Senator Carr discusses business ties with Qatar

22 May 2013

The visiting Foreign Minister of Australia, Bob Carr, met with the members of the Qatari Businessmen’s Association (QBA) to discuss investment opportunities in the resource-rich Australia, the Peninsula reported. Hussein Al Fardan, First Deputy of QBA received the minister and his accompanying trade delegation at the QBA headquarters here on Monday.

The meeting was also attended by Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani, QBA Board member, Nasser Sulaiman Haider, QBA member, and Sarah Abdullah, Deputy Director General of the Association.

From the Australian side, the delegation included Australian Ambassador in Qatar Paulo Kang, Graeme Wedderburn, Advisor to the Minister, Lynette Wood, the official representative of the Middle East Branch at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Said Metwalli, Counsellor Commercial and Trade Commissioner of Australian Trade Commission in the UAE.

Both sides discussed 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.

Carr was pleased to meet the Qatari businessmen, where he confirmed that his country is open to all Arab countries especially Qatar. He also stressed that his country’s economy has witnessed great developments in recent years, especially in the service sector, education and health care. He added 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. Carr also reviewed the investment incentives, where it enjoys the country’s geographical location and its proximity to the Asian regions that contain cheap labour, in addition it also enjoys security and political stability that help attract foreign investors.

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. He 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.