The World Cup begins! How rich is Qatar, which has invested US$220 billion?

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The 2022 Qatar World Cup opens today. In addition to the exciting and fierce competition, the host country of the World Cup also attracts much attention.

Some people said: I never dreamed that one day I would live in Dubai to save money.

Watching the World Cup live this year is really too expensive!

Not long ago, some British players’ families moved to nearby Dubai. They originally wanted to book a luxury hotel at the Banana Island Resort in Doha, Qatar's capital, but were deterred by the price of ￡6,000 a night.

●Doha Banana Island

According to this price, if you want to see the finals, you will need 180,000 pounds, about 1.4 million yuan, for 30 days. This is only the accommodation fee, and daily meals are also expensive.

Such a high price makes even the families of the players of the British team feel sad. After living in Dubai, the cost of food and accommodation dropped by 70%. The air ticket from Dubai to Qatar is only 150 pounds, which is negligible.

●Doha, the capital of Qatar

Of course, ordinary fans do not want to stay in luxury hotels, and their budgets are more limited. Ashley Brown, a British fan, calculated that in the past World Cup, from the group stage to the final, it only cost 1,200 pounds.

But now, the accommodation fee alone is killing my wallet. B&Bs cost US$700/night, cruises cost US$347/night, and even the cheapest “fan village”, which consists of desert tents and temporary wooden houses, costs US$207 per night.

Also, these are hard to get. After comprehensive consideration, living in Dubai has become the best choice for fans.

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Such expensive food and lodging is both unreasonable and unexpected. Because it itself is the most expensive World Cup in history.

How expensive is this World Cup? Not only did it break the record, but it directly improved it by more than ten times.

The investment in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil was US$15 billion, and the investment in the 2018 World Cup in Russia was US$11.6 billion. However, this World Cup actually spent US$220 billion.

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Even counting from the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the previous seven tournaments have spent a total of US$44.3 billion, which is only equivalent to 1/1 of the investment in this World Cup. 5.

Who is Qatar and how can it spend so much money?

This country is really extraordinary.

Qatar is located in the Persian Gulf in West Asia, across the sea from the United Arab Emirates. The area is only 11,521 square kilometers, slightly smaller than Tianjin. The population is 2.658 million, most of which are permanent residents from outside the country, and domestic citizens account for about 15%.

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But for such a large place, half of the land is natural gas fields, accounting for 20% of global reserves, second only to Russia and Iran. Moreover, it is also a major oil country, with proven oil reserves ranking 13th in the world.

Lying on oil and natural gas, Qatar has naturally become a rich country. Its per capita GDP is as high as US$70,000, making it one of the richest countries in Asia.

Moreover, this per capita GDP also includes the permanent resident population. If only the citizens of this country are counted, the amount can reach US$412,000, beating all countries in the world.

●This is how the tycoons of Qatar understand pragmatism: work 3 hours a day

The Qatari royal family is even richer, with a huge wealth of US$335 billion, which is 3.8 times that of the British royal family. Times, it can be called the world's top wealthy family.

The behavior of rich people is often not understandable by ordinary people.

Qatar’s investment in this World Cup has exceeded everyone’s imagination. The first is to invest US$6.5 billion to build 7 world-class stadiums and renovate and expand the capacity of an old venue.

Because it is located in the tropics, Qatar has a higher obsession with coolness. For the first time, these eight stadiums are equipped with the most advanced cooling systems to provide players and spectators with the best cooling experience.

The design of the stadium is also very ingenious, pursuing both a sense of art and technology.

●974 Stadium

Among them, the 974 Stadium actually drew inspiration from building blocks. It is built with 974 containers as the main body, equipped with movable seats and modular "building blocks".

It can be completely disassembled if it is no longer needed, which is the first time in the history of the World Cup.

The Lusail Stadium, built by China Railway Construction, firmly occupies the C position and has become the country's new landmark. It looks like a traditional Qatari lantern, with staggered lights and shadows reflecting the running players.

●The Lusail Stadium, known as the "Big Golden Bowl"

I have to lament that although the Chinese team did not qualify, China's manufacturing is really good. Not only did it enter the World Cup, It only receives teams from the finals: the 1/8 finals, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals are all staged in this hall.

In addition to building the stadium, Qatar also spent nearly 3 billion US dollars to provide an advanced training base for the team, built a communications building to facilitate the media from various countries, and carried out various publicity and promotion activities.

Football is a fanatical sport, and riots occur from time to time. In order to maintain order at the scene, Qatar signed agreements with Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and other countries. These countries will send armed forces to jointly participate in security work.

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At the same time, Qatar has also made great efforts to entertain tourists. Due to the small size of Qatar and its small population, hotels across the country can provide services to 400,000 people. However, during the World Cup, at least 1.2 million fans are expected to flock in, and demand will simply exceed supply.

As a result, Qatar built more than 100 luxury hotels, leased the "Opera" cruise ship from Switzerland, negotiated for civilian apartments and residences, built an outdoor fan village, and even bought 500 containers from China for daily living. .

●"Opera" cruise ship

But here comes the problem. The above conventional projects add up to only 10 billion US dollars, which is less than 10% of what the official said. Where is the money spent?

Don’t worry, the focus is on the following infrastructure.

Due to the surge in tourists during the World Cup, there is likely to be a severe shortage of flights. Qatar simply waved its hand and spent US$16 billion to build Hamad International Airport.

●Qatar’s Landmark: The Pearl of Qatar

Of course tourists don’t just watch football, they also want to visit exotic places. In order to provide everyone with the best travel experience, Qatar invested another US$36 billion to build a 76-kilometer-long subway to connect hotels, stadiums, and tourist attractions.

The most shocking thing is that Qatar has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to build the northern town of Lusail into an ultra-modern modern city.

Taking this into account, the investment in the Qatar World Cup has really reached an earth-shattering US$220 billion.

Is it really worth such a large investment?

Although the World Cup can promote the development of local hotels, restaurants, and tourism, in fact, the dividends brought by the World Cup are very limited and very short-lived. The UK voluntarily gave up its bid to host the 2030 World Cup because it was worried about losing money.

Nasser Carter, an official of the Qatar World Cup Supreme Committee for Delivery and Inheritance, also predicted: “The World Cup will bring a boost to the Qatari economy of up to US$17 billion.”

Compared with investment , this amount of money is too low, why does Qatar dare to do this?

The reason is simple. As a resource-based country, Qatar knows that relying on resources is not a long-term solution, so it has long been planning a transformation. Singapore, which is even smaller in territory, has become an object of study.

●Qatar Idol Singapore

In 2005, they launched the Qatar Financial Center Plan and formulated many preferential policies to attract foreign investment. It wants to first become a financial center in the Middle East and eventually become a world financial center like Singapore.

As a result, five years later, Qatar successfully applied for the World Cup, so they revised their plan slightly. Use the World Cup as an opportunity to upgrade the entire country.

If infrastructure is deducted, the cartel’s investment in this World Cup is only more than 10 billion, which is equivalent to Russia.

Infrastructure is something that benefits all people. Lusail New City, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars, is equivalent to China's Xiongan New Area and carries many of Qatar's hopes.

It will not only be the main event venue during the World Cup, but will also carry the banner of industrial transformation in the future, attracting technical talents from all over the world, and laying a solid foundation for Qatar in the post-oil and gas era.

Today, relying on its political and geographical advantages, Qatar Financial Center has attracted more than 500 companies from around the world and established a business community of more than 3,500 people.

●Qatar National Bank

Al Jade, CEO of the Qatar Financial Center Authority, has also visited Latin America for investment, and even visited China in 2018.

“We invite companies that are willing to invest in the Middle East to make Qatar their base and spread to the entire Middle East. We are also willing to work closely with them and provide good preferential conditions.”

The first Arab country to host the World Cup, the first country to hold the World Cup in the northern hemisphere winter, the most expensive World Cup in history. With so many names, Qatar has gained a lot of popularity.

With the popularity of the World Cup, more people will definitely know Qatar, which will bring more opportunities to this small country.

It is worth mentioning that this is the first time for Qatar to participate in the World Cup. As the host country, it enjoys a direct qualification to the top 32 of the World Cup.

Suddenly, we saw the hope of the Chinese team qualifying!

●Made in Yiwu, which accounts for 70% of the World Cup peripheral goods market share. Image source: CCTV

Getting back to business, Qatar’s record-breaking investment. Not just for the present, but also for the future.

Those who do not plan for the eternity will not be able to plan for a moment; those who do not plan for the overall situation will not be able to plan for a region. Profiting from resources is not a long-term solution. Transforming in advance is a smart strategy.

The future is confusing and elusive. But what is certain is that opportunity always appreciates those who are prepared.

I wish Qatar a long-lasting success in the World Cup. Text/Linghu Kong