| The
Future of Qatar - Looking Forward to 2006

Qatar Profile
Qatar is one of the wealthiest nations
of the world in terms of income per person, because the Qatar population
is small (around 800,000) and the oil / natural gas resources of
Qatar are huge. Oil provides around a third of Qatar's GDP and Qatar
natural gas reserves are vast - around 5% of the entire world's
total. The rest of the Qatar economy is supported by industries
such as fertilizers, cement, banking, chemicals, iron and steel,
and spin-offs from the petrochemical industry.
Qatar Geopgraphy
Geographically the country of Qatar
almost feels like a large desert island, a large flat land area
surrounded almost entirely by water, bordering Saudi Arabia and
United Arab Emirates (UAE). Fresh water is scarce and Qatar has
several large desalination plants.
Qatar Population
Qatar's population is 40% arab and
36% Indian / Pakistan workers.
Qatar Media Profile
One of the Gulf States, Qatar is well
known for Al-Jazeera , the independent TV station broadcasting across
the Middle East, with huge influence in the region. Independent
from the Qatar government although still partly funded by it, the
TV station is known for objective reporting on many issues and controversial
challenges to many kinds of authority. The station has many times
carried global exclusive Osama Bin Laden interviews and has given
Qatar a profile world-wide that is far beyond what one might expect
from it's size.
Qatar Tourism
Qatar has a rapidly growing tourist
industry and the number of airlines flying in and out each day has
increased dramatically over the last five years. Still relatively
under-developed compared to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Qatar is set for
rapid expansion in every way under the current leadership.
Qatar host to December 2006
Asian games
A key event will be the next Asian
games in 2006 to be held in the Capital city Doha and could attract
hundreds of thousands of people to Qatar during the month of December.
Qatar has pledged to spend US$ 700 million to build an Olympic-style
city for the 10,000 athletes and several thousand officials who
will be taking part. The Qatar games is the first time they have
been held in an Arab country.
In the last games over 5,500 people
took part in the formal opening ceremony before a huge crowd. This
is a world-class mega sporting event. The main stadium in Bosan,
South Korea, used last time had a seating capacity of 54,000 - although
it was hard to fill all the events to capacity. Indeed just four
percent of the tickets for the 2002 games had been sold two weeks
before the start. Officials were pleading for the citizens of Bosan
to support the games. The OCA had projected some US$ 120 million
in revenue from the games, but the actual amount was in the region
of US$ 68 million. Despite that, the number of athletes and events
was greater than ever with many new world records set.
The Qatar investment will be huge,
to provide a vast range of new facilities including several
sports venues and stadiums, a new 36-lane bowling alley complex,
new shooting range, horse-racing track and stables The Khalifa
stadium complex is also being renovated.
Qatar has allocated US$ 2.8 billion
to bring Qatar up to Olympic Games standards for the Asian Games
2006. This includes, apart from US$ 400 million for the above projects,
US$ 1 billion for the New Doha International Airport.
Qatar Future
The long term impact of the games
will be significant, placing Qatar firmly on the potential destination
list for millions of people in 39 participating nations, and creating
a great incentive to invest in long-lasting infrastructure which
will provide wonderful facilities for the expanding economy over
the following twenty years.
Qatar will continue to benefit from
the "Dubai" effect, a huge growth engine in the region,
with escalating UAE prices and labour costs. It will be increasingly
tempting for developers and companies to locate in Qatar, if the
right incentives can be provided to offset some of the disadvantages
of being located near a quieter airport hub than Dubai, which has
trully become a gateway not only to the world, but also for the
world to many Arab nations.
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