The Qatar Businessmen Association (QBA) and Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Association (DEiK) held virtual meeting of “Qatar Turkey Business Council” yesterday. From the Qatari side, the meeting was headed by Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman, Qatar Businessmen Association (QBA).
From the Turkish side, the meeting was chaired by Başar Arıoğlu, Chairman of Qatar Turkey Business Council and the Board member of Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Association DEiK; and Nael Olpak, DEiK Chairman, in the presence of Burak Guresci, Commercial Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy in Qatar.
The meeting came as part of QBA’s efforts to communicate with the different economic institutions around the world in order to discuss opportunities for economic cooperation during the current global crisis and to consolidate ties and know more about the global experiences and ways to benefit from it.
The meeting also tackled several proposed solutions to support private sector companies in light of the current crisis conditions From QBA, the meeting was also attended by Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, QBA Second Deputy; QBA Board members, Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser, and Saud al Mana. QBA Members, Khaled al Mannai, Salah Al Jaidah, Abdullah Al Kubaisi, Maqbool Khalfan, Ihsan al Khiyami, as well as Sarah Abdallah, QBA Deputy GM, also attended the meeting. Sheikh Faisal greeted everyone on the occasion of the Holy Month of Ramadan.
He also stressed on the importance of the cooperation of various economic institutions, private sector companies and businessmen in light of this global crisis to overcome its consequences and support the efforts of governments to restore recovery for the local and global economy. Reassuring a speedy recovery of the Qatari and Turkish economies after the ongoing crisis, Sheikh Faisal noted that both the economies are built on solid foundations.
He thanked DEiK Association for calling this meeting. Başar Arıoğlu introduced the Turkish side and the participating members and the sectors they represent. İhsan Şahin and Nüket Küçükel Ezberci from the health sector, Ammar Ismail and Süheyla Çebi Karahan, Cahit Oklap, Serdar Bacaksız and Aziz Çengel, from the contracting and construction sector, Feyhan Yaşar from the Food and Logistics Sector attended the meeting.
Bashar also presented an overview of the most important measures taken by Turkey to reduce the spread of the virus and control the number of infected people.
He also presented some measures that were taken to confront economic challenges, including allocating the equivalent of $15bn as an economic package, pumping liquidity into the Turkish market, reducing the repayment period of loans for Factories affected by the Coronavirus and interest payments to banks to 3 months, Providing support to exporters who suffer from a temporary decline in exports, providing job opportunities, and a ban on layoffs with state support for affected employees, raising the minimum pension in addition to cash assistance to deprived families.
Bashar also talked about the permanent coordination that takes place between hospitals in the public and the private sectors with regard to dealing with people infected with Coronavirus. Nael Olpak, DEiK Chairman emphasized the importance of the continuation of business He said DEiK has been holding its regular meetings normally through the means of visual communication.
He also indicated the need to pay attention to the development of technological means and the communications and information technology sector in general, which would assist in such times. Sheikh Dr. Khalid, QBA Second Deputy, has proposed holding a series of specialized sectoral meetings between companies and private sector institutions in both countries, to discuss cooperation opportunities in detail and benefit from the experience of companies in conducting their business remotely.
These sectoral meetings shall include banking sector, Food industries, pharmaceutical industries, construction and contracting, and others, he said. Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani, QBA Board member,reviewed the package of financial and economic incentives announced by the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, which amounted to QR75bn to the private sector, as well as allocating Guarantees for local banks within the national guarantee program launched by Qatar Development Bank.
The participants also discussed the potential cooperation opportunities, where Nüket Küçükel Ezberci, Chairman of Güven Hospitals and DEiK member, spoke about the efforts made by health sector institutions in Turkey and expressed the willingness of the Turkish private sector companies to cooperate with the Qatari private sector in this sector. Süheyla Çebi Karahan, DEiK member, talked about ready-made field hospital projects, which may be one of the successful cooperation opportunities with Qatari businessmen, as they are currently using a ready-made camp in Turkey that includes 4,000 person as a quarantine to provide the required medical care.
