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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –
Qatar is residence to some 2.9 million individuals, however solely a small fraction — round one in 10 — are Qatari residents. They take pleasure in huge wealth and advantages fuelled by Qatar’s shared management of one of many world’s largest reserves of pure gasoline.
The tiny nation on the japanese tip of the Arabian Peninsula juts out into the Persian Gulf. There lies the North Area, the world’s largest underwater gasoline subject, which Qatar shares with Iran. The gasoline subject holds roughly 10 per cent of the world’s recognized pure gasoline reserves.
Oil and gasoline have made the 50-year-old nation fantastically rich and influential. In a matter of many years, Qatar’s roughly 300,000 residents have been pulled from the onerous livelihood of fishing and pearl diving.
The nation is now a global transit hub with a worthwhile nationwide airline, a pressure behind the influential Al Jazeera information community and is paying for the enlargement of the biggest U.S. navy base within the Mideast.
Here is a take a look at Qatar’s financial system and the way this tiny nation was capable of spend a lot to host the FIFA World Cup:
QATAR’S ECONOMIC STRENGTH
For many of its existence, the tribes of Qatar relied on pearl diving and fishing for survival. Like different elements of the Gulf, it was a harsh and naked existence. The invention of oil and gasoline within the mid-Twentieth century modified life within the Arabian Peninsula without end.
Whereas a lot of the world grapples with recession and inflation, Qatar and different Gulf Arab power producers are reaping the advantages of excessive power costs. The Worldwide Financial Fund expects Qatar’s financial system to develop by about 3.4 per cent this yr.
Regardless of a large spending spree to organize for the World Cup, the nation nonetheless earned greater than it spent final yr, giving it a comfortable surplus that’s persevering with into 2022. Qatar’s riches are prone to develop because it expands capability to have the ability to export extra pure gasoline by 2025.
Its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Funding Authority, manages and invests the nation’s monetary reserves.
QATAR’S WORLD CUP SPENDING
Qatar has spent some US$200 billion on infrastructure and different improvement tasks since profitable the bid to host the five-week lengthy World Cup, in keeping with official statements and a report from Deloitte.
Round $6.5 billion of that was spent on constructing eight stadiums for the event, together with the Al Janoub stadium designed by the late acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid.
Billions had been additionally spent to construct a metro line, new airport, roads and different infrastructure forward of the matches.
The London-based analysis agency Capital Economics stated ticket gross sales counsel that round 1.5 million vacationers will go to Qatar for the World Cup. If every customer stayed for 10 days and spent $500 a day, spending per customer would quantity to $5,000, the analysis agency stated. That might quantity to a $7.5 billion increase to Qatar’s financial system this yr. Nonetheless, some followers might fly in only for the matches whereas staying in close by Dubai and elsewhere.
QATAR’S LAVISH BENEFITS
Like different wealthy petro-states within the Gulf, Qatar will not be a democracy. Choices are made by the ruling Al Thani household and its selected advisors. Residents have little say of their nation’s main coverage choices.
The federal government, nevertheless, gives residents with huge perks which have helped to make sure continued loyalty and assist. Qatari residents take pleasure in tax-free incomes, high-paying authorities jobs, free well being care, free larger schooling, monetary assist for newlyweds, housing assist, beneficiant subsidies that cowl utility payments and plush retirement advantages.
The nation’s residents depend on labourers from different international locations to fill jobs within the service sector, corresponding to drivers and nannies, and to do the powerful building work that constructed modern-day Qatar.
QATAR’S MIGRANT LABOUR FORCE
The nation has confronted intense scrutiny for its labour legal guidelines and therapy of tons of of 1000’s of migrant employees, principally from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and different South Asian international locations. These males dwell in shared rooms on labour camps and work all through the lengthy summer time months, with only a few hours of noon respite. They usually go years with out seeing their households again residence.
The work is usually harmful, with Amnesty Worldwide saying dozens might have died from obvious warmth stroke.
Rights teams have credited Qatar with bettering its labour legal guidelines, corresponding to by adopting a minimal month-to-month wage of round $275 in 2020, and for dismantling the “kafala” system that had prevented employees from altering jobs or leaving the nation with out the consent of their employers.
Human Rights Watch, nevertheless has urged Qatar to enhance compensation for migrant employees who suffered harm, demise and wage theft whereas engaged on World Cup-related tasks.
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