Al Emadi tells Financial Times that Qatar has weathered the embargo storm
The illegal siege of Qatar by four neighbouring countries, which began on June 5, is now in its 12th month. Qatar, having denied all allegations, has stood firm in its stand.
Qatar’s Finance Minister has now said that the country had weathered the embargo storm and is now accelerating economic reforms aimed at boosting investments, according to Financial Times.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE closed off its sea and air routes in a bid to isolate Qatar and make it unattractive for outside investors.
“The first few weeks of the blockade were most difficult, but today the economy has stabilised. Our growth rates are good,” Ali Shareef Al Emadi was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
He said Qatar used the embargo as an opportunity to reshape its economy. Qatar had recently opened up its real estate sector to foreign investors.
“The blockade made us look into ease-of-doing-business regulations, so we accelerated those reforms. Now we look at Qatar as an open hub for the region,” he added.
Qatar, which has been trying hard to become self sufficient in dairy and meat products, also opened up new sea trade routes with different parts of the world.
It also sought to boost the tourism industry by allowing nationals from 80 countries to get visa on arrival at airports.
Qatar’s growth rates have continued to outstrip its neighbours, insisted Al Emadi, who is targeting GDP growth of close to 3% this year.
“Lots of work has been done behind this and the economy is in a healthy condition,” he said.
even with the embargo; looking at just the numbers and nothing else; the country's gdp growth for 2017 was 2.7% and projected to be 2.9% this year; global projection is 3.5%; the quartet must be so annoyed ;-)
Yes, correct ..........