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Estate. Hochtief has played a key role in the billion<br />
dollar project from the very beginning. Ever since<br />
2008, the Germans have been involved in the planning.<br />
»The first sections of the city will be completed<br />
in the course of 2011«, reports Magdy Youssef, the<br />
project manager responsible for the work. Overall,<br />
however, construction work will proceed until 2020.<br />
In Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen, meanwhile, journalists<br />
are already sharpening their pencils. The architectural<br />
practice of Albert Speer & Partner will<br />
design eight of the twelve planned World Cup stadiums<br />
– but the »Lusail Iconic Stadium«, has nonetheless<br />
managed to land the design services of its highprofile<br />
competitor, Norman Foster. The property<br />
fund Qatari Diar, as the project principal and owner,<br />
will also be involved in building new stadiums, accommodation<br />
and training facilities for 2022, in conjunction<br />
with the Qatari Football Association. Despite<br />
all of this, Lusail does offer billions worth of<br />
business for German companies. The QIA is already<br />
promoting itself as having ICE fast trains in its glossy<br />
brochures – Lusail will one day be linked to the EUR<br />
17 billion railway network that German Rail (Deut-<br />
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sche Bahn) has been commissioned to Katie Holmes<br />
build on behalf of Qatari Diar.<br />
Unlike the prestige project of Masdar now acts<br />
City in Abu Dhabi, however, Qatar is not<br />
angling for world press coverage of its for the Qataris<br />
promised innovations. Though the aim is<br />
for Lusail to rely on an energy mix with a<br />
certain proportion of renewables, there are no exact<br />
figures for this yet. So far the energy concept seems<br />
much less green and ambitious than in the case of<br />
Masdar. And should something go wrong with the<br />
master plan of the QIA through to 2022, the Emirate<br />
still has Al Jazeera in its back pocket. The media mogul<br />
in Doha is also picking up market share outside the<br />
Arab world – with its English language service. The<br />
reporting principle is the same as ever: free and critical<br />
– with the exception of issues that affect Qatar. Whether<br />
these internal rules also apply to QIA projects is<br />
not yet clear. One thing is certain, however, that the<br />
funds company is not involved in the Qatar Media<br />
Corporation run by Al Jazeera. But Hamad bin Thamer<br />
al-Thani, CEO of the corporation, is not only the<br />
namesake of the Emir but also his blood relative.<br />
“Any time you need,<br />
we fly it.”<br />
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