QNA
doha
Vice President of the World Bank for the MENA Region, Dr Ousmane Dione, has praised the economic performance of Qatar amidst a difficult regional situation, witnessing many crises related to conflicts or climate.
In an interview, Dione said that Qatar is advancing in achieving its important development goals, especially when it comes to infrastructure and ensuring sustainable economic growth.
He explained that economic growth in Qatar remains positive thanks to the stability of oil prices driven by increased demand, adding that that is something very important to achieve in the North Africa and Middle East region, which is generally suffering from a number of difficult challenges.
Regarding the country’s economic diversification path, he considered that this path provides a range of opportunities for the economy, in addition to challenges to move forward towards its development aspirations.
He pointed out that Qatar has started to diversify key sectors as part of its National Development Strategy 2030, making notable advancements in infrastructure, adding that given the country’s potential, there is an opportunity for Qatar to focus more on areas like tourism, particularly family and medical tourism, where it can make significant progress, leveraging its strong infrastructure and the global reach of Qatar Airways.
Dione said that Qatar has the potential to create an environment for tourism attraction and for this sector to flourish better, which the country demonstrated with the organisation of the World Cup.
He pointed out that the challenge now is how to put diversification within a sustainable path. “The more Qatar can diversify the economy, the better chances it has to perform better at the present time. The path taken by the Qatari economy towards diversification through investment in the fields of digitization and artificial intelligence puts Qatar in a better position in the future, as a center for knowledge, technology, and innovation.”
Commenting on the present reality of youth in the MENA region and the opportunities available to them, Osman Dion said that the MENA region currently has huge potential in several areas due to the reason that by 2050, 300 million young people in the region will enter the labor market, stating, “that is an extremely important number with respect to if they have a good education and skills.”
He said, “diversification of the economy is a key focus, with efforts directed toward sectors such as tourism, digitalization, communications, and agricultural processing, among many other areas that offer significant opportunities for employment and economic growth.”
Regarding the initiatives launched by the World Bank to support the youth of the region, he explained that the youth of the MENA region are at the heart of the bank’s strategy and priority, and that is why the World Bank is investing more in education and is currently looking at how to embrace youth more to qualify them, especially in light of the reality imposed by artificial intelligence, digitalisation, entrepreneurship, and their integration into the agenda of small and medium-sized enterprises.
He said that many countries in the MENA region have not yet achieved the investment in digitalization and artificial intelligence that they hope to achieve, adding: “Investing more in these areas also means improving education and integration between all sectors of the economy and how to set these priorities in the future.
This can be achieved by building knowledge and bringing high-level research institutions to the region, such as the presence of a branch of Georgetown University in Qatar.
In response to a question about the World Bank’s relationship with the GCC countries, the World Bank’s Vice President for MENA stated that the bank is a reliable partner to all those it engages with.
The bank began working with the GCC countries nearly 50 years ago as part of a broader development program tailored to the unique needs and characteristics of these nations and has remained a strong partner ever since.
Through technical assistance programs on a reimbursable advisory services basis, the World Bank has joined forces with countries in the region.
This collaboration leverages the bank’s global knowledge and development expertise to address unprecedented challenges and seize unique opportunities within the GCC.
