Before oil discovery, the economy of the state of Qatar was mainly based on pearl diving and fishing. But with the commercialization of the Japanese pearl on the international market in the ‘20s and the’30s, the Qatari pearl industry became weaker.

Thus, discovering the oil resources meant a great change from the economical point of view.

In the present times, the state of Qatar is a country with a very high standard of living and its citizens are offered a great deal of facilities by their government, including electricity, water and medical assistance free of charge. As for the basis of its economy and the main source for the national income, this is represented by the oil and natural gas resources and by tourism.

The economy of the state of Qatar has become one of the fastest developing world economies, with one of the highest individual income.

And more than that, the fact that there are no taxes on this income situates Qatar on the second place among the countries with the lowest taxes in the world.

Qatar is a country which produces and exports oil and gas, experiencing at the same time the revival of the private sector and great achievements in the field of science.

The Emir intends to reduce his country dependence on the energy sector, even if gas remains its main resources. For example The Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) is expanding to become one of the world’s leading ethylene, sulphur and low density polyethylene producer.

The Qatar Fertilizer Company has become the leading fertilizer in the Middle East.

Qatar Program on the protection of the ecosystem in Qatar was set up to preserve the Hawksbill turtles and has ensured that the investors building out at sea respect and protect the ecosystem and the sea beds.

So far, Q-Tel had had the telecommunication monopoly. This sector is also blooming since the Consortium formed by Vodafone Group PLC and Qatar Foundation was awarded a mobile phone license. Also, Q-Tel has already entered foreign markets by opening subsidiaries (Nawras in Oman) or by buying shares in mobile companies like AMH in Singapore or the American giant NT&T, Hindujas in India and Altimo in Russia.

The Qatalum Project to build an aluminum factory is underway and should be operational by 2010.

Qatar Science & Technology Park was set up in Doha to develop edge technologies. Total, EADS, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Shell and Rolls Royce have already agreed to participate and set up a Research and Development center in the Park.  
One of the main goals of the state of Qatar on the economical and the social level is playing an important role in the region, as well as in the entire world and becoming an example to be followed.

Investment incentives:

The state of Qatar managed to encourage the investments in different fields, to create the proper environment for the investors and to assure the development of the private sector, trying to update it and to keep the pace with the evolution of the world economies as well as with the international laws in the field of commerce.

The Qatar Financial Center has been set up to attract investors, financial institution and multinationals wishing to open up branches in Qatar. They are exempt of tax for a period of three years, hold 100% of the capital and can repatriate the totality of the profits. These advantages added to Qatar’s great political stability and the transparency of its finances has already attracted several banks: Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs International…The Qatar Financial Center should also promote the insurance sector.

The banking sector with its sixteen local banks is very strong. The major local banks are the Qatar National Bank (43% of Qatari assets), Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, two Islamic banks: the Qatar Islamic Bank and Masraf Al Rayan. They support the investment policy of the Emir and ensure through the Central Bank, a safe and transparent environment.

Doha has its own stock exchange - the Doha Securities Market (DSM).

The banks are also involved in the major property developments projects. There are many projects, sometimes on an unimaginable scale.

There is The Pearl-Qatar, the fabulous UDC project or the new city Lusail designed by the Qatari Diar, to welcome in time 200 000 inhabitants. It will be the largest developments in the region covering a surface of 35 square km. Its combination of traditional and modern architecture will be one of Qatar’s new landmarks. The first phase should be completed by 2010.

Of course, Qatar wants to build highways, roads, ports, power station to match its ambitions. The causeway between Qatar and Bahrain should be completed by 2013. It will be the longest bridge in the world (40 km). It has become the symbol of the good relations between Qatar and Bahrain. This bridge is also at the origin of the project for a 200 miles causeway between Doha and Abu Dhabi.

There is also talk of a fast railway between Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar and between Abu Dhabi and Oman and a project for an underground line from Doha to the airport.

Ambitious developments and huge infrastructure in answer to the country’s needs, fantastic projects and a growing presence on the leading international market place…

Oil and gas

The State of Qatar continues to implement the plans aiming to increase oil reserves and oil output capacity by developing onshore and offshore oil fields.

In 1973 the government set up the QGPC (Qatar General Petroleum Company), the most important institution in Qatar.

The continuous efforts of the government in order to develop the gas sector, which reserves are estimated at about 380 thousand billion cubic feet, lead to the fact that the State of Qatar is number three in the world, in terms of reserves, after Russia and Iran.

Qatar Petroleum has built two natural gas exploitation and liquefaction companies, Qatar Gas and RasGas, in partnership with Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui, Itochu and Marubeni.

Qatar plans to be among the largest exporters of gas in the world and made efforts to market the products of the gas sector, and this  resulted in the conclusion of long-term contracts regarding the export of  large quantities of those products. It supplies its neighbors with gas thanks to the Dolphin Project. Once the gas is processed n Ras Lafan, it is piped under the sea to the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and Oman. There are also agreements signed to export gas to Japan and Korea, India and Taiwan.

Qatar is leading the development of the LNG industry and in 2006 became the world’s largest supplier of LNG.

By next year RasGas and QatarGas will have increased their fleet of LNG tankers to 57 ships with a capacity of up to 265,000 cubic meters. The fleet will be operating by Nakilat, a Qatar company, which is also building a large ship repair and maintenance yard in Ras Laffan.

At the 8th international petroleum energy summit, Qatar declared that by investing 70 billion dollars in the next five years, the oil production would increase to a million barrels a day and gas production to an equivalent of 4 million barrels a day, which means that by 2010 Qatar will supply the third of the world’s needs in liquefied natural gas.

Major industries in Qatar:

• Oil producing and refining industry.
• Chemical Fertilizers Industry.
• The iron and steel Industry.
• Petrochemical Industry.
• Cement Industry.
• The Industry of commercial ships mending.