More technology companies are coming to expand their operations in Qatar as the government ramps up its investments in tech and innovation. And the presence of two hyperscalers – Microsoft and Google – in the country is expected to help startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem here to further flourish, said an expert.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the 'Emtech lab' launch in Doha, Partner and Qatar Technology Lead at PwC Firas Sleiman (pictured) said the global consultancy firm has been seeing a dramatic increase in the number of tech companies establishing their operations in Qatar during the last five years.
“Also, a lot of the companies that have headquarters in the region whether in Dubai or Saudi Arabia are now investing in Qatar. They’re opening their offices here, and they’re bringing their best resources just because Qatar which is going towards a knowledge-based economy has opened the gates for all companies to come and interact and work with the government. We see the big names all flocking here, opening their big offices. Lusail now is full of technology companies, and they’re all investing in Qatar, because they know that the leadership of the country is interested in technology and innovation,” Sleiman added.
The announcement by Microsoft and Google to each open a cloud datacenter region in Qatar has also been attracting more tech companies to set up shop here, said Sleiman.
He added: “If we see for example Silicon Valley, usually when what we call the hyperscalers, the big companies that provide commoditised technology like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon set up shop somewhere, automatically the ecosystem of startups and entrepreneurial ventures immediately flourish as well.
Reason for this is hyperscalers can sell at scale the tools that they have and the capabilities that are in their cloud are so advanced and also so commoditised and cheap. And we know that there’s big investment and collaboration with Qatar on building hyperscalers here which automatically is going to open the gates for investments in entrepreneurial companies”.
According to Sleiman, the presence of Microsoft and Google in Qatar is already creating a positive impact for the local entrepreneurs.
He said: “We also see entrepreneurs now coming to Qatar, and they start investing and building their apps on these hyperscalers, on these clouds. And because they know that maybe within months these are going to be launched officially, they’ll also be ready and will launch immediately. When clouds come up, the ecosystem of startups come up with it. Then it will grow very quickly. Qatar has a lot of enablers, in terms of funding, investments, policies and there are incubators and accelerators for technology who invest in startups. The country has first mover advantage to be a regional hub”.
Speaking about data protection, Sleiman said the advancement of data and analytics is pushing the advancement of cyber security worldwide. In Qatar, the government as well as large private sector companies have been investing heavily in cyber security. But greater awareness on data policies is needed among small and medium-sized enterprises.
“We’re working closely with a lot of agencies here in the public domain also. We just got accredited for national cyber security agency recently, being one out of two or three companies. The government and the private sector are related. The government sets the standards, regulations and policies that protect both. And there’s a lot that’s happening in the government to protect the private sector. But I also would say the private sector needs to protect itself,” Sleiman said.
He added: “The large corporations are doing more than the small corporations. Generally that’s the case anywhere in the world. But here, in particular in Qatar, it’s also because of the maturity of technology security teams in those phases. And there is an awareness that is required and I think the government is doing a lot in that. But also, we as consultants have a role in helping small and medium businesses protect themselves better. Generally, the larger businesses and the government are well equipped but the SMEs are usually more at risk. And so we’re hoping to help everybody”.
