The manufacturing industry of Qatar registered impressive results in 2025, by giving the country over QR69.3 billion in the total national economy. However, this year, it is projected to exceed QR70 billion as the manufacturing industry records an annual growth rate of approximately 3.5 percent.
The expansion of the LNG and petrochemical sectors and the open policies embraced by interested parties to diversify the national economy and convert to smart and green production are facilitating the growth in overcoming the challenges of high production costs and fluctuations in international markets.
The prospects of the manufacturing industry are expected to increase by 4 percent this year, as the investment in major industrial sectors in Qatar, including Mesaieed, Ras Laffan, and other key locations.
These positive results are largely contributed by the food, medicine, and textile industries. The factory count in Qatar increased to more than 1,000 by 2025, compared to approximately 920 in 2023.
Likewise, national products grew to approximately 1,815 in early 2025, compared to 1,720 national products in 2023.
This kind of consistent growth of locally produced items indicates a definite growth in the manufacturing and factory sectors, which are aided by the government strategies of empowering and seeking to involve the private sector, especially by offering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), as well as increasing consumer confidence in the local products and the competitive edge they have in the market.
However, the sale of national products in the local market outlets surged by nearly 75 percent last year, and more quality products are set to make it to the market this year. Besides food and beverage products, industries that process plastics, chemicals, rubber, basic metals, cement, and metallic minerals, and refined petroleum products are others.
The industry is projected to receive QR2.75 billion investment per year, which will further provide additional employment opportunities, with an emphasis on the skilled labor force, since the manufacturing industry in Qatar values innovation highly.
It is also supposed to embrace the new technological developments and enhance the competencies of the workers to ensure sustainable developments in the sector.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has come up with a wide range of initiatives to facilitate investment in the manufacturing sector by providing businesses and SMEs with numerous facilities that make the process trouble-free.
The Ministry has established online services to simplify the required processes, and there are several e-services that have drastically shorter times spent to obtain an industrial licence and organize new projects.
Among the most important is the current initiative called the “1,000 Opportunities programme,” a joint venture between MoCI and the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) that offers local investors to receive investment opportunities from large companies in Qatar.
The programme had more than 1,300 applications by the end of 2024 and is connected to the Single Window digital platform of MoCI. The primary objective of such a programme is to assist local SMEs to build up their products and services, thus becoming more competitive in the local market, thereby decreasing the reliance on imported products and increasing self-sufficiency.
Qatar has leaped to 5th place in the world on the business efficiency axis of the 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Report, which was at 11th place in 2024.
This was a clear indication of the different efficient labour reforms embraced in the country, which made the local labour market more liberal and appealing to the working population, and the government was earnest in pushing and involving the private sector in useful undertakings.
