Saad Cachalia, South African Ambassador to Qatar, during an interview at South African Embassy, yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula
DOHA: South Africa can share its expertise and experience it acquired from hosting the football World Cup in 2010 with Qatar, which will be hosting the world’s biggest football event in 2022, said South African ambassador Saad Cachalia.
According to the ambassador, tourism, technology, infrastructure, transport and security are the areas where both countries can share knowledge.
“We used the World Cup as an opportunity to create lasting projects. Qatar is developing a metro rail system, we developed a rail system. We built stadiums, Qatar is building stadium. The World Cup gave opportunity to business to start and grow,” Cachalia told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview. “Our infrastructure was not for the World Cup but was for after the World Cup. So we used that opportunity to do things that would outlast the World Cup,” he added.
There are around 5,000 South Africans in Qatar working in different sectors. South Africa, also known as gateway to Africa, has the fourth largest deposits of shale gas in the world.
The ambassador said the concept of overnight stay, fan parks were very popular among tourists and Qatar can take leaf out of South Africa’s book in attracting football fans.
In South Africa, an overnight accommodation is very popular where one goes, spends a night (or few nights), have breakfast and leave.
“The concept of overnight did not come from us, but South Africa perfected the business of overnight accommodation. They offer homely atmosphere, which is cost effective and comfortable,” he said.
Similarly Fan Parks outside stadium where people could watch on screen were also a big hit during the World Cup
“South Africa made Fan Parks popular, with music shows and other features. Although the match used to be in the evening but tourists used to come from the morning. We have people who kept that concept alive,” he said. “When it comes to technology. You have got issues of health because people around the globe will be coming. How do you screen people on the issue of health. We had a system in which if someone had a fever, we will detect it in the airport,” he said.
He said there are issues like monitoring different stadiums, controlling crowds, managing traffic. “Technology is very crucial and we have that technology where from a central position we could see every game that was being played,” he said.
Tourism is another important area where scope is tremendous between the two countries. Visas issued by the Embassy to Qatari visitors to South Africa have increased by over 60 percent between 2014 and 2015.
“South Africa has everything for tourist such as mountains, rivers, snow and desert and the country boasts of a strong road, rail and air infrastructure,” he said.
