10 things we wish for in 2010 Friday, 01 January 2010 00:00

We rung in 2010 with the customary midnight revelry but, for most of us, the blowing of horns and reappearance of light after the midnight blink had just a little more symbolic meaning this time around after a rather difficult 2009. For the majority of us this past year has not been an easy one, with the global financial crisis touching everyone’s life one way or another, even if we in Qatar were spared lightly, and the threat of the H1N1 pandemic hanging over our heads.

Weathering the downturn with aplomb and dealing with the H1N1 flu with a clear strategy, we step into 2010 with renewed vigour and soaring ambition. Here’s  our top 10 wishes for 2010.

Safety and security are obviously vital for the country’s advancement. In the midst of trouble all around, Qatar with its prudent policy and careful strategy has provided its people with a sense of security like no other country. We not only hope this to continue but get strengthened.

Qatar has carved a niche by embarking on a path of educational excellence in the Middle East. We wish people would stop complaining in the daily radio shows about our schools and education policy and give the new system time before judging its efficacy. We wish Qatar University will continue to improve, focus more on research and become one of the world’s top universities. We raise our hat to Qatar Foundation for its yeoman service in bringing in the best of educational institutions to Qatar and raising standards. We, however, wish Qatar Foundation will consider Qatar University as its own and open the state-of-the-art facilities on its premises to the university. Moreover, we hope that Qatar Foundation will focus more on vertical improvements instead of horizontal ones by avoiding diversification into other sectors.

Health services in the country are comparable to the best anywhere. But in the last 10 years, we have seen the decision makers change from a ministry to a corporation to a supreme council. We have been promised a children’s hospital by various ministers and health chiefs over the years. That still remains a promise. We hope the new year will see concrete progress in this regard. We also wish to see the medical insurance scheme implemented and hope for improvement in the appointments system for HMC so that patients won’t have to wait until they forget why they went there in the first place. We also wish Qatar will have its own pharmaceutical company. We are the only GCC country that does not produce our own medicines.

We would like the government to pay more attention to food security because food shortage will be a major issue worldwide in the coming 50 years. We must invest in this sector and it should not be limited to the country. We must look for opportunities abroad.

We must pay attention to the country’s demography and aim at a judicious balance between the native and non-native populations. We can utilise technology to reduce dependence on manpower. We would also like the system of short-term contracts to be reviewed, especially in the construction sector, where the contractor can leave the country after completing the assigned work.

We want Qatar to diversify and invest in varied projects. Real estate is one of the easiest to get into because it does not require much know-how. But we need to diversify our investment and not depend on real estate alone, by owning shares in major companies abroad in different sectors such as healthcare, food, energy, automobiles, research and media. Diversity is not only a security for our investments but by owning shares in critical industries we can also help reduce unemployment in host countries.

We want the government to have an open budget to invest in culture, tradition and heritage, because it is the only way to protect our nation from the ill effects of globalization and maintain our identity. We hope 2010 will see much happen since Qatar has been selected as the Capital of Arab Culture.

We hope that the new media law will be implemented soon and it will ensure the freedom granted by the Emir,

H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and will be similar to the one Al Jazeera is enjoying. We also wish that the Doha Centre for Media Freedom will take its role at the local level more seriously. However, if we need it to have a global role it would be better if it is brought under an international body like the UN.

We want Ashghal to complete its projects on time, especially the major road and highway projects. We also hope to see an independent roads and highways organisation like in other countries, and functions not divided between Ashghal, the municipalities and the Traffic Department.

Our final wish is to see progress in Qatar’s FIFA 2022 bid, so that we can have this event staged in Qatar, which will become the first Arab country to do so.

These are just some of our wishes. You may have many more. We wish everyone in Qatar to have a prosperous and happy 2010.