DUSHANBE (Gulf Times) – Qatar’s Minister of State for International Co-operation Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and Tajikistan’s Minister of Investment Dawlat Ali Saeidoof signed an agreement on the construction of a mixed-use development in the Tajik capital city Dushanbe.

The project, called Diar Dushanbe, is Qatari Diar’s first project in Central Asia. The agreement signing ceremony was attended by Qatar Diar Group CEO Mohamed bin Ali al-Hedfa.

Wholly owned by Qatari Diar, Diar Dushanbe will create an integrated community development that will stretch across 68,000 m² on the waterfront of the Gissar Canal overlooking the Kuli Javonon Lake. The project is expected to be completed by 2014. Earlier in the day, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon met Qatar’s minister who conveyed the greetings of the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The Qatari minister also held talks with Tajikistan Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi and Minister of Investment Ali Saidiov.

QATARI DIAR is fully owned by the Qatar Investment Authority and was founded to support Qatar’s rapidly expanding economy and to provide structure and quality control for the country’s real estate development priorities. Capitalized at US $1 billion, the company was launched in December 2004 and has more than 35 active projects underway in some 20 countries.

The Qatar Investment Authority (جهاز قطر للاستثمار – QIA) is Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, specializing in local and foreign investment. It was founded in 2005 to manage the extra oil and natural gas surpluses that Qatar Government was receiving. As a result of its stated strategy to minimize risk from Qatar’s reliance on energy prices, the fund predominantly invests in international markets (USA, Europe and Asia) and within Qatar outside the energy sector.

QIA is estimated to hold in excess of $60 billion of assets, an amount that will significantly increase by 2011 as the state completes its expansion projects to become the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter with 77 million tons output capacity. The Qatar economy has been one of the most dynamic, where the GDP has risen from $8 billion in 1995 to an estimated GDP of $52 billion.