Qatar is effectively a small peninsular of land whose economy is growing at about twice the rate of China and which is soon to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.
But it is a nation building a greater reliance on innovation to support its future.
Qatar’s growth rate is driven by the relatively high oil price – the land is effectively floating on a sea of hydrocarbons, particularly gas, of which the country has the world’s third-largest proven reserves.
With oil prices hovering around $100 a barrel, Qatar is generating nearly $1bn a day from petroleum and is the world’s largest pro-ducer of liquefiednatural gas.
This petroleum-derived wealth meant Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) nearly trebled to $128bn last year compared with $45bn in 2006, which translates to more than $90,000 per person per year.
But rather than being a resource-curse, Qatar’s relative openness and lack of corruption and crime has allowed it to invest the oil and gas money in institutions that promise it future generations an economy based on knowledge.
Qatar is trying to learn the lesson of its first resource boom, when its natural pearl industry was decimated by the introduction of new technology by Japan that allowed them to culture, or grow them, artificially.
The ruling Al Thani family, which has dominated Qatari governance since they settled in the peninsular nearly 300 years earlier, and especially since independence, has encouraged education and relative openness.
Doha, the capital, hosts the Al Jazeera (Arabic for island) broadcaster, which was set up after the UK-based BBC closed its Arabic news service.
And, through the Qatar Foundation, the country has built a large education facility, Education City, which covers more than 14 million square metres and houses the overseas branches of six US universities.
The state has also sponsored the development over the past two years of the Qatar Science and Technology Park as a research and development hub and Qatar’s first free trade zone, and construction of Sidra Medical and Research Centre as a speciality teaching hospital endowed with $7.9bn.
The park has oil majors ExxonMobil, Shell and Total, industrial groups Rolls-Royce and EADS, and software company Microsoft as tenants.
This push has taken Qatar to 22nd place in the Switzer-land-based World Economic Forum’s global competitive-ness index 2009-10.
The forum said Qatar had taken the lead in the Middle East and North Africa region, with an estimated 18% growth rate in 2009, although high food and housing prices was pushing up inflation.
The report added: "Qatar is moving in the right direction in many areas of competitiveness. The upgrading of the institutional framework continues.
"In addition, the country has made great strides in harnessing the latest technologies, such as mobile telephony and broadband, and in opening up to foreign investment (it is ranked 13th on the restrictiveness of rules and regulations on foreign direct investment)."
But the country’s relatively small population of 900,000 puts a limit on how far its research base can be translated into new technologies or industries for its future.
In addition, a focus on prestige events, such as winning the rights to host football’s World Cup (a planned stadium pictured), could be seen as a white elephant for a country with a nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem.
A planned £250m ($400m) Qatar-UK Clean Technology Investment Fund to make venture capital investments in renewable energy businesses in Europe was announced in 2008 alongside a potential Low Carbon Innovation Centre in Qatar but talks continue.
Peter Linthwaite, chief executive of Carbon Trust, said both parties were still in talks about the fund but the change in UK government and the World Cup hosting victory for Qatar had slowed things down.
Linthwaite said Qatar state resources were split between economic development to support entrepreneurial activity and sovereign funds aiming for the best financial returns through buying property and companies.
The country has recently set up its Enterprise Qatar organisation to provide credit and support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up less than 10% of Qatar’s GDP.
Enterprise Qatar’s aims include opportunities through greater access to financefor SMEs, particularly start-ups, developing incubation centres that provide fully serviced office space, sponsoring educational workshops for SME owners, raising awareness of and improve access to technology, and increasing access to coaching and mentoring for SMEs.
Sheikh Mohamed al-Thani, director for public-private partnerships at the Ministry of Business & Trade, told consultancy Oxford Business Group for its The Report: Qatar 2010: "In light of the low default rate, even in the SME sector, it is fair to say the SME entrepreneur bears all the risks of investment.
"Our main mission is to miti-gate these harsh investment conditions and allow SMEs to grow."
But the country has struggled to retain overseas interest in its smaller companies. Qatar National Bank bought out the interests in one of the country’s only venture capital firms,Qatar Capital Partners (QCP), which it had co-managed with UK-based firm Oxford Capital Partners (OCP).
David Mott, a partner at OCP, said: "Having built up QCP and set up the team in Doha, we had the opportunity to sell our interest in the firmto the Qatar National Bank, effectively exiting the investment by Oxford Capital. The Gulf remains a fascinating region with bold and ambitious plans to develop world-class knowledge economies."
The $30m New Enterprise Fund and $100m Technology Venture Fund to be managed by QCP had been announced in late 2006 with the aim of investing in early and mid-stage technology enterprises in Qatar. Both were seeded by the Qatar Foundation.
But while the financingmechanisms and number of entrepreneurs remains limited, Qatar has been putting in place the resources to achieve its Qatar National Vision 2030.
This vision was set out in 2008 and aims for the country "to be an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for all of its people" even in a world where petroleum is less important than it currently is.
Key indicators 2008
Population: 900,000
Gross domestic product: $102.3bn ($45bn in 2006 – $128bn in 2010
GDP per capita: $93,204
GDP (PPP – purchasing power parity) as share of world total: 0.14%
Source: World Economic Forum