Digital Industry Development Senior Advisor at MoTC, Yazen Al Safi
The adoption of digital technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) increased in Qatar during the pandemic. The investment in digital transformation is expected to rise as it has helped firms to reduce operational cost and other benefits, said experts during a virtual event on ‘Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Recovery’ organised by The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
The event also highlighted Qatar’s economic performance during the pandemic and how firms can capitalise on the strengths and opportunities in the market.
Speaking during the event, Digital Industry Development Senior Advisor at Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), Yazen Al Safi, said, “When the pandemic started, survival became essential for SMEs to deliver their products without any interruption. That is why a lot of SMEs moved towards digital transformation to reduce their operational cost and find new ways of delivering their services.”
“We worked with businesses and made sure that they understand the meaning of digital transformation from an economy perspective to become more productive.
And, the businesses saw the benefits of digital transformation and started acquiring or investing even more and this trend will go on because of the benefits gained during this period of pandemic,” Al Safi added.
He said that one of the programmes is TASMU Digital Valley in which one of the services is match making where we acknowledge the importance of having the right partner especially when it comes to the new opportunities in the ICT sector in Qatar. At MoTC we facilitate these partnerships by connecting different companies with each other which is done through TASMU digital valley and another way of connecting technology providers with SMEs is through Go Digital programme which assists technology service providers to raise awareness and to meet startups interested in it.
Associate Partner at Oliver Wyman, Paul Love
Paul Love, Associate Partner at Oliver Wyman’s Financial Services and Public Sector practices, said “Last year we saw a lot of resilience and agility for the economy to adapt and industries reshaping the way of delivering products and services to the clients which was very positive. And at a macro level, despite the pandemic there was positive development among the private and real estate sector.”
He said, in terms of resilience firstly, the healthcare sector in Qatar was impressive because as the pandemic unfolded a very quick ability for companies to localize around core medical equipment’s and healthcare delivery showed quiet a rampant shift to provide healthcare delivery to citizens.
He added, the education sector delivered education on a remote basis. We saw the education system and curriculum moving towards technology which was very impressive.
Senior Advisor for Economics and Research at QFC, Thaddeus Malesa
Thaddeus Malesa, Senior Advisor for Economics and Research at QFC, presented the current picture from a macro level. “The performance among the QFC firms last year was a record year in terms of profits despite the circumstances,” he said.
He added that overall Qatar’s economy is looking to perform extremely well. World Bank and IMF both have projected that Qatar’s economy will grow fastest in the region this year.
