UK's Minister of State for Investment Sir Gerald Grimstone, with QBA's Chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani and other dignitaries during the event.
Doha: The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) organised a business lunch in honour of the visit of the UK Minister for Investment at Department for International Trade H E Lord Gerry Grimstone, with the attendance of Simon Penny, the Commercial Commissioner for the Middle East. Both were received and welcomed by QBA Chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani.
The meeting was aimed at discussing the current investment opportunities in the United Kingdom and what the UK aims to achieve with Qatar as a strategic economic partner.
QBA First Deputy Hussein Al Fardan also attended the meeting, along with other QBA Board Members including Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal Al Thani, Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani and Sherida Al Kaabi. Other QBA Members including Nasser Sulieman Al Haider, Khaled Al Mannai, Nabil Abu Issa, Ashraf Abu Issa, Maqbool Khalfan, Mohamed Althaf, Mohamed Al Rabban and Dafer Halawa as well as Sarah Abdullah, QBA Deputy GM were also present at the event.
At the beginning of the meeting, Sheikh Faisal welcomed the Minister, and highlighted the historical bilateral relations between Qatar and the United Kingdom, stressing out the need to support Qatari businessmen in search for the right potential investment projects in the UK, that would achieve real benefit for both parties, pointing out the importance of the British market for the Qatari Businessmen. Sheikh Faisal also spoke about the need to discuss new ideas to develop partnership and cooperation, noting that the Qatari private sector is an important and strategic partner in developing the national economy and can offer a lot to all of its partners, especially the United Kingdom.
The UK Minister went on to thank the QBA for organising the meeting and for its continuous support in developing relations between the British business community and the Qatari business community, pointing out that his visit was aimed at following up on the potential investment cooperation between the two countries, that were discussed during his previous visit, stressing out that the United Kingdom had made many changes that would encourage foreign investors to search for possible investment opportunities, especially after Brexit and the development of independent trade policies through which it was able to provide many opportunities to enhance cooperation with UK partners.
He also indicated during a note he delivered during the meeting: “The dramatic changes taking place in the Kingdom would help in sharing experiences and innovations with a strategic partner such as Qatar, with relations that extend to a long history full of investment and economic successes".
During the meeting, the Qatari side also spoke about the favourable investment climate in Qatar and how the government supports foreign investors, as well as Qatar’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup and how British companies are providing support to Qatari companies in these preparations.
