India, Qatar to cooperate in skill development, customs and tourism

India and Qatar on Thursday signed an agreement to facilitate workforce mobility, skill development and placement of youth in overseas jobs in Qatar. The two countries also approved a memorandum of understanding for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism.

The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval for signing of m Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Qatar for cooperation in skill development and mutual recognition of educational qualifications.

The MoU will facilitate workforce mobility, skill development and placement of youth in overseas jobs in Qatar, a cabinet release stated.

Besides the union cabinet approved the signing and ratifying of an agreement between India and Qatar on co-operation and mutual assistance in customs matters.

The agreement aims at entering into a bilateral agreement on co-operation customs matters between India and Qatar, which will help in the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of customs offences.

The agreement is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries.

Qatar is an important trading partner of India. Trade between the two countries has been expanding over the years. In view of the steady growth in bilateral trade, it was felt imperative to provide a legal framework for sharing of information and intelligence between the customs authorities of the two countries to help in proper application of customs laws, prevention and investigation of Customs offences and to facilitate legitimate trade.

The cabinet also gave its approval for signing of a, MoU between India and Qatar for strengthening cooperation in the field of Tourism.

The main objectives of the MoU are:

• To create favourable conditions for long-term co-operation in the field of tourism for mutual benefit;
• To exchange expertise, publications, information/data and statistics related to tourism;
• To encourage cooperation through the exchange of programmes, propaganda and advertising materials, publications, films, promotion and marketing of their tourism products via media etc;
• To exchange visits of tour operators / media /opinion makers for promotion of two way tourism;
• To encourage co-operation between tourism sectors, tour operators, travel agents and other tourism private sector's firms and bureaus in the two countries; and
• To encourage public and the private sectors to invest in tourism.

Qatar is an emerging tourism source markets for India (India received approximately 6,313 tourists from Qatar in 2015). Qatar is also a potential market for India in terms of medical tourism and provides vast opportunity for India in this field. The signing of MoU with Qatar will be instrumental in increasing arrival from this emerging source market, a separate cabinet release stated.