20 Qatar businessmen visited the Philippines last week to consider investing $1 billion or more from the state-owned Qatari Investment Authority into the food, real estate, petrochemical, mining, and steel industries of the Philippines . . . Qatari Emir Kalifa Al-Thani was supposed to visit the Philippines between January 22 and 25, however his visit has been delayed . . . 85 percent of the investment would likely come from the Qatar fund, which has a total investment portfolio of $300 billion, while the remaining 15 percent would come from either from the Philippine government or private companies . . . Manila and Doha have been trying to develop an investment agreement for several years, however negotiations had been stalled until last month . . . Kuwait is considering investing $500 million from the Kuwait and Gulf Link Holding Co. (KGL) into the outsourcing, infrastructure, and tourism industries . . . more than 40,000 tourists from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar visited the Philippines last year . . . Manila and Doha are expected to sign two economic agreements when Al-Thani reschedules his visit to the Philippines . . . Qatar imports most of its food and will likely focus much of its investment in food production and energy projects . . . the Philippines is becoming an appealing investment location for Gulf Countries, according to a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch survey that placed the Philippines as the third-most preferred investment market in the world behind only China and Indonesia.