Bern, January 22 (QNA) - Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) participated in the special briefing entitled "The Year Ahead: Spotlight on FDI", held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forums Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The event, organized by Bloomberg and sponsored by QFC, focused on the considerable FDI flows around the world, which exceed $1 trillion annually, and shed light on the vigorous competition among countries to attract and increase their shares of foreign direct investments. The summit discussion delved into the ongoing quest of trade and governmental entities to offer bundles of incentives and benefits to increase their competitiveness over peers, while addressing the investments trends.
During the briefing, Chief Executive Officer of QFC Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida, sat on a panel entitled Smart and Sustainable Economies: Seizing the FDI Opportunities alongside other senior-level panelists; President of PowerGrids at ABB Claudio Facchin; Chief Executive of Alternative Energy and Executive at BP Dev Sanyal, and CEO of Greensill Lex Greensill.
During the session, the panelists tackled various pressing issues around the capital inflow, benefits lured from international investments on social, economic and environmental fronts, and the identification of trends shaping FDI decisions.
Al Jaida, Chief Executive Officer, QFC Authority, said: "Creating an infrastructure to enable an efficient business environment and introducing regulatory amendments are indispensable in attracting FDI into Qatar and this is what we have been doing over the past two years. Moreover, at the QFC we have a legal environment that operates under the English common law, with a tax system in accordance to the international best practices in addition to our own court system."
He praised Qatars ground-breaking amendments and reforms to create a competitive business environment and referred to few examples, including easing of visa process as well as the business registration process from a two months process to an overnight one, in addition to the transformation from a protected foreign ownership regime to a 100 percent foreign ownership in certain sectors.
In addition, the CEO of the Qatar Financial Centre also sat on a panel entitled Perspectives from Qatar and Russia; Investment Trends in Emerging Markets as a key speaker, alongside Chief Executive Officer, IPAQ Sheikh Ali AlWaleed Al-Thani, and Deputy Undersecretary for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance Saoud Bin Abdullah Al Attiyah, and senior Russian representatives. Organized by the Investment Promotion Agency of Qatar (IPAQ) in collaboration with Roscongress, the panel addressed the opportunities and challenges for both global investors and the emerging markets they engage.
The QFC is an onshore jurisdiction that allows registered companies to enjoy competitive benefits, such as working within a legal environment based on English common law, the right to trade in any currency, up to 100 percent foreign ownership, 100 percent repatriation of profits, 10 percent corporate tax on locally sourced profits, and an extensive double taxation avoidance agreement network with 81 countries. (QNA)