The living conditions of the people of Qatar once made American journalist Scott Pelley exclaim: “Life is like in paradise”.
In an article published in the Telegraph, British journalist Victoria Scott, who has lived in Qatar for 6 years, shared what she saw and heard in this small Gulf country.
According to Scott, in Qatar people don’t have to get out of the car to get gas. There will be gas station staff to do it, even in the middle of a hot summer, when the outdoor temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius. Plus, gas there is cheaper than bottled water. Scott says: To fill up a 4×4 SUV – about 100 liters of petrol – only needs 10 pounds, equivalent to 300,000 VND (2012).
If you park your car in front of the restaurant and honk your horn, someone will take the order and bring it to you when it’s done.
Scott once asked his followers on Twitter: “What does it mean to them to live in Qatar?” and she received answers like: Buying an iPhone without thinking or going on a vacation without 5-star facilities is “not standard”.
According to Business Insider, when they need to buy a certain brand name that is not available in Qatar, the people of this country are willing to fly to Dubai, even Europe to buy the item they want.
The living conditions of the people of Qatar once made Scott Pelley, host of the CBS program 60 Minutes (USA) exclaim: “Sounds like life in paradise”.
Qataris do not have to pay personal income tax. Electricity, health care, education are all free. Even, as shared by Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheik Hamid bin Jasim, even when people die, their funerals will be paid for by the government: ” Everything is free. That has become part of the our culture”.
Qatar’s population is around 2.6 million, but only 313,000 are of Qatari descent, according to recent research by Jure Snoj. And these people have an average annual income of up to 400,000 USD (more than 9 billion VND) even though 92% of people of working age only work in public agencies and governments.
Qatar’s GDP per capita in 2016 ranked first in the world at 5,000. The Qatari royal family owns more valuable real estate in London (UK) than the British royal family.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamid bin Jasim.
The reason is because the small Arab country is only the size of Connecticut, the US (about 3 times bigger than Hanoi) is in the top of the countries that own the world’s precious natural resources: oil and gas.
Qatar’s transformation was not a lengthy process. Fahad al Attiyah, one of Qatar’s royal advisers, said the change took place in the span of a generation.
“The miracle is that my father’s time has changed from living in a tent to living in an urban environment, from traveling by camel, now we travel by Boeing 747. Such a change in such a short period of time. It’s really surprising.”
Pearl fishing in Qatar.
Previously, Qatar was a small poor country, home to several thousand pearl fishermen and nomadic tribes.
Since the early 20th century, when it became a British protectorate, Qatar has been ruled by the Al-Thani family, starting with Sheikh Abdullah Bin Qassim Al-Thani from July 17, 1913. At that time, Qatar’s main industry was fishing for pearls and fish. The country was plunged into poverty and disease when the pearl industry faltered in the 1920s.
The discovery of oil and gas in 1940 began to bring riches, but the discovery was nothing compared to the natural gas reserves found 30 years later.
Qatar’s North Field gas field.
In 1971, the world’s largest natural gas field South Pars/North Dome was discovered off the coast of Qatar. At that time, petroleum products were still popular, so this gas field was not developed, but thanks to the North Field (part of the South Pars/North Dome field), Qatar became a country with large natural gas reserves. third in the world with about 896 trillion blocks.
By 1980, the sudden drop in oil prices caused the Qatar economy to stagnate. The crisis forced Qatar to exploit the North Field gas field in 1989. However, it was not until 1995, when Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani came to power, that Qatar “makeover”.
First, he let the US set up his military headquarters just outside the capital Doha. In 1996 Qatar built the huge billion-dollar airbase Al-Udeid, which houses the headquarters of Central Command and the logistics facility of the US military. The partnership with the US has helped Qatar achieve an unprecedented level of security.
Al-Udeid Military Base.
While the previous monarch avoided meddling in international affairs for fear of offending powerful neighbors, Hamad took a different stance. Living in resignation can also be dangerous, he said.
Also in this year, King Hamad launched Al Jazeera – a news agency that reports 24/24 from an Islamic perspective.
“Al Jazeera has shown Qatar to be an important role in the region,” said William Youmans, a communications expert at George Washington University . influence of Qatar”.
After that, King Hamad continued to bring Qatar deep and wide access to the global economy. One of the first things that Sheikh Hamad did was promote the development of the North Dome gas field. At this time, Qatar started exporting liquefied natural gas for the first time.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, ruler of Qatar from 1995 to 2013.
He built the world’s largest infrastructure for processing liquefied natural fuels, which are being exported to Europe, Japan and India. Within 15 years, 14 facilities have been built within the framework of cooperation with foreign oil and gas companies.
Thanks to oil and gas, Qatar has accumulated 0 billion. With this money, Qatar continues to expand its investment. In 2003, Qatar established the state-owned Qatar Investment Authorization (QIA) company to coordinate oil and gas revenues with other income streams.
QIA has made large investments in large banks and businesses such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Harrods, Porsche, Volkswagen, and holds a majority stake in the Paris Saint-Germain football team.
By 2006, 35 years after the discovery of the gas field, Qatar had overtaken Indonesia as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Revenue from oil and gas accounts for 60% of Qatar’s GDP.
The face of Qatar changes rapidly. The Doha of 1977 was a far cry from the flashy, modern Doha of today. However, whether Qatar will eventually become the Hong Kong of the Middle East or sink into the unstable “squad” of this complex region is still an unanswered question.