The Cabinet on Wednesday welcomed the outcome of the recent working visit of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Germany and hailed the success of the Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum held as part of the visit. 
At its regular weekly meeting on Wednesday morning, the Cabinet expressed satisfaction with the “positive atmosphere during the talks between the two countries, and the great attention paid to the visit in various political, economic, cultural and media circles in Germany”, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
“The Cabinet underlined that the successful visit and the important talks, which His Highness the Amir held with German President Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of senior German officials, have enhanced the strategic partnership between the two countries, contributed greatly to promoting the close and distinct friendly relations between the two sides, and opened up new horizons for expanding co-operation in various fields to serve the interests of the two friendly countries and people as well as the interests of peace and stability in the region and the world,” QNA said.
The Cabinet also hailed the great success of the Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum, which was held in Berlin in the framework of the Amir's visit, as well as the Amir's announcement of Qatar's intention to invest €10bn in the German economy over the next five years, which represented a big leap in the path of growing economic relations between the two countries.
District cooling
After HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani chaired the Cabinet's regular meeting at the Amiri Diwan on Wednesday, HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Dr Hassan bin Lahdan al-Hassan al-Mohannadi said the Cabinet approved a draft law regulating the works and services of district cooling.
The draft law aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the country's district cooling sector, including the financial, technical and legal aspects. It also seeks to enable Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation to organise and manage the works and services of district cooling and develop the rules governing the relationship between the different parties within the district cooling sector, QNA added.
Under the provisions of the draft legislation, the establishment or operation of district cooling networks or the provision of district cooling services shall only be done after obtaining a licence from the competent department, in accordance with the provisions of this law and the regulation and decisions issued for implementation thereof.
The regulation shall specify the conditions, controls and requirements for licensing.
Meanwhile, the meeting approved an agreement between the governments of Qatar and China on mutual exemption from visa, two memorandums of understanding for co-operation in the field of culture and youth and sports between the governments of Qatar and Benin, and a draft memorandum of understanding for co-operation in the field of exchange of financial investigation between the Financial Information Unit of Qatar and the Financial Intelligence Centre of South Africa.
Further, the Cabinet reviewed the following topics and took the appropriate decision thereon: a draft law regulating and managing the strategic inventory of food and consumer goods, and the 40th report of the work of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons during the period extending from January 1 to April 30, 2018.