The Business Landscape in Qatar

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By Nagi Kaldawi

 Qatar enjoys political and economic stability with high-quality infrastructure and has one of the lowest corporate tax rates on the global level.

The Government’s Qatar National Vision 2030 is a major plan with a 200 billion USD investment that will transform the country into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development by 2030.

Qatar is home to over 85 different nationalities and steadily ranks as one of the top global economies in terms of competitiveness and innovation which offer many opportunities to establish and grow new businesses for locals and foreigners.

Despite that gas constitutes a priority for Qatar’s economy, the government has been working on diversifying the economy by offering many incentives to attract businesses, expertise, and investments for foreigners particularly in the fields of tourism, education, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, information technology (IT), and other businesses concerned with culture, media, and sports.

Qatar enjoys having an advanced sports infrastructure; Doha was ranked to be one of the top 50 global cities and the first in the Arab World in the “Ranking of Sports Cities 2020” by Burson Cohn & Wolfe which evaluates the performance of cities in hosting sporting events based on digital landscape analysis, sports media, and international federations surveys. Similarly, the “Global Sports Impact (GSI) Nations Index” by the Sports Market Intelligence’s company Sportcal ranked Qatar first in GCC and among the top 20 worldwide.

With an average growth of 4.5% over 11 years, between 2010 to 2020, Qatar’s GDP has grown steadily since it was awarded the right to host FIFA 2022 World Cup in 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the sports industry in Qatar is poised for further growth with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry identification of 83 commercial and investment opportunities for the private sector until 2023, spanning event management and promotion, sport development, venue construction, sporting goods and equipment, sports commercialization, sports tourism, and venue operations.

The most supported industries in Qatar include agriculture, education, tourism, healthcare, exploitation of natural resources, energy and mining, along with technical and IT services. In some cases, the Qatari government offers some incentives, including a no-tax policy for 10 years, for foreigners who are interested to invest in the country.

The Qatari government also offers business incubators and free economic zone platforms to attract foreign direct investment, such as the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) which was established in 2005 as a business platform to attract international financial services providers with around 670 companies already operating across different sectors and include foreign investors coming from 60 countries knowing that companies established under the QFC responsibility can be fully owned by foreign investors.

As an alternative to starting a new business in Qatar, investing in an existing profitable business is also possible and easier as it does not require obtaining sponsorship or registration.

Appointing a specialized consultancy company is required when establishing a new business in Qatar for guidance to provide all the required assistance needed for business establishment.

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