The $1.264 billion agreement between Ningxia University and Qatar Free Zone

On the afternoon of August 10, 2020, representatives of Ningxia University, Qatar NAAAS Group and Huaxin Guolian (Beijing) Corporate Management Company held an online signing ceremony on the cooperation of the “Beautiful Doha” project, with an investment value of about $1.264 billion. Officials including Mr. Chen Fang, Deputy Director-General of the Science and Technology Department of Ningxia, Mr. He Jianguo, President of Ningxia University, and Mr. Nasser Hassan Al Jabar, Chairman of Qatar NAAAS Group, attended the ceremony.

The signing of this project marks one of the key sections in the memorandum of cooperation (MOC) between CASTTC and the Qatar Free Zone Authority (QFZA). The signatories will jointly promote the demonstration and application of Ningxia University’s green smart water-conserving irrigation technology and apparatus in Qatar, which serves the “Beautiful Doha” project in the fields of food production, water conservation and greening, water-conserving agriculture, and ecological protection, etc. In his speech, Deputy Director-General Chen Fang expressed the hope to co-establish the China-Qatar Technology Transfer Center with the Qatar Free Zone, and listed the project signed by Ningxia University and Qatar as one of the main sections in the initial stage of China-Qatar cooperation. With a good start, both parties are engaged to promote the implementation of the China-Qatar scientific and technological cooperation project, and 2-3 technology transfer projects are expected to be implemented each year.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, and against the back of the “cold winter” season for foreign scientific and technological exchanges, instead of sitting idle, CASTTC of the Science and Technology Department of Ningxia took active measures to have successively held several meetings, both online and offline, with Huaxin Guolian (Beijing) Corporate Management Company, QFZA and Ningxia University, prompting the scientific and technological cooperation on a positive note. On June 23, CASTTC facilitated a four-party video conference with Huaxin Guolian (Beijing) Corporate Management Company, QFZA and Ningxia University, and remarkable results were obtained after in-depth exchanges on the relevant policies, investment environment and fields for cooperation regarding Qatar’s “Beautiful Doha” project, food production, water conservation and greening, water-conserving agriculture, and ecological protection, etc., laying a good foundation for the signing of the agreement.