For the most Koreans, Qatar’s image is currently being focused on hosting the upcoming World Cup 2022.

Starting to have hosted Asian Games in 2006, Qatar has gained the right to host the upcoming 2022 World cup in 2010 from FIFA for the first time in the Middle East region, displaying its capacities in various areas in diplomacy, sports and journalism, according to international observers.

In that regard, Qatar new-accredited envoy Mohammed Bin Ahmad Mohammed Hassan Al-Hayki focused the content of his speech to mark Qatar National Day 2019 held on last Thusday (Dec. 12th evening) at a downtown hotel Seoul on stressing considerably that Korean enterprises take part in many mega-infra development projects which is underway in Qatar right now.

However more importantly, most important vision for the country is Qatar National Vision 2030 to prepare its post-oil era, according to the Embassy of Qatar. Qatar’s National Vision aims that – by 2030 – Qatar becomes an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for its people. Qatar’s National Vision defines also the long-term goals for the country and provides a framework in which national strategies and implementation plans can be developed.

Concrete speaking, The National Vision addresses five major challenges facing Qatar:

preservation of traditions

needs of the current generation and of future generations

growth and uncontrolled expansion

size and quality of the expatriate labour force and the selected path of development

growth, social development, and environmental management.

According to such Qatar’s strategies to diversify its economy centered on energy industry so far and at the same time to strive for improving the life quality of the nation by investing in health and education fields to name just a few intensively, naturally Health & Welfare Minister Park Noong-who from the Government was invited as Guest of Honor to increase cooperations & partnerships in such health & welfare areas between the two nations.

Accordingly, Welfare & Health Minister Park pointed out that the two countries have been developing and expanding their cooperations into various areas including health & medical treatment with both countries’ Heads mutual official visits on Nov. 2014 & on March 2015 as a new impetus. In particular, through Korea-Qatar medical forum held in Qatar at the end of Nov., 2016, medical cooperation’s usefulness between the two countries was confirmed, said Park.

According to Minister Park, medical cooperations between Korea & Qatar are being continued with another Korea-Qatar Medical Symposium held at the end of Jan. 2019 in Qatar while on the other hand, Qatar peoples’s medical tour to Korea also is rapidly on increase.

Touching upon Qatar’s foreign policy by quoting the fact that the Constitution of the State of Qatar affirms the following foreign policy principles: preserving sovereignty and independence, defending the identity of the Arab and Islamic countries, respecting international covenants and conventions, consolidating international peace and security, defending public and private freedoms and human rights, Qatar new envoy pledged full support for the Korean Government’s denuclearization talks as well initiated by President Moon Jae-in on the peninsula, saying he is confident that only dialogue & negotiations can serve as efficient diplomatic means to solve disputes & conflicts between nations in the world.

Even though the Middel East’s pearl Qatar is a small country with its population about 2.7 million peoples, it boasts its enormous economic power with worldwide 3rd ranking’s natural gas reserves as well as 77 million ton’s LNG production & export annually. So The economy of Qatar is being assessed as one of the richest in the world based on GDP per capita, ranking between fifth and seventh on world rankings for 2015 and 2016 data compiled by the World Bank, United Nations, and IMF.

It is being well acknowledged that Qatar played its diverse activities in internatioanl arenas as a mediator role for promoting peace in the region such as negotiations mediation between the US & Taliban and mediation in Sudan & Yemen, to name just a few, in addition to humanitarian activities of Qatar Development Fund & Qatar Foundation including their education support for alienated peoples, water resources development etc.