DOHA: Qatar has launched a five-year development plan that focuses on making the Gulf nation more self-reliant in the face of a boycott by other countries in the region.
The National Development Strategy for 2018-2022, unveiled on Wednesday, pledges to “rationalise energy consumption and encourage development of renewable energy while raising self-sufficiency levels for farming and fishing production.”
The 333-page plan, released by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, aims for Qatar to satisfy 30 percent of its demand for farm animals and 65 percent of its demand for fish domestically by 2022, partly through fish farms.
The blockade has disrupted Qatar’s imports, many of which used to come across its border with Saudi Arabia, and triggered the withdrawal of billions of dollars from Qatari banks by depositors from the four states.
Qatar’s economy and financial markets were hurt as imports plunged about 40 percent from a year earlier in the first weeks of the boycott.
But the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas developed new trade routes and deployed tens of billions of dollars from its sovereign wealth fund, estimated to have about $320bn of assets, to protect its banks.
