Currently, 38 Polish companies are active in the Qatari market.
Qatar and Poland have signed an agreement to promote cooperation in the shipbuilding industry.
The pact was formalised during the Polish-Qatari Forum of New Technologies held in Warsaw on Friday.
The event attracted over 200 attendees, with representatives from nearly 100 Polish companies and 60 Qatari firms and state institutions.
“The signed agreement is designed to consolidate Polish-Qatari relations,” the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology wrote in a statement. The ministry highlighted the potential for further collaboration in artificial intelligence development and cybersecurity.
“Qatar plays a key role as a stable LNG supplier to Poland,” said Krzysztof Paszyk, Poland’s Minister of Development and Technology. He went on to say that this “has a significant impact on Poland’s energy security.”
Paszyk also addressed the opportunities for Polish companies to establish connections with Qatari enterprises in the transport, construction, and cybersecurity sectors.
“Qatari investors have been present in the Polish real estate market. Poland, being a leader of the European digital transformation, believes that it is possible to develop cooperation with Qatar in the digitization of the public sector, financial services and cybersecurity,” said head of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, Andrzej Dycha.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani embarked to Poland for an official visit to hold bilateral talks with Duda.
There, the amir expressed anticipation for deepening relations and strengthening the bonds of friendship between the two countries.
President Duda had met Sheikh Tamim in Doha in May on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the Qatar Economic Forum. The discussions at the time involved Doha and Warsaw’s bilateral ties and “issues of common interest”, including Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar-Poland’s relations
Doha and Warsaw established diplomatic ties in 1989.
In 2002, the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who was Qatar’s leader at the time, became the first head of a Gulf state to visit Poland.
Then in 2009, Qatar and Poland signed a 20-year liquified natural gas contract stipulating the annual delivery of 1 million tonnes of LNG from Doha to the European country starting from 2016.
Subsequently, another agreement was signed in 2017 to increase the delivery volume to 2.1 million tonnes per annum, starting from 2018.
In 2023, Poland was Qatar’s 21st largest trading partner.
Over the last three years, the trade exchange between the two nations has seen a whipping increase of 80 percent, amounting to $1.3 billion in 2023.
Currently, 38 Polish companies are active in the Qatari market. Of these, 32 are in partnership with Qatari counterparts, one is fully Polish-owned, four operate under the Qatar Financial Centre, and one functions within the free zones.
Since the initial agreement, Qatar has supplied up to 30 percent of Poland’s LNG, establishing the Gulf state as a significant energy ally for Poland.
In 2011, the Qatar-Polish Business Council (QPBC) was established in collaboration with Poland’s embassy in Doha, under an agreement between the Qatar Central Bank and the National Bank of Poland.
The QPBC has annually organised the Qatar-Poland New Tech Forum, set for its fifth edition in Warsaw this Friday. This event plays a pivotal role in showcasing Poland’s technology and telecommunications sector, which contributes eight percent to the country’s GDP and employs over 250,000 individuals.
Beyond economic ties, Qatar and Poland have bolstered their political relations through annual political consultations since 2014, involving their foreign ministers.
Security cooperation has also been significant, notably when Poland joined Western allies in security operations during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, marking a historic event hosted in an Arab and Muslim country for the first time.
