QDB Manarat (Jahiz 3): rent, unit sizes and what the application asks for

What Manarat is

QDB describes Manarat, the Advanced Manufacturing Hub, as its next-generation ready-built factory initiative. Tenants get plug-and-play units with advisory, Industry 4.0 support and scale-up programmes attached. QDB launched it with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The name means "lighthouses". QDB's stated ambition is for its tenants to reach the World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse Network, the WEF's benchmark list of advanced factories.

Some applicants call it Jahiz 3, because it follows QDB's Jahiz 1 and Jahiz 2 ready-built facilities, and QDB's Jahiz page now points interested applicants to Manarat. QDB itself does not use the Jahiz 3 name. The distinction matters, because Manarat's terms are not Jahiz terms.

The published terms

QDB's FAQ sets out the following.

• Units: 16 in total, in two types
• Type A: 12 units of 1,210 m² — production 750 m², warehouse 200 m², office 105 m², admin 155 m²
• Type B: 4 units of 695 m² — production 350 m², warehouse 85 m², office 105 m², admin 155 m²
• Layout: mezzanine holds office and warehouse space; first floor holds further office and admin
• Power: up to 500 kW per unit, with an increase possible on business need
• Rent: QAR 24 per m² per month
• Lease: up to five years, renewable, including a six-month rent-free grace period
• More than one unit: subject to the business plan

What the rent comes to

The rate is charged on the full unit area:

• Type A: QAR 29,040 a month, QAR 348,480 a year
• Type B: QAR 16,680 a month, QAR 200,160 a year

The six-month grace period is rent-free, and it sits inside the five years, not on top of them. A full term therefore carries 54 months of rent: QAR 1,568,160 for Type A and QAR 900,720 for Type B. Spread across the term, the effective rate is QAR 21.60 per square metre per month.

In a cash flow, place the six rent-free months against fit-out and commissioning, the months when the business has the least revenue to pay rent from.

Type A puts 62 per cent of its area into production; Type B puts 50 per cent. Per square metre of production floor, Type A costs QAR 38.72 a month and Type B QAR 47.66. If a process is borderline between the two, compare them on cost per production square metre, not on headline rent.

Who QDB is looking for

QDB's FAQ says Manarat is strictly for high-tech and advanced manufacturing: Industry 4.0, digitalisation, automation and innovation. The launch announcement named the priority fields as medical devices, pharmaceuticals, electronics and telecommunications, robotics and chemicals, alongside related industries.

QDB lists six eligibility criteria:

• The project supports digital transformation, advanced manufacturing practice and Industry 4.0 adoption, or the product shows novelty
• Strong scalability and significant export potential
• Market attractiveness
• Alignment with national priority sectors
• A team with both technical proficiency and financial strength
• Fit with Manarat's ready-built infrastructure

It also lists what is not eligible:

• Trading and warehousing
• Low-tech, labour-intensive businesses
• Packaging-only businesses and servicing operations
• Assembly-only operations, unless the assembly involves significant technology integration and automation

Four types of applicant are named: advanced manufacturers, hi-tech companies, Qatar-based companies expanding into eligible manufacturing, and international applicants with full foreign ownership who bring knowledge transfer.

The first criterion is "or", not "and"

The first criterion can be met by how a product is made or by the product itself. A conventional product made on a highly automated, software-controlled line meets it on the process. A novel product meets it on the product.

That is not the whole test. The same conventional product still has to clear sector alignment and the exclusion of labour-intensive operations. In our reading, a business plan for a conventional product has to carry its case on the production process: the equipment, what is automated, what is connected, how many people the line needs. The product alone will not carry it.

SIRI: a score a new venture may not have

QDB says eligible businesses often need a SIRI score of 2.0 or higher. SIRI, the Smart Industry Readiness Index maintained by INCIT, rates a facility across 16 dimensions on a scale of 0 to 5. It assesses a facility as it operates today, not as planned.

That leaves a gap for greenfield applicants. A Qatar company expanding from an existing factory may already have a score; QDB has run SIRI assessments for local manufacturers. A new venture or an international entrant has no Qatar facility to score. QDB's wording, "typically" and "often", reads as a guide rather than a fixed threshold. Our reading is that an applicant without a score has to make the same case on paper, in the manufacturing and technology section of the business plan.

Check the process against the unit first

One of the six criteria is fit with the infrastructure. Production floor is 750 or 350 square metres, and power is up to 500 kW. QDB's published area schedule covers production, warehouse, office and admin space only. A process built around batching towers, an open storage yard or substantial effluent treatment is better matched to an industrial plot, where the building is designed around the process — see how much land to ask Manateq for.

How the application runs

Two stages, in sequence.

Stage 1 — initial screening. Submit the application form and a business plan overview: executive summary, management team and company profile. The executive summary has to cover five areas: business model; manufacturing and technology, including facility requirements and Industry 4.0 solutions; market analysis; financial plan, meaning capex, opex and funding requirement; and management team. QDB screens on this overview, on technical compatibility, and on compliance with Manarat's criteria and QDB's policies.

Stage 2 — final selection. Submit a detailed business plan or feasibility study, commercial registration, pre-industrial approval, and QID or passport. QDB evaluates commercial viability, technology adoption, management expertise and team readiness.

Stage 1 is short, but it fixes the numbers. The capex, opex and funding figures in the overview are the ones the Stage 2 study will be read against. An overview written from estimates and a study built from a proper model will disagree, and the reviewer will see it. Build the model first, then write the overview from it. The difference between the two documents is covered in business plan or feasibility study.

International applicants

QDB's list includes international applicants with full foreign ownership. That is a clear departure from Jahiz 1 and 2, which required a valid Qatari ID. Stage 2 still asks for a commercial registration and pre-industrial approval, and accepts a passport in place of a QID. In our reading, a foreign applicant needs its Qatar entity in place before final selection, not after.

Questions to settle before applying

1. Does the process fit the unit? Production floor, power, and anything QDB's area schedule does not include.
2. Which unit type? Compared on cost per production square metre, not on headline rent.
3. What will you show for Industry 4.0? A SIRI score, or a documented automation and data plan.
4. Can you hold a CR and pre-industrial approval by Stage 2? If not, start them now rather than after Stage 1.
5. Are your Stage 1 figures drawn from a model you can defend at Stage 2? The overview and the study will be read against each other.
6. Where do the six rent-free months fall? Against fit-out and commissioning, in the cash flow.