QATAR - Population Disparity.

According to the same Human Development Report for 2006, Qatar's growing demographic imbalance due to growing immigration and falling fertility rate among nationals may pose long term political and security challenges to the emirate. It said the small number of Qatari nationals, only 20% of the total population of 744,000, cannot meet the growing labour requirements of Qatar's booming economy.

This factor, added to a drop in the fertility rate of nationals, may lead to a growing imbalance by 2015, when the forecast population will reach 1.3m, the report warned. Gulf News on May 1 quoted Hassan al-Mohannadi, head of the Social Development Department at the Planning Council, as saying: "Qatar's demographic balance is an issue of major concern emerging from the data collected in the report. With a local population amounting to no more than 20% of the total vis-a-vis the economic expansion that requires growing manpower, we will have to face not only labour, but security and political challenges".

According to the 157-page report, Qatar's population increased seven fold between 1970 and 2004 due to the arrival of foreign labour. But the Qatari population's growth rate has been affected by a falling fertility rate which dropped from 5.7% in 1995 to 4.2% in 2004. The report warned: "The fertility rate is expected to fall further in the future, leading to a slower population growth among Qataris".

In a bid to curb the rising population imbalance, the Planning Council has set up a Permanent Population Committee tasked with drafting a national strategy. Muhannadi said: "The population issue is fundamental because it impacts all aspects of our life and the country's policies". (See more on Muhannadi on the following page).

The report was the first ever issued by the Planning Council in co-operation with the UN Development Programme (UNDP). It provides the latest statistics with regard to healthcare, education, economics and environment, collected in co-operation with ministries and governmental departments.

The report showed that Qatar's life expectancy had reached 76 years for females and 74 for males. The adult literacy rate stands at 93.4%, while the combined gross enrolment for primary, secondary and tertiary education is 89% for females and 81.4% for males. Estimated earned income (measured by purchasing power parity) amounts to $13.884 for females and $44.767 for males.

The report revealed an overall improvement of the ratio of literate females to males over the past 15 years as well as an overall growth of the share of women in education and wage employment. Infant mortality rate dropped from 13.5% per thousand live births in 1995 to 8.6% in 2004 and healthcare standards showed remarkable improvements.

Shaikha Mouza chairs the Qatar Foundation (QF), a charitable entity created in the second half of 1995 by Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa. QF controls the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, which is having an Education City in Doha and among its various projects are prominent programmes involving some of the world's most prestigious educational insitutions.

Shaikha Mouza has been behind this city's first project, the Weill Medical College, set up with the help of Cornell University of New York under an accord announced on April 9, 2001. The college was completed in late 2004, when the first medical class began. The Education City is including schools from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate students, the College of Technology, specialised training in design arts and languages, and sporting facilities.

The Weill College follows the Cornell curriculum and offers a complete medical education leading to a Cornell University degree. It is based on the same admissions standards as the New York campus of Cornell. QF is spending $750m for the running of the Weill College over 11 years, including a fee to Cornell, and an additional donation

When the Weill Medical College project was announced on April 9, 2001 in New York, Cornell's President Hunter Rawlings 3rd said: "Some of our Jewish trustees and alumni were especially concerned. But as they learned more about Qatar and its ambitions, they were willing to proceed".

Rawlings said the college was to accept Jews - "even Israelis" - as faculty members and students. QF's Managing Director Abdul-Redha Abdul-Rahman then said: "We are bound to a non-discrimination policy and we will respect that. Entrance will be controlled by Cornell. This has nothing to do with nationalities. Anyone who is qualified is welcome".

The initial phase of Cornell's medical school in Doha was opened in the autumn of 2002 and the ceremony was addressed by Shaikha Mouza. For the first time in Qatar's history, TV cameras could film the emir's wife. The mother of seven, then in her early 40s, the Shaikha was wearing the traditional black abaya (robe) with a headscarf which enhanced her striking features and a stone-studded choker around her neck revealed a glamorous side.

The Specialty Teaching Hospital, as it is provisionally known, will become the centre-piece of Education City, a futuristic cluster of learning and research facilities emerging on the edge of Doha. The hospital is a partnership with Cornell and has more than $200m a year to spend on research, concentrating initially on women's health and paediatric medicine.

Although Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich GCC states have invested heavily in Western-style hospitals, their emphasis has been on healthcare rather than research. Qatar will be different, says Muhammad Fathy Saud, who chairs the Specialty Teaching Hospital's Planning Committee. Dr. Saud adds: "Our object is to be a visible generator of knowledge for the world through our research programmes". He recalls that the Arab world was a pioneer in science and medicine in the middle ages but "for too long our region has just been consuming knowledge created by others".

Charles Young, former president of the University of Florida and chancellor of the University of California (Los Angeles), in 2004 became president of Qatar Foundation. He said then his priority was "to recruit world-class senior staff", adding: "We can offer competitive [remuneration] and clinical research facilities that will be better than anywhere else in the world".

Dr Young said Qatar was a different society to its Saudi counterpart and there was no hostility to westerners. He added: "This is not a country of religious fundamentalism". Dr Young, one of the most respected US academic leaders, said he was attracted by the challenge of setting up from scratch a world-class research institution in a region without a modern scientific infrastructure.

Shell, investing $26 bn in integrated gas E&P and GTL/LNG ventures in Qatar, in 2006 set up a $100m training and research facility to focus on GTL technologies at QF's Science and Technology Park (STP). Abdullah al-Qubaisi, member of the QF's board of directors, and Linda Cook, executive director of Shell Gas and Power, signed the agreement for this in February 2005.

The facility, dubbed Qatar Shell Research and Training Centre with a 10-year lease from the QF, is part of Shell's global research and technology organisation. It is initially focusing on upstream and GTL technologies, technical services and a related training centre. The activities concentrate on developing and utilising technology for sophisticated modelling of subsurface reservoirs to enhance utilisation of oil and natural gas resources.

In addition, Shell is working on development of new technology to enhance production from oil and gas fields. Jeroen van der Veer, the Shell CEO, has said the company expects the facility to become one of its centres of excellence in the world. Shaikha Mouza in 2005 said the partnership with Shell will contribute to the development of significant new technologies in the energy field at the STP.

Sa'eed bin Abdullah al-Misnad, a nephew of Shaikha Mouza, is CEO of state-controlled Qatar National Bank (QNB), which is by far the biggest bank in the emirate.

QNB's chairman is the Minister of Finance, Economy and Commerce, Yousef Hussein Kamal (see his down12QatrWhoSep17-07).

Al-Shaikha bint Abdullah al-Misnad, his sister, is an intellectual and president of the University of Qatar, with a Ph.D. Her sister, Dr. Lu'lu'a bint Abdullah al-Misnad, is the assistance secretary-general for industrial research and investment promotion at the Doha-based Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting.

Hassan al-Muhannadi, a prominent sociologist who is also deputy chairman of the Planning Council's new Permanent Population Committee, on Sept. 4 told public forum in Doha that Qatar's national population was under threat because its women were marrying later in life and a quarter of child-bearing women were unmarried. He said the trend was resulting in a considerable decrease in the birth rate, while abortion rates had doubled since 1994.

Muhannadi said the trend was imposing psychological and social burdend on unmarried Qatari women as "married women had more chance to be productive in society", henceforth linking women's productivity to their fertility. Adding to the concerns were the statistics about the number of divorces (see above).

Abdul-Aziz al-Ansari, a Qatari social activist who runs a non-profit marriage bureau, recently proposed solving the issue of unmarried women by inviting male nationals to exercise polygamy. He said: "It is a social responsibility to find a match for each woman willing to marry in order to avoid moral problems". His comments caused a stir in Qatar and strong protests by prominent women.

Studies put the percentage of unmarried women at 35% in Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, 305 in Saudi Arabia, 24% in Qatar, and 10% in Oman. The problem is so serious there are 30 to 40 unmarried women for every two to three eligible bachelors.

Qatar Airways is competing with Dubai's Emirates. At the Paris Air Show in mid-June 2007 they grabbed the headlines but Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways was not far behind. All three went on a lavish spending spree on new aircraft. Etihad ordered 12 wide-body aircraft, including four A340-600s. Qatar Airways ordered three A380 Airbus super-jumbos, and confirmed its order for 80 A350s. Emirates ordered a further eight A380s, and now has 55 A380s on order, almost twice the number of Etihad's total current fleet.