France, Qatar start new fund

(MENAFN) France and Qatar launched a mixed Franco-Qatari fund Sunday to invest 300 million euros in small and medium-sized French companies, in a bid to quash concerns raised by a previous Qatari plan to invest specifically in depressed French suburbs. Business ties between cash-strapped France and gas-rich Qatar have deepened in the past five years as the eurozone's second biggest economy behind Germany has overcome instincts for economic patriotism to welcome inward investment in areas ranging from sports to real estate and infrastructure. But a plan for Qatar to pump 50 million euros into businesses in the suburbs had proved divisive, when they were first floated, with critics concerned that the Gulf state might exercise too much influence and prompting former president Nicolas Sarkozy to put them on hold until after the May 2012 election.