Qatar

A new report released this week shows some healthy times ahead for Qatar's construction sector, which seems to have left far behind its former, darker days. The building boom looks set to continue after the Asian Games in 2006, with this Doha-based event already turning large parts of the country into a building site.

With foreign workers long constituting a majority of the population in Qatar, snags in the labour market have often developed an international dimension to them. Nowadays too, the labour market is going through a period of important change. Some overseas suppliers of skilled and non-skilled workers have been tightening up on their expatriate numbers, while foreign workers already in Qatar are becoming more organised. At the same time, some companies are beginning to see overseas workers as not just a source of cheap labour, but as a useful market for their products.

News that Qatar is to have a new body to oversee the development of its IT sector was broadly welcomed by industry insiders this week, adding to other good news for the country's internet and telecoms sectors. With IT expanding at a rapid rate of knots, Qataris are now positioning themselves well to take advantage of regional developments, too.

Qatar's expanding energy sector received a series of major boosts this month, with the signing of major deals to develop the country's enormous gas potential. With two major international energy giants inking agreements with Qatar Petroleum (QP) inside 10 days, July looks likely to go down as a milestone in the country's energy producing history.

Perhaps after viewing the down-to-the-wire construction troubles of this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, Qatar's planners have been taking a more long-term view when it comes to the 2006 Asian Games. Scheduled to come under starters' orders in December of that year, gearing up the country's infrastructure to meet the challenge is already underway. As a spin off, Qatar is also heading for an up-to-the-minute electricity distribution system.

With news coming mid-month that Qatar has retained its position as the richest of all Arab countries, it was perhaps no surprise that a leading international ratings agency then decided to upgrade its country outlook for the state. With major investment projects in the pipeline, alongside a continuing flow of foreign investment, the statistics are certainly looking good for the months to come.