Learning about the country of Qatar through the Mays winter study abroad programs has been one of my most unique business experiences. Upon interacting with the local businesses and people, I quickly learned that up until very recently there was a requirement for every business operating in the country to have a Qatari passport holder own at least 51% of the company. This meant that there were heavy restrictions on foreign investments due to them needing a Qatari partner, however, this has changed very recently and they have started to allow 100% foreign investment. This may have been because of a bottleneck with there being a lack of Qatari nationals to invest in businesses since there are only approximately 250,000 Qatari passport holders despite a population of 3,000,000. This is because they are very strict with how you can get a passport with the only ways being to have a Qatari father or to be a woman that marries a Qatari. Even permanent residents or those born there that have been there for many years are not allowed to gain a passport if they do not fall under the 2 categories. Despite these regulations, we talked to multiple businesses who worked within these rules to create value in the country and successfully run their businesses.
One of my favorite parts of the Qatari experience one the two weeks was talking to the local Texas A&M Qatar students. Originally the majority of my study abroad group expected them to be very different culturally, and expected somewhat of a language barrier, however, this could not be further from the truth. Upon interacting with the students, we noticed that we shared so much in common in terms of the media we consume, our hobbies, and our love for Texas A&M. They all spoke English and interacting was very easy and we had also learned that a majority of them had visited the College Station campus and some were planning or had already taken a semester there. There were only 4 majors engineering majors offered, however, they still took the same core classes and I felt no difference after walking in to a technical writing class that I myself had seen many of my friends take back in Texas.
Overall, my time in Doha was superb and I would definitely make my way back if a business opportunity presented itself. The city was clean with great food, infrastructure, people, and much more.