Knowledge-Based Development and Economic Diversification: The Case of Qatar

Qatar is privileged to have massive natural gas reserves compared to a small population. This massive wealth in gas reserves coupled with the fact that Qatar has a small population, has led Qatar to be ranked among the countries with the highest per capita income in the world. However, continuing reliance on the hydrocarbon revenues will expose the nation to several risks, including overdependence and volatile energy prices, in addition to the “peak oil” risks. In view of this, economic diversification through investments in non-energy sectors becomes an essential element of future economic planning. Alternatively, knowledge is considered to be a key factor in constant economic growth and a knowledge-based economy (KBE) is a vital source of global economic growth that manages and facilitates the process of innovation which converts knowledge into wealth. This chapter highlights the top-down implementation of the transitions towards a KBE in Qatar in order to diversify away from the overdependence on a single finite source of income and invest in non-energy sectors. It illustrates the public policies related to KBE (QNV2030, QNDS 2011–2016 and QNR 2012) and highlights the alignment between them; it also emphasizes the national priorities in R&D in the Qatar entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of Qatar’s performance and competitiveness worldwide and within the GCC countries that share similar social-economic factors. It also extracts the performance trends and identifies the strengths, weaknesses and challenges that Qatar is facing while transforming into a KBE with reference to the related global indexes; Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), Global Innovation Index (GII) and Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI).