Qatar National Vision 2030 sees the government working to diversify the country’s economy away from hydrocarbons, in the process enhancing the knowledge-based economy. To achieve that goal, the government is channelling resources into further cultivating a modern education system designed to facilitate and sustain a highly skilled national workforce and talent pool that enables Qatar to remain competitive in a shifting global economic landscape. Initiatives to attract top international talent are also receiving significant attention. Strong research, development and innovation (RDI) ecosystems can provide valuable linkages between higher education institutions and the labour market, providing the roots of a productive knowledge economy. Investment in fostering the country’s collection of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a priority for the government, with a raft of new venture capital outfits establishing a presence in the country. Those initiatives are designed in part to localise the creation of the advanced technologies to underpin and propel a knowledge economy.
Promoting Education
In its 2023 budget, the government allocated $4.9bn to the education sector, which amounted to around 9% of total expenditure. While in more recent years exact figures for education sector spending were not specified, the 2024 and 2025 budget allocations for education and health care combined accounted for 20% of total annual expenditure of $55.4bn and $57.7bn, respectively. Meanwhile, the ICT sector saw a 200% increase in government funding in 2024 and was highlighted as a strategic priority in the 2025 budget, alongside RDI and the digital economy, though no specific figures were offered.
Investment initiatives include the Qatar Investment Authority’s $1bn Fund Of Funds programme, launched in February 2024, which has attracted several international venture capital firms to Qatar (see Trade & Investment chapter). Additionally, the Qatar Development Bank, which supports SME growth through financing and advisory services, has provided QR6.4bn ($1.8bn) of financing to SMEs, with QR1.5bn ($412m) of that coming in 2024, or an increase of 33% from 2023. In 2024 QDB invested QR300m ($82m) in start-ups, 23.5% higher than in 2023, while over 450 start-ups have utilised QDB incubator and accelerator programmes.
Innovative Ecosystem
Not-for-profit firm Qatar Foundation (QF) was founded in 1995 and is key player in the development of education and RDI ecosystems, partnering with prominent local and international institutions from both public and private sectors. Its flagship development Education City was inaugurated in 2004 with constituent facility Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), a free zone, at its heart. Education City is a vital piece in the government’s sectoral and industrial clustering strategy, which is designed to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration to stimulate cross-sector economic growth and diversification.
Education City houses eight universities and 13 K-12 schools and academies, which combined cater to around 10,600 students on its 12-sq-km campus. Renowned global institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University and HEC Paris operate branch campuses in Education City alongside local institutions such as Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and a range of tailored start-up incubators and accelerators. HBKU comprises three national research institutions: Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Computing Research Institute, and Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. Three key areas in which Qatar is seeking to establish a position of global prominence are environmental sustainability, artificial intelligence (AI) and precision health care solutions.
Education City research projects have seen a combined investment of over $1.4bn through QF’s Qatar National Research Fund, while the complex has produced more than 330 inventions, eight of which have obtained patents. Moreover, since 2016 QSTP has successfully developed 42 start-ups. In 2024 QF institutions produced 2500 published research papers and had 20 patents granted, collaborating with 120 countries in the process. Indeed, 40% of Qatar’s published research comes from QF, while around 50% is open access.
Qatar made significant progress in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, rising to 49th out of 133 countries, up from 65th in 2019. Notably, Qatar ranked sixth in Northern Africa and Western Asia, reflecting its growing role as a regional innovation leader. While the 2024 GII highlights that Qatar, like its GCC peers, still faces challenges in translating its economic resources into innovation output, this contrast underscores the country’s potential to further strengthen its RDI ecosystem.
Regulation & Challenges
Intellectual property (IP) in Qatar is protected by a range of laws implemented between 2002 and 2020 covering copyright, patents, trademarks and industrial designs. It provides comprehensive protection for both persons and organisations producing original works, products, ideas or research and were developed to align with international standards. Qatar is party to multiple international agreements regarding IP protection, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of IP Rights. IP-related challenges persist, with counterfeiting and infringement an issue cited by many IP rights holders. The proliferation of digital reproduction methods and unauthorised online marketplaces makes enforcement more challenging, but the relevant authorities continuously work to strengthen mechanisms to combat violations. In recent years the government launched awareness campaigns and increased collaboration with international organisations to provide extra security to investors, inventors and entrepreneurs.
Cyberattacks on key energy operators, as well as the broader business and consumer populations, demonstrate the need for constant strategic evolution and more sophisticated and secure frameworks. As technology development and use underpins Qatar’s bid to diversify into a knowledge economy, the government aims, through its National Cybersecurity Strategy 2024-30, to become a world leader in cybersecurity. The February 2025 CyberX Qatar conference brought together leading global cybersecurity companies to address emerging cyberthreats and the future of digital resilience in the Middle East. Global cybersecurity collaboration is essential in safeguarding digital economy fundamentals and is at the heart of the Qatari government’s strategy. Advances in digital security are central to Qatar’s RDI investment strategy and are seen as an opportunity to develop technological solutions to issues faced across the world, and an opportunity to upskill the national workforce.
Tech Investment
Research firm Mordor Intelligence projects that Qatar’s ICT sector will grow at a compound annual rate of 8.5% during 2025-30. Qatar was among the first countries to launch fully operational, commercially available 5G networks and has invested heavily in developing sophisticated cloud, internet of things, data analytics, mobility, cybersecurity and social media infrastructure as part of its Digital Agenda 2030. The framework envisages the country as a global tech centre. Indeed, a well-developed ICT sector and one of the Middle East’s highest internet penetration rates, which stood at 99% as of early 2025, have enabled Qatar to absorb the excess data demands resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic-induced switch to remote work.
Qatar is emerging as a world leader in the fields of system automation and new technology adoption. Advanced technologies are built into Qatar’s free zone infrastructure, while their development is one of the activities the government is incentivising in the zones. Qatar has invested an estimated $2.5bn Qatar in AI development. Its implementation could generate $11bn by 2030 through its multiple applications and cost savings, and create 26,000 new jobs.
While attracting leading tech companies is a priority, so is expanding the broader business ecosystem. Platforms developed in country enable the creation of digital apps with little or no coding required, facilitating the establishment of online businesses or a digital presence for existing physical businesses without the requirement of programming expertise. This removal of barriers to technology use is at the heart of the government’s digital vision. Additional recent indicators of the strength of the country’s digital ecosystems include Qatar second in the Arab region in the International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index in 2023, while in 2024 Qatar ranked 26th globally, up from 30th in 2020, out of 67 countries, in the International Institute for Management Development’s annual World Digital Competitiveness Ranking.
Qatar is investing in the development of sectors that will continue to shape global economics in the years to come. Through its focus on education and RDI the government is ensuring that the country can remain internationally competitive once economic diversification reaches maturity and, in the long term, as reliance on the production of hydrocarbons continues to decline.
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