Serviced offices assume tremendous significance in this scenario, as they allow companies to focus on their core competencies without having to spend more time on regulatory compliance while maximising employee productivity and output. These offices reduce the cost of setting up workspaces and help optimise synergies by encouraging like-minded companies to collaborate and join hands.
Flexibility is one of the main reasons why many businesses choose to take space in a serviced office. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) find this extremely beneficial, as serviced offices also give them the freedom to expand or contract as they wish, even at short notice. Also, for a fixed price, they can receive everything they need to run their business, right from desks, chairs and telephones, to cleaning services and refreshment options. Businesses can also benefit from serviced offices when they set up specific teams, house people in another city, move their operations to another location or even as a temporary measure while they wait for permanent premises to become available.
Shared office spaces cater to the needs of both the company and its employees. This, in turn, contributes to advancing the country’s quest for innovation, as creative business ideas no longer become stifled owing to the cost of setting up the business. On the other hand, innovative ideas flourish and the economy leaps forward to consolidate its global reputation as a hub of innovation and excellence.
Qatar, which has been leading the way in adopting the latest market trends, has seen a steady improvement in its ease of doing business index because of adopting innovative and affordable workplace solution. However, the serviced office market in Qatar is still small, with very few players operating in this space. Recognising this need, Alfardan Properties, a catalyst in the country’s march towards further growth and diversification, partnered with industry pioneer Workinton, an emerging global leader in co-working space culture, and opened its first business centre at Alfardan Center, located next to Souq Waqif, one of Doha’s most famous cultural attractions.
Workinton has built up a reputation for providing a range of cutting-edge services for 15,000 members and over 2,000 corporate companies with the Coworking, Virtual Office, Ready Office and Meeting Room services it offers. Entrepreneurs and companies associated with Workinton own practical, economic workspaces that help them focus on their business and create synergies by collaborating with like-minded companies.
The business landscape in Qatar is undergoing a paradigm shift. In fact, the last twenty years have seen unprecedented improvement across key global parameters, and the country has been ranked first in the world in the index of countries that have achieved record economic growth since 1997. The World Bank expects the Qatari economy to achieve an average growth rate of 3% in the next two years, fast tracked by the infrastructure developments in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the launch of the $10bn Barzan Natural Gas Project in 2020. In addition, Qatar is expected to attain more fiscal deficit containment in the medium term due to its liberal tax policies and administrative reforms.
Alfardan is privileged to play a significant role in spearheading this transition. Shared workspaces are all set to propel employee productivity and company output to new levels, as Qatar consolidates its global position as a hub for business and commercial activities.
