Beijing, China, April 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Establishing a “Green Channel” for Chinese Sci-Tech Enterprises to Land in Qatar: ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program and Licorne Gulf Holding Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement in Beijing
Zhang Kai, Director of ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program, and Alexandre Katrangi, Chairman of Licorne Gulf Holding, formally signed the “Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Establishing the Green Channel for Chinese Sci-Tech Enterprises to Land in Qatar.
On March 31, ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program organized the ZGC-Gulf Conference for AI Industry in Beijing. During the Conference, ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program signed a cooperation agreement with Licorne Gulf Holding Ltd. Both parties will jointly establish a “green channel” for Chinese sci-tech enterprises, represented by ZGC high-tech companies, to conduct business in Qatar, a milestone that directly advances the Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) Digital Silk Road pillar, which seeks to connect Chinese innovation capacity with partner economies through shared infrastructure, co-development, and technology standards. At the same time, it responds to Qatar’s own strategic imperatives: Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV2030) calls for a knowledge-intensive, diversified economy capable of reducing dependence on hydrocarbon revenues, and the structured arrival of Chinese sci-tech enterprises offers precisely the applied technology, talent transfer, and sector diversification this vision requires.
Representatives from upstream and downstream enterprises in the AI industry in Beijing, including Tencent Cloud, Mininglamp, Aibee, Thunisoft and SoundAI, were invited to attend the conference. They engaged in in-depth exchanges with Licorne Gulf Holding and other Qatari partners, exploring cooperation models for jointly developing AI technology application scenarios in Qatar. Multiple cooperative intentions were reached at the conference. These exchanges reflect Qatar’s growing recognition as a strategic node in global technology diffusion, not merely a regional endpoint, but a bridge between Chinese technological depth and a wider network of markets spanning Africa, South Asia, and the broader MENA region. For Chinese sci-tech enterprises, landing in Qatar is not simply entering a single market; it is acquiring a globally connected platform underpinned by sovereign wealth capacity, world-class logistics infrastructure, and bilateral trade ties extending across three continents.
Subsequently, witnessed by all attending enterprise representatives, Zhang Kai, Director of ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program, and Alexandre Katrangi, Chairman of Licorne Gulf Holding, formally signed the “Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Establishing the Green Channel for Chinese Sci-Tech Enterprises to Land in Qatar.” In the future, the signing parties will utilize this mechanism to assist Chinese sci-tech enterprises, especially ZGC high-tech companies, in quickly establishing offices or branches in Qatar, fully connecting them with local partners, industry experts, investment institutions, potential clients, and other resources needed for enterprise development. The Beijing enterprises participating in this conference simultaneously became the first batch of “experience officers” for the “green channel.” Beyond commercial connectivity, this mechanism carries a dimension of strategic resilience: in an era of intensifying technological competition, export controls, and shifting geopolitical alignments, a Qatar-based operational foothold in a jurisdiction with non-aligned geopolitical positioning and growing influence in multilateral standards bodies provides Chinese technology firms with a diversified, lower-risk global base. Qatar-based subsidiaries also enable Chinese tech companies to serve third markets from a neutral, well-capitalised hub, reducing over-reliance on any single trade corridor.
The “ZhongGuanCun-Gulf Cooperation Council States Innovation Incubation Service” (hereinafter referred to as the “ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program”) was launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC in August 2025. It has continuously connected with tech enterprises, research institutes, government departments, and financial institutions in Qatar. Focusing on high-growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, life sciences & health, and green technology, it has been constantly exploring the tech application scenario demands and technology support policies in Qatar, providing comprehensive services and support for Chinese sci-tech companies planning to enter the Qatari market. This programme operates in direct alignment with BRI’s vision of building durable institutional corridors, moving beyond one-off engagements toward structured pipelines that embed Chinese technology capacity within Qatar’s economic ecosystem and, through it, into the broader markets Qatar connects. As its understanding of Qatar’s industries and business models deepens, ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program has signed cooperation documents with Licorne Gulf Holding and several high-tech companies and technology parks, aiming to jointly build a transnational sci-tech innovation ecosystem and assist Chinese tech in going global.
Licorne Gulf Holding was established in the Middle East in 1999. It continuously expands its business with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain as core regions, focusing on investing in high-growth and hard-tech industries such as digital infrastructure construction, aerospace, industrial-grade artificial intelligence, life sciences, and medical technology. It also assists its portfolio companies in expanding into international markets. In 2025, the company invested over USD 600 million in the technology sector through methods including direct investment, establishing joint ventures, and providing post-IPO financial services. The company belong to Irina Duisimbekova and Alexandre Katrangi along with some other GCC Partners and has solid track records in developing, investing and syndicating investments with their Partners spanning from in-house Licorne Gulf funding and direct investment through their ventures, syndicating capital with local and international partners since 27 years into sectors like tech, industries, defense, transport, LifeScience, fintech, sports,telecommunications, satellites, think tank, with roots in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Switzerland, UK and New York.
The cooperation agreement signed at this conference marks the entry of the model for ZhongGuanCun tech enterprises expanding into Qatar into a new stage of resource integration and systematic advancement. After the establishment of the “green channel” mechanism, ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program’s working model for helping enterprises find potential opportunities in Qatar will be upgraded from “matchmaking” to “pipeline operation.” It will precisely match enterprises with “strategic gatekeepers” and “local agents” for conducting overseas business, helping enterprises improve the efficiency of overseas technology transfer and tech application scenario matching, and rapidly promoting “ZhongGuanCun tech standards” into the Qatari market and beyond. In this way, Qatar is positioned not as a destination but as a departure point, a strategic node from which Chinese technology companies can scale systematically across the Gulf region and into global markets, leveraging Qatar’s sovereign credibility, geographic centrality, and deep trade connectivity to accelerate international expansion at speed and with reduced risk. In aggregate, this agreement institutionalises a BRI-aligned, QNV2030-compatible corridor through which Chinese innovation can flow systematically into Qatar and, from there, into the wider world. As geopolitical pressures continue to reshape global technology flows, Qatar’s role as a resilient, strategically well-positioned bridge between East and West will only deepen in value, and the “green channel” framework is built precisely for that moment.
Attachment: About ZhongGuanCun (hereinafter referred to as the “ZGC”)
ZGC-GCC Innovation Partners Program and Licorne Gulf Holding Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement in Beijing
About Licorne Gulf Ltd
Licorne Gulf Holding is an international investment firm with over 27 years of Middle East expertise, focused on originating, structuring, and executing high-value transactions across private equity, energy and cross-border opportunities.
Press Inquiries
Irina Duisimbekova
id [at] licorne-gulf.com
https://www.licorne-gulf.com
128 City Road
EC1V 2NX London
United Kingdom
