trade. There are also 6,497 Qatari-Indian companies working practically in all fields in the country.

The Minister stressed the strength of Qatari-Indian commercial exchange as this continued to grow in 2014, amounting to $18bn. The exports of Qatar to India amounted to $1.2bn in 2014, making India the third largest destination of Qatari exports. Qatar has also supplied India with almost 58% of its demands of LNG during 2014. Qatar’s imports from India, of equipment and electrical appliances, amounted to $463mn in 2014. 

Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs of India, witnessed the signing of an agreement to establish Iyana Company for Hotel and Resort Management. The signatories were Sheikh Faisal bin Jassim al-Thani, chairman of Al-Sawari Holding and Amrutha Nair, CEO of Iyana Hotels and Resorts. Another memorandum of Understanding was signed to establish a Medanta Medicity in Qatar.

The forum included a number of prominent Indian and Qatari businessmen. The Indian side included Yusuff Ali M A, managing director of LuLu International Group; Naresh Trehan, founder chairman of Medanta the Medicity; S N Subrahmanyan, CEO of Larsen and Turbo Limited; Dr A K Balyan, managing director and CEO, Petronet LNG; and Satish Sharma, executive director of Sun Overseas Company.