Over the course of the twentieth century, the British empire still had some power, such as in the gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. These countries were useful for the British for important trade to India and pearl fishing. The British tried to reunite these three countries into one but failed.
On September the third 1971 Qatar gained its independence. Back then Qatar was just a half island (barely touching Saudi Arabia), with a population of 110,000 thousand and not a single building over a hundred meters in height. Qatar stayed quiet until 1993, when the Qatar Open - a tennis tournament- was founded in Qatar. Since then, Qatar started hosting a list of international Sport Events.
You might be wondering where Qatar got the money to build tennis courts and host big events like these. The country has exported 77.8 million Tonnes of gas and is the world’s number one gas holder. It also holds a lot of oil, just like some of the countries surrounding it. Recently, the people have been focusing especially on oil and gas prices. As there is so much money coming from these resources, citizens in Qatar don’t pay any tax. That’s 0.0% if you're wondering.
From 2002 to 2006, Qatari Population rose from 640,000 to 1.02 million residents. Most of these are expats. Expats are workers -usually office workers- who move to another country for a few years, usually to avoid tax. In 2010, Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Recently, Qatar have been receiving a lot of criticism for possible corruption. This includes FIFA member‘s money to vote for Qatar to host the world cup and Qatar has spent 220 billion USD to host this world cup. Usually, less than ten billion is spent to host a world cup. Qatar also had the highest GDP per Capita which went over 100,000 Dollars for the first time. We know that Qatar is very rich from gas but what happens when they run out of gas or when we will start making our planet greener?
Qatar has been investing in tall buildings such as Aspire Tower at 300 meters tall. Qatar is warm and has tackled many problems other countries just can’t. Qatar Airways, the national airline, has 233 planes. British airways has 257 planes. This is despite Britain having a population between 60 and 70 million and Qatar having a population of two million.
Qatar is now investing into it’s future: tourism. Saint Kitts and Nevis, located in the Caribbean, has so much tourism that their residents don’t have to pay any tax either. This leads on to the reason for Qatar wanting to host the world cup. The final will be hosted in Lusail Stadium. Lusail is a planned city which will cost Qatar 45 billion and is 15 kilometers north of Doha. Currently, the planned city is in construction or will start soon. This rich country is simply spending all of its money just to make more in the future from hotels it owns or from Qatar Airways flights. This tactic has worked so far.
The UAE, the country where the famous cities Abu Dhabi and Dubai are located, made a profit of 36 billion in 2018, solely due to tourism. That’s how much Gucci or Zoom makes in one year. What Qatar, along with a few other countries are doing is limited to few countries. A country like Britain can’t do this, as Britain doesn’t have the oil and gas to export, it doesn’t have beautiful weather and needs 40% tax to pay off its annual expenses.
