Nick Wilson said that despite the Qatari Stock Market falling when an investigation was launched in the legality of the country’s World Cup bid made in June, the country’s economy will continue to expand upon its current position as the wealthiest country in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
“Qatar is a very attractive option for investors at the moment,” he said. “It has recently been upgraded to emerging market status and we believe that with or without the World Cup its economy will continue to prosper.”
He said the $185bn currently being spent on infrastructure in the area, which includes a $16bn metro system, has been planned for a long time and the World Cup is widely seen as a “catalyst” for its acceleration.
“Only a small amount of the new projects are attributable to the World Cup. The bulk of these would be stadia and related facilities, and these have been planned for construction and budgeted for, but much of the construction has not yet started,” he said.
'Ambitious'
He added that Qatar is “ambitious” to promote its standing on the world stage, and said that this was unlikely to change if the World Cup was hosted elsewhere.
“The Qatar government’s appetite for large transport and logistics infrastructure projects is likely to continue unabated.
“Tourism may be lower without the World Cup, but Qatar’s traditional revenue streams from oil and gas, and increasingly from financial services, will continue to underpin its progress.”
When Qatar won its bid to host the 2022 World Cup in 2009, it became the smallest country to ever hold the event behind Switzerland, which is over three times its size and only had to host 16 teams instead of the current 32.
Since winning the bid the country has faced a string of criticisms including its attitude towards workers, over 100 of whom have died due to poor construction conditions, its attitude towards the LGBT community and the appropriateness of its extreme climate.
Mistake
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has since said awarding the World Cup to the country was a “mistake”.
The criticisms reached a peak at the beginning of June when The Sunday Times published allegations of corruption and bribery throughout the country’s successful bid.
An investigation has since been launched and FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce has said he would support a re-vote if the corruption allegations are proven true.
The Qatar Investment Fund aims to achieve long term capital growth by investing in Qatari equities. It was incorporated as a closed-end investment company on the 26th June 2007 in the Isle of Man and was initially listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
In May 2011 it moved to to the main market of the London Stock Exchange, with the aim of broadening its potential investor base and improving the liquidity of its shares.
