Qatar - Overview:
The State of Qatar is located in the Persian Gulf and is a peninsular bordered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar has been an independent state since late 1971 after many years of rule by foreign powers. The country itself, although a monarchy ruled by the Al-Thani family, has in recent times started to evolve towards a more modern welfare state. Qatar is made up of the ten provinces with the capital city of Doha situated on the eastern side of the country. The population stands at around 743,000 according to the Qatar Ministry of foreign affairs and 83% of inhabitants reside in Doha and its main suburb Al-Rayyan.

Economy
The economy of Qatar has changed dramatically since the times when pearl fishing was the countries chief source of income, today oil and gas exports account for more than half of the Qatari GDP. In the World Economic Forum’s, Growth Competitive Index, in 2005 Qatar was ranked in 19th position among 117 countries worldwide performing notably better than a number of longer established European economies.
Within the region Qatar was second only to the United Arab Emirates (18th position), the nearest by position in the region, in 27th place is Israel, followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and lastly Egypt.

Infrastructure
Much of Qatar is barren desert and plain, with the vast majority of business based in and around Doha, taking advantage of the cities increasingly expanding and improving infrastructure. Doha International Airport is situated only a few kilometres from the centre of Doha and links Qatar to many destinations globally. A new airport is under construction to the east of Doha International, the final phase is expected to be completed by 2015 at a cost of $2billion (USD). In the meantime the existing airport will continue to be upgraded to accommodate the increasing traffic.

Also at Doha is the countries main port, catering for oil and gas tankers, cargo vessels and cruise liners. Communications are mainly centred in Doha and are classified as modern according to the CIA World Fact Book.

Workforce
The work force is in two main sectors industry and services with agriculture making up less than 0.5%, the total work force is approximately 140,000. Since independence Qatar has put increasing emphasis on education and in October 2003 Education City was inaugurated, which along with the many universities and educational institutions, both domestic and foreign, based in Doha, is helping to create in Qatar a highly educated society.

Standard of Living
Qatar has little in the way of natural fresh water supplies and relies heavily on desalination plants. However the quality of life in Qatar is good with a more relaxed mood than some other countries in the region and a GDP per capita of $23,400 in 2004 which was around 80% of the leading West European economies.