QETF, the exchange traded fund sponsored by Doha Bank, is a big opportunity for Kuwaiti investors, a senior official of the bank said.
“The ETF will be a liquid, tradable and transparent fund listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) and open to retail as well as institutional investors, both local and foreign,” Doha Bank group chief executive Dr R Seetharaman told leading corporates that are keen to know about potential business opportunities from Qatar-Kuwait bilateral relationships.
Addressing a knowledge-sharing session ‘New World Order and Changing Business Model’ in Kuwait, he said the QETF will be an open-ended investment fund that will replicate the performance of the QE Index, which comprises the top 20 holdings in the index based on market capitalisation and average daily traded value.
Doha Bank, as a founder, has collaborated with Amwal, which is one of the most reputable asset management companies in Qatar as the fund manager on the QETF investment offering.
Highlighting that Qatar-Kuwait bilateral trade stood at $2.7bn in 2016, he said the size of investment between the two countries is $7bn in various sectors. The number of Kuwaiti companies fully-owned by Kuwaiti investors in Qatar was 132 by the end of 2017.
He said Qatar budget allocation for 2018 in health, education and transportation sectors reached QR83.5bn or 41% of the total expenditure.
Quoting an International Monetary Fund report of October 2017, Seetharaman said Kuwait is expected to grow 4.1% this year. Kuwait’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged in December  2017, citing the need to boost economic growth, despite a 0.25 percentage point rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.
Finding that Kuwait state budget for the year ending March 31, 2019, projects spending at 20bn dinars and revenues at 15bn dinars, he said the allocation in the budget will be covering the development of infrastructure, road networks, building the new airport and power generation.
Kuwait has unveiled a new plan to transform the country into a regional financial and cultural hub by 2035 through 164 strategic development programmes, he added.
He said, according to IMF January 2018 Outlook, the advanced economies are expected to grow by 2.3% in 2018 and 2.2% in 2019. The emerging and developing economies are expected to grow 4.9% in 2018 and 5% in 2019.
With the Fed meeting expected this week, Seetharaman said “the US Federal Reserve is expected to see series of interest rate hikes this year, hoping to get out in front of an expected pickup in inflation.” 
This month Japan led 11 countries to sign an ambitious new Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite US withdrawal. Earlier the US president Donald Trump announced that the US will raise tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
Seetharaman also gave insight on the future trends impacting digital space and sustainable development. Robotics, enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is proving to be a game changer that can bring unique operational efficiencies to the financial services industry, he said.


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