QNA

Doha: The HH Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and HE Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel will inaugurate the 9th Qatar Germany Business and Investment Forum on Friday, which will run for two days.

The forum, which is attended by senior government officials and decision makers, as well as businessmen and representatives of the public and private sectors and major companies of both countries, aims to enhance bilateral relations in all fields, especially economic, investment and trade fields.

The event is an appropriate platform to confirm the State of Qatar's commitment and keenness to benefit from investment opportunities which comply with its economic strategies, especially that the forum is being held at a time where Qatar's investments in Germany exceed 25 billion euros in vital projects such as cars, information technology and banks sectors, in light of the shared desire from both the Qatari and German sides to encourage and develop mutual investments.

The forum comes at a time where the relations between Qatar and Germany are seeing steady growth as Qatar has become an important partner to Germany in the Middle East and North Africa region. The trade relations between both countries have been existent for more than 60 years with diplomatic relations running for more than 40 years.

This economic and investment event embodies the strength and robustness of the Qatari-German relations as it is based on mutual trust and shared vision. The event is also considered a cornerstone of Germany's cooperation with the Arab world.

The cooperation relations between Qatar and Germany includes various partnership agreements in different fields such as sciences, education, technical training, research, development and new and renewable technologies and others. The trade relations between Doha and Berlin have significantly developed in light of both parties' keenness to expand the fields of mutual cooperation, which is reflected in the increase in the number of German companies operating in the Qatari market, which has reached 300 companies.

The increase in the trade exchange volume between Qatar and Germany has contributed to making Germany one of the most important trade partners to Qatar. The unique Qatari investments in Germany also promoted interest in expanding the mutual cooperation between the two sides to the economic and financial aspects for the long term.

Germany is also the main partner in achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030, especially with regards to achieving economy based on technology and knowledge, where the German software company , SAP, held a partnership with Qatar Science and Technology Park to provide required mechanisms to develop programs and applications to transfer knowledge and technology. This contributes to training and prepares Qatari youth in modern technical and digital fields.