From left: Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad Al Thani, Managing Director of Business Development at QFC Authority; Dalya Alkhalaf, Director of Marketing and Communication at Media City Qatar; and Lana Khachan, Head of Communications and CSR at Vodafone Qatar.
Female business leaders from various industries in Qatar are optimistic about the local and global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic within the next one to two years, according to KPMG’s ‘Global Female Leaders Outlook 2021 Qatar Edition’ report which was released recently.
The report, which also included ‘Featured Interviews Outlook’ with a number of female leaders from Qatar, highlighted that women leaders are embracing the changes related to COVID-19, and are still being realistic about what the new reality holds for their organisations.
According to Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad Al Thani, Managing Director of Business Development at QFC Authority, the largest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customers and the workforce in Qatar’s financial services industry has been the aggressive rollout of digitalised services.
“We have also witnessed the initial emergence of FinTech purveyors in the Qatari marketplace, as well as solutions including contactless payment technologies that had heretofore not existed in the local context. I expect the Qatar economy to regain its pre-crisis peak in early 2022. As the rollout of the vaccine reaches the majority of Qatar’s population by mid-summer, I expect a consumer led rebound in Qatar by the end of 2021 as people are freed up from lockdown and businesses begin to operate more freely. The rebound may take longer in other areas of the globe, however Qatar will be well placed to take advantage of the upturn in 2022. The momentum of the 2022 World Cup will help to drive forward Qatar’s economy,” she added.
Dalya Alkhalaf, Director of Marketing and Communication at Media City Qatar, reiterated that all industries witnessed rapidly shifting market dynamics during the pandemic. “As an industry, we’ve seen the standard rounds of redundancies as companies pulled back on media spend, production and others; which is having a knock on effect to the mdedia ecosystem. While saying this, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a number of companies within the media industry that have adapted incredibly well and fast to the change in environment,” said Alkhalaf.
She added: “Most academics point to history and a range of between 2-10 years for a partial to full recovery. What is very clear is that the demise of certain industries that were struggling pre-COVID most likely won’t make it back, such as traditional retail. The gig economy, remote working solutions, and disruptor tech companies are primed to excel”.
Sheikha Hanoof bint Thani Al Thani, Senior Associate at Qatar Investment Authority, went on to reiterate that the unprecedented level of government stimuli in Qatar and worldwide has gone a long way to alleviate the impact from COVID-19.
“In addition, energy prices are back to pre-crisis levels, which gives the Qatari government ample fiscal room to gain traction for robust economic recovery,” she added.
Sheikha Hanoof, providing two possible outcomes for the near-term global outlook, also said that successful COVID-19 containment and faster vaccination processes could result in accelerated global economic expansion; while the downside scenario would be the rise in infections due to mutations of the virus and delayed rollout of vaccines or boosters which could significantly impede recovery.
She also warned that the pandemic has intensified risks around debt accumulation, which could hold back growth over the long term in the absence of robust reform efforts.
“While the global economy seems to have entered a mild recovery, after a 4.3 percent contraction the previous year, policymakers face tough challenges in public health, central banking, debt management and budget policies to set the foundation for strong and healthy growth,” Sheikha Hanoof added.
Every business has been affected by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in some way or another; but just in the way that everyone’s experience of it has been different, their recovery journey will also be different, said Lana Khachan, Head of Communications and CSR at Vodafone Qatar.
Khachan said some sectors will naturally recover quicker than others, and added that the pandemic has also brought unexpected growth to some areas as customer demands and behaviours have changed.
