Qatar partners with Meta on digital economy

The Qatari government and Facebook’s parent company Meta signed a cooperation agreement today. 

Qatar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Meta will work together to help small- and medium-sized businesses in Qatar with the “digital transformation.” To this end, Meta has launched a virtual hub in Qatar for such businesses with training webinars on digital marketing. Several Qatari sports-, technology- and finance-related entities are supporting the project, including the Qatar Development Bank, the official Qatar News Agency reported. 

Why it matters: Several Gulf states are working to increase the size of their digital economies. Several financial technology (fintech) firms moved to the United Arab Emirates this year. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia awarded digital licenses for the first time to some companies. 

Qatar is gradually moving toward a service economy. In 2011, industry accounted for 73.21% of the gross domestic product (GDP) while services accounted for 28.56%. In 2020, industry amounted to 52.33% while services were 52.74%, according to Statista. 

Qatar’s wealth has traditionally come from energy. Oil and gas are responsible for around 40% of the GDP. 

Know more: A group of activists asked Meta this month to change its content moderation policies in the Persian language, saying they make it difficult for people to share information during protests in Iran.