2022 has been a year full of achievements for Qatar, with the country capping a decade of tireless work with the successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Indeed, Qatar has done the entire Middle East and the Arab would proud by bringing the FIFA World Cup to the region for the first time. Qatar 2022 has brought people with different backgrounds together and changed stereotypes about the region. Qatar has been able to stage an exceptional World Cup through a month of festivities and entertainment for all, while preserving, enhancing and taking pride in its identity and values.
Along the way, the Qatar World Cup has set new records. It sold 2.95 million tickets by the opening day of the World Cup, comfortably exceeding Russia (2018) where just over 2.4 million tickets were sold. Later, the Argentina-Mexico match at Lusail Stadium saw the highest attendance in record at a FIFA World Cup match since 1994, with 88,966 attendees. Qatar has also drawn record visitors for the World Cup, as the country welcomed more than 0.6 million foreign visitors in November 2022. Visitors and tourists to Qatar has been steadily on the rise thanks to endless offerings by Qatar Tourism.
With Qatar’s huge success, it is no wonder that Qatar 2022 has been voted the best world cup of this century so far. In an online poll conducted by the BBC, 78 percent of the respondents voted for Qatar 2022 as the best compared to the previous five editions held this century.
The country also kept up its progress towards achieving comprehensive development and transformation into a knowledge economy, following Qatar National Vision 2030. A lot of progress has been achieved across the sectors including economic diversification, health, education and others. The outgoing year saw the public healthcare system further expand across Qatar with the opening of Aisha bint Hamad Al Attiyah Hospital, taking public hospitals in the country to 16, in addition to 33 government-run health centers. Private health facilities now stand at 10 hospitals and 390 health centres. Healthcare workforce in both sectors is numbered at 46,371. Similarly the education sector has been expanded to 209 public and 334 private schools in the country.
As 2022 comes to a close, Qatar can be proud of its achievements and progress in the outgoing year and confidently looks forward to a brighter and more prosperous future under the country’s wise leadership.
