Inaugural meeting of India-Qatar Joint Business Council held

Published: 16 February 2025

NT Bureau
Doha

The first meeting of the India-Qatar Joint Business Council was held virtually on February 13 and discussed ways and means to further enhance trade and investment relationship between the two countries.

The Council was co-Chaired by Qatar Chamber and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

During the meeting, Adeeb Ahmad, Chairman of FICCI Middle East, spoke about the historic trade links between India and Qatar and the opportunities for furthering cooperation in sectors such as retail, fintech, banking, logistics, healthcare, electric vehicles, automobiles and hospitality.

In this context, he also talked about the robust bilateral trade between India and Qatar which stood at over $14bn during the last financial year. He added the contributions made by Indians in Qatar both in the fields of business as well as culture.

Qatar Chamber also underscored the historic trade links between India and Qatar which have continued to grow in recent years, as well as the contribution of Indian community across various sectors of the Qatari economy and at different levels of corporate structures.

Qatari side demonstrated keen interest in bilateral cooperation in the areas of AI, green energy, EVs, healthcare, jewellery, foodstuff and IT/software development etc.

There has been an increase in Qatari investments in India, and currently Qatari FDI in India stands at around USD 1.5 billion. There are around 20,000 Indian-owned SMEs operating in Qatar across the varied sectors of the economy.

India-Qatar Joint Business Council has 19 top businessmen from each country. Qatar Chamber and FICCI have decided to hold an in-person meeting in the coming months, preferably immediately after Ramadan.