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Asif Iqbal
Doha
At least 25 Turkish firms are setting up factories in various sectors to help the country achieve its goal of attaining self sufficiency, ambassador of Turkey to Qatar has said.
"At present 25 Turkish companies are in various stages of process in Qatar and more are expected in the future," HE Fikret Ozer told reporters on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday.
According to the envoy, most of these companies are joint ventures, but once the draft law allowing 100 percent ownership is passed by Qatar, a lot of Turkish companies will set up production facilities in Doha.
The envoy said the upcoming factories are a result of Qatar's ambition to be self-reliant, and also its desire to produce goods locally to meet the demands. He said the factories will mainly focus on manufacturing edible oils, construction materials, food processing, poultry products and animal feedstock.
According to Qatar Chamber report, around 205 Turkish companies are operating in Qatari, of which 186 are joint ventures and 19 wholly owned Turkish firms.
The projects undertaken by Turkish contracting companies in Qatar are worth over $12 billion, with most of them related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
"There are many companies from Turkey which want to set up units in Qatar. The strategic location of Doha can be used to produce goods in the country and re-export to other countries," Ozer said.
The Turkish envoy said there are plenty of business opportunities between the two countries.
"Ever since the blockade was imposed on Qatar, trade volume between the two countries are increasing steadily and will grow more in the coming period.
"Trade between the two countries jumped 56 percent in just a year after the blockade to $1.3 billion. With more products coming into each other's country, the trade is set to increase manifold," Ozer noted.
Recently, Ahmet Gulec, a board member of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) had told Qatar Tribune that the current bilateral trade between Qatar and Turkey can exceed $5 billion very soon.
Ozer further said,"Initially construction material firms from Turkey was not able to tap enough real estate clients in Qatar. But now Turkish construction materials are being largely used after we signed agreements will several realty firms."
Regarding the $5 billion petrochemicals project in Turkey, Ozer said it is 50-50 joint venture between Istanbul and Doha, and will be the largest common project between the two countries.
The petrochemicals project will be built in the Thrace Basin of Turkey with an annual capacity of producing 2.6 million tonnes of methanol and one million tonnes of light olefins for conversion to 400,000 tonnes of polyethylene and 600,000 tonnes of polypropylene.
