Doha: The Indonesian embassy is set to organise a trade and tourism seminar in September to boost economic ties with Qatar.
A delegation from Indonesia comprising different ministers from trade, industry and tourism sectors will visit Qatar on September 30 for the seminar, the Indonesian Ambassador, Deddy Saiful Hadi (pictured), said yesterday.
“The Indonesian delegation will look into several investment opportunities in Qatar during their visit,” Hadi said at a press briefing yesterday.
He said an estimated 38,000 Indonesians reside in Qatar, of which some 20,000 are domestic workers. About 6,500 are professionals who live here with their families, and some 1,500 to 2,000 are semi-skilled professionals or labourers.
The envoy said that the Indonesians started coming to Qatar in 1995, when the first plants of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) were built here. Several Qataris were trained in the LNG field in Indonesia at the time and some 50 Indonesians initially helped Qatar to start-up an LNG plant in Ras Laffan.
“Since then, thousands of Indonesian oil and gas professional workers were recruited to work in a number of sectors in Qatar.”
He said that Qatar has also made prominent investments in Indonesia, mainly in the banking and telecommunication sector.
With Indosat, Ooredoo is providing services to some 240 million people in Indonesia. Since QNB’s acquisition of Bank Kesawan in 2012, the total number of branches of the bank has gone from 20 to over 50 branches now located throughout the country.
“The ambition of the bank now is to become the biggest private bank in Indonesia.”
The envoy also briefed about the Second Congress of Indonesian Diaspora, which will be held from August 18 to 20 in Jakarta. Some 100 Indonesian participants from Qatar will participate in the congress.
The Indonesian ambassador will be a key-note speaker at the Energy Task Force segment at the conference and he will discuss investment opportunities in Qatar. He will also highlight the progress and success Qatar has made in managing its natural resources, particularly in the oil and gas sector to become a country with the highest per capita income in the world.
According to figures from Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an estimated eight million Indonesian nationals live abroad.
The Peninsula
