Qatar Chamber participates in ‘France-Arab Economic Summit’

Qatar Chamber recently participated in the ‘5th France-Arab Countries Economic Summit’, which was held in Paris under the theme ‘Increasing France’s Place in the Arab World’.

The event was jointly organised by the Arab-French Chamber of Commerce, the Union of Arab Chambers, and the Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), with support from ICE-FRANCE, the International Chamber of Commerce-France, International Medef, and Business France.

The delegation from Doha was led by Qatar Chamber chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al-Thani and included board member Dr Khaled bin Klefeekh al-Hajri.

The summit was attended by more than 400 high-level economic figures and featured three round table discussions which focused on the Maghreb countries, the Arab Levant countries, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

On the sidelines of the summit, Sheikh Khalifa met with Aurelien Le Chevalier, director of the Office of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in the attendance of Sheikh Ali bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to France.

During the meeting, both sides discussed economic and commercial relations and explored ways to enhance cooperation between the Qatari and French private sectors. They also emphasised the importance of fostering mutual investments and partnerships between the business sectors of both nations.

Speaking during the third working session, al-Hajri highlighted Qatar’s successful hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and its management of the post-World Cup phase. He noted that Qatar recently launched the Third National Development Strategy (2024-2030) and the launch of the Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Strategy (2024-2030) as part of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

He said the strategy aims to position Qatar as a global leader in innovation and scientific research in the Middle East region, enhance the business sector’s involvement in innovative activities, develop qualified domestic talent, and increase the sector’s contribution to the state’s GDP.

He also highlighted the state’s efforts to advance innovation by fostering partnerships and cooperation with international technology leaders, such as Microsoft, Google Cloud, NVIDIA, among others, including the launch of 5G networks. Al-Hajri said Qatar ranked second globally in terms of 5G speed and ranked first in mobile Internet speed.

Al-Hajri said Qatar aims to attract $100bn in direct investments in the manufacturing, logistics, education, financial services, food, agriculture, and healthcare sectors. He added that the national economy is expected to grow by 4% annually until 2030, driven by the expansion of gas production.