This is Only in Qatar! 🇶🇦

In this channel, we explore did you know about Qatar, some interesting facts and the latest things happening in Qatar, including news, tourism, and travel recommendations.

Qatar, with a total size of 11,580 square kilometers, is a fairly small autonomous nation that is completely covered by deserts and is located in the midst of the Middle East.
It was also one of the poorest countries in the area until less than a century ago.
Due to the obvious difficult desert areas, when summer temperatures might reach over 50 degrees Celsius, it was infrequently inhabited.
In addition, it was a British colony at the time.
The diminishing fishing sector and the mining of pearls from the sea used to be the principal sources of wealth for this little nation.
The days were not going well.
However, its first oil field was discovered in 1938, and from that time things began to change but only to a minimal extent.
This was due to the fact that the country's oil reserves were insufficient to transform the country's prospects.
Then, in 1970, something significant occurred.
Shell, the world's largest oil company, has discovered the world's third largest gas field in Qatar's Northern Fields.
However, pipelines were the only way to transport gas at the time.
There was just one problem with it.
Every site where there was a strong demand for natural gas was just too far away from Qatar, making the construction of pipelines to such locations unviable and prohibitively expensive.
This was not something the British were willing to invest on one of their smallest colonies at the time.
However, by the time Qatar got independence in 1971, the new Emir had concluded that the only way he could have improved Qatar's and its people's fortunes was to trade natural gas.
As a result, he put a lot of money into study and development of this immature technology known as liquefaction.
Liquefaction is a process of conversion of natural gas to liquid form which can be easily transported in containers loaded over ships and trucks.
And, in the long run, the investment made at the time paid off in massive amounts.
Qatar began exporting natural gas to countries all over the world in a very short period of time, earning massive Petrodollars in the process.
So that's how Qatar went from being an impoverished desert nation reliant on a failing fishing sector and pearl mining to a super-rich country with flourishing infrastructure development and a dramatically improved lifestyle, as seen by its phenomenal GDP growth rates.
Many countries deal in oil and natural gas and profit handsomely from it.
What they do with that money, though, determines their fate.
Venezuela, for example, has spent it all on extravagant mannerism and is now a bankrupt country on the edge of bankruptcy.
Qatar, on the other hand, chose a different course.
It put a lot of the money it made from the gas trade into developing the modern capital city of Doha and a country with world-class infrastructure.
Meanwhile, it invested a large portion of its earnings.
And good question is why?
Qatar done such a great job picking the correct assets to invest in that it now has a net value of over $335 billion dollars!
That's a staggering sum, making it the world's ninth largest sovereign wealth fund.
And this is the riches of a country with a population of just over 2.5 million people, with Qataris accounting for around 300,000 of them!
After three, it's simply five zeros.
This rich fund invested in a variety of industries, including sports, tourism, real estate, and technology.
Not only has it invested substantially in well-known internet businesses like Uber, but it is also a major shareholder in Shell, Rosneft, Volkswagen and others..
It also holds investments in the world's most prestigious cities and their most valuable homes.
Qatar owns more London property than the Queen of England.
It owns 34% of London's top 15 skyscrapers, compared to little under 21% for corporations located in the United Kingdom.
Also, when we talk about New York's famed Empire State Building, we must remember that Qatar owns 10% of that masterpiece as well.
It also has a 20 percent share in Heathrow Airport and 20 percent investment in British Airways, and a 25 percent stake in St. Petersburg Airport.
And the money that these investments generate for Qatar each month and year is re-invested in other valuable assets.
As well as channeled back into the home nation to develop new motorways, ports, airports, schools and institutions, and other infrastructural marvels such as sky scrapers.
And that is the story of Qatar breaking open the wealth generation juggernaut and becoming the world's wealthiest country.


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