How the late Father Emir transformed Qatar’s economy

This is what the Doha skyline used to look like in the 1990s. And now, this is what it has transformed into. Pre-oil discovery, Qatar was one of the poorest states in the Gulf. Today, on a per capita basis, it's one of the richest in the world. And Sheikh Hamad Al-Khalifa Al-Thani, who died on Sunday, was crucial in that transformation. Sheikh Hamad ruled Qatar from 1995 until 2013. Known as the father emir, he leaves behind a legacy that includes major economic reforms. The same year he took power, he fast-tracked the development of the North Field, the largest natural gas reserve in the world. The tiny Gulf state quickly became a world leader in exports of liquefied natural gas. By the 2000s, it had one of the fastest growing GDPs on the planet. In 2010, its LNG production capacity reached 77 million tons per year. Qatar's LNG exports currently represent almost 20% of the global market. And under Sheikh Hamad's rule, the economy experienced a 24-fold increase. But revenue from LNG exports isn't the whole story. In 2005, Sheikh Hamad opened the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund created to diversify gas money into global assets. The Qatar Investment Authority, with assets worth an estimated $524 billion, has spent two decades buying real estate abroad. That includes owning or holding major stakes in London's Canary Wharf financial district, Harrods, the Shard, foreign banks, and carmakers. Country also bought a football club through its sports investments branch in 2011. Paris Saint-Germain was bought for roughly $139 million. Today, it's worth $5.8 billion. But what does that wealth actually mean back home? For Qatari citizens, it means a near-total welfare state, with no income tax, free health care, and one of the highest incomes per person in the world. And the man who set all of this in motion has now been buried in a simple grave north of Doha.