According to The New York Times the Arabic emirate of Qatar will be the next Dubai. Its capital, Doha, has a population of 400,000 people and, according to the Qatar Tourism Authority, more than 100 buildings, including hotel towers, business centres and holiday resorts will cover the cities skyline in the coming years.
With a population of less than a million people Qatar has a construction market with a value of €70 billion. And when you include construction activity in the oil and gas sectors you can add a further €38.5 billion to the figure, bringing the overall market value to €108.5 billion.
Qatar’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is the largest of all the Arabic States (IMF). And with no income tax, Qatar is also one of the two least-taxed sovereign states in the world, Bahrain being the other.
In terms of getting projects to site, Qatar's government and construction industry are no slouches. The state has the best record of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) in getting developments to site, with over one third of the currently planned €70billion worth of construction projects started construction, and the balance at design or construction stage.
Spearheading Qatar’s plans to divert away from a reliance on fossil fuels in the coming years will be its financial and leisure industries. Qatar will need to raise the capacity of its financial services to meet the requirements for more than $130billion worth of projects in the coming years, if it is meet its lofty ambitions. The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) is in fact expected to provide financial services providers with access to nearly $1trillion of investment across the GCC as a whole over the next decade.
When compared to other Arab states, Qatar has relatively liberal laws. However, it still has some way to go to match its neighbouring states, UAE or Bahrain.
Mega Project
The largest project ever undertaken in Qatar is the new City of Lusail. It is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by 2011. A coastal development, in the northern part of the municipality of Umm Salal, Lusail is 15km north of Doha City centre and is located on over 35-sq km of land. When completed, it will have accommodation for 200,000 people. The development will include residential areas, commercial districts, island resorts, marinas, leisure facilities (including two golf courses and an entertainment district) and luxury shopping.
Lusail is being built in phases with the whole project due for completion in 2011. It is being developed by the state controlled developer Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment.
Another Qatar mega projects is The Pearl, a $2.5billion, 985-acre artificial island comprising five-star hotels and two-million square feet of high-end shopping. Work will begin on the first phase of The Pearl in 2009, Other projects include the Sharq Village & Spa, along the beachfront and the IM Pei designed modernist Museum of Islamic Arts.
Find the latest construction jobs in Qatar and the Gulf States
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