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Doha – Qatar 

The new teaching staff of Texas A&M University-Qatar were introduced to the digital government services available online, at an awareness workshop organized by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) jointly with TAMUQ last week.

Representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Education and Higher Education and Public Health also attended the induction workshop, which came within the framework of implementing the Qatar Digital Government 2020 Strategy and nationwide digital transformation plans.

Attended by over 200 people, the workshop featured presentations by the ministries, highlighting a package of advanced government services that are available and accessible online for the public.

Mr. Hassan Jassim Al-Sayed, the Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary of Government Information Technology Sector made a presentation about the latest developments and progress on the QDG 2020 Strategy, which, he said, was supported by three strategic objectives that determine where action will be taken to deliver benefits and value.

The Strategy, he noted, aims to better serve individuals and businesses, create efficiency in government administration and increase government openness through enabled public participation from citizens and residents.

He said the fact that all ministries and public entities are shifting to digital platforms is helping reduce or even eliminate paperwork and routine, thus saving time and effort and helping to complete transactions swiftly, which, in turn, leads to more efficiency and productivity.

A presentation by the MOTC’s Hukoomi, the Qatar official e-Government Portal launched in 2008, showed a remarkable rise in the number of digital services available and accessible anywhere, anytime.

Today after launching Hukoomi Phase 3, the portal carries information on about 1380 digital services. Some 690 of them can be accessed and executed by companies, citizens, residents, and visitors. They cover multiple sectors such as health, education, and business.

The presentation estimated the number of Hukoomi visitors at more than 450,000 from nearly 80 countries. The number of Hukoomi account followers also climbed to nearly 60,000 on Facebook and 200,000 on Twitter.

The Ministry of the Interior also said in a presentation that its Metrash2 application has been gaining more users from across the country thanks to the wide range of e-services it provides.

Metrash2 provides more than 120 e-services in six languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Indian and Urdu.

In its presentation, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education displayed a number of its best-performing e-services relating to employment, educational centers, independent schools registration and private schools licensing, among others.

The Ministry of Public Health also displayed some of its online services relating to Hamad Medical Corporation, Primary Health Care Corporation and the Qatar Orthopedic and the Sports Medicine Hospital (Aspetar).

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani launched the QDG 2020 Strategy in May 2014, to create a more efficient, open and transparent government.