Haakon’s Visit to Qatar and the UAE

  April 14, 2010 at 5:08 am by

On April 12th Crown Prince Haakon started his official visit to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The central aspect of the program during the first day was the opening of the aluminum factory Qatalum, which is a cooperated project between Norway and Qatar. Haakon attended the opening of the factory joined by Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

After the opening of Qatalum Haakon visited the Norwegian school in Qatar where he met the pupils who told the Prince about their life in Qatar. The Norwegian School in the Mesaieed industrial area has been open since 1971 and has 150 pupils.

Crown Prince Haakon also visited the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar’s capital Doha. The Prince got a guided tour where he could see the collections which include manuscripts, art, crafts and precious stones.

Click at the image to see more pictures at kongehuset.no

In the afternoon the Crown Prince travelled to the UAE. Haakon’s first engagement in the UAE was the visit to the Zayed University where he gave a lecture. The Zayed University was founded in 1998 and is a university for women.

Afterwards the Prince visited the Masdar City project which is planend to get a population of 40,000 people and offer work for another 50,000. The project was started in 2006 and is headed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.

The Crown Prince also attended several nuclear delegation meetings with Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubark Al Nahyan. The visit was concluded by a gala dinner in the evening.

A thread about Haakon’s visit can be found here.

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