THE Qatar Financial Center (QFC) is seeing a surge in business as Qataris register more of their assets at home and multinationals navigating a Gulf boycott of the country boost their local presence, its chief executive said.

The diplomatic and trade boycott imposed in June by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain has changed the way business is done with Qatar, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter and host of the 2022 World Cup.

State-owned companies, or companies owned by mostly Qatari shareholders, and rich individuals are redirecting their investments to the Qatar Financial Center, the QFC’s head Yousuf al-Jaida said in Doha, Qatar’s capital.

It reflects nervousness among the country’s elite that investments registered abroad could be frozen, as well as a desire by international companies to maintain close ties with the world’s biggest liquefied gas producer.

The trend, he said, has seen migration from Dubai in neighboring United Arab Emirates, which was traditionally the hub for companies doing business across the Gulf, from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.

The shift to Doha is the result of the diplomatic and trade boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain on June 5.

“The immediate action was that ... a lot of the companies that had their special purpose vehicles set up in Dubai International Financial Center were re-routing their investments in [to] the QFC because they wouldn’t know what the uncertainty factor would lead to eventually and how long this will go on for,” Jaida said. (SD-Agencies)