Despite the economic blockade, the country is rife with opportunities that enable entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, such as the availability of retail space, access to funding and advisory services, and support from incubation centres, according to QDB executive director of Advisory Services and Incubation Ibrahim al-Mannai.
“If you look back five years ago, Qatar’s entrepreneurship ecosystem was totally different from what you see today. Now, it is more supportive and entrepreneur-friendly than it was before,” al-Mannai told Gulf Times in an interview.
“We now have many supportive agencies, mainly among them is Qatar Development Bank, and this also includes all the initiatives that we have launched and will be launching in the future,” he continued.
Al-Mannai noted that even home-based businesses are gaining a lot of support, not only from major players in the private sector, but also from the government side.
“At the same time, there are also initiatives from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce that support home-based businesses, such as encouraging them to register their companies, so the ecosystem today is more mature and it has many support systems.
“We also have a lot of tools that provide business owners and start-ups access to finance, but I think the main challenge now is how to scale up the capacity of entrepreneurs, how they can manage their businesses, how they can make their companies grow, and how they can get venture capital,” al-Mannai pointed out.
Al-Mannai emphasised that the economic blockade imposed on Qatar in June 2017 failed to discourage SME owners and home-based businesses to pursue their investment goals.
He also underscored the role of QDB and the private sector in addressing the immediate needs of the local market, shortly after the economic blockade was announced last year.
“The key to succeeding this economic blockade was driven by the private sector, which was very swift in terms of identifying the gaps in the market and identifying where are the alternative sources for these essential needs.
“At the same time, agencies like Qatar Development Bank, and also the Ministry of Economy and Commerce have identified the issues that need to be addressed immediately,” he stressed.
Al-Mannai said QDB also played a significant role in helping identify which supply chain to tap to substitute goods that have been affected by the economic blockade, with Qatari products.
He said QBD also launched three exhibitions specific to certain sectors to encourage and promote procurement of locally-manufactured products. “This initiative had helped local manufacturers scale up their businesses by producing more of their products and increasing the level of quality,” he said.
“Another key factor is the support that the government had given to the private sector, which had somehow pushed many procurement projects to be localised. These commitments to patronise local products had played a big role in helping the private sector to take this opportunity,” al-Mannai added.
