Photo was taken when I went to Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. This is the perfect spot where you can shoot the entire West Bay Area in Doha. :)
I'm currently living in the no.1 richest country in the world, and that is Qatar. They're the richest country in the world according to Forbes with estimated gross domestic product per capita of more than $88,000 for 2010. Aside from that, here's the latest from Wikipedia.
The Qatar Investment Authority is Qatar's state-owned holding company that specializes in domestic and foreign investment. Having that said, they have investments in different countries like the Britain, France, and Germany. Among its foreign investments are:
- Barclays
- Fisker Automotive
- Volkswagen Group
- Hochtief
- Sainsbury's
- Vinci SA
- Harrods
- One Hyde Park
- Filmyard Holdings
- Paris Saint-Germain Football Club
- Paris Saint-Germain Handball
- beIN Media Group
- The Shard
- East Village London
- Brookfield Property Partners
- CityCenterDC
- Maybourne Hotel Group
- International Airline Group
- Chelsea Barracks
- Empire State Building
- Le Royal Monceau
These are just a few; there are other investments to be made in Malaysia, Singapore, and China.
Richest but hated by its neighboring countries?
Yes, that is so true.
Disclaimer: I'm not going to discuss as to why they cut ties with Qatar.
The 2017-2018 Qatar diplomatic crisis started in June 5, 2017, when several countries suddenly cut ties with Qatar including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Mauritania, and United Arab Emirates. When this happened, I was in the Philippines, waiting for my visa going here to Qatar. It was a breaking news to most of the Filipinos because of overseas work waiting for them in Qatar. The Philippine government suspended its deployment of Filipinos in Qatar, until the suspension was later lifted allowing migrant workers to go and work in Qatar. I was relieved, but felt nervous and worried, like how's the life now in Qatar with this crisis going on.
When I finally traveled to Qatar, I had to make a transfer in Oman, then to Doha. There are no direct flights anymore from Qatar going to Egypt, UAE (Dubai or Abu Dhabi), Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. Airlines that are based in these countries like Emirates, EgyptAir, Etihad, Gulf Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines, and FlyDubai suspended flights going to and from Qatar. And so as Qatar Airways, they don't have direct flights in these countries anymore. So for a lot of us (including my colleagues from Europe), it's either their transit flight was in Oman, Kuwait, or Iran. There's no way to pass by Qatar whether by land, sea or air. Because of this blockade, most of the country's source of food and healthcare products are from Turkey, Iran, Jordan, and Kuwait.
The country is still able to sustain their economic status and can still cope up despite its diplomatic crisis.
Am I still worried?
This coming June, it'll be my 6th month here in Qatar. I can see that this country has a lot more to progress and to expand. In 2022, Qatar will be hosting FIFA World Cup which will be in November 21st until the celebration of Qatar's National Sport's Day, December 18th.
It is said that by the end of 2019, or probably in 2020, Doha Metro is expected to open to public. Hopefully, I am still here in Qatar when all these projects will be launched. :)
One more fact!
Did you know that according to Forbes, Doha's international airport famously known as Hamad International Airport is ranked 5th as World's Best Airport in 2018 as ranked by Skytrax, a UK-based consultancy firm which runs an airline and airport review and ranking site.
Not only that, Qatar Airways was listed as Top 1 in World's Top 100 Airlines.
So far, these are all the facts that I know of. What other interesting facts that you know about Qatar? Feel free to comment down below. I hope you had a great read about this post. I have to prepare now for work, because it's Ramadan, so our establishment is opening at night time.
