Qatar-India trade volume at QR31bn last year

The Peninsula | November 10, 2017- Qatar-India bilateral trade volume touched nearly $8.5bn (about QR31bn) in 2016. The South Asian economic giant is the third largest export destination for Qatar, only behind Japan and South Korea.

While imports from India to Qatar stood at 10th position, said Ali Abdullatif Al Misnad, Board Member of Qatar Chamber yesterday at a meeting with the members of a trade delegation from India.

The meeting with Indian delegates explored means of strengthening co-operation between India and Qatar in sectors of food processing, agriculture, dairy technologies and spices.

Al Misnad urged the Indian firms to explore the investment opportunities in the Qatari market and build real partnerships with their Qatari counterparts to reap the benefits for both countries, stressing that Qatar
Chamber is doing its best to attract foreign investment and support the Qatari economy.

Indian Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran expressed his gratitude to the chambers for hosting this meeting. Indians are the largest community in Qatar and there are a lot of Indian companies operating in the Qatari
market in joint ventures with Qatari counterparts, he noted.

Kumaran hailed the newly amended provisions in the Law on Investment Free Zones expecting it would help open new opportunities for Indian investors. He said that India has a very strong agriculture sector which
represents 17 percent of the GDP and 10 percent of its exports, assuring that Indian businessmen are interested to cement cooperation ties with Qatari side in this sector. Huge opportunities in food processing are
galore for both countries businessmen, he said.

Al Misnad, who is also the Honorary Treasurer at QC, headed the Qatari side.

He said Qatar and India have a long history of friendly relations characterided by commercial ties and cooperation at all aspects.

He hoped for the Indian side to be able to reach positive outcomes as a result to the talks with their Qatari counterpart, highlighting the strong economic relations between both sides.

Qatari-Indian relations are steadily growing and covering all fields thanks to the closeness between both countries’ leadership and peoples, he noted.

Terming both countries as strategic trade partners, Al Misnad pointed out that there is a growing cooperation in the hydrocarbons and other sectors.

According to him, the unjust siege imposed on Qatar by three Gulf countries opened the room for widening trade ties with all its trade partners, foremost of which is India, as a very important source for food products
to Qatar.

There is a large Indian community in Qatar contributing in the comprehensive development and boom it witnesses at all economic and trade sectors, he said. Regarding the private sector,

Al Misnad said there are big number of Indian companies in joint ventures with Qatari companies and about 26 Indian fully-owned companies.

Source: http://www.iccia.com/?q=mediacenter/news/21831/details/