Qatari investments in Turkiye set to further expand

Qatar is in an excellent position to be a hub for international trade linking the GCC countries, the Middle East, Turkiye and Europe for the easy flow of goods, in particular raw materials, according to Basar Arioglu, chairman of Qatar-Turkiye Business Council and member of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkiye – DEIK and President of the Turkiye-Qatar Business Council. Meeting a number of journalists from Qatar, who recently visited Istanbul in a trip organised by the Turkish Embassy in Doha, Arioglu stressed that Qatar maintains strictly high standards for raw materials necessary for construction and building and the approval of any such materials passes through various stages of quality and accreditation checks. He said that the volume of trade exchange between Qatar and Turkiye amounted to $1.1bn in 2021 and is expected to grow to more than $5bn by 2025. He pointed out that Turkish companies were among the different international companies, which have undertaken the construction of the Doha Metro, in particular the golden line. "It was a highly efficient project regarding its set budget as Qatar Rail had made proper and accurate assumption about the needed funds and costs and all works were finalised according to the set schedule, which rarely happens in such type of projects in different world countries."He said that there are strong potential for more co-operation with Qatar in the future expansion of the metro, besides the GCC railways link project, which would link Qatar with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and could go up to Turkiye, linking Doha with Europe and the Middle East and China. He stressed that if this project materialised as planned, it would provide the international trade with better options than marine shipments, and avoid the involved trouble, costs and possible delays due to the geopolitical upheavals. "In this regard, as Business Council, we focus on developing economic relations in targeted corporation areas: Energy, tourism, urbanisation, technology and health as well as partnerships in the third countries, mainly African countries," he noted, stressing that companies from both Qatar and Turkiye are in excellent position to maintain very successful joint ventures in other countries, especially in Africa. He added that Turkiye-Qatar Business Council has 55 active members in variety of sectors, working on constantly contributing to the Turkish Qatari business activities expanding on the excellent and deeply rooted good relations between the two countries. He said that a good number of Turkish companies have opened branches in Qatar and operate through them to facilitate co-operation among the businesspersons from both countries In the meantime, the journalist team from Qatar visited Istinye Park Shopping Mall, which is a luxury and high-end shopping complex with 30% of it owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and managed by Istinye Yonetim Hizmetleri AS. It is built on 272,000sq m on the hills of Istinye and opened in 2007. It has 291 stores of housing some of the top international luxury brands with 100% occupancy since the opening, and potential new tenants on the waitlist due to the high demand on this elite shopping destination in Istanbul.