Thursday, 16 December 2010

Qatar Makes $65 Billion Bet It Can Remake Economy in World Cup Preparation - Bloomberg

The stadium where Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup final isn’t built yet. Neither is the city.

Getting the Persian Gulf sheikdom ready for the world’s most-watched sporting event will cost as much as $65 billion, Merrill Lynch estimates. That’s about $41,000 per person in Qatar, and only 20 percent of them are citizens.

Qatar, holder of the world’s third-largest natural-gas reserves, aims to transform itself into a global hub to compete with destinations like Dubai and Istanbul. While the preparation will keep growth above 10 percent in the next five to seven years, the country of 1.6 million still has to figure out how it can continue to benefit from the investment after the games are over, said Robin McCall, acting chief executive officer of Al Khalij Commercial Bank in the capital, Doha.

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