The Ministry strives to foster a human-centric vision for the digital economy and society, making digital transformation a fully inclusive and transformative process for all businesses, from the small to the enterprise. As such, it has identified cooperation at an international level as a critical constituent in achieving its vision. The partnership with Meta is one such example where MCIT will collaborate with Meta to leverage its expertise, resources, and best practices.

Her Excellency Reem Al-Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said, “The strategic partnership with Meta will complement and strengthen Qatar's efforts in supporting our small and medium enterprises in their digital transformation journeys which is extremely important for the economic and social development of the country.”

Fares Akkad, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Meta, commented, “We are inspired by the Ministry’s efforts in building an integrated digital society. This partnership signifies our commitment to support local SMEs by providing them with necessary digital skills to recover and deliver results online, and help further boost a burgeoning start-up ecosystem to positively impact socio-economic growth in Qatar.”

As part of the partnership, MCIT and Meta have kicked-off off a national program in support of SME digitization and growth. Meta has launched for the first time a virtual SME hub in Qatar featuring a series of training webinars. The hub will also include a series of resources and will showcase local case studies and success stories to drive inspiration. Content will include training on how to, ‘Creatively engage your audience with IG’, ‘Get started with Meta Business Suite’, ‘Get Creative with Ads’, ‘Reach your audience with personalized ads’ amongst others. The program is supported by local partners such as Qatar Development Bank, Qatar Financial Center, Qatar Science and Technology Park, and Aspire Foundation (Qatar Business District).

To mark the launch of this collaboration, Meta hosted an in-person event on the topics of SME Digitization and Upskilling. The event included guest speaker sessions, experts and followed by a “Meta Boost” workshop for SMEs to learn about the essentials of digital marketing.