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The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) hosted this year’s edition of its Family Office Forum, bringing together senior family office representatives, next-generation leaders, wealth advisors, and industry experts to discuss factors shaping family wealth and the strategies required to ensure continuity across generations.The programme, themed “Preserving Legacy, Empowering Future Leadership”, featured a focused agenda combining a global wealth outlook and the key trends influencing family wealth, alongside a series of panel discussions and breakout sessions, all designed to provide practical insights on governance, succession planning, cross-border structuring and preparing next-generation family members for leadership roles.A highlight of the forum was the fireside chat featuring Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida, chief executive officer of the QFC and Abdulaziz Ali al-Mawlawi, chief executive officer of Visit Qatar.The discussion examined Qatar’s growing appeal to high-net-worth individuals and the role of tourism, culture, and national branding in attracting global wealth.Outlining Visit Qatar’s initiatives to elevate the country’s global profile and reinforce its reputation as a vibrant, secure, and globally connected destination for those seeking a high quality of life and long-term investment opportunities' al-Mawlawi said: "Qatar offers stability, safety and quality of life that global families and high-net-worth individuals increasingly look for when planning across generations."He said the focus at Visit Qatar is to showcase a destination where world-class infrastructure, cultural depth and service excellence come together to create long-term confidence."As visitor numbers rise, more families are discovering Qatar through tourism, business or major events; many are choosing to deepen their ties to the country, whether through investment, residency or multigenerational planning. This international growing interest reflects Qatar's position as a trusted environment and a vibrant, secure and globally connected place to build a lasting future,” according to him.Finding that the landscape of wealth management is changing, shaped by generational transitions, technological progress, and a growing focus on sustainability' al-Jaida said the QFC Family Office Forum offers a platform for examining these developments and their impact on how families plan and preserve their wealth."As Qatar continues to strengthen its standing as a stable and forward-looking financial hub, the QFC remains committed to enabling meaningful dialogue and showcasing the country’s value proposition to high-net-worth individuals and wealth managers seeking a secure and well-regulated environment for wealth preservation and growth,” he said.The QFC offers a range of business structures tailored to the diverse needs of family enterprises, including limited liability companies (LLCs), holding companies, special purpose companies (SPCs), foundations, and trusts, each providing benefits such as limited liability protection, centralised ownership, customised asset management, and strong risk management capabilities. 

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) recently hosted the ‘QFC Connect’, a flagship networking engagement that facilitates direct connection between QFC firms, key partners and national entities driving Qatar’s business growth. The event, themed ‘Empowering Growth through Collaboration’, focused on strengthening cooperation across the innovation and technology landscape. Welcoming more than 400 participants - including those from Invest Qatar, Qatar Development Bank (QDB), the Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council, and Qatar Manpower Solutions Co (Jusour) - the event featured tailored sessions that examined growth opportunities, addressed shared challenges, and highlighted resources that enable businesses to expand across key markets. The QFC Connect forms part of its broader efforts to empower its growing community of firms through relationship-building, knowledge exchange, and greater ecosystem cohesion.By convening companies and national partners in one setting, it reinforced the collective ambition to advance innovation, attract global talent, and enable a more competitive and future-ready business environment in Qatar. “Serving the needs of our clients is a priority for the QFC, and we are continuously exploring new ways to deepen the value we provide. QFC Connect demonstrates this commitment. As Qatar’s economy continues to diversify, the QFC and its partners will keep opening doors to opportunities in investment, innovation, research, and talent development, enabling businesses to grow with confidence,” said Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida, chief executive officer of QFC Authority. The QFC Connect complements its ongoing initiatives to create a more enabling business ecosystem in Qatar, from launching a company to running it successfully. The centre has introduced reforms to make doing business faster and more accessible, including a streamlined incorporation process, instant licensing for non-regulated activities and a 90% reduction in application fees. Most recently, QFC unveiled its platinum onboarding service, a new fast-track solution that enables one-hour incorporation for companies seeking speed and premium set-up experience.These initiatives lower entry barriers, strengthen the business environment, and underline QFC’s commitment to enabling global and local firms to establish, grow, and thrive in Qatar. 

Redefining the pace of setting up of businesses, the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has introduced a platinum onboarding service, aimed at fast-tracking incorporation of companies within the QFC in as little as one hour upon final application submission.Designed for entities seeking speed, precision, and premium experience, the platinum onboarding service represents the highest tier of QFC’s “elite services”. “The platinum onboarding service marks a major milestone in our commitment to making Qatar one of the easiest and most efficient places to do business.By offering a one-hour incorporation process, we’re setting a new regional benchmark for speed and service excellence," said Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida, chief executive officer, QFC Authority. The newly enhanced onboarding framework also includes premium and executive service options.Each tier offers tailored support, ensuring every client receives personalised guidance throughout their setup journey. The platinum tier presents a new standard in ultra-accelerated business establishment: Highly efficient and meticulously coordinated.This paid service enables one-hour incorporation, activated upon submission of the final online application, with the computer card and tax card issued within the same hour for Qatar residents.Beyond fast-track establishment, it delivers a bespoke concierge experience that extends into life in Doha, offering meet-and-greet airport transfers, relocation coordination, school placement support, personalised settling-in guidance, and family integration services.Clients also benefit from medical coordination for residence permits and introductions to the QFC-aligned banking partners, ensuring an arrival and transition that are effortless and fully supported. With this launch, the QFC continues to strengthen its role as a preferred platform for international and local businesses looking to establish and expand in Qatar and the wider region.

Qatar's non-energy sector rose for the seventh consecutive month, indicating the country's resilience amidst tariff uncertainties and elevated volatility in the global economy, particularly in the first half (H1) of 2025, according to the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows will remain strong and is expected to pick up towards the tail-end of 2025, QFC said in its latest update."Qatar’s non-oil private sector PMI (purchasing managers’ index) averaged 51.1 for H1-2025 despite tariff uncertainty and geo-political risks. Qatar’s non-energy sector maintained its growth into second half of 2025," QFC said.Qatar’s economy continues to do well with the Standard & Poor Global PMI showing that the non-oil sector remains in expansion territory, while FDI inflows continue to increase and banking assets grow by 9% on an annualised basis. The real estate sector remains robust after a strong H1-2025.Inward FDI into Qatar has been comparatively strong in 2025, with the country having attracted $2.4bn (more than 86% of 2024 total FDI inflows) in FDI capex so far this year, the report said, adding FDI inflows into Qatar for 2025 have also contributed to the creation of 8,262 jobs so far."With four months left until the end of 2025, Qatar is well placed to attract FDI inflows in line with those witnessed in 2024 of $2.8bn," QFC said.Data from 2020-24 indicated that on average the last four months of the year see FDI inflows of $342.8mn on average, it said.Highlighting that the UAE, France and the US are the top three markets contributing to Qatar’s FDI inflows; the report said together these three contributed a total of $1.52bn or 62.9% of all FDI inflows into Qatar so far in 2025."The strong flow of inward FDI highlights the positive sentiment investors continue to have towards Qatar. We remain positive that FDI inflows will remain strong for the remainder of the year, as historically FDI inflows tend to pick up towards the tail-end of the year," the report said.Real estate transactions amounted to QR6bn in the second quarter of 2025, an 88.9% increase on an annualised basis. This growth builds on the momentum gained in the first quarter of 2025 where real estate activity totalled QR4.1bn, putting real estate deals for 2025 in excess of QR10.1bn, which is QR2.5bn more than in H1-2024.As of August 31, 2025, real estate activity equated to QR804mn with residential property accounting for 17% (QR137.1mn) of Qatar’s total real estate activity.The Qatar Stock Exchange was largely flat in August with the index rising from 11,187.76 on the first trading day 11,222.33 on the last trading day.

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has launched a pioneering proof of concept (POC), under its Digital Asset Lab, marking a significant step forward in the application of blockchain technology to Islamic finance.This development was enabled through the collaboration of a consortium of partners — AlRayan Bank, Blade Labs, and Hashgraph — each contributing unique expertise to a shared vision of financial innovation.The POC will demonstrate a blockchain-based digital receipt system (DRS) that can enhance transparency, efficiency, and regulatory compliance in Shariah-compliant asset-backed finance.The system will operate on HashSphere, a private permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) network built with Hedera technology, deployed on Google Cloud infrastructure provisioned through QFC’s lab.This initiative exemplifies a collaborative model where regulatory foresight, technical innovation, and domain expertise converge.The QFC serves as the orchestrator of the initiative, providing infrastructure support and subject matter expertise to guide the use case development.Hashgraph delivers and operates the underlying blockchain infrastructure, ensuring secure and scalable network performance, and Blade Labs leads the development of the DRS, including smart contracts and user interfaces tailored to Islamic finance use cases.AlRayan Bank plays a critical role in validating the system’s functionality, offering domain-specific insights and exploring commercialisation pathways, while Google Cloud enterprise-grade infrastructure is utilised for the initiative."Through our Digital Assets Lab, we’re proud to facilitate this pilot as a step forward in exploring how blockchain can bring greater efficiency and scalability to Shariah-compliant financial products. This initiative reflects our continued support for tokenisation, financial innovation, and collaboration aligned with the Third Financial Sector Strategic Plan," said QFC Authority chief executive officer Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida.Omar al-Emadi, acting Group chief executive officer of AlRayan Bank, said innnovation is a cornerstone of Islamic finance, and this initiative reflects its commitment to advancing Shariah-compliant financial solutions that meet the evolving needs of the market."Through our participation in this POC, we reaffirm our role in validating the system’s functionality and laying the groundwork for scalable, practical applications that can strengthen the future of Islamic finance while reinforcing Qatar’s position as a regional hub for financial innovation," he said.By participating in this POC, it is not only validating the system, but also helping pave the way for practical and scalable applications of blockchain technology in the Islamic finance sector, according to Houssam Itani, Group chief transformation officer, AlRayan Bank.Sami Mian, chief executive officer, Blade Labs, said the DRS POC will showcase that blockchain, smart contracts, and global identity standards can address the operational bottlenecks that currently prevent Islamic finance institutions from scaling certain Shariah-compliant asset-backed products."By providing a controlled environment to measure actual business outcomes, institutions can evaluate whether this technology approach solves problems worth solving before making larger commitments," he said.Eric Piscini, chief executive officer, Hashgraph, said it is built to deliver the trust, performance, and regulatory confidence that today’s financial systems demand."Backed by the scalability and security of Hedera’s enterprise-grade technology, this collaboration highlights how the right infrastructure can unlock new possibilities in both Islamic finance and broader financial innovation," according to him.