DOHA: The high-profile ongoing Qatar-US Economic Forum will kick off its Washington DC edition today. The event will coincide with the visit of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the US.
The event is organised by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce in cooperation with the Qatar Chamber, American Chamber of Commerce, Qatar Businessmen Association, the US-Qatar Business Council and a number of official bodies in the US.
The forum is part of the ongoing US Economic Roundtable, which will cover several US cities.
The Forum aims to promote and expand trade and economic relations between the State of Qatar and the US, which would offer an important opportunity for networking between various stakeholders to promote private sector cooperation and to establish joint investment projects that benefit both countries.
More than 200 businessmen and Qatari officials will attend the Washington DC Forum, along with about 200 businessmen and executives from major US companies. On the sidelines of the Forum, a number of meetings will be held between representatives of the business sector from both sides with the aim of strengthening the existing economic partnership between the two countries. In addition, dedicated sessions will be held in the financial and banking sector.
To mark the Emir’s US visit, the first similar Forum was held in Miami. The Miami Qatar-US Economic Forum was chaired by H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, Minister of Economy and Commerce.
A number of workshops and discussions were held between the private sector of the two countries. The event was also marked by the launch of an exhibition which witnessed the active participation of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Qatar Airways, the Doha Film Foundation and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
The event was also marked by the presence of US companies that are associated with investment projects with Qatar such as Occidental Petroleum, Boeing, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
The Qatar-US economic promotion tour will cover a number of cities, other than Miami and Washington DC, that includes Florida, Washington, Charleston, South Carolina and Raleigh and North Carolina. The programme includes economic forums, bilateral meetings between Qatari businessmen and their American counterparts, and sectoral round tables in real estate investment, hospitality, tourism, hotel, technology, health, medicine, banking, law, public-private partnership and infrastructure projects.
