How to navigate Qatar’s Information and Communication Strategy - Part 1
On a sunny morning in the year 2015, Ahmed decided to venture out and set up his own travel agency, so he looked up the National ICT Strategy implemented in Qatar. It had paved the way that leads to the legal formation of an entity. He found out that the strategy improved information access. It also encouraged fairness and transparency in business. One of the major goals was to bring an increase in the literacy rate in the society.
The National ICT strategy involves a communications infrastructure that aims at enabling companies and individuals to have new technologies easily implemented and utilized in a smooth manner.
The strategy guarantees the installation of a national, high-speed broadband network at affordable rates. For Ahmed, this move meant the development of an entrepreneurial market in an innovative stride, leading to an increase in the content quality online, including the Arabic language.
The strategy consists of 11 different programs, out of which 56 projects are in the pipeline to be implemented over the next five years.
Objectives of the National ICT strategy
The National ICT plan comprises of four main spheres in order to help MoTC in realizing its vision. They are as follows:
Public Service Delivery: Improvement of access and increasing the effectiveness of public services in Qatar. Create benefits for society by increasing volumes of digital information available on the internet.
Infrastructure and Environment: Guarantee the introduction and installation of a national, high-speed broadband network with public and private investment, making it more affordable to small businesses and individuals.
Industry Development: Developing an entrepreneurial ICT market that is not just innovative, but also improves the ICT skills and capabilities of the human workforce, generate economic benefits by increasing the quantity of available content on the Internet—including the Arabic language, digitized and other local material in an efficient manner.
Literacy, Skills, and Inclusion: Enhancing digital literacy and skills among individuals and businesses, thereby improving access and usage across all sectors of society at large.
Ahmed couldn’t help but wonder how many ways this strategy would impact the travel agency business in Qatar, and it turned out that the impact was huge on so many levels.
Growth, Transparency, and Competition
The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) continues to progress towards improving security and transparency. It has undertaken many initiatives to ensure that there is an increase in the adoption of ICT among businesses and make it easier for travel agencies and other businesses to comply with government regulations.
Qatar’s economy has grown ever since the implementation of the National ICT strategy, with an increase of 20% in broadband connectivity among businesses since the year 2008. World Bank’s index has ranked Qatar in the top third of countries for ease of doing business.
The government has been an efficient and effective market driver for the usage of ICT, and it’s adoption. The World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2009–10 has ranked Qatar in third place in the world for ICT government readiness.
With the help of government services, for example, websites such as Hukoomi, Qatar’s national e-government portal, the Ministry of Transport and Communication has been successful in fostering a technology-friendly environment for company formation in Qatar, allowing additional benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) such as Ahmed’s travel agency. Continue reading about the ICT in our blog next month and understand how Ahmed learnt a lot more about how to use ICT for his business.
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