Emir of Qatar in Cyprus next week to discuss investments

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will be visiting Cyprus next week to discuss potential investments on the island with President Nikos Christodoulides.

The focus of the contacts will be on the prospects for investments by Qataris in various sectors of the economy, including infrastructure, technology, energy and tourism.

To this end, according to InBusinessNews’ sources, Nicosia plans to present the emir with a series of projects that are ripe for investment.

It is noted that Qatar has been showing a keen interest in investing in Cyprus lately, most notably during President Christodoulides’ visit to Doha recently.

In fact, the President has previously stated that in recent months, following his trip to Qatar last November, a team made up of various investment funds from Qatar visited Cyprus and explored the prospects to invest in the country's infrastructure, energy and tourism sectors.

Therefore the meeting between Christodoulides and Al Thani next week is expected to be very interesting and there may even be important announcements afterwards.

The Qatari emir will be in Cyprus next Monday and Tuesday. He will have a meeting with President Christodoulides that will be followed by meetings between the two countries’ delegations.

According to InBusinessNews’ sources, both during the one-on-one meeting with Christodoulides and in the meetings that will follow, they will also discuss a series of other important issues pertaining to the two countries' bilateral ties, as well as the Cyprus problem and regional as well as international developments.

They will also discuss energy matters, as Qatar is interested in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone what with its state-owned energy company, Qatar Energy, owning exploration rights in blocks 5 and 10 along with ExxonMobil.

And they will discuss the Amalthea initiative for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Qatar has been a vocal supporter of from the start.

Asked to comment on the emir’s visit, a source from within the government told InBusinessNews that this is a very important visit, and a continuation from the President’s visit to Doha last November.