DOHA: India is soliciting cash-rich Qatar’s active participation in infrastructure development projects as the South Asian nation hopes to invest an incredible $1 trillion in infrastructure over the next five years.
India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram (pictured) was here on the last leg of a three-nation official visit that earlier took him to the UK and France to solicit investment in infrastructure back home.
Greater public, private and foreign participation is required in sectors such as railways, roads, ports, schools, steelmaking and power generation in India, one of the two top emerging economies of Asia.
Chidambaram told a group of elite Qatari businessmen here that economic growth in India was more than eight percent from 2004-08 but it slowed down later.
“We hope to achieve that rate soon again,” he stressed. Officials from Indian companies with a presence here as well as several key bankers also attended the event, which the Indian embassy here, in a press statement, described as investors’ meeting.
The embassy statement said Chidambaram met his Qatari counterpart, Minister of Economy and Finance H E Yousuf Hussein Kamal and discussed bilateral cooperation in areas including banking and finance, energy, aviation, and travel and tourism.
Kamal hosted a luncheon in honour of the Indian minister and present, among others, were top officials from Hassad Food, Qatar Airways, Qatar Holding (investment arm of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority), Qatari Diar and Qatar National Bank (QNB).
Chidambaram also met the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and told him that his visit to India in April last year had provided fresh momentum to bilateral ties between the two countries, according to the embassy release.
The Emir expressed appreciation of the large, diverse, vibrant and “highly regarded” Indian community in Qatar, the statement added.
At the investors’ meeting the visiting finance minister talked of the robustness of the Indian economy, its vast potential and distinctive advantages as an investment partner and the other opportunities for opportunities for business enterprises from Qatar.
India has of late emerged as a large importer of Qatari products, including liquid gas, and for its part Qatar’s investment in India has been growing.
Major Qatari investments in India are by Hassad Food and Qatar Foundation (Bharti Airtel). As for Indian companies having a presence here, their number is estimated at 15 to 16 and they are large players.
According to sources in local trade and industry circles, Qatar is showing a keen interest in India since it is a key emerging market of Asia. It is hoped that the QIA might study the prospects of making investments in infrastructure in India to diversify its vast investment portfolio.
The Peninsula
