Under the slogan: “Achieving Equality in Global Economic Recovery”, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, inaugurated the Qatar Economic Forum 2022 in its second edition.
Organized in cooperation with Bloomberg, the forum attracts more than 75 keynote speakers and more than 500 participants, including CEOs and business leaders from all over the world.
The forum will help create more understanding between world leaders representing different sectors from governance to information technology, especially as the forum is a new global platform for exchanging ideas and experiences and offering solutions to create more economic stability.
Hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be one of the forum’s most prominent axes, as it is an exceptional event on all economic, investment, sports, cultural and logistical levels.
Emir of Qatar
In his speech to the audience, the Emir of Qatar said that the forum aims to enrich dialogue on strategic issues that top the priorities of the global economy, according to what the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
He explained that the positive health indicators “rose due to the lifting of restrictions, the recovery of trade movement, the rise in public spending and the increase in global demand at all levels. However, the disruption that occurred in supply chains is still one of the most important factors for the rise in prices, along with the devastating effects of the current war on the European continent involving Russia and Ukraine.”
Slowdown in global economic growth
The Emir of Qatar referred to the expectations of a decline in global economic growth, which “may be a prelude to an inflationary recession that the world has not witnessed since the period between 1976 and 1979, according to World Bank reports, when sharp increases in interest rates for the purpose of combating inflation led to an economic recession in the early eighties.”
“One of the effects of the Ukrainian crisis is the rise in energy and grain prices and its impact on the global economy, and there are immediate humanitarian effects stemming from the interaction of the impacts from the war in Ukraine with local crises, for example in Ethiopia, Yemen and Syria, which leads to an immediate exposure of hundreds of thousands to the risk of starvation.”
He stressed that “our success in overcoming these challenges depends on the ability of all our countries to abide by a set of principles, the first of which is the establishment of justice, equality and solidarity, and the rejection of double standards.”
The growth of the Qatari economy
Speaking about the economic situation in his country, the Emir of Qatar said that expectations indicate the growth of the GDP to about 4.9 percent in 2022, “due to the rise in energy prices and the positive impact of the policies and measures adopted by the state with the aim of supporting the economic sectors and enhancing the capacity of the private sector to produce and adapt with regional and global changes.”
Economic diversification
The Emir of Qatar explained that the economic diversification efforts have led to a significant increase in the volume of domestic and foreign investment over the past years, especially with regard to foreign direct investment, which rose in 2021 by 27 percent compared to 2020.
“We hope that this growth will continue to rise in the coming years, according to plans.”
He said that supporting the economy, investment and innovation, in parallel with promoting common human values and preserving peace, is the way to build the necessary capacities to overcome crises and challenges facing humanity as a whole, pointing to Qatar’s role as an active partner in the international community to confront climate change in its various economic, environmental and social dimensions.
World Cup
He concluded his speech by saying: “Qatar and the entire region is on the verge of an important historical event, which is the hosting of the 2022 World Cup for the first time in our region. We are confident that the wide participation of the world’s countries in this event will allow not only the strengthening of international economic partnerships, but also a starting point for strengthening bridges of communication. and dialogue between different peoples.”
