In the two-day third meeting of the India-Qatar High Level Monitoring Mechanism (HLMM) which concluded here on Friday both sides reviewed the progress made in agreed areas of cooperation and agreed on specific steps to further intensify cooperation in areas such as petrochemicals, fertilizers, power, banking and finance sector, civil aviation and HRD.

The joint working group on fertilizer is to meet in Doha shortly with a view to discuss long term cooperation in the fertilizer sector. The Qatar side expressed its interest in getting access to the disinvestment of government equity in the public sector enterprises in India via the Anchor investor route. The investment opportunities in the Kayamkulam expansion project of NTPC would be evaluated by the Qatar Investment Authority as also in renewable energy projects. The joint committee for promoting investment into India will be meeting shortly to discuss investment opportunities.

The Indian side welcomed the proposal of the Qatar side for wide-ranging cooperation in the area of banking supervision and exchange of information to combat money laundering and terror financing.

The two sides agreed that the fourth meeting of the India-Qatar HLMM would be held in Doha in the first quarter of 2012.

The India-Qatar HLMM was set up pursuant to a decision taken by both the countries during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Qatar in November 2008.

The Principal Secretary to the Indian Prime Minister, TKA Nair and the Minister of State for International Cooperation of Qatar, Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah are co-chairpersons of the HLMM. The HLMM is mandated to monitor the progress in the implementation of the areas of cooperation agreed to by the leaders of the two countries in order to enhance bilateral cooperation. The first two meetings of the HLMM were held in February 2009 and November 2009.