The State of Qatar concluded its participation in Hannover Messe International Industrial Fair 2022, held from May 30 until June 2, 2022 in the German city of Hannover.
The State of Qatar's participation in the Fair came as part of the ongoing efforts to highlight investment areas and investment opportunities available in the State, attract further direct foreign investments and bolster the competitive status of the State of Qatar in the region and beyond. This also includes strengthening distinguished bilateral relations that bind the State of Qatar and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The State of Qatar's participation in the fair events was manifested in an outstanding pavilion organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) in an area of about 821 square meters, and 16 entities representing the public and sectors participated in the pavilion. These entities included the Investment Promotion Agency Qatar (IPA Qatar), the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), Qatar Science and Technology Park, Qatar Chamber, Qatar Development Bank, Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Qatari Businessmen Association, Qatar Centre for Technological Innovation, in addition to a number of private companies, such as the Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company, Doha Cables Company, Qtech Switchgear, Snoonu, Qterminals, S'hail Holding Group, and Seashore.
HE Mr. Sultan bin Rashid Al-Khater, the Undersecretary of MOCI, as part of the State of Qatar's participation in Hannover Messe International Industrial Fair 2022, held a series of bilateral meetings with ministries and top officials, with the aim of discussing aspects of joint cooperation, particularly in the business, investment and industrial areas and ways to enhance and develop them. This also includes highlighting the successful economic policies established by the State of Qatar to support the private sector as well as impetus, legislations and available promising opportunities in the State seeking to encourage investors, businessmen and company owners to invest in the State of Qatar.
Those meetings included the meeting of HE the Undersecretary of MOCI with HE Mr. Joao Neves, Deputy Minister for the Economy, and HE Mr. Joao Saldanha de Azevedo Galamba, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Republic of Portugal, during his visit to Portugal pavilion at the Hannover Fair.
HE the Undersecretary of MOCI also met with HE Mr. Stephan Weil, Minister-President of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Mr. Jochen Koeckler, Chairman of the Managing Board of German Deutsche Messe AG, Dr Volker Trier, CEO of Foreign Trade of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and Mr. Tan Sri Abd Rahman Bin Mamat, CEO of Malaysian Technology Development Corporation.
For its part, MOCI, through its participation in the fair, has sought to introduce the most important laws and legislations approved by the State to spur local and foreign investment, including the law regulating the investment of non-Qatar capital in economic activity and the law regulating partnership between the public and private sectors. Moreover, MOCI reviewed incentives and privileges provided to investors, including the exemption of foreign capital invested from the income tax for up to 10 years regarding specific investment projects in many sectors. Furthermore, MOCI reviewed the exemption from customs taxes and duties when the importation of equipment and raw materials. MOCI also highlighted the investment climate in the State of Qatar, and offered services that are provided to investors and contribute to facilitating procedures related to investment requests, business start-up and the completeness of transactions.
The Ministry also highlighted investment opportunities available in the industrial sector, the parameters of Qatar National Manufacturing Strategy and goals the strategy seeks to achieve by 2030, and the growth projections of the manufacturing sector. This also includes introducing the Ministry’s role in growing and developing industrial areas and regulating the process of the allocation of industrial lands to investors who have obtained industrial licenses.
For its part, entities participating in the State of Qatar's pavilion reviewed the most important initiatives, projects, services and national products, as well as investment opportunities and privileges available to owners of global companies and investors to join Qatar market and expand toward the region markets. In addition, they highlighted the pioneering Qatari industries, state-of-the-art technology and technological developments in the industrial sector in the State.
During the events of the State of Qatar’s pavilion, IPA Qatar organized a discussion session titled "The Future is Now: Qatar’s Avenues of Growth for International Companies," with the participation of a number of stakeholders, including Qatar Science and Technology Park, QFZA and QFC. This discussion session aims to highlight the business environment in the State of Qatar and incentives provided to investors.
The State of Qatar's pavilion participating in Hannover Fair witnessed a large turnout since a large number of businessmen, officials and persons interested in the industrial and business sector and a group of media professionals visited the pavilion.
It is noteworthy that the edition of Hannover Messe Fair of this year was held in-person at the first time following the COVID-19 pandemic. This edition highlighted the industrial transformation, particularly digitization and sustainability in view of their role in supporting the development of industrial sector and business environment.
The four-day event witnessed organizing a number of discussion sessions that highlighted a wide range of topics. They include, for example, industrial automation and computing cloud technologies and digital infrastructure, data management, digital platforms, robotics, the technology of information security and artificial intelligence, renewable energies, green hydrogen, the efficient use of energy, the neutral use of carbon dioxide, digital energy management, economy and other important topics.
Source: Government of Qatar