Why Qatar is Best After Blockade?
After the recent blockade initiated by Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, Qatar had to modify its economic, political, and trading policies with foreign countries. Qatar has also modified its foreign policies with the states which were involved in the blockade. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar and there were some serious points based on which all of the mentioned states initiated the action.
Qatar is basically surrounded by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and UAE. Before the blockade, Qatar was using its neighbor’s land for trading goods but after the blockade, Qatar can’t continue its trade with other states in the Gulf region because all of its neighbors have cut off the land, air, and water trade with Qatar.
What Were the Demands of Neighbors?
Now, only the North-Eastern area of Qatar is open for water or air trade with other countries of Asia. Saudi Arabia and its allies took this step based on a list of points that were presented to Qatar. These points were demands that Qatar’s neighbors were expecting to get. But the Sheikh Tamim refused the terms and labeled those terms as an insult in the region. Some of the main points of the demands are discussed. Qatar was supposed to cut all of its ties with Iran and must not provide aids to Iran. Qatar must stop supporting terrorist groups and must give details about top terrorist figures. This point was actually a misconception spread in the region. Qatar claimed that it does provide aid to some Islamic groups, but they’re not labeled as terrorists. Qatar also claimed that they do not provide any type of aid to ISIS or Al-Qaida. All of these points were refused by the authorities of Qatar.
How Qatar is Overcoming the Blockade
Qatar Airways has faced severe traumatic experience after the blockade because Qatar was no longer able to use the air of its neighbors. Now, Qatar has only one route and that is of the ocean. All the air traffic is tuned towards the North-Eastern region which is a great task to deal. After changing the route of the flights, the arrival timings of flights of Qatar Airways were extended which resulted in the loss of many customers. Initially, there was a crisis but now, the airline is stable and functioning properly after implementing some essential rules and modifying the air transport channel.
Qatar Food Supplies
After the blockade, it was considered that Qatar will face famine because of a shortage of food supplies. But Qatar has managed to grow its own farms within no time and has managed to fulfill the food demands. Moreover, the milk supply was badly affected due to the blockade, but this issue was resolved as well. Numerous businessmen started t airlift the milk supply to Qatar in order to meet the demand for milk.
Effect of Blockade on Qatar Universities
Saudi Arab and UAE have a large number of universities that are included in the list of top 10 universities in the Gulf region. However, Qatar has only one institute that stands second in the list of top 10 universities in the region. Contrarily, UAE and Saudi Arab have multiple universities that are competing in the list. So, the blockade has a great impact on the ranking of the Qatari university, “Qatar University”.
It has been 4 months and 17 days since Qatar’s neighbouring countries Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Bahrain imposed an embargo on the sovereign Gulf State of Qatar.
Qatar has so far showed nothing but resilience and pro-activeness amid the crises and has refused to be bullied into submission.
Qatar being a small country, which is largely dependent on its workforce, which is overwhelmingly composed of expat workers has shown remarkable prudence in fending off attacks on its policy making and sovereignty.
Granted that the Qatari economy did register some panic and residents resorted to panic shopping, which made it appear as if Qatar was falling apart. However, that is how economies and its constituents respond to a shock. The recuperation from the shock was quicker than most people may have expected. The policy of diversifying the economy that was undertaken by the Qatari Govt. long before the blockade was put in place proved to be one of the most efficient fail safes to prevent Qatari economy from spiralling into a meltdown. The economy did face a hitch, but the recovery has been steady, and each passing day the people in charge of guiding the Qatari economy are zoning in on new opportunities that will pave the way towards a self-sufficient Qatar.
During the course of the blockade Qatar has succeeded in closing some big business deals with stakeholders from around the world. Qatar signed an agreement with Bangladesh, under which LNG will be supplied to the small energy hungry country for a period of 15 years.
With the only land route closed due to the Saudi led embargo, Qatar was expected to be squeezed into submission by the backers of the blockade. However, Qatar has staved off all such misgivings and established new trading routes with countries such as Oman, Turkey, India, and Pakistan. The opening of the Hamad Port has completely neutralised Qatar’s dependency on UAE’s Jebel Ali port.
Not only has Qatar maintained decorum by not resorting to a tit-for-tat attitude and banning people from the blockade backing countries from entering Qatar, the country has shown far more willingness to resolve the matter than the blockade group is willing to admit. The blockade has come with a silver-lining for Qatar, as the event has compelled the policy makers to accelerate the ‘self-sufficiency’ drive on a war-footing basis. Achieving self-sufficiency is only going to make Qatar stronger in the longer run.
According to The Brookings Institute, “The long-term economic implications of the blockade is likely to be costly to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain. This will arrive in the form of lost business opportunities, revenues from tourism, and reduced investments from Qatar. It will not be easy for Saudi Arabia and the UAE to find alternative clients in the Gulf region for lost sales from products and services that they provide to Qatar”.
Furthermore, the Secretary-General of the World Tourist Organization recently announced that the blockade is not having any worrisome impact on the tourism sector of Qatar and Qatar is expected to host over 6 million tourists a year. It is worth mentioning that Qatar was also chosen to play the host for the World Tourism Day celebrations, the decision was reportedly taken in Columbia over two years back.
Qatar Airways, one of the things that Qatar prides itself for, has played a central role in helping the state navigate the miasma of this uncertainty. From ensuring that travellers to and from Qatar go through the least amount of inconvenience to flying in cows and sheep from around the world to reinforce the country’s dairy sector at the hour of need, the airline has done more than what is expected of a commercial airline. Qatar Airways has proved to be nothing short of an essential service for the country at a time when everything seemed to be going south.
While countries such as Germany have condemned the blockade, Turkey has come out as a staunch supporter of Qatar during the entire course of the blockade. Food supplies from Turkey rendered the rumours of Qataris starving baseless. Furthermore, Turkey also maintains a military base in Qatar, should some parties get some funny ideas.
Long story short, Qatar’s adversaries appear to have grossly underestimated Qatar’s resilience, prudence, and diplomatic depth and at the same time overestimated Qatar’s dependence on them or their routes for supplies. Qatar may have faced a dip, but the outlook is looking strong for Qatar as it marches towards achieving self-sufficiency.
The Saudi led blockade on Qatar which began on June 5 2017 has all but failed. Instead Qatari Govt. is using it as an opportunity to introduce reforms and make the country stand out in the region. The ongoing crisis has only accelerated the escape of Qatar from the coercive influence of Saudi. Given the rise of the crown Prince and the manner in which he has decided to consolidate power for himself in the country, Qatar’s escape from Saudi influence is a welcome development.
On November 14th Qatari Emir HH Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani announced that the country will be holding its first elections of the Shura Council in 2019, this suggests a rapid opening and reformation of governance mechanisms in Qatar.
Furthermore, ever since the imposition of the blockade Qatar has introduced reforms on several fronts, which has enhanced its standing in the eyes of the international community. Qatar has never been so determined to pursue an independent foreign policy as it is now. Speaking to the American media outlet CBS in an interview recently the Emir HH Sheikh Tamim made it categorically clear that Qatar will not compromise its sovereignty and its dignity.
Qatar recently announced a landmark reform which would allow expats to apply for permanent residency in Qatar. Qatar thus became the first country in the region to introduce such reform, thus sending a very positive message out that Qatar is open to people who are skilled and capable of contributing to the development of Qatar as country. As the reforms, people who are granted the PR will be given certain rights enjoyed by Qataris and will be considered for jobs in the military and civilian sectors after the locals.
Qatar also introduced sweeping labour reforms to finally put an end to the hated Kafala system, which was dubbed as ‘modern day slavery’ by its critics. The reforms announced will put in new protections in place to safeguard the rights of the workers, which includes establishing a minimum wage to eradicate the discrimination based on race or gender.
It appears that Qatar is making the best out of a bad situation and so far Qatari state has proved that it is resilient and prudent. This could very well prove to be the spark of evolution that would make Qatar even more open as a society and herald its way towards progress.
Challenges or hurdles are opportunities waiting to be taken, this is what every Business school teaches to its students. The case with the ongoing blockade on Qatar is no different. The blockade it seems has accelerated the diverse sectors of Qatari economy towards the goal of achieving self-sufficiency.
The first sector that got affected by the Saudi led economic blockade on Qatar was the dairy sector, however, as they say: blessings come in disguises, the same is the case here. As soon as the blockade was initiated by closing Qatar’s only land border with Saudi Arabia, a threat loomed large over the prospects of Qatar running out of both fresh food and raw material supplies needed for the completion of the FIFA 2022 World Cup infrastructure.
Turkey was quick to throw its weight behind Qatar and flew in tonnes of fresh dairy products such as yoghurt and laban, Morocco and Iran too came to the aid to Qatar at this time of need and delivered shipments of fresh food supplies. The lesson here being that due to the enforcement of the blockade on Qatar, Qatar was able to establish new supply line routes and quash the illusion that it was totally dependent on supplies from Saudi or UAE.
Qatar has also negotiated cargo handling arrangements with Oman to make sure that all the materials required for the FIFA 2022 infrastructure gets delivered in time to the work sites. Qatar’s swift response to the blockade has averted the worse effects of the crisis and even the stock market of Qatar is now stabilising as share prices are jumping back to normal.
However, the biggest shock for Qatar’s adversaries was yet to come.
Flying Cows:
The biggest shock must have come when a Qatari businessman Moutaz Al Khayyat, the Chairman of Power International Holding, announced that he is planning to airlift as many as 4000 Holstein dairy cows to Qatar in order to maintain dairy supplies in Qatar.
The cows will reportedly be flown into Qatar in 60 flights, the Holstein cows, which have been purchased in the US and Australia, can each produce up to 26, 000 litres of milk during their lifetime. This is a very big and positive development for Qatar’s dairy industry as it would push the authorities to give a serious thought to making this sector self-sufficient and this clearly is a big step towards that.
Originally, the cows were planned to be imported into Qatar by sea, however, due to pressing circumstances it was decided that it would be better to airlift them into Qatar. The cows will be housed in a newly completed dairy farm located on the outskirts of Doha, the capital city of Qatar.
Sailing Sheep:
Another development that took the air out of the blockade was the import of sheep from as far as Australia. A large contingent of Australian sheep numbering as many as 32000 have been received by the Widam Food Company and are not available at the company’s barns. The sheep arrived in Qatar in the Al Shuwaikh vessel, which took 25 days from Australia to Doha’s Hamad Port.
According to local Arabic daily Arrayah, Widam has taken on the role of catering the demand for red meat in the Qatari market in view of the prevailing circumstances as well as due to the Ramadan, when the demand for such products is higher.
Widam has also sourced sheep from many Arabic countries, these sheep are available in the market and are being sold at subsidised prices to Qataris during the prevailing month of Ramadan.
Syrian sheep have also been imported by Widam and are been sold at QR900 per sheep, whereas Jordanian sheep are available at QR850 and locally bred Qatari sheep are available at QR1000. The prices for the sheep have been subsidised as part of a joint initiative with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC).
Credit: Qatar Day
URL:http://www.qatarday.com/blog/information/why-qatar-is-best-after-blockade/33068?pg=5