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Kamal Nath: Allow Indian companies to take up turnkey projects in Qatar
New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, during an interaction with the visiting Qatari Foreign Minister, Ahmed Bin Abdulla Al-Mahmoud, here said that Indian companies must be allowed to participate in turnkey projects and major civil construction works that are coming up in Qatar.

Kamal Nath said Indian companies should be allowed to take up the role of sub-contractors in energy-intensive and export-oriented projects of Qatar.

Describing Qatar as an important trading and investment partner of India, the Minister highlighted that the country would soon become Qatar's largest customer for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

India is the 8th largest destination of Qatar's exports and 10th largest in terms of value of Qatar's imports. India is the largest supplier of readymade garments, tea and vegetables to Qatar.

During 2004-05, the non-oil trade volume stood at $776.11 million as against $315.44 million during 2003-04.

Stating that the country has a long history of friendship and economic relations with the Gulf in general and Qatar in particular, the Minister also highlighted that about 20 per cent of population of Qatar are non-resident Indians.
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Plan panel scales down investments
New Delhi: In the face of a resource crunch the Planning Commission has scaled down investments by 12.5 per cent in crucial areas including agriculture, power and manufacturing mainly due to resource constraints.

These sectors will now get only Rs3,582.2 crore in the remaining two years of the Tenth Plan as against the original allocation of Rs4,081.5 crore. The mid term appraisal (MTA) of the Tenth Plan has reduced the public investments by 19 per cent to Rs981.1 crore from Rs1,209.3 crore.

''Public investment has fallen seriously short of targets in the first two years of the plan, especially in agriculture, manufacturing, electricity, and public administration, community, social and personal services, and it appears unlikely that these backlogs can be made up in the remaining three years,'' the MTA said justifying its reduction.

The MTA will be placed before the National Development Council for approval at its meeting scheduled for June 27-28.
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