The Middle East

Education is an important pillar of Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030), the country’s development plan to diversify the economy and reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons. To that end, Qatar has prioritised developing and reforming the education sector, with a substantial portion of its energy revenue dedicated to education. Although the...

Qatar’s ICT market is well established, and characterised by high levels of mobile and internet penetration rates. Internet services are both affordable and quick, with fibre-based connections available. The country’s two main telecommunications operators are also working to roll out 5G services in all heavily populated areas by the end of...

More and more commercial transactions are moving online and the so-called digital economy continues to expand its reach into every facet of the traditional analogue economy. For businesses, this means they have access to new channels to reach existing clients as well as new opportunities to expand market share with a competitive digital...

Blockchain – the distributed-ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – appears set to transform a wide variety of industries and perhaps fundamentally change the way business is conducted across the global economy.

As a key driver of efforts to diversify Qatar away from reliance on the energy industry, the real estate sector has been an important contributor to economic growth in recent years. According to a 2018 report from the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), non-mining and quarrying sectors registered a combined compound annual growth rate (...

In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of humanity was living in urban areas. Perhaps the most remarkable observation about this trend is the speed at which it has happened: as recently as 1900 urban areas accounted for 13% of the global population. Towns and cities are seen as the crucibles of opportunity for many rural...