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| Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser al-Thani, QBA board member, shaking hands with Mario Ciaccia, Italian deputy minister |
Mario Ciaccia, Italian deputy minister for business and development and acting minister of infrastructure and transport, along with several prominent industry representatives and entrepreneurs, yesterday met HE the Minister of Finance and Economy Yousef Hussein Kamal and Minister for Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning HE Sheikh Abdurrahman bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani.
The meetings were followed by a forum with more than 100 delegates representing Qatari and Italian companies and trade organisations, including the Qatar Businessmen Association. Delegates heard presentations from officials representing the Qatar Stock Exchange, Mawani Qatar, the Public Works Authority, the General Secretariat for Urban Planning, Enterprise Qatar and Qatar Railways Company in order to learn about the diverse business ventures that might find use for Italian expertise. The forum also included a seminar on financial strategies for infrastructure in Qatar.
The forum began with the signing of an agreement between Simest, an Italian state company responsible for overseas enterprise development, and Concordia Capital, an investment advisory firm headquartered in Doha and authorised by the QFC Regulatory Authority.
The agreement establishes a partnership to foster the development of business relationships among Qatari and Italian companies through the exchange of information on economic and industrial developments, and to assist companies from both countries with their investment activities, among other measures.
Bilateral trade is dominated by Qatar’s LNG exports to Italy. Qatar also imports around QR5.5bn worth of goods from the European country.
Trade between the two countries grew by 13% last year, according to Cesare Trevisani, deputy president of Confindustria, an organisation representing Italian companies and services with over 140,000 members.
In his address, he said one of the key focuses of the delegation representing over 50 companies was to foster co-operation between SMEs, who play a major role in economic development.
Giandomenico Ghella, president of International Contractors ANCE, a national association of builders, said Italian construction firms are working in 88 countries with a portfolio of €60bn worldwide. He said Italian construction companies are mostly family owned, with the traditions of a country of emigrants who know how to adapt to different countries and cultures.
He said that Italian companies prefer to establish long-term partnerships with local contractors, rather than completing a project and simply withdrawing profits.
Ghella said while Italian companies are not the biggest in the world, they are specialised and strong, and have much to offer Qatar with diverse capabilities.
In his opening speech to the trade forum, Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser al-Thani, a board member of the Qatar Businessmen Association, said Italy’s role and capabilities as one of the most important industrial nations in the European Union and the seventh largest economy in the world, with an industrial sector representing 25.2% of GDP, in addition to its touristic attractions and capabilities in the service sector are “great potentials that should form the basis for a strong and solid economic co-operation and partnership between the two countries.”