The officials pose for a group picture.
The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) hosted a high-level delegation of cyber security companies from the United Kingdom, as part of an official visit organised by the Department for International Trade (DIT) at the British Embassy in Doha.
The visit provided a valuable opportunity to discuss the rising importance of cyber-security within financial services, Qatar’s growing financial sector, along with the lucrative business opportunities available in the market. It also offered an important platform to promote expertise and knowledge sharing, along with the many unique benefits offered by the QFC platform to facilitate business growth.
Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida, Chief Executive Officer, QFC Authority. said: “Qatar has made significant strides over the years to protect its cyber infrastructure and was one of the first two countries in the region to have cybercriminal and cyber security legislation in place. The average cost of cybercrime for financial services companies globally has increased by over 40 percent over the past three years — this is significantly greater than in other industries, so there are clearly many opportunities for collaboration and investment in this space.”
Ajay Sharma, British Ambassador to Qatar, said: “The UK government is committed to making the UK one of the most secure places to do business in the world. We have committed £1.9bn of transformational investment to the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy to accomplish this. The Department for International Trade recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Qatar’s Central Bank on cyber security for the financial services sector. This is an important part of UK-Qatar co-operation to tackle the shared challenges that cyber attacks pose to our prosperity and security. We are pleased that our delegation of UK companies could meet the Qatar Financial Centre to develop their understanding of the business environment here and forge new partnerships. We look forward to seeing soon some concrete results.”
Al Jaida added: “Qatar and the UK have enjoyed a long history of strong bilateral and trade relations, and the QFC is proud to have over 60 UK firms registered on its platform. We look forward to continuing to further strengthen our business relations with UK firms wishing to establish their businesses in Qatar and grow beyond.”
The Qatar Financial Centre and the Department for International Trade at the British Embassy have a history of close co-operation. DIT are the UK government department responsible for promoting British trade and investment across the world and championing free trade.
