PHL, Qatar to increase bilateral trade and investments

The oil-rich emirate of Qatar and the Philippines intend to increase bilateral trade and investments as well as employment opportunities for overseas Filipino workers, Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Monday.   Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani is embarking on a landmark state visit to the Philippines starting Tuesday, April 10, specifically to boost trade and investment relations between the two countries–an initiative of President Bengino Aquino III.   “His Highness the Emir’s visit affirms the advancement of political and economic ties between the Philippines and Qatar. We are looking forward to discussing ways to achieve more positive growth in the realm of trade and investment and increasing opportunities for our Filipino workers,” said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario.   President Aquino and key cabinet officials will meet Qatari officials to discuss increasing trade and investments between the two countries as well as other areas of cooperation such as labor, agriculture and tourism.   Qatar is host to an estimated 175,000 Filipino workers, mostly professionals, engineers, nurses and construction workers. It is considered as one of the world’s richest countries in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.     "There will be agreements that will be signed in the fields of tourism, agriculture, fisheries, culture, investment, customs and legal cooperation," DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters late Monday. According to a Reuters report last January, Qatar is aspiring to play the ambitious role of global pawnbroker.   From its startling winning bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup and mediating roles in Middle East and African conflicts to its role leading Arab efforts to isolate Syria, tiny Qatar is aspiring to an ambitious role: global powerbroker.   “The impetus behind the country's pursuit of the limelight in the past decade is a wish to differentiate itself from regional neighbors–specifically Saudi Arabia, with whom Qatar has had sporadically acrimonious relations for decades,” according to Reuters. $91,149 per capita income   "One of the key goals of Qatari foreign policy is to insert itself into key conflicts whereby Qatar becomes the crucial interlocutor between Western states and a range of 'problematic' Muslim actors," said David Roberts, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), based in Doha.   A close ally of Washington and home to the largest US air base in the Middle East, Qatar has often launched political initiatives that corresponded with Western interests, and it had formal ties with Israel until the Jewish state's 2009 war with the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip.   Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani has become the dominant figure at Arab League discussions about Syria. Qatar's Emir has suggested sending Arab troops to halt the bloodshed, the first Arab leader to propose such a move.   The emirate has allocated 40 percent of its budget between now and 2016 to infrastructure projects, including $11 billion on a new international airport, $5.5 billion on a deepwater seaport and $1 billion for a transport corridor in the capital, Doha. It will spend $20 billion on roads.   The country's sovereign wealth fund, estimated to have assets worth around $70 billion, has poured more than $20 billion in recent years into stakes in German carmakers Porsche and Volkswagen, Agricultural Bank of China, Santander Brasil, Spain's Iberdrola and German builder Hochtief.   It has also snapped up Britain's luxury department store Harrods and two European soccer teams.   Its ambitions extend into the realm of sport. In addition to winning the rights to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, Qatar has officially begun a bid to host the 2020 Olympics. It spent $2.8 billion on hosting the 2006 Asian Games.   As the country with the world's highest per capita income, estimated at $90,149, Qatar can afford to spend lavishly on diplomatic endeavors. But any notion that a pursuit of profit is behind those efforts is far off the mark, diplomats say. —With Reuters/VS, GMA News