The Qatar-Poland New Tech Forum marked a significant milestone in the evolution of relationship between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Poland and has been exploring trade and investment opportunities available, as well as the best avenues for promoting these opportunities by focusing on the technological field to create ironclad partnerships between the two countries.
Organised by the Qatari-Polish Business Council (QPBC), the forum has been looking forward to advancing bilateral relationship over the past four years, by focusing on exploring opportunities and lending fresh impetus to the shared cooperation areas, particularly in the fields of energy, aviation, and digital technology, as well as security and defence solutions.
Given the prosperous Qatar-Poland relationship, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is due to pay an official visit to the Republic of Poland during the upcoming week to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and strengthening them in wide-ranging cooperation fields, in addition to salient regional and global issues of shared concern.
The visit and talks His Highness the Amir will hold there will boost co-operation between the two countries, serve their shared interests and open new prospects for co-operation and co-ordination.
As per data of the Qatars National Planning Council (NPC), the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached roughly QR4.8bn in 2023. The total Qatar’s exports to Poland reached QR3.9bn, with Qatar's total imports from Poland reaching QR897mn and trade surplus roughly QR3bn in 2023.
According to NPCs data seen by Qatar News Agency (QNA), Qatar's exports to Poland were primarily natural gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons, totalling QR3.892bn, in addition to other diverse exports such as primary forms of ethylene polymers et Al, with Qatar's imports from Poland basically including self-contained digital processing units, memory storage units, and other types of imports.
After concluding four successful editions in 2023, the Qatar-Poland New Tech Forum bolstered bilateral ties and joint action, as organisers of the forum aspire to lend positive impetus to the technology sector through laying out new partnerships that bring together Qatari businessmen and their outstanding Polish counterparts in this sector.
Throughout the past years, the forum has continued to host a contingent of speakers and decision-makers to explore future opportunities and prospects between the two nations by leveraging the innovative technology and its role in reinvigorating trade and investment exchange. The event succeeded in signing memorandums of understanding (MoUs) between the two countries, foremost among them was the MoU between Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and DigitalPoland Foundation on reinforcing bilateral cooperation in digital sector and accelerating the pace of innovating new digital technologies as a primary step toward forging a longstanding cooperation with the Polish foundations.
As per MoU, the two parties will cooperate in conducting wide-ranging initiatives, such as holding webinars, organising networking events, arranging direct business meetings between companies, and other initiatives aimed at promoting digital activities and supporting the digital business ecosystem in both countries. And this includes introducing relevant business opportunities, sharing information in the digital field, promoting technology companies, as well as joint events through social media platforms and digital channels.
The new edition of the forum is projected to leverage more bilateral partnerships in technology and other fields where the two countries markets offer numerous opportunities. Additionally, the forum has succeeded in shining a spotlight on the technology sector, the guide to economic growth during the current period and a core pillar in bolstering multiple systems, either via digital transformation, fintech, or E-trade in commensurate with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
The forum is a new opportunity to beef up the existing bilateral co-operation frameworks, in terms of fostering investments in the two countries with promising sectors such as communications and IT. It facilitates the growth of trade and investment between the two sides.
QPBC is primarily intended to strengthen financial, trade and cultural ties between Qatar and Poland. Moreover, QPBC operates in Qatar and various European Unions countries positioning as a primary and unified platform for bilateral trade interests and promotes shared understanding and relationship. It was officially launched on November 9, 2020, to facilitate trade and investment growth between the two countries.
The QPBCs key objective was to remain a unified platform to support the Qatari investments in Poland and the European-Polish investments in Qatar, in addition to advancing bilateral trade, scientific and corporate co-operation. And it was intended to provide information about business environments in Qatar and Poland, along with co-operation and follow up on shared interests.
