Doha's strategy for success (page 1 of 2)

Qatar is booming. Doha, the capital, is in the midst of an unprecedented surge in construction, with dozens of large and small-scale projects, ranging from the grand Khalifa Stadium, to a new airport, to the opulent man-made archipelago called the Pearl of the Gulf.

There's the Four Seasons complex in West Bay, Education City and infrastructure improvements throughout the city. The signs of change are everywhere to see.

Beyond the big-ticket investments, a legion of smaller, independent projects - from museums to shopping centers to housing complexes - now dots the local landscape. It all adds up to a vision of a nation ready to explode with possibilities, with the power of new money and new ideas everywhere in evidence.

Gas investment explosion

What's driving growth and investment in the emirate? First, Qatar may be OPEC's smallest oil producer, but it is set to become the world capital of the gas-to-liquids industry by 2010 and the single largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to the United States, a huge market that is expanding fast. The Gulf state has signed a series of multibillion-dollar deals with energy majors in the last year, and state coffers - already swollen - are now on the brink of overflowing.

The repatriation of Arab wealth following the events of September 11, 2001, and soaring oil prices also go a long way towards explaining the current boom. The success of Qatar Airways and increased tourism - aided by high-profile events like "La France expose au Qatar," a major trade show taking place in early December - are also factors behind the country's expansion.

Ultimately, though, the current boom is mostly being driven by belief. That Qatar can become a new economic hub in the region, competing with Dubai for tourism, with Bahrain for financial capital and with Jeddah for corporate investment. Compared to those regional heavyweights, Doha does currently look like a pretty small player.

But size isn't everything - as Dubai, in particular, has already proved. With projects like Education City and the power of Al Jazeera, Qatar is making its mark in the region and across the globe.

The current expansion is not without risks, though. Qatar's mind-boggling construction boom, for instance, could be stalled by factors beyond the country's control. The worldwide shortage of concrete - caused by China's unquenchable demand and exacerbated by regional competition from the UAE and Iran - is driving up costs, as is the shortage of talented manpower.

"Material shortages are not a new problem," says a Lebanese engineer working on Khalifa Stadium. Unpredictability in the supply of specialty steel products had led the project engineers to build their own on-site steel plant. Eliminating order and delivery time on steel, the engineer said, was the only way that Khalifa Stadium can be completed in time for the Asian Games, which are scheduled for 2006.

The Lebanese engineer had recently given a tour of Khalifa's on-site steel operation to a colleague from Bechtel, which has the contract for the new $2 billion Doha International Airport, with its terminal shaped like waves on the ocean. Bechtel had been told to have the airport online by 2008; they thought on-site steel fabrication might help them to reach that deadline.

Overstretched resources and optimistic completion dates are conditions of possible shortcoming in Doha's rapid growth, a lack shared by many nations with booming economies and ambitious visions for development.