A view of Doha Skyline
Qatar has been ranked among top 10 countries for entrepreneurs. The country has secured ninth place in the ranking of best countries for entrepreneurs in 2022. With a score of 5.5, Qatar is on the ninth place in the ranking of countries on National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) 2021. Qatar is well ahead of many developed economies including United States, France, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan in the ranking.
Each year, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) presents its comparative assessment of national entrepreneurial conditions. The aim of this is to rank countries in terms of their ability to encourage new businesses. The latest GEM Global Report assesses the conditions for entrepreneurs in 50 countries worldwide.
The United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, and Finland rank at the top of the list of best countries for entrepreneurs.
As per the report, Qatar is among the top countries with the highest levels of new job expectations. “The highest levels of new job expectations were in Qatar, Chile and the United Arab Emirates, each with one in 10 of their adults or more both starting or running a new business and expecting to employ six or more people in five years’ time,” said the report.
During their time participating in GEM, the Qatar population has consistently expressed high levels of entrepreneurial confidence, both among the general population and among active entrepreneurs themselves, added the report. This continued in 2021, improving on 2020 levels, which were relatively high despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the report, 73.8 percent of the Qatar population saw good opportunities to start a business where they lived, compared to 72.3 percent in 2020, while 70.9 percent also said they had the skills, knowledge and experience to start a business, compared to 68.2 percent in 2020.
“Unsurprisingly given this level of confidence, the Qatar population led all GEM Level A economies in expectations to start a business within the next three years (50.4 percent) during the 2021 GEM cycle,” noted the report.
According to the report, the high-income economies have performed better than middle- and low-income economies on the NECI scores.
The GEM 2021/22 report includes a comprehensive National Expert Survey (NES). The NES captures the perspectives of over 2,000 relevant experts (a minimum of 36 per country) across the 50 participating countries, about the conditions governing entrepreneurship in their country.
There are 13 Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions through which GEM assesses how well each country supports entrepreneurship. GEM produces its National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) by averaging the scores from these 13 conditions.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research reveals that supporting new businesses during hard times - such as during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak - and supporting women entrepreneurs, should be key components in a strategy to promote entrepreneurship, enabling it to flourish and make its full and valuable contribution to economic development and growth.
