8Natural gas exporter Qatar and Vietnam have set up a US$1 billion fund to invest in sectors including agriculture. Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority will provide 90% of the fund's equity, Gulf Times reported, citing Phung The Long, Vietnam's Ambassador to Doha. "We have exchange ideas about setting up an animal farm for breeding cattle and lambs," The Long said.
Gas exporter Qatar and Vietnam have set up a $1 billion fund (56 million pounds) to invest in sectors including agriculture, a Qatar-based newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Qatar and Vietnam have signed an agreement to set up a joint fund with a capital of $1bn to facilitate investments in both countries. Phung The Long, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Vietnam in Doha, said Qatar’s contribution to the fund, through Qatar Investment Authority, would be $900mn and the balance by Vietnam.
As the increase in oil prices continue to help boost the income of Persian Gulf nations, Turkey is becoming a magnet for Gulf-based investors aiming to establish strategic food reserves
A bilateral agricultural venture between Cambodia and Kuwait proposed during an official visit by Kuwait's prime minister left Cambodia very positive about future cooperation, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said yesterday.
Kuwait is eyeing Cambodian farmland for investment in agriculture to produce food supply for the state, a minister said yesterday.
Dr Kayan Jaff, the FAO’s regional chief, has warned that only a multi-billion dollar investment in agriculture will curb soaring supermarket prices — urging governments to buy up farmland in regions like the Horn of Africa and Asia.
As part of Doha’s efforts to ensure food security, Qatar and Sudan yesterday agreed to establish a joint holding company, which is expected to focus on agricultural investment, food industry and animal husbandry.
Both public and private sector investors in the Gulf are also looking at ways to improve local food supplies, by investing in a range of outlets from arable farm land in the Sudan, Algeria and Pakistan to introduce new technology to enhance the local production of foodstuffs and grains, livestock, poultry and fish.
Globalisation has taken yet another twist with some Middle Eastern countries deciding to grow their crops in other countries.
To break the runaway inflation that is fuelled by high food costs, Gulf rulers have a new strategy: they are buying unused agricultural land in poor countries like Pakistan, Thailand and Sudan, and becoming large-scale farmers.
Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, one of the Middle East’s largest private equity companies, has been quietly buying farmland in Pakistan as part of plans by the United Arab Emirates to increase food security and to damp inflation.
