USQBC launches business portal

US-Qatar Business Council (USQBC) has announced the launch of the USQBC Business Portal during the ‘4th Annual US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue’. The portal will transform the US-Qatar business experience and enhance investment and trade between the two countries. The digital platform offers unparalleled access to investment and trade-related information, USQBC services, proprietary, and collated data, as well as providing an interactive and curated experience of the US-Qatar business relationship.The USQBC Business Portal features a unique business engine that yields curated information to help facilitate partnerships, engagements, and matchmaking between Qatari and US businesses. Through providing information regarding trade and investment, descriptions of key businesses, and resources on how to set up a business in the US and Qatar, the USQBC Business Portal provides seamless integration with key initiatives of Qatari and US investment agencies and government programmes.“The launch of the USQBC Business Portal will make doing business between the US and Qatar even easier. It will capitalise on the already flourishing trade relationship between the two countries and will benefit their governments and agencies, large corporations, and SMEs alike,” Mohamed Barakat, managing director of USQBC, said upon the portal’s launch.US investment in Qatar continues to increase year-on-year due to Qatar’s ambitious pro-business reforms and infrastructure investment. The US is Qatar’s largest foreign direct investor with a total of $110.6bn in FDI, and is the largest single source of exports to Qatar at $6.5bn in goods in 2019. In the past five years, Qatar has imported over $23bn from the US, and over 850 US companies now operate in Qatar. Qatar is also an increasingly large investor in the US, having pledged $45bn in investment over the coming years.“In addition to the Qatar and US markets, the USQBC Business Portal will benefit the global business community. We expect high volumes of users from leading international academic institutions and think tanks, as well as international investors looking to gain a foothold in both countries,” said Sheikha Mayes bint Hamad al-Thani, managing director of USQBC Doha Office.The USQBC Business Portal will cater to the entirety of the US and Qatari business community from both the public and private sectors, especially those looking to expand their international footprint. Over 6,000 projected Qatari SMEs have a defined strategy of international expansion or export development and 4.5mn American companies agree that international expansion in emerging markets is needed for long-term growth.The portal will constantly be updated with the newest and most up-to-date trade and investment-related information based on both collated and proprietary USQBC data. Visit portal.usqbc.org for more information.