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Doha – Qatar

The State of Qatar has been ranked second at the level of Arab countries on the Government Electronic and Mobile Services (GEMS) Maturity Index 2020, among 15 Arab countries covered by a report issued recently by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

GEMS indicator aims to measure the maturity of government services provided through the portal and through mobile applications in the Arab region. It seeks to bridge the gap in most of the international indicators, related to service maturity, its use and user satisfaction. It measures and compares the year-on-year performance. It also allows to track the progress in the switch to e-services, by annually comparing the national performance. The index also allows comparison between various countries and entities in e-services transformation. The evaluation process is based on three main pillars: service availability and sophistication, service use and satisfaction, and public outreach.

Commenting on the news, Acting Assistant Undersecretary of Government Information Technology at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ms. Mashael Ali Al-Hammadi, said that the e-Government Steering Committee, chaired by MOTC, has since its inception been embracing a fast-paced digital transformation and enabling advanced technology; digital transformation plans have been developed and their execution overseen in collaboration with government entities nationwide, aiming to achieve the objectives of the Qatar Digital Government Strategy and this achievement is the culmination of significant efforts and concerted action by various government entities for developing and launching digital services.

“We will continue to move forward with digitally transforming the services and institutional modernization and development as well as bolstering the themes of Qatar’s Second National Development Strategy (2018-2022) by capacity incorporation, fostering the institutional values to improve services provided to individuals and businesses, increasing government administration efficiency and effectively deploying the information technology for public service, thus enhancing the national vision for building a knowledge-based economy in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030,” she added.

As per the index, Qatar came first among the Arab countries in two of the three main pillars of the index: service use and user satisfaction and public outreach.

On the key performance indicators, the index says the Arab region in general needs to focus on providing the features suitable for the people with disabilities to use the government e-services, as well as enabling the individuals to share their feedback on such services and increasing the rate of using them, particularly on mobile devices. The index says it is equally important to pay a considerable attention to the collecting of data on the statistics relating to the transactions conducted electronically. It adds that it is also necessary to promote any new services through online and offline marketing and awareness campaigns to further increase the percentage of use and public outreach.

There are so far more than 1200 digital services under the umbrella of QDG program.