By Sarmad Qazi
HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani receiving the French Minister of Trade, Pierre Lellouche, at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. Separately HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani also met Pierre Lellouche and his accompanying delegation at the Emiri Diwan yesterday
A visiting French minister yesterday said Qatar and France are to set up a high-level committee to increase bilateral consultations on trade and economy. Briefing media after a two-day visit to Doha, the French Minister of Trade, Pierre Lellouche, said the team is expected to meet once every eight weeks.
“We are going to put a small group of representatives on each side and look across the board where we can move forward... there are clearly key areas. It will be directed under two ministers (one from each side). We agreed to form the committee and meet on a regular basis,” Lellouche said.
According to him, his visit to Qatar – and subsequent meetings with government ministers and HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani – had no particular agenda but was an effort to highlight that France can do a lot more for Qatar during its growth spurt.
“I carried a letter from my president to HH the Emir. We discussed the whole range of political issues (Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen) at this time in the region and a whole gamut of economic and trade relationship between the two countries,” the minister said.
“The good news is that France is welcome here,” he added.
The minister’s visit also coincided, he said, with the presence of a very large French business delegation in Qatar.
“We were here saying that the French economy is very much on the side of Qatar on a range of issues and the Qatari government knows that. One of the issues that was discussed was the preparation of World Cup 2022, (which) of course carries a number of new investments,” Lellouche said.
In other sectors, the minister said he discussed many things with Qatari counterparts and among other things France’s capabilities in nuclear power generation, agro-food, water management, transportation and urban infrastructure were discussed.
During the stay in Doha, minister Lellouche also visited the Qatari Diar’s Lusail City project and Qatar Foundation.
“I know that the Qatari government is making a long list of programmes. We are going to try working very professionally in helping Qatar. But the Qataris are doing well. The country is run very well.”
“We believe we can do much more than the current level of investment,” he added. Currently, he said, France and Qatar have about a billion euro worth of investments in each other.
The French minister also said France’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can work similarly in Qatar on the line of a model the French have successfully employed in China.
“We need to organise clusters between large groups in Qatar and the French SMEs around sectors in which small companies can come to Qatar and will be helped more effectively by the larger companies here,” he said.
A similar set-up in China has worked extremely well resulting in at least 65 French SMEs gaining sub-contractual work there.
