Doha: Qatar’s resilient economy and its steady march towards its national vision 2030 have ensured its investment landscape remains competitive for international companies. The future-ready infrastructure of the country attracts long-term foreign direct investment (FDI) and strengthens their influx.
The country is witnessing a significant increase in FDI with more projects attracting international investments.
IPA Qatar said in a tweet, recently “Qatar tops FDI Intelligence Standouts Watchlist 2023. Qatar has achieved a 70% annual growth in FDI projects between 2019 and 2022 with most of the FDI projects in 2022 coming from companies in ICT, as well as business and financial services”.
Qatar ranks first among the world’s top destinations for FDI, owing to its strong economic and investment momentum into 2023 and ranks first among the world’s top 50 FDI destinations expected to carry the strongest investment momentum into 2023. In 2022 the top sectors for FDI projects were oil & gas, financial services, and software & IT services, it noted.
The US and Qatar’s commercial ties have continued to flourish with the total economic relationship between the two countries exceeding $200bn and both nations eager to expand trade and investment ties, according to the US-Qatar Business Council (USQBC) report to mark 50 years of partnership between Qatar and the United States.
In 2021, the total amount of foreign investments from the US to Qatar amounted to QR895m. In the same year, Qatar boasted substantial investment in several US sectors including an announcement to invest $10bn in US ports in the coming years. Additionally, Qatar increased its investments in the United States with some key investments including US-market leaders AVANGRID and Eat Just, to name a few.
An earlier update by IPA Qatar on the Middle East highlighted the FDI Markets data which showed that Qatar attracted 71 percent of investments into the Middle East in the second quarter of 2022, creating 6,680 jobs across 11 projects and securing investments worth $19.2bn. The top sectors were software and IT, business services, financial services, and coal, oil and gas.
Global FDI surpassed pre-pandemic levels, reaching its highest level in the past five years as a result of an uptick in merger and acquisitions activity and global corporate restructuring, particularly in the technology sector. In Q2, 2022, about 3,658 projects were recorded, creating 479,319 jobs, and attracting investments worth $224bn globally.
In the same period, FDI projects in the Middle East accounted for 12 percent of global FDI. 237 projects were recorded, creating 17,975 jobs and attracting a total of $27bn worth of investments into the Middle East. Software and IT services was the top sector with 30 percent of projects. The US was the largest source of FDI.
FDI into the Middle East quadrupled in Q2, 2022 from $6.6bn in Q1 to $27bn in Q2, indicating strong growth and rebound from the pandemic. Qatar is an attractive country for FDI, with significant opportunities for investment in infrastructure, healthcare, education, tourism, and financial services. The country’s economic policies have provided support for various sectors and bolstered their contribution to economic growth, thus strengthening and enhancing investor confidence in the national economy.
In adherence with the Qatar National Vision 2030 plan to establish an advanced, knowledge based, and diversified economy, the government has introduced reforms to its foreign investment laws to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of businesses in most sectors.
