IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The popularity of Hukoomi, Qatar’s official e-government portal, rose significantly in 2019 as the number of visitors accessing the portal jumped by around 23 percent. More than 3.36 million visitors accessed Hukoomi portal in 2019 compared to 2.73 million in 2018.

Higher number of visitors to the portal resulted in more page views and led to increased traffic. The portal witnessed around 22 percent rise in page views. It received around 16.9 million page views last year compared to 13.9 million in 2018.

Contributing to the State’s efforts to transform Qatar into a world-class smart city by adopting the latest digital solutions, the Ministry of Municipality has installed tracking devices in 7,000 containers and 1,000 vehicles to build an efficient waste collection and management system, said a top official.

“The Ministry is implementing a project to track containers, cleaning vehicles, machines and equipment,” said Director of Projects and Development Department at the Ministry of Municipality Suleiman Al Abdullah while highlighting the achievements of the Ministry in 2023.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Supreme Judicial Council yesterday signed a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to modernise and develop courts electronically. Minister of Transport and Communications and Chairman of Qatar e-GOV2020 Steering Committee, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, and Head of the Court of Cassation and President of the Supreme Judiciary Council, Masoud Mohamed Al Amirthe, attended the signing ceremony yesterday. The MoU was signed by Khalid Sadiq Al Hashmi, Assistant Undersecretary, Cyber Security Sector at MOTC and Judge Dr Hassan Mohammed Al-Muhannadi, advisor to the President of the Supreme Judiciary Council.

This was disclosed by the director of Doha Municipality in an interview to a civic magazine whose excerpts were published by a local Arabic daily yesterday.

Mohamed Ahmed Al Sayed said that e-archives and receiving requests for fumigation were among the several e-services launched by Doha Municipality recently.

This forms part of Qatar’s integrated e-government program (i-Gov), which over the next five years, will be continuously improved with a customer-centric focus on the users of government services.

In its strategic plan up to 2015, the Supreme Council of Information & Communication Technology (ictQATAR) said it planned to establish a centralised government data centre to house critical computer systems and associated components for all government entities.

To provide faster services to its customers, Qatar Postal Services Company (Q-Post) will engage private courier or logistic companies in its ongoing project to provide home-delivery service.

The Smart Innovation Lab at the Ministry of Transport and Communications is also working to develop a drone delivery service, said a Ministry report.

'Q-Post has initiated a pilot project of home delivery services in Al Wakrah using the national address system. Q-Post is currently exploring the best delivery options for customers for future roll-out, according to the recently issued yearly performance report of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The report further says that there will be a new transportation fleet to support the expansion of Q-Post services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst for technological change, experts said during the Doha Smart Cities Summit hosted by Qatar Foundation subsidiary Msheireb Properties - with the digital transformation being key to the future.

In a discussion titled ‘Smart City Pandemic Readiness’, speakers addressed how technology has played an important role in dealing with COVID-19 and how it can be used to mitigate the effects of a pandemic and future crises.

mHealth solutions use mobile phone technology to deliver lifestyle guidance and continuous updates through customers’ handsets.

The service will educate customers, giving them advice and information on diet and exercise. With expert guidance, the service will enable people to make informed choices regarding their lifestyle, empowering them to take control of their own health, and that of their families.

Individuals and institutions are now allowed to register multiple lease contracts in one certificate online, according to updated terms and conditions on real estate lease contract registration published by Qatar e-Government Portal Hukoomi. A grace period of two months for registration of lease contract has also been granted to them.

Individuals and institutions may submit a request to the Registration of Real Estate Lease Contracts Office at the different municipalities for real estate contracts between the lessor and the lessee for registration, said Hukoomi on its portal.

The Ministry is currently working on a project to provide all such services at the New Doha International Airport, which is expected to be ready by the end of next year.

The services will include finger printing, medical check up and issuance of residence permits, an official at the Department of Borders, Passports and Expatriate Affairs at the Ministry told a seminar here on Monday.

Qatar’s facility management (FM) market is poised for strong growth over the next five years, driven by smart-city expansion, sustainability goals, and the redevelopment of major infrastructure assets, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence.

The report estimates that the market will grow from $8.98bn (QR32.74bn) in 2026 to $16.03bn (QR58.44bn) by 2031, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.28 percent during the forecast period. Last year, the sector was valued at $8bn (QR29.16bn).

On 29th and 30th of March 2022, Msheireb Downtown Doha will allocate a new edition of Smart City Expo Doha, the region's leading urban innovation event. With the theme "Sustaining a Future of Resilience," the second edition of the trade show will focus on the main challenges facing the cities of tomorrow and the solutions technology can offer to those who live in them.

Organized by the Government of Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; with the support of its innovation laboratory, TASMU, hosted by Msheireb Downtown Doha, and bought by Fira de Barcelona, Smart City Expo Doha will offer a full programme of talks centred on five topics: sustainable cities, global economy and digital readiness, sporting events and connected society, the city as a platform, and reshaping digital public services.

As part of its efforts to humanise cities and improve urban services, the Ministry of Municipality (MoM) implemented the first phase of the Smart City Solutions Project, marking a significant step forward in Qatar’s journey towards smarter, more sustainable and people-centred urban development.

The initiative reflects the Ministry’s broader 2025 achievements, which focused on improving quality of life, protecting the environment and accelerating digital transformation across the country.

Embedded with a chip as well as host of security and safety features, switch to the Smart ID cards by expatriates will remain optional for an indefinite period of time, unlike Qataris for whom it has been mandatory, the ministry’s Information Systems Department director Brig Saleh Khamis al-Kubaisi said.

“The idea is to have one convenient, standardised, multi-purpose card offering e-government services to all residents in Qatar,” al-Kubaisi said.

The Smart ID cards were first launched for nationals in October 2007.

In light of the upcoming Autonomous e-Mobility Forum in Qatar, where do we stand today, and what challenges lie ahead

For over a decade, we have referenced the Connected, Autonomous, Shared Ownership, Electric (CASE) mobility framework to make sense of the biggest opportunities and to forecast the future in each of these areas. Ahead of the Autonomous e-Mobility Forum 2024 in Qatar, where do we stand today, and what challenges still need to be solved across these facets of mobility?

The recently-launched Tasmu Platform will operate several smart solutions, including those in the healthcare and agriculture sectors, as well as in food security, the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) announced on Wednesday.

The launch of Tasmu highlighted that the ‘Virtual Consultation’ is a healthcare smart solution developed in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health to ensure that with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the local community could access medical advice, diagnoses, and prescriptions from the comfort and safety of their homes.

The new website of the Ministry of Transport (MoT) was officially launched on Wednesday by HE the Minister of Transport Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti.

“The launch of the website confirms the ministry's commitment to implement the criteria and concept of the e-government system, keeping pace with the technological development by effectively using the Internet, networks, programmes, and systems, in offering services for the public," the minister said.

The website is a comprehensive portal for all the services of the MoT to enhance communication with the community, and to serve the society, informing them of its activities, he said.

United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari public shareholding company and the master developer of The PearlQatar and Gewan Island, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei Technologies L.L.C, one of the world’s leading ICT solutions providers, to enhance The Pearl-Qatar’s smart city features and deploy innovative technologies at UDC’s newest development under construction, Gewan Island, in a total investment of QR17m.

The MoU was signed by Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman, UDC President, CEO and Member of the Board and Fan Tao, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Qatar (Huawei Technologies LLC) in the presence of senior officials from UDC and Huawei Technologies LLC.

The Visa Support Services Department at the Ministry of Interior (MoI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Administration Development, Labour and Social Affairs, has held a seminar to explain the details of an initiative that allows expatriate workers to complete Qatar residency permit (RP) procedures in their home countries.

The project covers procedures such as fingerprinting and biometric data processing, medical examination and the signing of work contracts for expatriates abroad, the MoI said on Twitter on Thursday.

The local IT industry should evolve to support the government’s initiatives to harness information and communication technology (ICT) advances, he said. Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information & Communication Technology (ictQATAR) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have signed a number of MoUs to co-operate on ICT initiatives.