Economics

Qatar’s Next Gambit After World Cup? Convincing Expats to Stay

  • Commerce minister speaks in interview after new job rules
  • Qatar is first Gulf nation to apply minimum wage to all

Photographer: Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images

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Qatar has set out to create a more permanent worker population with sweeping labor reforms introduced this week as it winds down a building frenzy for the 2022 soccer World Cup.

Achieving that goal would mark a fundamental shift in the economics of the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Foreign workers account for 95% of Qatar’s workforce and about 90% of its population.