The Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries of Ecuador, Sonsoles García, met with the Qatari ambassador in Quito.
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, is preparing an official visit to Qatar, revealed the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, Sonsoles García, through a publication on social networks.
Although there is still no set date for the president's visit to that country, Minister García received the Qatari ambassador to Ecuador, E. Fahad Ahmad Jassim Al-Hamar, in Quito to begin coordinating activities.
“We had a very useful meeting to set a date for President Noboa's visit to Qatar, set a date for the visit of Ecuadorian businessmen to Qatar and, above all, understand how we are going to reinforce Qatari investments in Ecuador,” Minister García explained.
In addition, issues of economic cooperation and commercial exchange were addressed.
This year, Minister García already had contacts with Qatari authorities. On May 22, together with the ambassador of Ecuador in Qatar, Pascual del Cioppo, he held a meeting with Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammad Al-Thani and the board of directors of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industries, to seek new impulses and growth of bilateral trade.
García showed development projects in mining, gas, solar and wind energy, along with new commercial markets for coffee, berries , avocado, fish and tuna.
Current import volumes are expected to increase, especially for bananas, plantains, roses, dragon fruit and cocoa pods.
The Qatar Chamber also expressed its great interest in investing in free zones in Ecuador.
Although Qatar has a little more than 2.5 million inhabitants, the same population as Guayaquil, its gross domestic product (GDP) is twice that of Ecuador, resulting in a population with a real purchasing power of close to US $130,000 a year per inhabitant. Non-oil exports from Ecuador to Qatar reached US$ 15 million in 2021.
According to figures from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) in 2022, Ecuador exported US$22.1 million to Qatar. The main products that Ecuador exported were flowers (US$ 11.8 million), bananas (US$ 8.79 million), and furniture (US$ 281,000).
