Qatar to celebrate National Day Thursday with huge achievements

Qatar is set to celebrate its National Day on December 18, as the country sees rapid developments in different fields including education, economy and culture.
Qatar had issued article number 11/2007 to celebrate on December 18, the day when Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammad Al-Thani, founder of Qatar, succeeded his father Sheikh Muhammad bin Thani, as the ruler in 1978 and led the country towards unity and development.
The country's modern development included establishing the Ministry of Youth and Sports, executing many projects and achieving prominent goals for youth.
Qatar is also following thorough scientific planning to improve and invest in manpower, while also benefiting from both national and foreign experience in different fields.
As for the regional and international relations, Qatar enjoys strong ties with the countries and was chosen to be a non-permanent member in the UN's Security Council and held the second summit of the Group of 77 and China in 2005.
Meanwhile, the country's growing economy is attracting international investment companies and job seekers.
Moreover, according to Qatar's National Vision 2030, the state is working on creating various income sources aside from oil and natural gas.
The different income sources included developing the health, education and sports sectors, while also executing prominent reinvestments due to budget surplus.
These achievements led its Gross domestic product to grow by 18 percent per year between 2006 and 2012, making it the fastest growing GCC country in that period of time.
Qatar also pays huge attention towards the cultural side, as the country has a rich folklore. The government made a priority towards building museums, libraries and theaters, as well as supporting publishers and cultural magazines.
In the past few year, Qatar had hosted many cultural and literary festivals and forums to encourage local and Arab creativity in the field.
The health sector is also rapidly developing, as the country had built many modern health care centers and hospitals, making it the number one country is health services' spending in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the education sector is growing as well, as Qatar issued the "Education for a New Era" initiative and established the Education City which includes branches of well-recognized international universities.
Moreover, the country put great efforts into scientific research, setting a huge budget of 2.8 of its GDP for this field.
Qatar also worked on developing the social part by establishing organizations in charge of the rights of children, women, older people and people with special needs.
The sports field on its part has seen some prominent achievement, mainly getting the opportunity to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In addition, Qatar hosted many regional and international tournaments including the Arab Games in 2011.