Qatar to invest $5bn in Spain's EU-funded Covid-19 recovery, Emir Tamim says

Qatar's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to invest $5 billion in Spanish projects, the Gulf state's monarch said late on Tuesday at a dinner held in his honour in Madrid.

The amount shows how confident Qatar is in the Spanish economy's strength, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in a speech during a dinner held in King Felipe's palace in Madrid, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Qatar's monarch is expected to sign a bilateral agreement with Spain to invest in projects funded by the European Union Covid-19 recovery funds, the first such agreements between a member state and a non-EU country.

The investments, mainly in sustainability and digitalisation projects, are due to be implemented within two to three years, according to the Reuters source.

Spain, the main receiver of EU funds, with a total €140 billion ($147.53 billion), about half of it in grants, is scrambling to get support from private and foreign investors to speed up the recovery from the record 11 percent contraction it suffered in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

As part of efforts to lift up its economy, Spain wants to build up an energy hub around Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports and re-export terminals. The country has spare LNG capacity and aims to position a supply hub for the EU nations who are seeking to reduce their dependence on Russia.

However, Spain still lacks re-export capacity to the north to live up to its hub ambitions.

The energy hub project would require more imports from Qatar, which currently exports 77 million tonnes of LNG per year but aims to reach 126 million tonnes by 2027.

(Reuters)