Abdul Aziz Al Emadi and Dr Murat Yalcintas at a meeting of Turkish and Qatari businessmen yesterday.

DOHA: With a $100bn economy and a strong and vibrant contracting sector, Turkey is eyeing the mega infrastructure projects in Qatar.

Turkish construction and contracting entities already have a fairly enviable presence here but they want a bigger role in infrastructure development.

This is clearly evident with the arrival of a Turkish trade delegation here consisting of some 200 businessmen representing almost all conceivable sectors, including manufacturing, construction and contracting, interior design and furnishing.

Turkey is also holding an exposition of locally made products here.

The first time a trade mission from Istanbul visited Doha was some three years ago and the mission comprised barely 80 members.

Turkish businessmen are also keen to have closer ties with their Qatari counterparts, especially for joint ventures in viable areas in their two countries.

Yesterday, the visiting Turkish businessmen had a meeting with their Qatari counterparts under the aegis of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI).

Present were Abdul Aziz Al Emadi, vice-chairman of the QCCI, and Dr Murat Yalcintas, President of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and other delegates. Yalcintas is also vice-chairman of the Federation of Turkish Chambers of Commerce.

The two sides inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cement trade and cooperative relations between the private sectors of the two countries.

Al Emadi in his address pointed out that trade between the two countries was expected to reach $1.2bn by the year-end, while Murat lauded the Qatari economy and said due to its sheer strength it attracted large numbers of foreign investors.

But the star speaker at the function was businessman Mohamed Al Obaidly.

“We want closer trade links with you but we don’t want local dealerships of Turkish products. We want real partnership,” he said.

Qatari businessmen investing in Turkey will feel much comfortable if they had local partners to share risks and also because the partner would have enough understanding of local realities, said Al Obaidly, reflecting a welcome change in the mindset of the Qatari private sector, which now seems to be willing to venture into riskier avenues away from dealerships and agencies of foreign products and services.

The Peninsula