“We’re a one-stop-shop for business with a sea and air port, free zone, and a 2030 National Vision (QNV) strategy that has human development and knowledge transfer at its heart,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Faisal al Thani, CEO of the Qatar Free Zone Authority, at a recent UK-GCC event in London’s Guildhall.
Qatar’s leaders are seeking to diversify away from a fossil fuel-based economy. Using the vast resources it has banked in its QNV demonstrates this strategic thinking, as the Vision includes a tight focus on developing specific sectors for future economic growth, such as logistics, emerging technology and advanced manufacturing.
“We want to build clusters within that QNV framework, which develop specific segments, such as bio-sciences, pharma and aviation,” said al Thani, during an afternoon Leadership Roundtable in London on 20th October.
The conference debate also included UK representative Jason Millett, a Board Member at Mace Consulting – which has significant construction experience in the Gulf – and Ahmed Akaak, CEO of the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm, in Oman.
The rise of Qatar Airways is one example of leadership via the country’s long-standing 2030 Vision that is now coming to fruition. Despite recent adverse impacts from the Iran war, Qatar’s al Thani, a member of that country’s ruling family, is still confident the GCC will return as a significant global economic hotspot. “This will be behind us soon,” he said, referring to the Yemeni attacks on Saudi that were happening during the London conference and the wider Iran war.
The UK can help defend and advance economic growth in the region by deepening its historic political, military and expertise support, as the FTA signed in May 2026 is designed to do.
In return the UK gets the investment power of the GCC countries, such as Saudi and the UAE, to advance its own search for growth in an increasingly geopolitically unstable world.
Gulf growth plans
Akaak was certainly in agreement with his Gulf colleague that the long-term economic prospects for the region remain positive.
“Duqm is the largest port in the region and behind it we’ve got a renewables sector evolving and growing, building on our historic gas reserves. Green hydrogen is also a key focus for us,” said Akaak. “It feeds into data centres and the artificial intelligence (AI)-based economy of the future as a power source and we’re confident that this segment will generate jobs in the future.” With the Gulf’s young population, this is an important consideration.
Duqm is also a 2,000 square kilometre general economic zone, one of the largest such areas in the Middle East and North Africa. It functions as a key pillar of Oman’s own Vision 2040 plan to diversify the national economy away from oil and gas. “It’s a massive area, three times the size of Singapore, and ripe for development,” explained Akaak.
Vision
According to fellow panellist Millett, “Most GCC countries have a Vision plan, outlining their leadership and strategies for growth. There are a number of GCC ‘giga’ multibillion dollar infrastructure projects as well. Our construction expertise, regional experience and knowledge transfer capabilities mean they can now be delivered locally, with our expertise.”
Millett’s comment demonstrated his own firm’s leadership in pivoting away from Mace’s prior actual building and construction projects in the past, towards being more a planning, project management, procurement and consultancy specialist in certain GCC countries that want to advance their own local builders.
Mace’s historic construction knowledge and ramp-up capability remains within the firm too, in case it’s ever needed. But the partnership approach now being prioritised rewards everyone – indeed, it was reflective of the cooperative mood of the London conference.
“The FTA gives our designers, engineers, project managers and so forth opportunities in the GCC,” said Millet. “We can all use the FTA to win mutually beneficial work across the region.”
