DOHA: Qatar has witnessed a remarkable improvement in terms of promoting and advancing the culture of entrepreneurship in Qatar, especially among the local youth over the last few years. A large percentage of entrepreneurs (nearly two-third) say that their products were new and innovative for the end-users.
The various government initiatives, especially those on the part of Qatar Development Bank (QDB), towards entrepreneurship development and the promotion of SMEs, have helped register a significant jump in Qatar’s entrepreneurship ranking, according to the findings of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey.
The Qatar GEM Report 2017 released yesterday noted that the number of entrepreneurs who stated that the motivation behind their establishment of a new business is the opportunity is about seven times the number of the ones who said that the motivation for establishing their businesses was necessity, at 82.4 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively.
The report is based on the methodology of the Global Entrepreneurship Report. The GEM tracks rates of entrepreneurship across multiple phases in 54 economies, making it the world’s most authoritative comparative study of entrepreneurial activity in the general adult population.
The report was drawn on findings from two surveys: ‘Adult Population Surveys’ (APS) based on a random, representative sample of 2,742 surveys of Qatar residents aged between 18 and 64, and ‘National Expert Survey’ (NES) that compromise of surveys conducted with 45 carefully chosen Qatar “entrepreneurs experts” across nine framework categories.
The percentage of innovation-driven opportunity (IDO) entrepreneurs – not necessarily in Qatar – is considered to be the highest in the Middle East and the eighth globally.
Qatar’s ranking was performed in regards to entrepreneurial levels and in comparison to 54 other economies, which participated in the GEM 2017 Report. Qatar was ranked 33 in nascent entrepreneurship in 2017 compared to 44 during the year 2016, 42 in the new business ownership, 42 in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA), 54 in the rate of ownership of established businesses and 17 in business discontinuance rate.
Respondents pointed to high levels of innovation in Qatar since 2016. In 2017, a large percentage of entrepreneurs (63.5 percent) indicated that their products were new to all or some consumers. Half (52.2 percent) are completely different from their competitors (they noted that there were no businesses offering the same products or services), while more than a third (37.9 percent) indicated that they were selling new products or services to all or some of the customers, with few facilities offering the same products or no facilities (compared with 22.8 percent in 2016).
Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of QDB, said: “QDB is working on several focus areas aimed at developing SMEs, including promoting entrepreneurship. The Bank is keen to improve the understanding of society and policy makers to develop Qatar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and analyse their characteristics and needs.”
Al Khalifa added, “The importance of this report stems from the fact that it provides decision-makers and researchers with a treasure trove of information and data that represents an important entry point for the development of the SME and entrepreneurship sectors.”
Respondents showed a high degree of entrepreneurial determination in an encouraging manner (with about 45.6 percent seeing an opportunity to start a business).
The result of the survey of total early-stage entrepreneurial activity was close between males and females, equivalent to 4.7 percent, an encouraging indicator of gender equality in the entrepreneurial environment in Qatar. This percentage rose for Qataris to 8.4 percent compared to 4.1 percent of the expatriates surveyed.
The results of 2017 show a positive attitude towards the community of entrepreneurship in Qatar.
In fact, most of the adult population believes that entrepreneurs have a high status and respect in society (77.3 percent) and that the establishment of a new project is a good career choice (65.9 percent).
