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Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani chaired the Cabinet regular meeting held at the Amiri Diwan on Wednesday.

Based on the directives of HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior on providing the Council of Ministers with plans related to the competencies of ministries and other government agencies, public bodies and institutions, including all implementation programs and projects, the specified timetable for completion as well as standards and indicators for measuring performance progress in line with the comprehensive development vision, Qatar National Vision 2030, in addition to highlighting any partnership projects between the public and private sectors, if any, HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti gave a presentation on the detailed plan for MOTC strategy.

Minister said MOTC introduced its strategy in 2017, which offered a 5-year plan. It was then divided into 154 initiatives: 40 initiatives in the supporting administrative units, 26 in Land Transport Sector, 15 in Maritime Transport, 25 in Information Technology, 13 in Cybersecurity and 35 in Digital Society. It also included providing full support for Qatar Digital Government Strategy (25 initiatives) and TASMU (23 initiatives), in addition to developing a Comprehensive Plan for Crisis Management as per Cabinet directives.     

He added that the strategic objectives of MOTC’s sectors and administrative units are ease of access, financial and environmental sustainability, security and safety, smooth mobility, economic development, establishing of a flexible, smart and integrated infrastructure, empowering a digitally advanced workforce and society, enhancing confidence and digital security, developing the smart government agenda and benefiting from technology in developing a regionally competitive smart economy.

MOTC is overseeing and carrying out national priority projects to contribute to achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030 and has also adopted some more projects stipulated in the Qatar 2nd National Development Strategy 2018-2022. This aims to support the development of the economic infrastructure, achieve economic diversification and private sector development, support institutional development, service provision, and financial management, he said.

Among these projects:

• Hamad Port expansion through establishing CT2. CT2 development consists of 4 phases. Full operation of Phases 1 & 2 will start before the end of 2022, taking the port’s capacity to 3 million TEUs per year. Phases 3 & 4 will be developed later to raise the port’s operational capacity according to local market’s needs.
• Launching new direct and indirect shipping routes with several harbors that have major influence on global shipping business. Hamad Port has to date been linked with 119 shipping routes; 29 direct and around 90 indirect routes. They have been connecting Doha with the world since the port was officially opened in 2017.
• Designing and building strategic food security utilities, which is one of the key strategic projects in progress within Phase 1 of Hamad Port Project. The project’s facilities operate as a fully standalone terminal, working in full capacity, for unloading, warehousing, loading, transporting refining and packaging of 3 basic commodities; rice, raw sugar, and edible oils. It also includes a production line for animal feed. The project includes also silos and reservoirs for long-term storage, huge warehouses with special equipment and infrastructure to be able to store commodities for at least 2 years to secure needs for 3 million people. The project’s total area is about 53 hectares, including the 500-meter-long quay for vessels to berth. The quay is 12.5m deep. The project is expected to complete in Jan. 2021.
• Hamad International Airport expansion to raise its capacity to 53 million travelers a year through expanding the airport, providing parking spaces for commercial aircraft, increasing the fuel and luggage capacity, expanding the passenger terminal, upgrading flight systems in addition to all other requirements for the development of the infrastructure utilities. It is scheduled to complete and deliver those works before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
• Electric transformation projects for buses and electric vehicles, which the Ministry is currently carrying out in cooperation with concerned authorities. This supports Qatar's steps towards a greener future, helps achieve an economic and environmental balance to ensure the sustainability of infrastructure projects for the transportation sector, as well as support economic growth and development of transportation by employing alternative and clean energy according to latest environment-friendly global systems. A hybrid vehicle policy has been prepared in coordination with Kahramaa. MOTC is currently preparing a draft law on regulating electric vehicle and preparing the standard specifications of such vehicles, in addition to establishing 100 parking spaces for them in the first phase. MOTC is also working with Mowasalat (Karwa) on plan to convert all taxis to electric vehicles by 2022. As part of the electric vehicle strategy, public buses, government school buses and Doha Metro feeder buses will gradually shift to electric buses, thus achieving the percentage that is required to reduce harmful carbon emissions from buses by the year 2030, in addition to cementing the concerted efforts that aim to protect environmental sustainability. Under the strategy, such a shift will support building an infrastructure for an integrated electric public transit system in the country. Several permanent depots, distributed in a well-considered geographical order, will be established in various areas across the country. The strategy also targets a shift in 25% of public transit fleet of buses to electric buses by 2022 and the use of electric buses in main services during the FIFA World Cup Championship 2022.
• A field survey of road assets. Work on this project is carried out using the latest and advanced technology to build an information system on road assets’ performance and the impact of the environment and climate on them. For that, MOTC is deploying a system, a first of its kind in the region, equipped with high-definition cameras to detect road defects (road stretches and paths, bridges and tunnels) with 3mm precision. This also includes a 3D profiling of the surface of the roads, capturing defects as small as 1mm and measuring road slipperiness to further improve road safety and reduce traffic accidents. 
• Qatar's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, endorsed by MOTC in collaboration with the Qatar Computing Research Institute and contribution from senior experts from global universities. This strategy is the first of its kind between the government and a research body. It aims at transforming to AI and harnessing it optimally to secure Qatar’s economic and strategic future as envisaged on QNV 2030.
• The Qatar Smart Program (TASMU) is designed specifically to accelerate the achievement of all pillars of QNV2030. TASMU will serve as a platform for the realization of a digital economy and a smart future. It will be implemented in partnership with the private sector to create and develop smart Qatar services in accordance with a contemporary regulatory framework that promotes openness, stimulates innovation and supports the development of safe and reliable smart services, as well as attracts talents and develops skills. TASMU focuses on 5 sectors: transportation, logistics, environment, healthcare and sports.
• Expanding Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), developing shared government eservices program, developing government ICT shared infrastructure, providing high-speed uninterrupted telecommunication services, unique and robust transportation services, e-government portal, opening self-service centers, government data management systems, developing ICT and shared applications infrastructure for ministries and government entities and developing QDG training academy 2019-2022.

As for MOTC projects that aim to engage the private sector by awarding a major portion of the project (60% at least) of its project tenders to local companies during the phases of conceptualization, execution, development and operation, HE the Minister said that among those key projects:

• Establishing QTerminals (a JV between Qatar Ports Management Company “Mwani Qatar” and shipping and logistics company Qatar Navigation “Milaha”) for operating Phase 1 of Hamad Port. QTerminals was awarded a concession for designing, developing and operating Phase 2 of Hamad Port (CT2).
• Launching a project for the development of the factors that enable TASMU services and developing TASMU Platform in parallel with the private sector’s participation in building a platform through a collaboration that includes Ooredoo, Microsoft and malomatia (under implementation).
• Providing IoT-enabled smart parking solutions (under implementation).
• Launching a community program for electric bike renting for temporary use across the city (under implementation).
• Launching projects and calls for bids on projects that mock Smart Qatar cases to address 5 sectors: transportation, logistics, environment, healthcare and sports while ensuring collaboration with SMEs (under implementation).
• Enabling analytical statistics for transit systems, metro stations and airport stations (under pre-final review).
• Self-service kiosks project; a tripartite agreement is to be signed with government entities. The company executing the project will be coordinating with various entities to make their eservices available and accessible on these kiosks that will be installed across the country (being negotiated).
• Real-time variable-speed vehicle monitoring solutions to accommodate traffic and target specific vehicles on roads (being negotiated).
• Ferry project (Water Taxi) between ferry stops at HIA, Hamad Port, MIA and Lusail City as a first phase. Government is to establish the required infrastructure. Private sector is to be responsible for the business (proposed).
• Truck parking project in Mesaieed to offer parking spaces for trucks instead of roadside parking. Such parking spaces can also be used during major events to offer parking for public buses (awaiting MME’s final approval on concept designs).
• Greenfield investment fund project for the funding of emerging companies.