Qatar has successfully weathered all storms, especially in the last two years after the unjust siege imposed on the nation by the neighbouring quartet, with its well-planned and well-oiled policies and achieved greater heights. Qatar has entered third year of this unlawful blockade with more vigour and enthusiam and defeated all their unjust arm-twisting tactics with its passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals under the able leadership of the country.
Qatar has attained self-sufficiency in several sectors. The economy is booming and its infrastructure sector has car-ried out all its works, in fact sped up, for the FIFA World Cup 2022 without any hindrance.
The country entered into several trade pacts with major global players and made benefits out of these deals.
The recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the latest testimony of how Qatar’s plans are paying off and Qatar’s economy has proved to be resilient in the face of the unjust siege.
“Economic performance im-proved in 2018. Qatar’s economy has successfully absorbed the shocks from the 2014-16 drop in hydrocarbon prices and the 2017 diplomatic rift,” the IMF said in a statement.
“Real GDP growth is estimated at 2.2 percent, up from 1.6 percent in 2017,” it added.
The IMF has observed that the prudent fiscal policy, an appropriate monetary anchor, sound financial regulation and supervision frameworks and considerable buffers continue to underpin strong macroeconomic performance. The programmes in the infrastructure sectors announced by the Ministry of Municipalities and Environment such as adopting 15 mechanism of procedures and requirements for the approval of requests for the planning and eval-uation of infrastructure facilities and their implementation is in the right direction.
Other major boost to the economy is coming from the tourism sector with the “Summer in Qatar” programme launched recently. It is an important step to develop the domestic tourism industry and is a catalyst for the coun-try’s economic growth. It will stimulate the economic sector with the participation of retail and hospitality sectors.
As defined by the National Tourism Sector Strategy 2018-2023, the summer festival is also a part of the country’s aspiration to further growth in the tourism industry. It is planned that different activities will attract 5.6 million visi-tors per year by 2023, compared with 2.9 million in 2016, more than 65 percent of whom visited Qatar for enter-tainment. Total tourism spending in Qatar is expected to reach QR40bn, compared with QR17.3bn in 2016. This will achieve 4 percent as a direct contribution to the country’s GDP compared to 3.5 percent in 2016. This is a huge contribution. The hotel occupancy rate recorded more than 70 percent compared to 65 percent in 2016. The policies aimed at simplifying visa procedures, including visa-free entry to citizens of 80 countries and a free 96-hour transit visa, which has led to an increase of more than 40 percent of the number of travellers who decide to stop in Qatar give a fillip to the local economy.
The well-collaborated planning by authorities and efforts of partners in public and private sectors made this kind of commendable progress for the country.
