At the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) 2025, Pat Patel, CEO for the Middle East, Africa and the Americas at Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN), outlined how the organisation is building cross-border corridors and innovation programmes that link Singapore with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, North Africa, Central Asia and other regions. In a year marked by geopolitical fragmentation and weakening institutional cooperation, Patel described why GFTN sees a growing need to anchor fintech development in structured, collaborative frameworks that bring together policy, finance and technology. His remarks centred on the launch of a centre of excellence (CoE) in Qatar, parallel work under way in India, and the development of satellite offices in Japan and Germany, all designed to strengthen shared policy frameworks and future technology adoption across jurisdictions.

Building a cross-border corridor between Singapore and the wider Middle East

Patel positioned the agreement between GFTN and Qatar Development Bank (QDB) as strategic at a time when global relationships are “breaking down” and many jurisdictions are moving in divergent regulatory directions. He emphasised that GFTN sees this as strengthening not only Qatar but also Singapore, Southeast Asia, India and enabling the creation of a wider corridor spanning the GCC, North Africa and Central Asia.

He explained that Qatar serves as a natural anchor because of its connectivity to these regions and its increasing emphasis on competitiveness in innovation and financial services. The corridor is designed to create new pathways for investment, entrepreneurship and market access, supported by a structured platform for policy development and capacity building. Patel highlighted that this collaboration is not limited to bilateral cooperation but aims to create shared benefits across several neighbouring markets linked to Qatar’s economic footprint.

The structure of the corridor mirrors the way Singapore has developed strong business-to-business fintech capabilities to serve nearby markets. Patel remarked that Singapore’s achievements in policy, education and innovation offer a template for building scalable capabilities in Qatar and its surrounding regions. He noted that the corridor also integrates a GFTN forum to convene stakeholders and drive initiatives that run in parallel to the headline activities seen at large events such as the SFF.

Several regions within the wider corridor have varying levels of market maturity, particularly in areas such as inclusion, insurance and policy development. Patel said that GFTN sees an opportunity to uplift capabilities across these markets through shared frameworks, better infrastructure and more consistent policy approaches. He underscored that the purpose is not competition but collaboration, especially in a global environment where growth is challenging.

The corridor therefore reinforces a broader theme at SFF 2025 on building the future technology blueprint. It provides an institutional mechanism for countries to share regulatory learnings and apply emerging technologies in a coordinated fashion, rather than develop in isolation.

Establishing centres of excellence and distributed regional hubs

A central component of the collaboration is the establishment of a Qatar-based CoE, which Patel described as the first fully fledged centre within the network. It will focus on investment opportunities, entrepreneurship, innovation capabilities and policy development, and will serve as a hub for the wider region rather than Qatar alone.

He explained that GFTN’s strategy is to build a distributed network of hubs in jurisdictions that share a similar ethos, ambition and approach to innovation. Each centre will serve nearby markets based on their specific needs. Qatar’s focus areas include financial inclusion, insurance and policy development, reflecting the gaps GFTN has observed in Qatar, North Africa and Central Asia.

Patel noted that the CoE aligns directly with Qatar’s national innovation strategy, which aims to build domestic fintech capabilities, grow startups and attract international businesses, not to serve only Qatar but to strengthen the wider region. He emphasised that the centre will support small and medium-sized enterprises, Islamic finance, insurance and inclusion, all of which form part of the national priorities set out in strategies issued by QDB, the central bank and the government.

Beyond Qatar, Patel confirmed that a CoE is also being developed in Odisha in India, with satellite offices already operating in Japan and Berlin. These satellite offices are being built in collaboration with finance ministries and regulators and are intended to create communities that strengthen regional development and cross-border connectivity. He projected that GFTN will likely have four to five hubs globally within three to five years.

These centres and offices are designed to serve as consistent channels for collaboration, allowing markets to align on technology frameworks, regulatory approaches and emerging opportunities in a coordinated manner. Their distributed nature reflects the recognition that innovation cannot be centralised, and that different markets require tailored approaches based on their stage of development and regional linkages.

Policy development for payments, AI, tokenisation and quantum technologies

Patel highlighted that GFTN’s policy development work in Qatar and the region will prioritise payments, artificial intelligence (AI) and tokenisation. He stressed that these themes should not be treated as isolated verticals but as interconnected areas that will shape the next decade of financial services.

He observed that the past 15 years were driven by mobile, cloud and application programming interfaces (APIs), but the next 15 years will be driven by AI, tokenisation and quantum technologies. Tokenisation, in his description, includes deposits, stablecoins and other digital representations of value, while quantum represents an emerging set of capabilities that will reshape processing power, encryption and computational efficiency.

The policy framework work aims to establish guardrails that allow these technologies to be applied safely while enabling new use cases to emerge. Patel highlighted the need for harmonisation across jurisdictions, noting that different regulators have started to diverge in their approaches. As an example, he mentioned the United States “Genius Act” and the challenge of aligning stablecoin regulations across markets.

Patel also noted that AI and tokenisation are already converging, with experiments under way involving stablecoins and agentic AI. He said that quantum’s processing power will likely influence how these technologies evolve, opening up new possibilities for financial innovation. He referenced recent developments in quantum-related experiments, including work highlighted by HSBC on predictive trading outcomes.

GFTN’s role is to inject these future technology themes into its programmes, forums and closed-door sessions, ensuring that policymakers and industry participants are preparing not only for the next year but for one to three and three-to-five-year horizons. This aligns directly with the SFF 2025 emphasis on building a forward-looking technology blueprint.

Enabling talent development and regional capacity building

Patel emphasised that capacity building is a major component of the CoE. He highlighted GFTN’s partnership with the Asian Institute of Digital Finance at the National University of Singapore, which is supporting the delivery of skills-based technology training. These programmes are already being rolled out in India and with clients such as MUFG and will be extended to Qatar and the wider region.

He explained that these courses are designed to upskill communities and future-proof talent for the next 20 years. As the region develops its fintech ecosystem, talent mobility and capability uplift become essential to sustaining new opportunities. The centre will therefore serve as a conduit for training, human capital development and exchange between Qatar, neighbouring countries and Singapore.

Patel described QDB as GFTN’s on the ground partner, helping to facilitate access to the central bank, the private sector and surrounding countries. He noted that the Qatar Fintech Hub will also play an important role in accelerating and amplifying initiatives through the centre.

The network will not only support local startups but also bring fintechs from Central Asia, North Africa, Singapore and Southeast Asia into Qatar to tap new markets. Patel said that combining regional capital with new ideas and policy frameworks can create strong conditions for innovation.

Capacity building therefore serves both human capital and ecosystem development, reinforcing themes of inclusion, regional uplift and long-term capability planning that were repeatedly highlighted across the festival.

Measuring impact and navigating geopolitical risks

Patel stated that GFTN and QDB are finalising a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the centre’s effectiveness. These include mind share generation, training outcomes, policy framework delivery and the tangible results of forums and stakeholder engagements. He described the policy indicators as binary, where the delivery of a framework allows its downstream impact on innovation and startups to be assessed.

He also acknowledged that geopolitical and macroeconomic risks represent the biggest challenges to successful implementation. These risks are outside the organisation’s control, but he stressed the importance of scenario planning and focusing on areas where GFTN can exert direct influence.

Patel noted that rising fragmentation itself creates a rationale for GFTN’s role. As jurisdictions take different regulatory paths, structured collaboration becomes essential to maintain interoperability and reduce friction. He highlighted that harmonisation efforts are needed more than ever to navigate diverging approaches to issues such as stablecoin regulation.

He added that the timing is significant, as global uncertainties make it increasingly important to provide channels for collaboration, knowledge exchange and shared technology adoption. The CoE is intended to create these channels in a structured and strategic manner.

This focus on mitigating fragmentation and strengthening multi country alignment also reflects broader themes at SFF 2025 around building coherent technology pathways in an unpredictable environment.

Building shared pathways for the next decade of financial technology

Patel’s comments show how GFTN is positioning its CoE and satellite capabilities as instruments for building shared frameworks across regions that might otherwise develop in isolation. By focusing on policy alignment, capability building and the coordinated adoption of AI, tokenisation and quantum technologies, GFTN is attempting to create practical pathways for future technology integration across multiple markets.

The approach is neither promotional nor competitive. Patel stressed that countries such as Qatar are not attempting to replicate the positions of larger regional players but are identifying competitive advantages that can benefit a wider group of neighbouring markets. This reflects an ecosystem mindset rather than a race for singular leadership.

The initiatives also acknowledge the realities of geopolitical risk, regulatory divergence and uneven market maturity. By building corridors and distributed hubs, GFTN is seeking to balance resilience with opportunity, ensuring that collaboration continues even as global conditions shift.

The CoE model is aligned with the future technology blueprint promoted at SFF 2025. It connects policy development, talent uplift and emerging technologies in a way that supports long-term regional development rather than short-term experimentation.

As jurisdictions across the world prepare for new phases of payments, digital assets, AI and quantum capabilities, the structures that enable cross-border cooperation will shape how quickly and safely these technologies reach maturity. Patel’s remarks underscore that this work is becoming increasingly essential in a world where fragmentation is accelerating but the need for harmonisation is stronger than ever.