Outgoing Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar, Ekaterine Meiering-Mikadze (pictured), has said that Qatar and Georgia will soon sign two agreements on investment promotion and economic, technical cooperation.
“The work on two bilateral agreements is complete and they will be signed in the near future. The first agreement is on investment cooperation while the second one revolves around economic and technical cooperation,” Mikadze said while talking to The Peninsula.
Outgoing Georgian ambassador said that she was highly impressed with the vibrancy of Qatar and its quick development. “A lot of events, activities continue throughout the year in Qatar. Qatar is welcoming and secure. It was very pleasant to work here,” she noted.
“Before assuming office here in Doha in 2012, I had laid foundations of bilateral relations and used to visit Qatar frequently,” she said.
Before opening of the embassy of Georgia in Qatar in 2012, she was serving as an Ambassador of Georgia to the GCC countries performing her duties from Georgian Embassy in Kuwait. After serving as an ambassador in Qatar for the last five years, she has recently been posted back to home country and set to leave Doha at the end of this month. The outgoing ambassador said that the thing which she liked the most in Qatar was the hospitality of Qatari people. “Qatari people show enormous hospitality. They are always ready to help.”
She said that Qatar had not only the vision to develop the country but also the plans to execute the vision.
She said that the very first task on assuming office back in 2012 was to make Georgia visible in Qatar. “The first thing was making people from both countries know each other. We had a niche for tourism and culture with which I made Georgia visible in Qatar.”
She said that the two countries were also cooperating in education field. The outgoing ambassador said that the Georgian government had facilitated tourists by making visa processes easy. “All GCC citizens and expats can travel to Georgia with visa-on-arrival facility.”
She said that the number of Qatari nationals visited Georgia in 2015 was 400 visitors which increased to 2,100 from January to September 2017.
She told The Peninsula that the share of tourism in Georgia’s GDP was 7 percent in 2014, which increased to 7.6 percent in 2016.
To a question about the exact number of tourists visiting Georgia from Qatar (both nationals and residents), she replied that exact stats were not available. “As expats need no visa and their entry in Georgia is done on their respective passports, therefore we do not have exact number of residents of Qatar visiting Georgia.”
She said that Georgia was becoming a favourite destination of tourists particularly expatriates residing in Qatar due to country’s proximity and trip’s low costs. “Georgia is close and also affordable. It has seas, green mountains, rich culture, rivers and marvellous culinary experiences.”
Mikadze said that the cooperation between two countries in agricultural sector was also growing with the passage of time. “After the siege, agro-produce from Georgia have started hitting hypermarkets in Qatar.”
She said that exports from Georgia to Qatar in 2016 valued $486,400 but it increased to $592,800 in first eight months (Jan-Aug) of 2017.
She lauded Katara’s role in facilitating Georgian embassy in organising concerts, exhibitions etc. “I brought Georgia here so that the people can see its cultural beauty before visiting the country.”
She said that Georgia was organising an international conference on One Belt One Road next month in which Qatar was also invited.
Praising Qatar’s policy of diversification of its economy, the outgoing ambassador said: “It is also an opportunity for Georgia to make new partnerships and increase its trade with Qatar. We can provide agro-produce as well as construction material and technology to Qatar.”
The outgoing ambassador said that there were great investment opportunities for Qatari investors in Georgia particularly in the tourism sector. “There are already private Qatari investments in real estate sector of Georgia.”
