Qatar and United States have vast commercial synergies in terms of value proposition for investors. The enduring friendship between the two countries encompass robust trade and investment rela-tionship which only stands to advance further in both of the near and long term, said a top official during an event hosted by Doha Bank jointly with US Embassy in Doha, entitled ‘US – Qatar Bilateral Cooperation and Opportunities in Trade and Investment’.
Fahad Al Dosari, Qatar’s Commercial Attaché to the US, gave an overview of bilateral trade and investment opportunities between Qatar and US.
He said, “The bilateral trade and investment relations between the two countries were formed in 1973 with the opening of US Embassy in Doha and have since developed into an astounding $200bn value to date. Qatar and US are top trading partners with two-way goods trade accounting to $8.2bn value in 2019 alone highlighting that the US was Qatar’s number one source of import and currently Qatar’s investment and trade with the US support more than 800,000 American jobs.
Moreover, Qatar is on its way to growing its economy according to the latest IMF data making it a stronger eco-nomic partner for decades to come.”The pandemic triggered the slow down and funding for core infrastructure projects in many countries worldwide yet Qatar continued its long term infra-structure development and investment plans to improve and expand our world class infra-structure. US companies have access to a range of industry sectors in Qatar that are under-going rapid development in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030,” Al Dosari said, Qatar is a balanced trading partner with the US, said Al Dosari noting that in 2020 during the height of the pandemic US still maintained a trade surplus with Qatar. In terms of trade and goods Qatar stands among Unites States top exports market annually.
The major purchases of US goods include aircraft, electrical machinery, and vehicles which in turn supports several US man-ufacturing jobs. Similarly Qatar is among United States’ top sup-pliers of goods and the top exports to the US include mineral fuels, aluminum, fertilizers which are critical to a range of industries including US agribusiness, con-struction, and transportation.
Citing the example of Qatar’s 2020 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stock in the US which totaled $3.9bn, Al Dosari said Qatar’s investments in US are vast and continually growing. “Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is on a track to reach a total of $45bn in investments across a diverse range of industries in the US and QIA has pledged a $10bn investment in US infra-structure. Similarly, Qatar’s private sector is committed to further investing in the US.
In 2020 alone the Qatari private sector invested $4bn in the US economy. Both public and private investors continue to seek investments opportunities and high growth sectors such as real estate, financial services health care, energy, and technology in the US,” he said.
Al Dosari noted the top US industry sector in which Qatar has invested are communications, coal, oil & gas, financial services, and real estate.
He elab-orated by presenting two important examples of the commercial partnerships between Qatar and US - QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil joint venture, developing a $10bn LNG export facility in Texas and QatarEnergy’s partnership with Chevron Phillips to develop a $8bn petrochemical plant on the US Gulf Coast.
He added “US investments in Qatar over the years have played a critical role in our domestic economic development and growth. Moreover, investments by US companies are helping Qatar achieve economic diversification goals set out in Qatar’s National Vision 2030 to create a knowledge-based, environmentally sustainable and techno-logically advanced economy.
The 2020 US Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stock in Qatar totaled $15.5bn and currently there are more than 120 wholly owned US companies operating in Qatar with another 820 plus US-Qatar joint ventures (JVs) in operation.
Dr. R Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer, Doha Bank delivered the introductory remarks and highlighted the important initiatives and programs at Doha Bank that support US and Qatar business. Natalie Baker, Chargé d’Affaires, US Embassy Doha, Qatar discussed the key policy areas that play a role in shaping the US-Qatar bilateral rela-tionship focusing on renewable energy, climate change, women entrepreneurship and initiatives to facilitate more trade and investment. Megan Schildgen, Senior Commercial Officer, US Embassy Doha, Qatar shared the role of the US Commercial Service (USCS) to connect US business to Qatar partners with focus on digital transformation trade mission.
Jesse Edgerton, Senior Economist, JP Morgan Chase gave an overview of the economic trends and business outlook on the horizon for 2022
