Page 134 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

118 Dubai & Co.

Like other GCC states, Qatar entered into an agreement with
the UK in the early twentieth century according to which it would
not enter any other foreign partnerships and would not dispose of
territories except to the UK. Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani,
recognized as the ruler, was from a family that had been in Qatar for
centuries and that traced its ancestry to the Najd area of the Arabian
Peninsula. Through a series of agreements, Qatar deepened its
military and political ties to the UK. Oil was discovered in Qatar in
1940, but due to World War II Qatar did not begin exporting it
until 1949.
Qatar was, for a brief period, one of the nine Trucial States
negotiating to become a new political entity after the end of the era
of British protection in 1971. Qatar and Bahrain, however, did not
agree to the terms that the seven emirates that formed the UAE did,
and therefore Qatar became an independent state.
Since independence, the role of ruler has changed hands only
twice—and both times, through bloodless coups within the royal
family. The first time in 1972, when Khalifa bin Hamad took over
from Emir Ahmad. The second transfer of power occurred in 1995,
when Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa deposed his father. Sheikh
Hamad, still Qatar’s leader, has declared his vision for a more
democratic Qatar, with municipal and eventually parliamentary
elections. The trend toward elections at municipal and parliamen-
tary levels is common in the GCC countries, and a blend of monar-
chy and elected local officials represents what could be dubbed
Gulf-style democracy. In the political realm, Qatar, like other GCC
states, is a strong ally of the United States and served as the staging
ground for American operations in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
It remains the regional base for the US Central Command.
Qatar’s rise to prosperity has been rapid, and its level of
wealth is expected to increase substantially. Until 1973, when oil
production and prices rose sharply, Qatar’s economic status was
very modest. Today, Qatar’s GDP per capita is among the highest in
the world. The reason is simple: Qatar has the third-largest natural
gas reserves on earth and is expected, by 2010, to be the world’s
largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). According to some
forecasts, Qatar could supply one-third of the planet’s LNG needs. 18
Yet it has a population of under 1 million; native Qataris number
only a couple hundred thousand. As a result, some have speculated