Seeking investors worldwide
Logistics are crucial to the project’s success. The team around H.E. Ahmad Al-Sayed, state minister and chairman of the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), is seeking investors from all key industries. Al-Sayed took time in Munich to expand on QFZA’s priorities through to 2020 to the ITJ, on advantages investors enjoy in Qatar and how qualified staff is trained on site.
Your Excellency, you’re familiar with the international investor scene, having got to know it well as a former CEO of the Qatar Investment Fund, as a member of Volkswagen’s supervisory board and on the Qatar National Bank’s board of directors. How are the free-trade zones in Qatar perceived by the sector?
Their potential is acknowledged. We’re creating two new free-trade zones in Qatar, in a region from which around 2 billion consumers can easily be reached – be they in Turkey, Iran, Iraq or East Africa. The location is just right.
Talking about VW – Qatar is interested in and has invested in entities in Germany and in German-speaking countries that are at home well beyond this key industry. This is the region in which we set out on our first roadshow advertising the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA). Since this start we’ve made many interesting contacts – as has been the case here in Munich.
The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, recently said that legal stability is the most important factor in creating a stable investment climate.
That’s one of the strongest trumps QFZA has on offer. Legal certainty for investors has traditionally always been guaranteed in Qatar. That’s only one essential precondition, however – the Qatari government is additionally investing EUR 11 billion in the zones at Doha airport and in the port of Hamad, including the new port and marine cluster in Marsa and in the Umm Alhou free-trade zone.
What segments doe these activities focus on?
We’re developing our sectors simultaneously – logistics, foodstuffs and beverages, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The portfolio is considerably broader, however.
How do you see QFZA developing by 2020?
Our investor base needs to be more established by then, with our focus firmly set on quality, not quantity. Qatar is an overall importer, so we’re aiming at sustainable development measures, including manufacturing industries that generate local employment and will enable the equal in and outflow of goods in our balance of trade in future, amongst other things. We’re confident that by 2020 we’ll have successfully completed phase one and will already have marketed the designated areas.
How have you fared with Chinese investors?
We’ve achieved gratifying results with large trading companies, and have come closer to our goal of attracting a broad-based international group of investors.
How do you approach issue of training employees locally?
We have 13 higher education institutes in Qatar, some of which cooperate with the USA’s Cornell University and the Technical University of Munich. The level of education is high.
What’s your role in QFZA?
It’s an honour for me to be able to serve my country in this project.
