Country  Report   -­‐  Qatar  -­‐   HyoWon  Jin  

    Qatar,  also  known  as  the  State  of  Qatar,  is  a  rapidly  developing  country  in  the  Middle  East.   The  image  below  is  the  map  of  Qatar.    

 

Map of Qatar (image). (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2010, from AMEinfo.com website: http://www.ameinfo.com/qatar_map/

There  are  many  factors  that  prove  that  Qatar  is  a  More  Economically  Developed  Country,  but   admittedly,  there  are  still  some  problems  often  seen  in  Less  Economically  Developed  Countries.   Therefore,  I  can  conclude  that  Qatar  is  showing  very  rapid  economic  development  and  is  almost  a   Most  Economically  Developed  Country     LEDC  Factors     Admittedly,  there  are  factors  in  Qatar  that  are  often  seen  in  LEDCs.     Firstly,  as  of  2007,  the  literacy  rate  in  Qatar  is  93.1%.  This  means  that  93.1%  of  the  people   over  15  year-­‐old  can  read  and  write.  This  is  not  high  at  all.  Compared  to  other  MEDCs,  the  statistic   is  very  low.  However,  as  the  graph  below  shows,  the  literacy  rate  in  Qatar  is  showing  a  great   improvement  in  past  few  decades.    

Literacy  Rate  (%)  in  Qatar   Literacy  Rate  (%)  

95   90   85   80   75   70   1980  

1985  

1990  

1995  

2000  

2005  

2010  

Year  

 

The  government  is  very  supportive  on  the  education  in  Qatar,  and  every  child  has  free  education   from  kindergarten  to  high  school  and  is  required  to  attend  the  education.  The  government  is   spending  19.6%  of  its  budget  on  education  for  the  citizens.  Supreme  Education  Council  directs  and   controls  entire  education  of  the  country,  from  the  pre-­‐school  level  through  the  university  level,  and   makes  sure  that  all  students  are  able  to  take  high-­‐quality  education.     Also,  there  aren’t  many  Internet  users  in  Qatar.  As  of  2008,  about  436,000  people  had  access   to  the  Internet.  Considering  that  approximately  824,800  people  lived  in  Qatar  in  2008,  that  means   only  53%  of  the  population  has  access  to  the  Internet.  This  number  is  very  low,  compared  to  Japan   having  72%  of  the  population  having  access  to  the  Internet  as  of  2008.  This  might  signify  the  gap   between  the  rich  and  the  poor  in  the  population  of  Qatar.  The  wealthy  people  are  extremely  rich,   while  there  are  many  people  are  very  poor.  This  leads  to  huge  inequality  and  gap  between  the  rich   and  the  poor.  These  problems  cannot  be  easily  seen  through  the  statistics,  because  the  statistics  are   an  averaged  number.     Just  like  these,  there  are  several  LEDC  factors  seen  in  Qatar.  However,  there  are  many  other   qualities  that  strongly  suggest  that  Qatar  is  a  country  that  is  very  close  to  being  a  MEDC.       MEDC  Factors     To  begin  with,  Qatar  has  second  highest  GDP  per  capita  in  the  world,  which  is  $121,000.     Even  in  this  worldwide  economic  crisis,  Qatar  is  showing  continuous  growth,  economically,  as  the   graph  below  shows.  

GDP  per  capita  (in  1000  dollars)  

GDP  per  Capita  in  Qatar   125   120   115   110   105   100   2007  

2008  

2009  

Year  

  A  consistent  growth  is  shown  ever  year,  and  the  current  GDP  growth  in  Qatar  is  9.5%,  the  world’s   second  highest.  The  GDP  growth  rate  decreases  every  year,  once  been  17.3%  in  2007,  but  it  is  hard   to  have  high  GDP  growth  when  the  GDP  itself  is  really  high.       This  high  GDP  per  capita  and  GDP  growth  would  definitely  be  affected  by  its  high   investment.  Qatar  receives  investment  of  39.7%  of  GDP,  which  is  approximately,  40.0  billion   dollars.    39.7%  of  GDP  of  investment  is  the  world’s  fourth  highest.  People  prefer  to  invest  on  Qatar,   guaranteeing  its  economic  stability  and  predicting  its  further  economic  growth.    Government  has   expanded  exploration  projects  in  oil  and  gas  fields,  and  offered  incentives  to  attract  foreign   investors  to  carry  out  similar  projects  in  Qatar.  The  government  has  also  implemented  an  economic   policy  in  public  expenditure  and  diversified  sources  of  national  income  to  include  non-­‐oil  sources,   trying  not  only  to  reply  on  its  rich  natural  resources.  As  a  result,  it  has  experienced  great  economic   improvement.       One  of  the  factors  that  influenced  Qatar’s  economic  development  is  its  economic  freedom.  Its   economic  freedom  score  proves  that  Qatar  is  a  MEDC.  As  of  2010,  Qatar’s  economic  freedom  score   is  69.0  out  of  100,  39th  freest  economy  in  the  world.  The  image  below  shows  the  comparison  of   Qatar’s  economic  freedom  score  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  

 

Qatar information on economic freedom. (image) (2010). Retrieved December 17, 2010, from 2010 Index of Economic Freedom website: http://www.heritage.org/Index/country/Qatar

Its  score  have  improved  3.2  points  compared  to  last  year,  due  to  notable  improvements  in  the  six  of   the  10  economic  freedoms,  trade  freedom,  government  spending,  investment  freedom,  property   rights,  freedom  from  corruption  and  labor  freedom.    Its  overall  score  is  above  the  world  and   regional  averages.  Having  relatively  free  economy  has  lead  to  great  economic  development,  and  the   improving  economic  freedom  score  also  ensures  further  economic  development  in  the  future.       The  workforce  in  different  sections  of  the  economy  shows  MEDC  factor.  A  huge  portion  of   the  population  is  working  for  service,  and  very  tiny  portion  works  in  agriculture.  This  is  mostly   because  the  country  itself  is  very  small,  and  is  mostly  occupied  by  with.  2.7%  of  the  population  is   employed  in  agriculture,  41%  in  industry  and  56%  in  services,  as  shown  in  the  pie  chart  below.    

Human  Labor  in  Qatar  

Agriculture   Industry   Services  

  Most  of  workers  are  male,  since  many  male  workers  have  immigrated  to  Qatar  believing  for  its   further  economic  development  in  the  future.       Factors  of  Production       The  human  resources  in  Qatar  show  that  Qatar  is  a  MEDC.  The  human  resources  in  Qatar  are   heavily  skewed  for  men.      

 

Population Pyramid of Qatar (image). (2010). Retrieved December 10, 2010, from NationMaster.com website: http://www.nationmaster.com/country/qa-qatar/Age-_distribution

As  you  can  see,  in  1990,  the  population  of  male  aged  25  to  50  are  almost  twice  or  three  times  as   many  as  the  female  population  in  the  same  age.  At  this  point,  the  economy  of  Qatar  started  to   become  very  stable  and  started  to  grow  in  rapid  pace.  In  addition,  even  though  the  economy  is   growing,  the  population  is  so  small,  so  there  are  many  work  or  job  available  in  the  country.  This  led   to  increasing  number  of  immigrants  into  Qatar,  and  added  on  to  its  labor  force.  As  of  2010,  the  sex   ratio  of  population  15  to  64  years  old  is  2.44  males  to  1  female,  meaning  there  are  2.44  times  as   many  males  in  Qatar  compared  to  females  in  Qatar.  This  growing  number  of  employees  proves  that   Qatar  is  definitely  developing  in  rapid  pace.     In  addition,  as  I  previously  explained,  the  education  in  Qatar  is  improving  by  a  lot.  The   government  is  putting  great  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  education  and  is  trying  to  improve  the   current  education  curriculum  of  the  country.  The  current  workforce  might  not  be  as  good   compared  to  other  MEDCs,  but  definitely,  their  future  is  bright.  Huge  improvement  in  the  literacy   rate  proves  that  the  younger  population  is  becoming  up  more  skillful  and  educated.  For  sure,  the   human  resources  in  Qatar  proves  that  it  is  improving,  and  its  future  is  very  bright  as  the  education   in  Qatar  starts  to  get  better  each  year,  making  its  future  working  force  much  educated  and  skillful.       The  capital  resources  in  Qatar  also  show  that  Qatar  is  a  developing  country,  very  close  to   being  a  MEDC.  Recently,  Qatar  has  experienced  great  increase  in  Index  of  Industrial  Production.   Capital  resources  in  Qatar  are  liquefied  natural  gas,  crude  oil  production  and  refining,  ammonia,   fertilizers,  petrochemicals,  steel  reinforcing  bars,  cement  and  commercial  ship  repair.  In  July  2010,   the  industrial  growth  has  increased  from  7.2%  to  13.8%  in  a  year,  so  as  63%  jump  in  capital  goods   production.  The  industrial  production  growth  rate  in  Qatar  is  the  highest  in  the  world,  and  having   this  high  growth  rate  is  ridiculous  considering  the  worldwide  economic  crisis  that  has  damaged  the   businesses  all  over  the  world.     On  the  other  hand,  the  transportation  in  Qatar  is  still  in  the  process  of  development.  As  of   2010,  they  currently  have  six  airports,  4  with  paved  runways  and  2  with  unpaved  runways.  The   quantity  looks  very  small,  but  considering  the  small  size  of  the  country,  six  airports  seem  enough.   However,  the  public  transportation  is  mostly  controlled  by  Mowasalat,  a  company  that  is  managed   and  operated  by  the  state  authorities  to  ensure  the  smooth  provision  of  “integrated  ground   transport  services”  for  the  entire  country.  Due  to  this  movement,  the  number  of  taxis  is  not  enough   that  they  cannot  catch  up  with  the  actual  demand  from  the  increased  population.  The  public   transportations  are  not  as  developed  as  the  other  MEDCs.       Natural  resources  in  Qatar  are  definitely  supporting  Qatar’s  growing  economy,  and  prove   that  Qatar  is  almost  a  MEDC.  Qatar  is  oil-­‐  and  gas-­‐rich  country.  It  is  said  that  oil  and  gas  account  for   more  than  50%  of  the  country’s  GDP,  roughly  85%  of  export  earnings  and  70%  of  government   revenues.  As  of  January  1,  2010,  Qatar  believes  that  they  reserves  25.41  billion  barrel  of  oil,  and   they  produce  1.213  million  bbl  a  day.  Qatar  exports  730,000  barrel  of  oil  a  day.  They  have  25.47   trillion  cubic  meter  of  natural  gas  reserved  as  of  January  1,  2010,  and  76,98  billion  of  cubic  meter  

production  in  a  year.  At  the  same  time,  56.78  billion  cubic  meter  of  the  production  is  exported   abroad  every  year.  Until  these  natural  resources  run  out,  the  great  economic  growth  of  Qatar  is   guaranteed.       The  entrepreneurship  in  Qatar  illustrates  that  the  future  economy  of  Qatar  is  very  stable,   and  it  seems  like  it  will  continue  to  show  huge  growth  in  the  future  as  well.  Qatar  will  be  hosting   the  World  Cup  in  2022,  and  they  will  be  receiving  positive  economic  impact.  For  the  World  Cup  in   2022,  Qatar  plants  to  spend  $4  billion  on  a  stadium  construction  and  refurbishment  program.   However,  at  the  same  time,  The  World  Cup  is  expected  to  boost  the  country’s  economy,  diversifying   its  investment.  To  enhance  the  facilities,  a  lot  of  infrastructure  project  will  be  in  progress.  At  the   same  time,  the  transportation  would  increase.  A  second  international  airport  will  open  in  2012,   planning  to  carry  50  million  passengers  a  year.  In  addition,  a  fully  air-­‐conditioned  rapid  mass   transportation  system  will  be  established.  With  these  improvements  made,  the  tourism  in  Qatar   would  greatly  develop,  leading  to  further  economic  development.       Conclusion     To  conclude,  Qatar  is  definitely  a  country  that  will  soon  be  a  MEDC.  They  are  showing  rapid   economic  development  in  the  past  several  years,  even  in  this  worldwide  economic  crisis.  There  are   so  many  factors  that  prove  that  Qatar  is  a  MEDC,  such  as  its  GDP  per  capita,  GDP  growth,  labor  force   and  factors  of  production,  but  there  are  still  problems  that  are  likely  for  LEDC  to  struggle  with,  like   education  and  Internet  users.  Although  a  larger  gap  between  lower  and  higher  class  still  exists,   other  problems  in  Qatar  are  absolutely  improving  in  rapid  pace.  They  have  plenty  of  natural   resources  reserved,  which  back  up  Qatar’s  further  economic  development  in  the  future.  Therefore,   currently,  Qatar  is  moving  toward  being  a  MEDC,  but  it  is  still  a  LEDC.  However,  in  very  near  future,   it  will  be  a  world’s  most  economically  developed  country.  

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