Satyendra Pathak Doha
India and Qatar are taking several initiatives to further strengthen trade volume that crossed $15 billion between the two countries last year, the Ambassador of India to Qatar HE Dr Deepak Mittal has said.Talking to Qatar Tribune during an event in Doha recently, the Indian envoy said, "It’s a joint commitment between our businesses in India and Qatar to promote and enhance the pace of growth in our bilateral trade. As we all know that India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world in 2022. After the pandemic, we have recovered. This gives us more opportunities to enhance trade ties.” "Our effort is to link up private business on both sides, setting up of business council between India and Qatar. The second is to look at organising more such events, and exhibitions where the businesses can come and showcase their products. We are also aiming to be able to hold special festivals between India and Qatar to promote trade between the two countries,” he said.During the visit of India’s vice president to Qatar earlier this year, the envoy said, India-Qatar Business Forum was held and it witnessed wonderful participation of businesses from both sides. "More than 40 top Indian entities took part in the forum. We are looking to have many more such events,” the envoy said. "Many Indian companies are looking to participate and contribute to Qatar’s economic growth. We have seen many Indian companies joining and operating from Qatar Financial Center and Qatar Free Zone recently,” he said.As Qatar is marching ahead with its vision of economic diversification, the envoy said, Indian firms are gearing up to look for new opportunities in Qatar. "We are also looking forward to bringing SMEs from both India and Qatar to come together and further boosting trade ties between the two countries. This is something that provides strength to our manufacturing abilities. There are lots of scopes to further boost trade between the two countries and we are working on it,” he said.About India’s support to Qatar in organising the the2022 FIFA World Cup successfully, the envoy said that every Indian in Qatar is supporting their second country in organizing a very successful World Cup. "This is evident from the fact that over 50,000 Indians living in Qatar have registered as volunteers for the mega event. Thousands of Indians are expected to visit Qatar during the event and see for themselves what all Qatar has to offer for tourists. I am sure it will give a further boost to Qatar’s tourism sector,” he said. Hailing the Lulu Group for its role in enhancing trade ties between India and Qatar, the envoy said, "The Lulu Group is playing a very important role in promoting Indian brands in the GCC region. It has been playing a very important role in terms of contributing to the food security here in Qatar and the GCC region.”During the challenging times in the past few years, the envoy said, the Lulu Group has stepped up and contributed immensely to food security in the GCC region."The Lulu Group has especially played a big role in promoting products from New India in the GCC region. One can find products from the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the north to the extreme south of India. The range of products at Lulu truly depicts the diversity of India,” the Indian envoy said. In a message released on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence Day recently, the Indian ambassador said, "Last year, bilateral trade crossed $15 billion, recording 63 percent increase year-on-year. India is the fourth largest export destination for Qatar and third largest with respect to its imports.”"Qatar’s investments in India have increased fivefold over the past two years. In February 2022, QIA committed $ 1.5 billion to financially support Bodhi tree, an investment platform jointly formed by Lupa Systems and Star India. India’s edtech major Byju’s signed an MoU with QIA to open an R&D centre in Doha. It is also amazing that Byju’s is one of the sponsors of the FIFA World Cup,” he said.Qatar Financial Centre had signed an MoU with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate the set up of Indian firms in Qatar through collaborative initiatives. Along similar lines, he said, an MoU was signed between International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) and the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) in January 2022. The launch of the ‘India-Qatar Start Up bridge’ aims to link the innovation ecosystems of the two countries, he said."These high-level exchanges have naturally deepened the multifaceted bilateral ties in trade, investment, energy, defence, education, culture, health, and technology and opened new windows of opportunities. Bilateral trade and investment partnerships will continue to grow,” the ambassador said in the message.