The fourth edition of the ‘Qatar Entrepreneurship Conference’, organised yesterday by Qatar Development Bank (QDB), highlights the role of the country’s entrepreneurship sector in driving economic growth, HE the Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari said.
Al-Kuwari, who inaugurated the three-day conference at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, said the event is “an important initiative” and is in line with Qatar’s efforts to promote the private sector, particularly the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector, “as an important tributary to sustainable development.”
The minister said the state of Qatar “has succeeded during the past years in gradually moving from an oil-based economy to an economy to which non-oil sectors contributed to 52% in 2017.”
“Over the past years, Qatar has been able to demonstrate its ability to achieve economic diversification without relying entirely on the hydrocarbon capabilities by placing innovation, entrepreneurship, and SMEs at the forefront of its strategic priorities,” said al-Kuwari, who inaugurated the event in the presence of HE the Governor of the Qatar Central Bank Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani and QDB CEO Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Khalifa.
He added: “The country has made continuous efforts to introduce a series of rules and regulations to facilitate collaboration between the different institutions of the state, on one hand, and the constructive partnership with the private sector, on the other hand, to enhance the contribution of entrepreneurs and the youth to economic development and encourage their own initiatives within an innovative and creative environment.”
Al-Khalifa said QDB wants to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among the people of Qatar and encourage those who want to start their businesses. 
“We want them to come and celebrate entrepreneurship, see other SMEs, connect with the ecosystem players and to be inspired. This platform also brings potential startups, collaborators, mentors, and investors onto one platform to share ideas and bring them to reality. Like every year, this year too was highly successful in terms of greater turnout and the repository of ideas,” al-Khalifa said.
QDB executive director of Advisory and Incubation Ibrahim al-Mannai said the conference will include activities and events such as 40 workshops for the whole duration of the conference, as well as the participation of 15 emerging companies.
The Qatar Entrepreneurship Conference ‘Rowad Qatar 2018’, which carries the theme ‘Turning Challenges into Opportunities’, is held during the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) and aims to inspire people and help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. 
QDB said ‘Rowad Qatar 2018’ is the world’s largest gathering of potential startups, collaborators, mentors, and investors, and is now recognised as “the ideal gateway” or starting point of any start-up journey. It is also a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand how to begin their startup journey from idea to business reality.
During the event, the minster and Central Bank Governor also witnessed the signing of two contracts. Al-Khalifa signed a contract with Steve Robinson, general manager, IBM Cloud Labs, IBM Hybrid Cloud, for the launch of the IBM Innovation Hub.
Al-Khalifa also signed another contract with Carsten Kolbek, CEO of Startup Bootcamp, to launch the first SportsTech accelerator in the Middle East and Africa region with the goal to become the leading and central point for sports innovation.
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