New Zealand is ready to provide some of its agricultural expertise and technology transfer to Qatar, a parliamentarian from New Zealand has told Gulf Times.

“We are looking for increased trade relations with Qatar. We are also happy to make available some of the highly advanced agricultural expertise used in our country to Qatar. Some of these could be in horticultural, genetic plants among other areas,” said David Carter, National Member of Parliament, New Zealand, and a former speaker.

Carter was speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the 140th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly that was held in Doha last week. He was joined by Marja Lubeck, a Labour List Member of Parliament, New Zealand.

“Qatar and New Zealand share a very warm relation and we are looking forward to strengthen it further through various ways. We find opportunities to strengthen the relationship between both the countries in many areas particularly in trade,” explained Carter.

Lubeck noted that New Zealand is a great producer of food products and there can be better scope of trade between Qatar and New Zealand.

“We look forward to opportunities to export our food items to other countries and hope that Qatar is a good destination to expand our already existing ties. We look for opportunities in trade and the Qatari officials that we have spoken to, are very supportive of the idea,” the official said.

“New Zealand is recognised as a modern food producer with some of the best technology and expertise available. There would be some technology transfer if Qatar is interested in,” Carter said.

“We are big exporters of fruit and other agricultural products. We are also one of the leading exporters of sheep meat and dairy products in the world. With better agreement and trade relations, these products can be exported to Qatar in a big way."

“We have discussed the whole idea of co-operation in these fields with some of the officials in Qatar during our interactions. Further steps need to be progressed at government-to-government level agreements,” added Carter.

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