H E Ranil Jayawardena, Minister of State for International Trade of the United Kingdom and QBA Board Member Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani with the UK delegation and other QBA members, during the meeting.
Doha: The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) participated in a meeting and business lunch in honor of H E Ranil Jayawardena, Minister of State for International Trade of the United Kingdom and his accompanying delegation, in the presence of H E John Wilkes, the British Ambassador to Doha.
From QBA, the meeting was attended by Board Member Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani and QBA members Sheikh Faisal bin Fahd Al Thani, Khalid Al Mannai, Omar Al Fardan, Nabil Abu Issa, Maqbool Habib Khalfan, Abdullah Al Kubaisi, Ihsan Al Khaimi and Muhammad Althaf, as well as Sheikh Mansour bin Jassim Al Thani and Sarah Abdullah, QBA Deputy GM.
At the beginning of the meeting, Sheikh Nawaf welcomed the guests, praising the bilateral relations between Qatar and the United Kingdom, which extend to ancient historical roots. He also spoke about the economic relations and the importance of its continuous development.
Minister Jayawardena said: “The UK and Qatar have long-standing trade relations and the increased cooperation between the UK and Qatari companies has opened great opportunities for our two countries as UK exports to Qatar have increased by 40 percent last year. During my meetings with Qatari officials, we made it clear that we are committed to providing more prosperity to our two countries through global free trade and working closely with key organisations such as the Qatari Businessmen Association”.
QBA Members also discussed the situation of United Kingdom, especially after Brexit, where Jayawardena expressed his optimism for a better future for Britain after this step, saying: “We, in the United Kingdom are rushing time to consolidate our relations with important countries such as Qatar and all Gulf and African countries and other economic partners to enhance country’s economic and commercial prospects while I want to bring a clear message to our partners in Qatar, that the UK is looking forward to working with businessmen to attract more investment, and we now have a great opportunity to strengthen our position in an increasingly interconnected world”.
For his part, Ambassador Wilkes added that the United Kingdom seeks to strengthen economic relations between the two countries, especially after cancelling the visa for Qatari investors, and that work is currently underway to launch a digital database, which aims to provide all economic and commercial information that would help investors in various sectors.
It is worth noting that the United Kingdom is a major trading partner for the State of Qatar. In 2019, trade exchange between the two countries amounted to QR14bn, and as a result of the pandemic, it declined to QR11bn in 2020, rising by 40 percent in 2021 and amounting to QR16.6bn riyals. The figures of the Planning and Statistics Authority indicate that the year 2022 will be exceptional in the trade relations between both countries, as the volume of trade exchange during the first five months of the year amounted to about QR9bn, in which Qatar won a big share through the export of QR7.4bn riyals.
In addition to the presence of major British companies in Qatar such as Shell, which has been one of the major investors in the region for several years, as well as many British companies active in infrastructure projects in Qatar, especially architecture, design, project management and engineering consultancy firms.
