Qatar won't repeat Dubai's mistakes, says expert

Qatar has learnt from the mistakes Dubai made during the real estate boom, says Paul Mcfarlane.

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Qatar will not repeat the mistakes that Dubai made at the height of the real-estate boom in its build-up to the 2022 FIFA Soccer World Cup, a Doha-based MEP expert has said.

In an interview with MEP Middle East, Paul Mcfarlane, country manager for ANEL MEP Maintenance and Operations, said the "mistakes made in Dubai were obvious to all".

He added that Qatar would be approaching its own development boom with caution and in a "far more controlled manner".

“I think everybody looking at Dubai from the outside, looking in, has obviously seen the mistakes that were made. A lot of overspending [took place] and a lot of projects were put on the table at one time, and they could potentially not come to fruition,” he said.

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“I do not think Qatar will be like that. I believe the Qataris are doing it in a much more controlled manner. There is obviously an awful amount of construction going on right now in Qatar, and that will continue.

“Obviously, with the upcoming World Cup and all the infrastructure work involved with that, everything is going to be geared around that and in line with the 2030 Vision,” said Mcfarlane.

According to Frost & Sullivan, Qatar is expected to see a 46% growth over the next five years in construction. At present, the country’s construction industry accounts for around 5% of its GDP.

“Qatar is just at the start of one of its most significant decades,” said Vishnu Shankar, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, back in November 2011.

“At a time when most countries are coming to terms with post-recession effects amidst political uprising in large parts of the Middle East, Qatar is one of the few countries that is clearly following its vision path for 2030,” he said.

This is something that Mcfarlane attributes to the more controlled manner that Qatar’s leadership has exhibited to its development.

“I think they are doing it in a much more controlled manner, and a lot of lessons have been learnt from Dubai. I think those lessons had been learnt before the actual financial crisis happened.

"Qatar, in its outlook, always had a mindset that [saw] it do things in a more controlled manner, rather than just throwing things at the wall and seeing what happens,” he concluded.