The emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al Thani announced on Tuesday that he had given instructions to increase the investments that his country is carrying out in Spain by 5,000 million dollars, at the end of the first day of his state visit.
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This was revealed during the toast on the occasion of the gala dinner in his honor offered by the King and Queen at the Royal Palace, which was attended, among others, by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, with whom he will meet tomorrow.
The emir also plans to meet with several businessmen, including Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola, of which the Qatari sovereign wealth fund is the main shareholder, with 8.7% of the electricity company.
According to the emir, the increase in investments is due to confidence in “the strength of the Spanish economy”. These investments, he has underlined, “will have added value to our already existing successful investments in Spain, taking into account that Qatar is considered one of the largest Arab investors in Spain”. It is the third country with the largest natural gas reserves in the world, and is currently the fifth supplier of Spain, behind the United States, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt.
In addition to the representatives of companies such as Iberdrola, Naturgy or Navantia, the meeting was also attended by the president of the CEUE, Antonio Garamendi, the Minister of Commerce, Reyes Maroto, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor from Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, among others.
Madrid Golden Key
Before dinner, the emir was received by Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who presented him with the Golden Key to the city and compared him to the King of Spain: “Qatar and Spain are two arguments against which they believe that monarchies are things of the past”, said the alderman.
“Although there are differences, I would like to highlight one trait that our success stories share. In both cases, the figure of the head of state”, Almeida began his praise. These “differences” to which the mayor refers are collected in the last report of International Amnesty and concern human rights violations in the country. Some such as the lack of freedoms, the persecution of the LGTBI collective or the machismo suffered by women, under male guardianship.
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