German Ambassador to Qatar Hans-Udo Musel
Bilateral trade and investment between Qatar and Germany are to witness a major boost in the coming years as both sides are working very closely and aggressively to expand and deepen the level of cooperation in new areas, said a top German diplomat in Qatar.
German Ambassador to Qatar Hans-Udo Musel said that Qatar’s investment in Germany has crossed €35bn (QR141bn), which may go up to €45bn if the private Qatari investment (including portfolio investments) is added. However, the envoy noted that given nature the portfolio investments, the figures may not be consistent.
“The Qatari investment in Germany is growing not because we are desperately trying to get the Qatari money, it’s because Germany has been one of the most favourite investment destinations in the world offering a lot of promising opportunities and incentives. We have a successful, sustainable and modern industry with state-of-the-art facilities and billions of euros of investments in research and development, innovation and developing new products and services,” Ambassador Musel told The Peninsula on the sidelines of an event, yesterday.
The trade exchange has also witnessed significant growth in 2019. The volume of bilateral trade in 2018 stood at €2.1bn, which witnessed nearly 20 per cent growth (year-on-year) during the first quarter of this year with the trade volume reaching at €400m in Q1, 2019, according to Daniel Schemske, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Germany in Doha.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and the third-largest exporter of goods in the world, is famous for its millions of vibrant small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Germans call it the “Mittelstand”- the unique structure of Germany’s strong SMEs sector of that have become a synonym for technological strength, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit across the world, and Qatar has been trying to replicate the model here to achieve economic diversification.
