Qatar Launches Doha Investment to Manage QIA's Domestic Portfolio

Qatar has set up Doha Investment, a platform that will hold and manage Qatar Investment Authority's domestic assets. It begins with more than 40 companies whose operations reach over 80 markets, among them QNB Group, Ooredoo Group and Qatar Airways Group.

The platform is chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the country's prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. He announced the initiative at the Qatar Economic Forum, which was held in New York.

Its stated purpose is to back Qatar's largest corporates, give newer and smaller businesses room to expand, add depth to the country's capital markets, and pull international capital and expertise into that effort.

What the portfolio covers

Existing holdings are spread across financial services, transport and logistics, telecommunications and technology, real estate, hospitality, and food and agriculture. Beyond stewarding those assets, Doha Investment plans to build companies from the ground up in advanced technologies, manufacturing, supply chain and healthcare. One of them is Qai, described as a national artificial intelligence platform.

Building national champions with outside partners

Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al Thani, Qatar's minister of commerce and industry and the managing director and vice chairman of Doha Investment, said the platform would work with domestic and international investors to create a new generation of Qatari national champions, pooling capital, expertise and technology in the sectors where the country believes it can lead.

Qatar expects the platform to generate jobs, make local supply chains stronger and develop talent inside the country. A larger pool of high-value companies is also expected to deepen the capital markets.

The platform supports Qatar's Third National Development Strategy, the plan that calls for the private sector to become the primary engine of a diversified economy.