By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

More Swedish companies are expected to come to Qatar with the opening of the country’s embassy at the Palm Tower in West Bay yesterday.

The embassy was inaugurated by the Swedish Minister of Trade, Dr Ewa Björling, in the presence of embassy officials and dignitaries from the Qatar government.

Minister Ewa Björling and Swedish ambassador Ewa Polano met HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Ministers of Transport and Health, and the Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade.

Speaking to Gulf Times, Dr Björling expressed her desire to strengthen relations between Sweden and Qatar with the inauguration of the Swedish embassy in Doha.

“That is something that we have been working for many years,” she said. “Today we have Swedish exports to Qatar to the tune of $260mn and approximately one-third of that from Qatar to Sweden, there is a huge potential for increase.

The Qatar-Sweden trade volume had been increasing until the financial crisis in 2009, according to Dr Björling. “Then it went down. Now it’s on its way up again and it can be even better,” she said.

The Swedish minister said her discussions with top government officials of Qatar included future areas for co-operation, such as infrastructure projects and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

She noted that there are many Swedish companies that can offer good solutions especially when it comes to traffic – assuring more security and civil tolerance against deaths in the traffic. It will also include civil security for the airport.

While focusing more on ICT, she said some of the Swedish companies will be working on environmental issues and on general infrastructure.

She cited Ericsson’s track record as the number one Swedish company which specialises in ICT and now has a project in Qatar, together with a lot of sub contractors.

But in the future, the Swedish minister noted that more will be done within the area of healthcare.

Dr Björling also met Qatar’s Minister for Health HE Abdulla bin Khalid al-Qahtani, who is also the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Health.

Dr Björling hopes to bring more Swedish companies which offer healthcare solutions and advanced equipment related to medical technology.

“We know that Qatar is discussing a lot on future healthcare plans, how to provide preventive healthcare for the whole population,” she said, citing that Qatar is one of the countries with the highest amount of type 2 diabetes.

She believes the Qatar government is thinking how these kinds of diseases can be avoided and how to better prevent them in the future especially for the young generation.

In her meeting with Deputy Minister for Economy and Commerce HE Sultan bin Rashed al-Khater, the Swedish ambassador said: “We discussed free trade negotiations between European Union and GCC countries and important areas for us to develop further.”