This place feels kind
of like Disneyland
because everything is
so perfect.
I've arrived
in the world's
richest country,
at least when you look at
how much it brings in
compared
to its population.
Qatar only has a few
hundred thousand citizens,
but it brings in
hundreds of
billions of dollars
every year,
which means that
the total value of goods
and services
it provides
compared to its
small population is huge.
On average,
Qatar makes the
equivalent of
about $130,000
per person every year.
That's $20,000
more than the second
highest country
on the list,
and about twice
as much as
the United States
makes per person.
And walking around Qatar,
you'll feel like
you've come
to a whole new world.
This country
is spending more
than $200 billion
to host the World Cup.
Some say
they're burning through
$500 million
each week on different
projects.
It's spending more than
the equivalent of Greece's
annual GDP.
Here is something you don't see
very often
a Maserati showroom.
and luxury stores
and luxury
hotels are everywhere
you look.
So why is Qatar so rich?
The answer
comes down to oil,
and with much
of that money
it generates from oil,
it invests here
in the country.
And in its citizens.
I've come to discover
how its oil reserves
have translated
into today's
ultramodern luxury
shopping malls, fine
dining and luxury hotels.
This is a man-made island.
And everywhere
I look,
I see like
luxury restaurants,
chocolate shops.
It's absolutely
fascinating what I see,
because I see
so many yachts.
I see
beautiful restaurants.
I see luxury apartments.
So to be perfectly honest,
this place
feels kind
of like Disneyland
because everything is
so perfect.
You don't see any garbage.
The temperature's perfect.
The grass is the perfect
shade of green.
It literally feels like
I'm in Disneyland.
I don't feel like I'm
like outdoors
in a public space.
I feel like I could leave
my wallet,
my passport, my phone
right here.
And if I come back
in a couple of hours,
it'll probably be there.
That's just the feeling
I get.
This literally
is so funny to me.
It's like,
perfectly curated.
Everything is perfect.
You have, like,
really nice everything.
I would eat my food off of this
This is how clean
and how nice this is
Even the street name
signs give
Disneyland vibe.
But here's the thing.
Qatar is a tiny country
with less than
3 million residents,
and only about 15% of them
are actual
Qatari citizens.
The rest of them
are people
from abroad
working in the oil
and gas sector
and many people
working
from nearby countries
on construction projects.
With so much money,
it can easily afford
to attract people
from other countries
to want to work here.
See, Qatar
is a high income
economy backed
by the world's
third largest
natural gas reserves
and oil reserves,
and it's
usually the world's
largest exporter
of liquefied natural gas.
And because Qatar
has such a strong economy,
it has one of the
lowest unemployment
rates in the world,
just 0.2%,
which is
virtually nothing.
And the reason that is, is
because if
you want to live here,
you'll probably need
to find a job first
before you can live here.
Qatar has 13% of
the total oil
reserve supply,
and almost
87% of the country's
exports are petroleum.
But here's the thing.
The world is projected
to be less reliant on oil
in the upcoming decades.
In fact,
in the next few decades,
it's estimated
that we'll go from needing
about 90 million
barrels of oil
per day
to just about 24 million,
which means
if Qatar wants to stay
so rich,
it'll need to diversify
its economy
so it's not
solely dependent on oil.
And one way
that it's hoping to do
that is by impressing
the world
in hosting the World Cup
making it
the first Muslim and Arab
country to do this.
walking around so
many areas here in Doha.
This is a common sight.
I applied
and I got my ticket
I'm going to catch
most of the games. Wow.
I am so excited
So it's about 9 p.m.
You see dozens of people
still working
I've never seen such
a magnitude of workers
preparing for something,
all stationed
in the same area,
working on something,
working day and night.
Oil prices
fluctuate a lot,
which means so does
Qatar's annual
GDP per capita. In 2014.
The per capita
GDP of a Qatari
citizen was about $140,000
but the following year
it fell
to just about $98,000.
So it's spending
hundreds of
billions of dollars
on the World Cup
to attract investors
and people
to want to live
and work here
and create
a whole new economy
that will allow itself
to stay super wealthy
without worrying
about demand
and oil
falling in the
decades ahead.
But if its big bet will
pay off or not.
Well, that
will have to wait and see