HE Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani met here Wednesday with Governor of People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) Zhou Xiaochuan.
The meeting was attended by HE Qatar’s Ambassador in Beijing Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri and the delegation accompanying HE the QCB Governor.
Talks during the meeting dealt with relations between the State of Qatar and the People’s Republic of China, especially in the fiscal, monetary and investment fields.
HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani arrived in Beijing Tuesday, heading a financial delegation, on a several-day official visit to China.
The delegation includes a number of senior officials from Qatar Central Bank, Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), QFC Regulatory Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, a representative of Qatar Airways and chief executive officers of Islamic banks and Islamic insurance companies operating in Qatar.
The visit is the second of HE the QCB Governor during the current year, where he pay a similar visit to China last April during which he signed with his Chinese counterpart a renewal of the agreement on the investment of Chinese currency and investment tools for two years, took place in Doha in 2012.
Qatar and China are linked with diplomatic relations since 1988. Since then, the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreement foremost of which were: An agreement on trade in 1993, an agreement on the development and protection of investment between the two governments in 1999 and an agreement on the sales and purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas signed between Qatargas and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in 2008.
Trade exchange between the two countries reached $11.5 billion in 2013, increasing by 24.2% compared to 2012, with Qatari experts hitting $8.8 billion, while Qatari imports from China reached $2.7 billion.
Liquefied Natural Gas constitutes most of the Qatari exports to China, while Qatari imports from china include building and construction raw materials and electronics.
Source : Qatar News Agency
