The Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) has witnessed a 41% year-on-year jump in new firms that have registered under the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority during the first half of this year.
The newly registered firms come from a wide variety of sectors including information technology, education and training, events and PR, advisory and consulting.
The bulk of firms that have registered with the QFCA so far in 2017 are from Qatar. There has been a vast increase in the European firms and there have also been a number of firms from the Middle East and North Africa and Asia Pacific regions.
“The growth we have seen is due to the hard work our business development team have been managing; this includes attracting firms through self-generated leads, QFC hosted and attended events and networking with our channel partners,” QFCA chief executive Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida said.
The QFC have in recent months conducted roadshows in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Manchester and Germany, helping raise the QFC’s profile to international audiences.  
The growth in new firms registering is testament to the QFC platform being the best choice in the Middle East for the firms looking to expand their business. “I am positive that the second half of 2017 will be just as successful for the QFC as business continues as usual,” he added.
Early this year, QFC had said it plans to triple foreign direct investments flows from its registered firms to more than QR200bn in the next five years.
Recently, in his meeting with the UK Ambassador Ajay Sharma, al-Jaida said countless opportunities exist for the UK firms in Qatar’s key growth sectors.
The QFC is eyeing several European firms, especially from Germany and the UK, as part of widening and expanding its international appeal.
Moreover, QFC is also aiming to account for at least 5% of the market capitalisation of the Qatar Stock Exchange through the listing of its entities on the local bourse.




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