PM Ciolacu discussed in Qatar about major investments in infrastructure, energy, agriculture, other sectors

Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu on Wednesday had meetings with Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, the president of the Qatar Businessmen Association, representatives of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign investment fund of the State of Qatar, and the representatives of the Qatari Industrial Manufacturing, on which occasion he discussed joint interests and possibilities of cooperation.According to a press release of the Government, the economic component is an important dimension of the visit paid by the Romanian delegation to the State of Qatar, led by prime minister Ciolacu, with investments in the Constanta Port, the Timisoara-based Traian Vuia International Airport and the Brasov-Comarnic motorway being among the main items on the agenda.   According to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu , the Comarnic-Brasov motorway project can be completed only under a public-private partnership.He made the clarifications at a news conference at the end of his visit to Qatar, after meeting on Wednesday Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, president of the Qatar Businessmen's Association, representatives of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, and with those of Qatar Industrial Manufacturing to discuss joint co-operation interests and opportunities."It is one of the projects presented by the minister. I also unveiled at the news conference with the prime minister of Qatar the Comarnic-Brasov project. As far as I and the transport minister are concerned, the Comarnic-Brasov project can only be completed under a public-private partnership with an investment fund," said Ciolacu.He gave details of his business talks in Qatar."We were very clear about creating a committee in a month's time, against a very fixed deadline, and together with the ministers, we still had meetings with business people, we had meetings with the Qatar Sovereign Fund, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, and a meeting with industrialists, and I presented all business opportunities in Romania, and also in Qatar for businesspeople from Romania," Ciolacu said.He added that together with the Chamber of Commerce he will have a meeting to form a technical work team to discuss projects worth some EUR 15 billion, both in industry and infrastructure."Naturally, the energy area was the highest in demand, digital transformation, infrastructure, the Constanta Port and where we do not cover from European funds or from the national budget, the agriculture area, the need for fertilisers post 2026, and there were also discussions regarding tourism," Ciolacu said.During the talks, Marcel Ciolacu underscored the Romanian Executive's interest in increasing Qatari investments in Romania and further strengthening sectoral cooperation, in order to reach the real potential of the bilateral relations."A concrete step in that direction that we discussed is to great a joint working group to identify concrete projects of mutual interest in order to promote them among the interested investors. Moreover, we discussed about the reactivation of the joint committee for economic cooperation, a platform that would explore into the possibilities of diversification of the bilateral cooperation, and about the organization of a bilateral business forum," shows the same press release.The head of the Bucharest Executive also underscored our country's interest in increasing Qatari investments in Romania, while offering major opportunities in various fields of activity."Romania is a provider of energy security at regional level and our energy security is currently going through a transformation stage, aiming to increase resilience, competitiveness and sustainability. This is an interesting and very offering field for the businessmen involved in "the energy of the future," for we want to introduce new technologies, based on renewable energy, we want to store electricity and implement highly efficient systems," said Ciolacu.Moreover, the PM reminded about the opportunity provided by the new exploitations of natural gas in the Black Sea, and also the Romanian specialists' expertise, factors that would facilitate the involvement of the Romanian relevant companies in programmes designed to develop oil production through advanced methods for advanced hydrocarb recovery from mature deposits or that are hard to reach in Qatar.Another important topic was that of the Constanta Port, which offers new competitive logistical opportunities, as it is becoming the most important distribution hub of the EU at the Black Sea for the Central and Eastern Europe, once with the reconfiguration of the logistical routes.In respect to agriculture, the dialogue focused mainly on the ways to facilitate exports of Romanian products to Qatar under mutually advantageous terms.Moreover, during the same visit, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on cooperation in the field of veterinary quarantine, the import and export of living stock and poultry not affected by epidemics and contagious diseases between the National Veterinary Sanitary and Food Safety Authority from Romania and the Ministry of Municipalities from the State Qatar, the same source states."Another topic addressed during the economic discussions referred to the ways to expand the collaboration between Romania and Qatar within the format of the 3 Seas Initiative (I3M), which can offer the State of Qatar the opportunity to position itself as an important supporter of inter-connectivity regionally and globally and could also become one of the main beneficiaries of the numerous economic opportunities encouraged by this format (hundreds of infrastructure projects, roads, communications infrastructure, IT&C)," according to the same source.At the same time, the prime minister recalled that our country has a competitive advantage in the fields of real estate, tourism, IT and cyber security, the defence industry and mineral waters, all of which offer opportunities for direct Qatari investments in the Romanian economy and which lead, over time, to the development an in-depth bilateral partnership.