Some 50.4% of adults in the country say they plan to start a new business within the next three years, helping Qatar stand out as the developed country with the highest level of entrepreneurial intentions,
according to a new report.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2014 Global Report also finds that 16.% of adults in Qatar are engaged in “total early-stage entrepreneurial activity”, which means they are in the process of starting a venture or running a business for fewer than three years. This, too, is the highest rate among
developed economies.
The GEM report is an annual survey of entrepreneurial activities, intentions and attitudes across 73 countries. Data from Qatar was included for the first time this year.
Silatech, a leading Doha-based regional social initiative, collaborated with Qatar University’s Social and Economic Survey Research Institute to produce Qatar’s first ever GEM data set.
The report noted that only 3.5% of adults in Qatar actually own and manage an established business (in operation for more than three and a half years). This is far below any regional average rate of established business ownership, suggesting that high entrepreneurial intentions and early-stage activity do not necessarily translate into long-term business success. Further analysis is necessary to determine what stumbling blocks are limiting business growth and survival in Qatar, it has been observed.
With this new information, researchers can directly compare the entrepreneurial landscape in Qatar with the 72 other participating economies, including other Arab nations. Silatech has supported the GEM study in other Arab countries such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.
Meanwhile, the report stressed that high-levels of entrepreneurial optimism, ambition and innovation were vital to advancing economies.
“Ambitious entrepreneurship has a powerful impact on economic development through job creation and its incentive to innovate and build international marketplaces,” said Slavica Singer, GEM’s lead author from J J Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia.
In 2014, more than 200,000 individuals were surveyed and 3,936 national experts on entrepreneurship participated in the GEM study across 73 economies - collectively representing 72.4% of the world’s population and 90% of its gross domestic product.