Essay Sample on Doha: Fastest Growing City in Qatar, Home to Wealthy Millionaires

Introduction

Doha is the capital city with the highest population located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the state of Qatar. The city has a population that is slightly less than one million people. It is the fastest-growing city in Qatar that hosts more than 80 percent of the people in the country (Zaina et al., 2016). Currently, Doha is the economic center of the country, with most of its residents living far beyond the poverty line. Doha is ranked as the wealthiest city, with many millionaires concentrated in one place than any other city in the world. The high level of wealth and the fast speed of development in the city has made Doha a world icon in terms of infrastructure development.

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According to a Boston Consulting Group, more than 15% of Doha households have private wealth worth at least $1 million (Zaina et al., 2016). On the contrary, 0.9% of households are worth more than $1 million (Zaina et al., 2016). The primary source of wealth among the residence of Doha is the lucrative petroleum and gas industry, with the country's gas reserves ranked as the third-largest in the world. To ensure that the wealth from the petroleum industry benefits its Qatari citizens, the government ensures that most of the wealth generated remains in the country (Adam, 2016). Consequently, Qatar and, by extension, Doha, has the highest Gross Domestic Product in Asia and the fourth in the world. When the country gained independence from Britain in 1971, it had a GDP of $387.7 million; however, by 2016, the oil industry has led to the increase in GDP to $156.6 million (Shandas et al., 2020). Most of this wealth is concentrated in Doha. As a result, by 2016, the Doha was ranked as the city with the second-highest income per capita in the world, with a meager unemployment rate of 0.7 percent (Shandas et al., 2020). There are many job opportunities in Doha to the extent that it has to rely on migrants workers.

In the last two decades, Doha has experienced significant transformation as a result of the new and modern infrastructure across the city. The old infrastructure and buildings have been demolished to allow construction of new buildings. The development has seen the transformation of the Al-Dafina area in Doha to modern metro characterized by high-rises buildings. In 2011 alone, there were more than 50 towers under contraction in the city. In preparation for the 2022 World Cup, the government is constructing new infrastructure projects worth $65 billion. An example of some of the most significant projects meant to transform the welfare of the residence of Doha is the construction of Lusail City, a planned community that will accommodate 450,000 people (Shandas et al., 2020). The project is costing the Qatar government more than $ 45 million (Shandas et al., 2020).

In terms of transport infrastructure, Doha is among the leading city with the best road, rail, and air transport facilities. In 2015, the government launched the construction of a superhighway road linking Doha to Mesaieed and Al-Wakrah (Adam, 2016). The way is intended to serve more than 1.5 million vehicles in the country, with most of them in Doha (Shandas et al., 2020). In 2019, Doha Metro, a modern railway transport, begun ferrying passengers within and outside the city (Shandas et al., 2020). In terms of Air transport, Doha, a city with a population of fewer than one million people, is serviced by two modern international airports: Doha International Airports and Hamad International Airport. Besides, modern transport infrastructure, Doha has some of the best education infrastructures in the world. For example, education city, a 14km2 complex houses the country's best high school and eight universities with state of the art learning facilities (Eddisford & Carter, 2017). As a result, the city is ranked among the cities with the best academic performance in the world.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is evident that Doha has the highest level of concentrated wealth in the world. The city has a concentration of many millionaires than in another city in the world. The bourgeoning petroleum industry and the effective government policy on the distribution of wealth as made the city the second highest in terms of GDP and income per capita. The rate of unemployment is below 1%, forcing the city to rely on migrants workers to fill many employment opportunities available.

References

Adam, R. (2016). Doha, Qatar. In Architecture and Globalisation in the Persian Gulf Region (pp. 155-178). Routledge.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315567631/chapters/10.4324/9781315567631-15

Eddisford, D., & Carter, R. (2017). The vernacular architecture of Doha, Qatar. Post-Medieval Archaeology, 51(1), 81-107.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00794236.2017.1320918Shandas, V., Makido, Y., & Ferwati, S. (2017). Rapid urban growth and land-use patterns in Doha, Qatar: Opportunities for sustainability. European Journal of Sustainable Development Research, 6(3), 56-65.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-26586-1_3Shandas, V., Makido, Y., & Ferwati, S. (2020). Rapid Land-Cover Change in Doha. In Urban Adaptation to Climate Change (pp. 13-29). Springer, Cham.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-26586-1_3Zaina, S., Zaina, S., & Furlan, R. (2016). Urban planning in Qatar: strategies and vision for thedevelopment of transit villages in Doha. Australian Planner, 53(4), 286-301.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2016.1259245