Madrid: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited yesterday the Madrid City Hall in the Kingdom of Spain. Mayor of Madrid H E Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida and a number of Spanish officials welcomed His Highness upon arrival.
At the outset of the meeting, the Amir expressed his pleasure with visiting the City Hall and meeting the mayor, expressing his hope of further prosperity for Madrid.
Mayor Martinez-Almeida expressed his delight that Madrid welcomed H H the Amir during his state visit, in order to present His Highness with the Golden Key of Madrid as a token of gratitude and appreciation from the Spanish people to the Qatari people. He added that Qatar has become an example to follow, and praised the friendly nature of bilateral ties between the two countries.
Afterwards, the Amir received the Golden Key of Madrid from the Mayor H E Martinez-Almeida.
The Amir was accompanied by Their Excellencies members of the official delegation.
The Mayor of Madrid described Amir's visit to Spain as an important opportunity to enhance cooperation and cultural and economic ties between the two countries.
In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), he said it was a great honour that the capital of Spain will be the city that welcomes H H the Amir.
“The state visit of His Highness the Amir is an appropriate occasion to explore new horizons of cooperation between the two countries, especially in terms of increasing Qatari investments in Spain and discussing other issues related to bilateral relations, including the search for opportunities to twin cities between Madrid and Doha, where there is work on this aspect and a common interest from the two cities on the progress of this matter.
"His Highness’s visit is also a great opportunity to introduce Madrid as an attractive and important city for investment and to discuss opportunities to enhance cooperation in the field of tourism between the two sides, especially since Madrid is one of the main destinations in Spain, especially in the field of shopping tourism.
It also possesses a large cultural hub and other tourism services interesting to tourists, especially ones from Qatar,” he said.
The mayor of Madrid praised Qatari investments in his country, saying Qatar is a major investor in Spain and is among the top 25 investors in his country, as it is the main destination for these investments, through direct ownership stakes in many large and important Spanish companies.
The mayor expressed his confidence that the Amir’s visit to Spain will contribute to improving investment channels through foreign commerce departments at the ministry of industry, as well as working to push Spanish investments in the State of Qatar, which are still very low, but there are investors in Madrid interested in investing in Qatar.
Regarding Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the mayor said that Qatar’s hosting of the event constitutes a great opportunity to further open up Qatar to the world, get to know its culture closely, and learn better about the progress that has been made. He said he expects that the World Cup in Qatar would be unique because of the dates and the amazing facilities.
The mayor said he wished Qatari and Spanish teams play to in the final of the World Cup.
