DOHA, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and the State of Qatar reached an agreement to take steps aimed at contributing to bilateral trade turnover growth, Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan said after the meeting with Qatar's Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani​, Armenpress correspondent reports.

Minister Karayan departed for Qatar in the delegation led by President Serzh Sargsyan.

“The major aim of the meeting with Qatar’s Economy Minister was to reach agreements on further cooperation formats: we reached those agreements. We have presented Armenia’s investment environment’s attractiveness, a number of concrete investment programs which they can carry out at the first stage. I invited my colleague to visit Armenia”, Suren Karayan said.

According to the Minister, the Armenian side proposed to make investments in promising fields, such as in agriculture, urban development, road construction and tourism. “It is possible new investment programs, new ideas will emerge during the discussions. In particular, we have talked about the possible investment in the high technologies field. Preliminary agreements were reached on holding a bilateral economic forum”, the Armenian Minister said.

Minister Karayan said both sides accept that currently the bilateral trade turnover volumes are at a very low level, and there is a desire to sharply increase them. “We have agreed with my colleague to stay in constant contact, we will try to take steps within the frames of public-private sector cooperation aimed at increasing the trade turnover”, Karayan said.

Armenia and Qatar established diplomatic relations on November 5, 1997. In 2016 the trade turnover between the two countries comprised 468.3 thousand USD (45.2% growth). The export amounted to 14.7 thousand USD (increase 3.5 times). In January-March, 2017 the trade turnover comprised 38.3 thousand USD (increase 4.1 times).