NTB, Qatar explores investment and education opportunities

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3 hours ago

Mataram (ANTARA) – West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and Qatar explore various opportunities for investment and educational cooperation in the region.

NTB Governor Lalu Muhammad Iqbal stated that the visit of the Qatari Ambassador to Indonesia, Sultan bin Mubarak Saad Al-Dosari, was to explore the region’s investment potential and opportunities for strategic cooperation.

“I presented the various potentials NTB offers to Qatar, including exploring the entry of the Qatar Fund, Qatar Charity, and Qatar Airways into the region,” Iqbal said in Mataram on Saturday.

“The meeting paves the way for investment, whether through government institutions, private entities, or private equity firms from Qatar,” Iqbal said.

Key sectors discussed included airport infrastructure development, air connectivity and airline expansion, and strengthening investment in local industries.

Also included was the proposed construction of a bypass road connecting Lembar Port in West Lombok to Kayangan Port in East Lombok.

Furthermore, the NTB Provincial Government advocated for opportunities to place skilled Indonesian migrant workers from NTB and to employ vocational high school (SMK) graduates to meet Qatar’s demand for professional labor.

Several prominent Qatari institutions were identified as potential partners for this cooperation, including the Qatar Fund, Qatar Charity, and Qatar Airways, alongside the potential involvement of media and telecommunications networks such as Al Jazeera and Indosat.

Iqbal added that Qatar responded enthusiastically to the opportunities presented and expressed a strong willingness to follow up on the meeting’s outcomes at a technical level.

“There are significant long-term opportunities for cooperation, and we will soon prepare the technical steps to finalize the investment scheme and address the agreed-upon workforce requirements,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Sultan bin Mubarak Saad Al-Dosari, expressed confidence that the relationship between Qatar and Indonesia—rooted in history and a strategic partnership—would continue to strengthen, including through regional collaborations such as the one in NTB.

“We discussed cooperation between Qatar and Lombok and explored existing opportunities, specifically in the fields of investment and education,” he stated.

In addition to the meeting in Mataram, the Ambassador visited the Mandalika Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Central Lombok.

During the visit, he held direct discussions with the ITDC, the zone’s operator, to assess the project’s development potential.

He noted that the Mandalika SEZ offers highly promising investment prospects for Qatari investors.

“The project holds great potential for Qatar to invest in Mandalika,” Al-Dosari said.