It was smiles and applause all round at the Ritz-Carlton Doha on April 1, as gathered dignitaries and industry captains, flown in for the occasion by Qatar Airways, witnessed the public release of the World Economic Forum’s first Arab World Competitiveness Report. The launch may have been just one event amid a series of round-table discussions organised by the Geneva-based forum, but for the Qatari hosts it was a particularly sweet moment to savour. Ahead of ambitious local rivals Bahrain and the UAE, it was Qatar that emerged at the top of the ranking. According to the statisticians from the World Economic Forum (WEF), Qatar now has the most competitive Arab economy and the best regional model for its neighbours to emulate.
The previous day, Qatari finance minister Yousef Bin Hussain Kamal had announced the government’s budget for fiscal year 2005/2006. Continuing an expansionist policy of capital spending, he increased budgeted outlays by 32% to QR11.7bn ($3.2bn). A little less than QR10bn of that is to go on infrastructure development and most of the rest will go into education and healthcare. The best news, however, came in the budgeted revenues. Despite the increase in expenditure, a 45% increase in forecast income to QR38bn should mean the government can invest generously and still have a QR218m surplus at the end.
