Gulf Strategic Investments in Finance and Technology for Economic Diversification

The study aims to evaluate the investments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly their overseas and outward investments through sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and foreign direct investment (FDI), focusing on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar, within the framework of economic diversification. The main focus of the study is to examine the role of GCC countries’ investments in the finance and technology sectors, especially financial technologies (fintech), as a strategic sector in their economic diversification objectives. For this purpose, the study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach covering the period after 2008 by analyzing investment data collected from official reports, international databases, and publicly available sources such as news articles, press releases, and official websites, in line with the national vision documents (Saudi Vision 2030, We the UAE 2031, and Qatar National Vision 2030). In addition, the study utilizes macroeconomic indicators, including sectoral share in GDP and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outflows. According to the findings, Qatar, consistent with its vision for a knowledge-based economy, has focused on selective investments in fintech sector related to innovation and education; the UAE, in alignment with its vision of technology and innovation, has focused on broader investments in fintech sector across global markets; Saudi Arabia has focused on investments in regional and domestic fintech sector in line with its localization vision. Therefore, the study contributes to understanding the role of finance and technology investments, particularly fintech investments through SWFs, in achieving knowledge- and technology-based diversification by identifying and comparatively analyzing the strategic priorities and objectives of the three countries.