The Government of the State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Swiss Federal Council, represented by the Federal Department of Finance, to form a Joint Commission on financial and economic areas "for the development of relations between the two countries of mutual concern for the benefit of the two friendly peoples." The MoU was signed by HE the Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari and Ueli Maurer, head, Federal Department of Finance. Al-Kuwari welcomed the agreement and said: “The MoU signed today is part of Qatar’s on-going initiatives to continuously improve its business and desiring to promote and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries in the areas of financial and economic areas for mutual benefit.” Maurer said, “I am looking forward to furthering our mutual interests in financial services and other economic areas.” The partnership paves the way for future co-ordination of the different aspects of co-operation between the participants in the financial and economic domains and to formulate proposals to promote and strengthen the financial and economic relations between the participants.