Qatar to invest $5bn in Spain's EU-funded Covid-19 recovery, Emir Tamim says
$300 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to invest $5 billion in Spanish projects, the Gulf state's monarchÌýsaid 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 said in a speech during a dinner held in King Felipe's palace in Madrid, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday.
monarch is expected to sign a bilateral agreement with Spain to invest in projects funded by the European Union Covid-19Ìýrecovery 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 theÌýReuters source.
Spain, the main receiver of EU funds, with a total €140 billion ($147.53 billion), about half of itÌýin grants, is scrambling to get support from private and foreign investors to speed up the recovery from the record 11 percentÌýcontraction 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 , which currently exports 77 million tonnes of LNG per year but aims to reach 126 million tonnes by 2027.
(Reuters)