According to Abeer Al Hammadi, director of the Innovation Center and Economic Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), the Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) 2024 is an excellent opportunity for Qatar’s innovation sector to gain insights into significant global trends.
In an interview with The Peninsula, Al Hammadi emphasized the growing promise of Qatar’s startup ecosystem for entrepreneurs, highlighting the country’s emerging status as a startup hub. She remarked, “Hosting the fourth edition of the Qatar Economic Forum is a great success and we hope it will continue for years to come because it helps us work in the innovation sector a lot.”
The QEF aims to enhance the global visibility of the Qatari economy by underscoring its ability to attract investments and businesses, thereby boosting confidence in the economy and accelerating growth.
Al Hammadi mentioned the launch of the Fanar initiative during the forum’s opening address, which focuses on collecting extensive and clean data for Artificial Intelligence (AI). She noted, “We have a large number of researchers working on Arabic technology, this is very good news from our perspective.” The initiative is set to gather high-quality data in Arabic, enrich linguistic models, and preserve Arab identity.
“We have a very active group in Arabic technology. We have created technologies like speech text—one of the best translation technologies—and AI models based on Arabic technology. So, such initiatives will definitely boost our ability to create AI-based businesses and state-of-the-art Arabic technology,” she stated.
Al Hammadi highlighted that HBKU is a research-intensive institution with over 350 scientists exploring various technology themes, including AI, sustainability, precision medicine, progressive education, and social progress. She noted, “Such venues provide great opportunities for our researchers and community.”
Discussing new technologies at HBKU, she explained that the Innovation Center, established in 2022, offers entrepreneurship training for students and researchers. The Center is set to launch a new program, ‘Lab of Innovation,’ focusing on innovation and technology commercialization training for researchers.
“We also have the Reyada program for our students and faculty. We are about to launch seven startups based on technologies created in the near future,” she added.
Al Hammadi also acknowledged the government’s recent efforts to bolster entrepreneurship in Qatar. “In recent years, we have seen a lot of push from the government to facilitate entrepreneurship within Qatar and we are very grateful for that. We had the Web Summit which happened a few months ago and now with Qatar Economic Forum we have the new visas for investors and entrepreneurs and all of this is encouraging others to start their entrepreneurship journey,” she noted.
