Meeting with a trade delegation from Australia

 The meeting was attended from the Qatari side by HE Mr. / Hussein Al Fardan, First Deputy Chairman Qatari Businessmen Association, HE Sheikh / Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani, Board member, Mr. / Nasser Sulaiman Haider, QBA member, and Ms. / Sarah Abdullah, Deputy  General Manager of the Association.

From the Australian side, the delegation included HE Mr. / Bob Carr, Australian Foreign Minister, in addition to His Excellency the Australian Ambassador in Qatar Mr. / Paulo Kang, Mr. / Graeme Wedderburn, Advisor to the Minister, Ms. / Lynette Wood, the official representative of the Middle East Branch at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Mr. / Said Metwalli , Consellor Commercial and Trade Commissioner of Australian Trade Commission in the UAE.

Mr. Hussein Al Fardan welcomed HE / Bob Carr and his delegation, which aims to discuss ways to trade and investment cooperation between Qatari businessmen and their counterparts in the Australian side, expressing its importance in strengthening bilateral relations and open bridges of communication between the two countries.

 For his part, HE Mr. / Bob Carr was pleased to meet the Qatari businessmen, where he confirmed that his country is open to all Arab countries especially the State of Qatar. H.E. also stressed that his country's economy has witnessed great developments in recent years, especially in the service sector, education and health care. He reported that his country is abundant in natural and mineral resources  such as gold, lead, iron, coal and their agricultural production such as wheat, sugar cane, corn, cotton, rice, as well as heavy industries that include the automotive industry, shipbuilding and others. Mr. / Carr also reviewed the investment incentives, where it enjoys the country's geographical location and its proximity to the Asian regions that contain cheap labor, in addition it also enjoys security and political stability that help attract foreign investors.

 Mr. / Hussein Al Fardan expressed the interest of Qatari businessmen to take advantage of the investment opportunities available in Australia and the establishment of projects in various sectors of cooperation and support Qatari businessmen with their counterparts from the Australians. Mr. Hussein also invited the Australians to form a business delegation to visit Qatar and search for prospect opportunities and benefit from the experiences of the two countries. At the conclusion of this meeting, HE Mr. / Bob Carr thanked the members of the Association for the warm welcome.

 It is worth noting that Australia's economy depends on the service sector dramatically as it constitutes 68% of the total national income, while the agriculture sector and mining are 10% of the combined gross national income. The economy grew at an average pace in the fourth quarter of last year as GDP rose by 0.6 percent and by 3.1 percent on an annual basis, bringing a total of 372 billion Australian usd which is equivalent to U.S. $ 381 billion. Australia is considered a touristic destination with famous tourist cities including Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales, which is one of the oldest Australian cities and the largest cultural and economic center of Australia.