Qatar and Croatia signed several government and commercial agreements, which include environment and nature protection, and food distribution, among others.
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic witnessed the signing of an environmental agreement on nature protection.
Also, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Qatar Chamber and the Croatian Chamber of Economy, as well as an agreement between Croatian food processing company Podravka and Arabian Supplies, a distributor of fast moving consumer brands in Qatar.
Marko Jurcic, economic affairs adviser to the president, said Grabar-Kitarovic’s visit to Qatar aims to attract Qatari investments in the fields of energy, tourism, food and food processing, agriculture, and modern high technology.
“There is big potential for cooperation between Croatia and Qatar but so far it has not been fully-utilised. Our trade balance and commodities trade did increase in the last couple of years but it is still quite low on the level of $50mn to $55mn per year, which, in our view, is quite low considering the potential that we have.
“But our president came here to say that we have to work much harder on realising these potentials…Croatia has a lot of possibilities, locations, and products to offer, but more importantly, Qatar has the capacity to invest in fruitful, worthwhile, and profitable projects,” Jurcic told Gulf Times on the sidelines of an investment meeting hosted by Qatar Chamber.
He also said Croatia is seeking investments to further develop its IT and tourism sector and its halal food and food processing industry. “Last year, Croatia hosted a world conference on halal, and the government wants to utilise its wide expanse of underdeveloped agricultural lands,” he said. 
Ambassador Tomislav Bosnjak said Qatar and Croatia are still conducting negotiations for 14 other bilateral agreements in the fields of information exchange, defence, education, culture, health, double taxation, economic cooperation, and incentives on mutual protection and promotion of investments.
“In the next 12 months, most of these agreements will be signed,” the ambassador said. During the meeting, Grabar-Kitarovic called on Qatari businessmen to invest in Croatia, which she said “has an attractive investment climate and offers many opportunities in various economic sectors.” 
In a speech, Qatar Chamber chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al-Thani said, “Qatari businessmen are interested to explore the available investment opportunities in your country and we are keen on strengthening relations between businessmen to establish genuine partnerships and joint enterprises whether in Qatar or Croatia.”


Related Story