A decade is a long time in global economics: 10 years ago, oil and gas prices were slumping and bankers were starting to express fears about Qatar’s ability to meet its debts, as Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani – who came to power in a 1995 bloodless coup with a view to modernising the emirate’s then ailing economy – set about monetising the huge North Field gas reserves. Now, Doha is booming, with Qatar emerging not only as the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter by some margin, but also as a significant regional financial and educational centre.
Sheikh Hamad has worked hard – with his core team consisting of leading wife Sheikha Mozah Al-Misnad, prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, oil minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah and finance minister Yousef Hussein Kamal – to remove doubts that the emirate’s gas plans would ever be implemented and make Qatar’s economy one of the region’s most dynamic. By 2005, its economy had trebled in size since 1996 in nominal terms, and the growth trend continues.
