Qatar now a center of global sports destination
Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Nepal His Excellency Yousuf bin Muhammad Al-Hail has expressed his happiness over Nepal marching towards advancement.
“Compared to my initial days in Nepal, I have experienced lots of infrastructures development. Not only in the Kathmandu Valley, but while visiting various places of Nepal it can be seen numerous wide and good roads, and many hotels, motels are coming up.”
“Thanks! tourism has come back on track in the world. Nepal has huge tourism potential. Nepal has friendly climate, exciting but challenging adventure tourism, eye-catching natural beauty; unforgettable bio-diversity; multi-linguistic harmonious ethnic groups, unique social diversity, centuries-old historical avenues and diverse wealthy cultural,” added Qatari Envoy Al-Hail.
“In the world today the hospitality industry has become a bedrock sector for the country. So, as if Nepal unexplored more attractive packages, the tiny Himalayan nation can make remarkable progress in the field of tourism that has an emerging global phenomenon to boost the economy.”
“The etiquette of Nepal’s lucrative-based hospitality can drag the huge crowds of international visitors that promote and establish Nepal in the international arena,” Qatari envoy suggested.
Chit-chatting with this scribe in his office on Monday, the 50-year-old Qatari ambassador who has been serving in Nepal since September 19, 2016 also emphasized that “Qatar is eager to assist in development activities of Nepal. Besides others, Qatar is supporting Nepal in education, social areas through Qatar Foundation, Qatar Red Crescent.”
Talked vivid issues with sipping coffee and Qatari Dates (one of the oldest cultivated fruits) for almost two-hours, the Qatari Ambassador is of opined that it would be a good idea to build a diplomatic conclave in a certain place where all the ambassadors serving in Nepal could be homed in one area.
He also has ideas that if the Nepal government provides lease-base land for constructing the embassy building of Qatar in Kathmandu, Qatar government will also secure a piece of land for Nepal Embassy in Doha.
“There is no doubt, if they have land, every embassy could build their chancery building reflecting their religion and time-honored socio-culture value-based state-of-art that could give every visitor the feeling of having landed into that (specific) country,” opined the ambassador.
Like in other countries, in Nepal also, there are some countries that have the chancery with a business office unit and the residence of the ambassador in the same compound. The occupied property is leased or is lent by the host government.
The capital city of Nepal- Kathmandu hosts 26 countries’ embassies and UN, EU and SAARC Secretariat. Many embassies do not have their own, purpose-built buildings. Their chanceries are rented from a private party where they cannot, due to hazardous, build their customary-structures according to their state-of-art design.
However, the rules and regulations of an embassy, behavior & treatment of diplomatic personnel and the mode of operation of an embassy come into practice according to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
The same concept could be traced from India. Today’s Chanakyapuri is the diplomatic enclave of Delhi developed by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru’s special initiation. In the Chanakyapuri area, various countries were given land and the Indian government permitted the foreign countries’ embassies the freedom to design their buildings in their own styles. Thus, today Chanakyapuri came into being one of the best diplomatic enclaves of the world – centrally located, well-planned, spacious, close to the Government Ministries and home to wonderful architecture.
One of the active ambassadors among diplomats serving in Nepal and currently also shouldering the Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Nepal Qatari Envoy H. E. Yousuf bin Muhammad Al-Hail has tried his best but the host government’s approval for the use of space for an embassy has yet to be realized.
About beneficials to Qatar by hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, the ambassador in Tête-à-tête elaborated, “After hosting the World Cup 2002 successfully, Qatar has been widely known by the world.”
“After World Cup events, Qatar receives a huge economic boost as the country sees an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the retail and hospitality sectors growing. Thus, for Qataris, the World Cup was an opportunity to expose to the world about Islamic religion and state-of-art culture, displaying everything from their architecture to their hospitality as well as advancement on development aspects of the tiny Gulf country,” envoy informed.
“Also, an expression of solidarity by citizens across the Gulf Arab states have become a source of considerable pride that boosted morally, socially and culturally Qatar for successful hosting of the biggest global event in the Middle east region,” the ambassador voiced.
“The World Cup festival was also a real opportunity to interact at people-to-people level for all Gulf countries’ Muslim people since the deep rift within the GCC finally came to an end,” the Qatari envoy verbalized.
“Qatar hosted the World Cup with remarkable success. No doubt, the Qatari leadership has made resounding success of hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and making it the best ever tournament in which millions of visitors from nook and corner of the world were influx,” the ambassador informed adding “As the Government of Qatar banned selling alcohol during the entire World Cup days, Qatar, being a peninsular country, has taught that even without the consumption of alcohol football fans and visitors could enjoy the fun of the world cup with variety of seafood and meat dishes and Qatari cuisine that adds Arab spices to varieties of rice without indulging into drunkenness and (use of drugs too)”
“This well-calculated measure taken by the wise leadership of Qatar made the streets of Doha free from the crazy hooliganism, and breach of the rules and regulations often witnessed in previous world cup events,” he weighed.
“Millions of spectaculars from around the world arrived in Qatar and enjoyed the entire World Cup games respecting the Qatar’s Islamic culture and religion by forgetting to have the need to drink which Qatar and the entire Islamic world has praised,” chatted the envoy.
Qatar World Cup 2022 was the first World Cup to be hosted in a Muslim nation where alcohol access is restricted.
“By hosting the World Cup event, Qatar’s infrastructure and development have been multiplied, spreading Islamic culture that has been respected by the entire world,” cheered the envoy.
“Though Qatar is a small nation it definitely is strong in economy, culture, religion and people are harmonious, supportive and friendly. Thus, the Qataris and visitors share their cultural exchanges at World Cup 2022 in Qatar that has local, Gulf and Arab legacy impressing the world with the highest level of infrastructure, including state-of-the-art stadiums.”
“The Amir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani’s visionary leadership has proven that for Qatar only the sky could be limited to achieve any goals and objectives Qatar has accepted. The tiny Arab nation–Qatar has set the example for others to follow in good planning, discipline, commitment and top-notch execution,” applauded the Qatari envoy Al-Hail.
“As Qatar demonstrated the unique flavor of the Islamic and Arab hospitality to the world, Qatar has taught before the non-Muslims that the Teachings of Islam could be effectively practiced and maintained anywhere. Because the facilities provided by Qatar during the mega sporting event was the most commendable that gave visitors and fans a unique opportunity to easily and convincingly embrace Islam,” the ambassador apprised.
Thus, the FIFA President Gianni Infantino lauded saying, “Since the inaugural of the World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay the World Cup 2022 in Qatar has been an “incredible success” in terms of its thorough preparedness and excellent delivery.”
“Overall, with the successfully hosted World Cup 2022, the tiny but wealthy desert nation Qatar– who has only little knowledge on footballing pedigree has taught the world that it is not the big or small in size of the country, have or not legendary history in football, need to play only during summer season but it needs wide visionary with sharp-wisdom and foresight leadership to make whatever the challenging event into a great success,” the ambassador praised.
“Today, Qatar has become a global sports destination. By hosting major sports tournaments, Qatar now seeks to promote sports tourism and invest in the sporting legacy. Though Qatar hosted the Asian Games in 2006 as the first major event ever organized, now Doha is ready to host the 2030 Asian Games. There will be major sports events happening at Qatar in 2023, such as the Formula One Grand Prix, Expo 2023, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, which will help the travel and tourism sector avoid a further collapse,” envoy informed.
“With hosting of World Cup 2022 successfully, now Qatar is heading on the way in bidding for the 2036 Olympics proving that it can deliver an Olympics responsibility too,” notify Qatari envoy.
It seems that Qatar focuses on sports diplomacy using sports to realize policy goals for social-cultural changes to encourage peace and equality. No doubt, sports diplomacy may transcend cultural differences and bring people together.
Located in the Asian continent, Qatar is famous for its wonderful culture and diverse landscapes that range from beaches to the desert and places itself as a key location in the region for travel, tourism, and sustainable culture.
Hats off Qatar!!!
