Qatar to invest in 20 Macedonian petrol stations.

Qatar is interested in investing in 20 petrol stations in Macedonia. The Macedonian government delegation that has recently visited Qatar, offered the company Qatar Petroleum this project, in which some locations have already been identified and the rest will be defined together with the municipalities, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said.

Apart from searching for deposits of oil and natural gas, at the meeting in Doha, the Qatari officials took interest also in purchasing 49 percent of the Macedonian power producer ELEM. Additional analyses will be made in the aviation industry as well. Qatar Airways was offered opening direct flight services between Skopje and Doha or Skopje as an additional destination. Technical teams from Qatar are soon to come to Macedonia to investigate the possibilities for investment.

"We had a very successful meeting, at which we discussed industry, energy, gas supply, etc. At the moment there is potential partnership on other industrial projects. We agreed to continue the cooperation. We are going to visit Macedonia. Representatives of Qatar on a technical level are going to consider all details concerning the implementation of the potential partnership in a few areas, said Qatari Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada.

Besides energy and building energy systems and facilities, Qatar is also interested in mining, real estate, export of farming products and development of tourist zones and centers.