IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Ministry of Municipality has completed 110 services out of 400 services which are being developed under its digital transformation project in a bid to provide smart and automated services to the public and beneficiary companies.

“The digital services cover all sectors including agriculture, food security, urban development, general services and community services,” said Director of the Information Systems Department at the Ministry of Municipality Hamda Abdel Aziz Al Maadeed.

As part of its strategy to further enhance digital transformation, the Ministry of Municipality, represented by the Agricultural Affairs Department, has launched 13 new electronic services for the agricultural sector on its website. The initiative aims at simplifying procedures and saving the time and efforts of applicants.

The new services include importing permits for fruits and vegetables, importing permits for plants and seedlings, importing permits for palm trees and offshoots, and importing permits for natural wood and plant parts.

This has been announced in the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2011-2016 launched on Monday.

It is envisaged to raise the percentage of primary care practitioners accessing the online diabetes registry from 0% to 25%.

It will be ensured that 100% of medical images taken at hospitals are digitally stored and shareable among physicians.

ictQatar services delivery manager Mohannad Omar Naim said that new self-service terminals are also to be installed to support these initiatives, providing greater access to government services.

Qatar will launch a new Hukoomi portal by the first quarter of next year, revealed an official of ictQATAR, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.

Speaking to Gulf Times yesterday on the sidelines of the launch of the Hukoomi Mobile App, Tareq Alemadi, manager, E-Government Portal Department, ictQATAR said that the new Hukoomi portal will be completely different from the existing one.

“Hukoomi 3 will be the Google of Qatar. It will be totally different. It will have more technology. It will much easier for the people to access and get information from the portal.”

The year 2020 has been a remarkably difficult year, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives and livelihoods. Now as organisations embark on the road to recovery, family businesses however have been under duress to transform their business models and adapt to a constantly evolving digital world. With an increased focus on customer experience, most family businesses have taken significant measures to update their existing legacy systems and are already reaping the benefits of a digitally efficient operating model.

Speaking at the Forbes Middle East Family Business Summit 2021, Dr. Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh Al Thani, Founder and Chairperson of Al Faleh Educational Holding, highlighted the digital initiatives adopted by businesses to bounce back stronger from the pandemic.

The service is currently restricted to companies and allows them to register their workers seeking the check up online and take prior appointments.

“We are planning to expand the service to more categories and hope to implement it in two months. In the initial phase, the service would be made available to certain categories of professionals and food handlers. It will be further expanded to include other categories at a later stage,” Dr Ibrahim Al Shaar, director of the Medical Commission told this newspaper yesterday.

Over 1.53 million transactions were recorded in September 2019 by various departments of the General Directorate of Passports at the Ministry of Interior.

The departments affiliated with the General Directorate of Passports include Expatriates Affairs Department, Search and Follow up Department, Border Passports Department, Airport Passports Department and Unified Services Department among others.

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.

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.

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.