Sir Gerald Grimston, Jon Wilks and Simon Penny with officials of Qatari Businessmen Association.
Doha: The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) held a meeting with Sir Gerald Grimston, Minister of State for Investment Affairs in the United Kingdom; Simon Penny, the Commercial Commissioner for the Middle East, in the presence of UK Ambassador to Qatar H E Jon Wilks.
The meeting aimed to discuss ways to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, especially in the fields of trade and export, and to highlight the most important investment opportunities.
From the Qatari Businessmen Association, Hussein Al Fardan, First Deputy Chairman attended the meeting, from QBA Board, Sherida Al Kaabi, Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal Al Thani, Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani and Saud Al Mana attended. From QBA Members, Omar Al Fardan, Khaled Al Mannai, Nabil Abu Issa, as well as Sarah Abdullah, QBA Deputy GM attended.
At the beginning of the meeting, Jon Wilks, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Qatar, welcomed QBA members.
And expressed happiness with this meeting, which took place under exceptional circumstances imposed by the crisis of the spread of the coronavirus.
He added that the United Kingdom is constantly looking forward to cooperation with businessmen to attract more investments, especially after Brexit, where there are great opportunities to enhance cooperation with UK partners such as Qatar.
He also spoke about the commercial and economic relations between the two countries, which are among the most important pillars of the development of bilateral relations. As the volume of trade and economic cooperation between Qatar and the United Kingdom topped the list of British export and import sectors during the year 2020, and the volume of trade exchange between Qatar and the United Kingdom increased by 21 percent from 2019, achieving £6.7bn, and the volume of trade exchange between the two countries during the first nine months of 2020, amounted about QR9.1bn.
The Ambassador concluded his speech by the need to work on developing these relations to rise to the required level.
On his part, Sir Gerald Grimston, UK Minister of State for Investment welcomed everyone. Pointing out the depth of the existing economic relations between Qatar and UK, which are based on a long common history.
He added that this relationship continues to grow from strength to strength, and its bilateral partnership extends to many fields, especially in trade, investment, culture, education, energy and others. He also pointed out that since March 2017, when Qatar announced a commitment to invest £5bn in the Qatar-UK Business and Investment Forum, Qatar has already pledged to undertake specific investment projects, while work continues in additional investments in the United Kingdom.
Noting that this is happening at an exciting time for both countries as the United Kingdom is setting its independent trade policy for the first time in more than 40 years, and as Qatar continues to push its National Vision 2030 forward.
Hussein Al Fardan thanked the Ambassador and the Minister of State for this meeting, referring to the history of bilateral relations between Qatar and the United Kingdom, and that the Qatari-UK relations in economic terms are long-term relations and Qatari investments in the UK are among the successful investments,
He stressed his aspiration to work and cooperate further and discuss new ideas, especially since the Qatari private sector today was able to express the real potential it possesses through which it can strengthen the local economy.
During the meeting, QBA members discussed the implications of the current global crisis on the global economy and investment opportunities. The members also discussed Qatar’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup and how the British companies can support Qatari companies in these preparations.
