Satyendra Pathak
Doha
As part of its continued commitment to enabling new Qatari businesses and talents, PwC Qatar organised a dedicated executive networking session participated by top representatives of Qatari private companies at the PwC office in Doha on Tuesday.
During the session, PwC reinforced its commitment to supporting local Qatari SMEs and the private sector.
PwC’s senior leaders and industry experts provided insights into the Middle East’s leading consultancy’s strategy in Qatar, outlined potential collaboration opportunities across investments and shared new digital technologies during an interactive discussion. The recent Middle East CEO survey also provided an opportunity to explore themes relevant to Qatar.
At the event, PwC’s Emtech lab experts showcased cutting-edge technologies and solutions across Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) that support the digital transformation journey of local businesses and deliver sustained outcomes by combining the best talent with digital innovation.
Speaking on the occasion, Bassam Hajhamad, Qatar Country Senior Partner at PwC Qatar, said: “This event reinforces our commitment to the private sector and its critical role in driving Qatar’s economic growth.”
He said, “We are very excited about the future of Qatar’s SMEs and the unique opportunities to capitalise on, driven by National Development Strategy (NDS3) and beyond. Our partnership with the private sector in Qatar has flourished over the past years across various areas and sectors, including consulting, legal and tax services, cyber and digital with many success stories and investments as part of our continued commitment to enabling new Qatari businesses and talents.”
Bassam said that CEOs in Qatar and the Middle East, in general, are optimistic about the region’s economic growth prospects with around two-thirds of business leaders expecting an improvement this year.
“Middle East are confident in regional growth and are transforming their businesses embracing new technologies, investing, driving cost efficiencies, moving on deal activity and taking active steps to mitigate the risk of climate change,” he said.
Alongside continued confidence, he said, “Another major theme that emerges from our CEO survey is the clear focus on digital transformation among business leaders in the Middle East. Already last year, this trend was apparent, with technology being cited as the critical priority. This year, that chorus grew with technological disruption heading the list of issues Middle East business leaders believe will affect their industry’s profitability over the next decade, cited by two-thirds of CEOs.
“It edges out three other significant concerns: supply chain disruption, changes in regulation, and changing customer demands or preferences. The focus on technology as the largest potential disruptor singles out the Middle East region, given that at a global level, just under half of CEOs are seeing it as being a significant factor for their industry over the next decade.”
