A red carpet was rolled out to accord warm reception to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on his arrival here on Monday on a two-day official visit as President Mohammed Shahabuddin received him.

The Head of the State welcomed Qatar Emir with flower bouquets at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital on Monday afternoon.

Earlier, a special aircraft, carrying the Emir and his entourage members, landed at the airport at about 5pm.

A 21-gun salute heralded the Emir’s arrival at the HSIA while he was getting down from the aircraft.

The Emir was also taken to the makeshift saluting dais where he was given “a guard of honor” while the national anthems of the two countries were played.

Later, the Emir of Qatar inspected the parade ground.

President Shahabuddin introduced the Bangladesh delegation waiting in the presentation line with Emir as the Emir also introduced his representatives. Ministers including Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, State for Expatriate’s Welfare and Overseas Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, chiefs of the three services, principal secretary to the prime minister, foreign secretary, secretaries concerned to the president office and senior military and civil officials were present there.

The Emir of Qatar has arrived in Dhaka at the special invitation of Bangladesh President Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

After the ceremony at the airport, the Emir of Qatar will be staying at the Le Meridien Dhaka Hotel along with his entourages during the Dhaka visit, reads the programme schedule.

The Emir will have a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Shimul of the prime minister’s office at 10:15am today. They will have one-to-one meeting too.

Later, six agreements and five memorandums of understandings (MoUs) are likely to be signed between the two countries during this visit.

The Emir is scheduled to fly for Qatar by a special aircraft on this evening.

‘Bangladesh can woo more investment’
Meanwhile, business leaders in Bangladesh have observed that even though the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Qatar is heavily tilted in favour of the gulf nation, there is a huge potential for wooing more investment from Qatar in Bangladesh, said business leaders.

They said Bangladesh and Qatar’s bilateral trade is mainly dependent on liquefied natural gas (LNG), fertilizers and petrochemical products as Bangladesh imports these products from Qatar.

In fiscal 2022-23, the exports of Bangladesh to Qatar were about $32 million against the imports worth $2,366 million. As the size of Qatar’s consumer market is small, there is less opportunity to expand the export market of consumer goods there.

Under the circumstances, the local business leaders see great potential in attracting Qatar’s investment in Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshi businessmen and business leaders said that the growth of Qatar’s national economy depends mainly on the efficiency of its investments outside the country.

They also suggested that it is necessary to give more importance on how to bring Qatari investment to Bangladesh.

Talking to BSS, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Ashraf Ahmed said, “We mainly import fuel oil, fertilizer or petrochemical products from Qatar. Compared to that, our export volume is very insignificant as Qatar’s consumer market is small. So, there is less opportunity to export consumer goods there that we manufacture here. However, there is an opportunity to increase our participation in several other services sectors including construction through which bilateral trade can be expanded.”

He said although there is less opportunity to boost Bangladesh’s exports to Qatar, but there is a lot of potential to bring investment from that country. “Qatari Entrepreneurs want to invest abroad. They can invest in energy and banking sectors in Bangladesh.” The DCCI president also opined that the government should focus on bringing Qatari investment to the specialized industrial zones in Bangladesh.