Business Luncheon with US Delegation
H.E Dr. Sheikh Khalid Bin Thani Al-Thani, second deputy chairman of the Qatari Businessmen Association hosted a luncheon at his Majlis on Thursday 13 March 2014, in the honor of the visit of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce H.E Mrs. Penny Pritzker, and her accompanying official and business delegation, in the presence of H.E Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al-Thani, Chairman of the Qatari Businessmen Association and H.E Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber the Qatari Minister of Information and Communications Technology.
The lunch was attended by H.E Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Bin Thani Al-Thani, QBA members, .E Sheikh Abudllah Bin Thani Al-Thani, Mr. Sherida Saad Al-Kaabi, QBA Board member, Mr. Saoud Al-Mana, Vice Chairman and CEO of Al-Mana Group, Mr. Nabil Abu Issa, QBA member, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Jaidah, QBA member, Mr. Ahsraf Abu Issa, Chariman of Blue Saloon, Mr. Maqbool Habeeb Khalfan, QBA member and Mrs. Sarah Abadllah QBA Deputy General Manager.
H.E the secretary began by thanking Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani, Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al-Thani and QBA members for the warm welcome, and explained that the aim of this visit to Qatar is to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation and developing the trade relations between the two countries, Her Excellency also noted that the giant development plan adopted by the state of Qatar will create huge investment opportunities, saying that the American companies would like to take part in those projects, she also added that there was a great interest from the American companies to join this mission, and all companies present with us today have a world-class expertise in many sectors of the economy, and would like to develop partnership with their Qatari counterparts to develop the economic and bilateral relations between Qatar and the US.
Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani welcomed Her Excellency and her accompanying delegation, and noted that the Qatari-American relations are strong, and have witnessed a great improvement in recent years on many levels, and as an Association we are ready to support the American companies and businessmen and provide them with any required information or contacts to enter the Qatari market and benefit from the investment opportunities.
On his behalf, Dr. Sheikh Khalid Bin Thani Al-Thani noted that this visit is considered as an important step towards further strengthening, and supporting the endeavors of both business communities in achieving bilateral trade, and business cooperation, and added that the state of Qatar is currently moving strongly under the wise leadership of H.H Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani the Emir of Qatar, to diversify its economy, and create more opportunities and projects, were it allocated more than 40% of its budget for 2013-2014 on development projects, which will create major opportunities and projects for investment in various sectors, and we invite the American companies to take part in those projects as we believe their expertise, and know-how can create an added value in these projects.
It is worth mentioning that this visit is considered the secretarys first trip outside of North America, the delegation consisted of 21 US companies operating in different sectors such as: Infrastructure, construction, architecture and design, renewable energy (solar, wind, waste-to-energy), smart grid and energy efficiency, and environmental technologies (including water/wastewater; air pollution control; and waste management).
Moreover, The United State is considered Qatars largest foreign investor, were the US exports to Qatar totaled $4.95bn as of August 2013, and since the launch of the US National Export Initiative in 2010, exports to Qatar have increased by 57%, while Qatars export to the US has reached 3 Billion Qatari Riyal in 2013. Both countries have also signed a number of MOUs to promote trade cooperation between them, those agreements included: economic, commercial and technical agreement, civil aviation safety agreement, agreement on educational, cultural and media cooperation, and a memorandum of understanding in the fields of renewable and alternative energy and technical cooperation.