Staff Reporter
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| Ambassador Johar (third from left) briefs journalists on Asean Qatar as Khruasuwan, Segarra, Hong Phan, Erman and Wai look on. PICTURE: Jayaram |
Asean Qatar group chairman and Malaysian Ambassador Ahmad Jazri bin Mohamed Johar said the gala dinner would have a lot of attractions for the 1,200-odd invitees to the event at the main auditorium in the Cultural Village.
The ambassador said Asean had recognised the activities of the Asean missions in Qatar last year and they came together on a unified platform: Asean Qatar.
Johar heads the grouping until the end of next month when the Philippines ambassador would take over for the next six month.
Asean members would be showcasing their rich traditions in art, culture and trade at the dinner where they expect a large participation of Qataris and prominent expatriates in Qatar.
“The evening’s celebrations would feature an Asean fashion show, cultural performances, live band music concert and food fiesta among others, said Ambassador Johar.
“Even though there are 10 members in Asean, only seven of them have diplomatic missions in Qatar. That’s why we are having performances from only seven countries, explained Johar.
The seven Asean countries with embassies in Qatar are Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam. Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, the other three members of the Asean bloc, have no diplomatic missions in Qatar though there are some Myanmar nationals working in Qatar.
Through the event, the Asean nations would like to prove to their audience in Qatar that they are one group having the same voice and are united in their passion and sentiments while sharing diverse cultural traditions, said the envoy.
Asean would also like to demonstrate that even though the two regions of the Middle East and Asean are geographically apart, they are connected on many fronts, said the ambassador.
“We would also like to focus that the co-operation between the two regions would be mutually beneficial to each other. While the GCC countries could consider investing in the economies of the Asean countries, the human resources from our region could contribute considerably to the growth of this region,” said Thailand embassy’s head of chancery Somwang Khruasuwan.
Besides Johar and Khruasuwan, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Hong Phan, the Singapore embassy’s deputy head Albert Wai, Philippines embassy vice consul Gilbert L Segarra and Indonesian embassy minister counsellor Tennike Rahmaesa Erman also spoke.
Each of them explained also recalled how active is the bi-lateral relations between their member countries and Qatar these days and how crucial is Qatar for their economies.
250,000 expats from Asean countries
Expats in Qatar from seven Asean members with diplomatic missions here number close to 250,000. To a query at their briefing, the ambassadors gave these numbers: Filipinos account for a little more than 200,000 expats and there are over 36,000 Indonesians with Malaysians (4,000), Thais (more than 3,000), Vietnamese (around 500), Singaporians (about 600) and a handful of people from Brunei completing the tally. Myanmar also reportedly has a few hundred nationals in Qatar.
While Manila was the first capital country to set up an embassy in Qatar, Jakarta opened their mission in 1996. Other Asean embassies started operations after 2003. Malaysian Ambassador Ahmad Jazri bin Mohamed Johar said his country started the first diplomatic mission in the region in Kuwait in 1974 and Qatar was served from there until the opening of the Doha embassy in 2004. The Thai embassy started in 2003. Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei embassies were set up after 2006.