It was announced recently that Qatar has surpassed Luxembourg as the richest nation in the world in 2010, with almost twice the level of wealth as the US, according to latest estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was $88,221 in 2010, and could climb to $111,963 by 2016, surpassing Luxembourg’s $94,621 and Singapore’s $70,992. The US’s GDP per capita is expected to hit $55,622 in five years, up from $46,860 in 2010.
The IMF states that Qatar’s pole position in the rich stakes is a combination of wealth, growth and a small population.
In addition, Qatar is predicting a quite astonishing growth rate of 16% in 2011, and a budget surplus of $6.1bn this fiscal year. Therefore the IMF predicts that Qatar will be the world’s fastest-growing economy for a second year running.
This is an incredible achievement for a country with a population of under a million people, and that is smaller than Connecticut in the US, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Qatar may be small, but of course it has big plans for the World Cup in 2022. CW recently celebrated the country’s achievements and ambitions by hosting its inaugural Construction Week Qatar Awards at the Four Seasons in Doha. This was a lavish gala banquet where a total of 17 awards were handed out in a spirited and celebratory atmosphere.
The importance of this occasion was underlined by the numerous comments from winners that they were so pleased to be recognised for their contributions, let alone to receive an award itself.
There are a lot of dedicated individuals and companies in Qatar’s construction industry, ranging from private players to professional organizations, who all have one goal: ensuring that Qatar builds a lasting legacy for the future.
The issue of building a legacy for the future, of course, emphasises the critical role of build quality. In Qatar, in particular, it is important that the construction industry neither overheats, nor takes any shortcuts towards achieving its considerable goals in preparation for the World Cup in particular.
This may save time and money in the short term, but is like to backfire in the medium to long term. It is no use budgeting for infrastructure for the World Cup that will need to be replaced or repaired not long thereafter. Also, ease of maintenance in relation to lifecycle costing is also of vital importance.
In order to illustrate the maxim that one must always build with the future in mind, recent media reports highlighted the fact that ‘older’, meaning more established, residential areas in Dubai are commanding higher rentals than ‘newer’ areas plagued with maintenance issues.
Real-estate agents pointed out it was ‘survival of the fittest’ in terms of existing building stock. Those developments with good infrastructure obviously attract more interest from potential tenants than those developments lacking essential infrastructure, or which have not yet been handed over.
A corollary to this is that developers and contractors struggling to finish projects in the present market must not look to cut corners in the overall design or essential infrastructure, as this is likely to impact on the future viability of such projects.