Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), a leading onshore financial and business hub in the region, witnessed record growth in 2024, welcoming 836 new firms to its platform, a 156 percent growth compared to 2023.
The upsurge brought the total number of QFC firms to 2,489 and the combined assets under management to over $33 billion. It also enlarged the QFC community to over 11,700 employees, representing 153 nationalities.
The firms registered in 2024 represent 90 countries, with the largest number of firms coming from the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Jordan, Turkiye, France, Lebanon, and Qatar. These firms span a wide range of activities and industries, including fintech, consulting services, media, IT, and wealth management.
The active participation of QFC in the first edition of the Web Summit Qatar in February 2024 was instrumental in attracting a substantial number of technology firms to its platform, which accounted for the largest share of firms registered in 2024 at 26 percent.
QFC offered compelling incentives to companies that opted to register their business during the Web Summit, attracting foreign investments, contributing to economic diversification, and advancing the State’s efforts in positioning Qatar as a leading technology hub in the region.
As part of its ongoing efforts to foster a dynamic and appealing investment ecosystem that enables businesses to thrive, QFC signed 24 memoranda of understanding in 2024, including agreements with prestigious financial institutions such as Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Masraf Al Rayan, Dukhan Bank, the Hashgraph Association, and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
QFC established other significant partnerships during the year, including a memorandum of understanding with Qatar Media City and a collaboration agreement with Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), aimed at facilitating business set up in Qatar.
The year 2024 saw the QFC host several impactful events, including the 20th Corporate Registers Forum (CRF) Conference, which was held in Qatar for the first time under the theme “Innovative Registries – Business Enablers of the Future”.
In collaboration with Bloomberg, QFC organised the Qatar Financial Markets Forum under the theme “Trends Impacting Emerging Markets and Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility Landscape”, and in line with its interest in expanding the family business and wealth management industry in Qatar, QFC hosted a Family Office Forum and a premier event on wealth management, which delve into the evolving dynamics, challenges, and growth opportunities in family business governance and management, as well as the strategies necessary for the success and sustainability of family businesses.
In its capacity as a thought leader, QFC engaged in and sponsored a number of high-profile local and international events, most notably the 7th International Conference on Islamic Finance, the Qatar Economic Forum, the Annual Conference of the Union of Arab Securities Markets, and the Islamic FinTech Forum held in Dubai.
The year also saw significant progress in one of QFC’s forward-thinking initiatives, the Digital Assets Lab, which commenced activities with 29 participants, developing unique digital solutions and services based on distributed ledger technology (DLT).
To support the programme, QFC issued the Digital Assets Framework to regulate digital assets, which includes comprehensive and clear legal guidelines for digital assets creation and regulation, including processes related to tokenisation, legal recognition of ownership rights of encryptions and underlying assets, custody arrangements, and transfer andexchange transactions.
These initiatives align with the Qatar FinTech Strategy and reinforce the country’s position as a regional leader in financial innovation.
Commenting on the QFC 2024 performance, QFC CEO Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida said, “The exceptional growth witnessed by the Qatar Financial Centre in 2024 reflects our commitment to provide a developed and attractive business environment for local and international companies. These achievements would not have been possible without the concerted efforts of all business units, along with close cooperation with our clients, key stakeholders in Qatar and our strategic local and global partners. Over the past year, we have continued to enhance innovation and support economic growth and diversification in Qatar, and we aim to achieve more successes in the coming years.”
