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Grafik Qatar
ICT in Qatar The State of Qatar
Qatar - The country ICT infrastructure in Qatar
Transforming Qatar through ICT The ictQATAR strategy
e-Education Links
About Qatar
ICT in Qatar
A peninsula on the western coast of the Arabian Gulf, Qatar is home to about 813 000 people.Despite its small size, it is a high-income economy with a well-developed communications infrastructure.

Almost half the country's population live in Qatar's capital and commercial centre, Doha. In 2003, the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was USD 28 920 - seventeenth in world rankings and higher than several members of the "G8" group of industrialized countries. Petroleum and natural gas form the basis of Qatar's economy, and at the end of 2004, they accounted for almost 80 per cent of its total exports.

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Transforming Qatar through ICT
The expansion of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Qatar has taken the country to a leading place in this field among its neighbours in the region. It comes fourth in ICT penetration rates among the Arab States, behindBahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The incumbent telecommunication operator, Qatar Telecom (Q-Tel), was partially privatized in 1998, and the Supreme Council for Communication and Information Technology (also known as ictQATAR) was created in 2004 with the mandate of regulator and enabler of the country's ICT sector.

Qatar has seen particularly strong growth in the number of mobile phone subscribers, which overtook the number of fixed telephone lines in 2001 (see chart). The number of subscribers to mobile telephony services rose by an average of 42 per cent per year between 1999 and 2004 - a considerably higher rate than in most other countries in the region, or the world as a whole. By the end of 2004, some 66 per cent of Qatar's population were subscribers to mobile phone services. In contrast, the number of fixed telephone lines has hardly changed over the last ten years. As in other countries, it seems that people in Qatar are going straight to mobile telephony.

Internet and broadband services are growing. Today, 22 per cent of Qatar's population use the internet. By the end of 2004, Qatar had 10 652 broadband subscribers. This was 6.5 per cent of internet users, and 1.4 per cent of the country's population as a whole. Promoting broadband is one of the top priorities of ictQATAR, which plans to establish and manage a "Broadband For All Access Fund." The years to come are likely to see more broadband services in Qatar, built upon what is already a solid foundation of ICT infrastructure and new initiatives.

*World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision, Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (2005).

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Transforming Qatar through ICT
As information and communication technologies (ICT) increasingly pervade economic and social activities, it becomes essential for countries to have an independent authority to facilitate development and promote the interests of business and the public at large. ictQATAR has been set up to put in place policies and strategies that will shape the ICT environment and promote access for all in Qatar and to coordinate the execution of initiatives.

Opening eyes to the new world of information and knowledge through ICT. Children in Qatar along with their teacher access the wealth of information available online. / Source ictQatarMay 2005 saw the establishment of ictQATAR, or the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology. Its mission is to create an advanced information-based society to improve the life of everyone in Qatar and to enhance the social and economic development of the country. "Qatar aims to fully exploit ICT to become a world-leading knowledge-based society," says Dr Hessa Al Jaber, Secretary-General of ictQATAR."

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The ictQATAR strategy

Based on international best practices, ictQATAR has adopted a comprehensive national ICT strategic plan tailored specifically to the unique circumstances and requirements of the country.

Key objectives

Implementation of the strategy brings together government agencies, ministries and the private sector. The strategy aims at fostering an enabling environment for ICT, increasing readiness, promoting the usage of ICT, monitoring progress and prioritizing initiatives to achieve early results.

ICT use encourages equality for all. Women in Qatar working on computers. Source: ictQatar

ictQATAR's key objectives

Foster the environment Develop the market conditions, infrastructure and supporting legal and regulatory frameworks that are most conducive to ICT development.

Increase readiness Build awareness and reduce barriers to the use of ICT by citizens, businesses and government agencies.
Raise usage Increase internet usage among citizens, businesses and government agencies, through targeted government policies to provide incentives and support the development of compelling content.

Sustain impact Continuously gauge progress, measure impact, and refine initiatives accordingly.
Target early results Prioritize initiatives and secure quick results to sustain momentum and support.


The ictQATAR strategy consists of 12 programmes:

State-of-the-art infrastructure
This programme aims to provide broadband connectivity for all, wireless neighbourhoods and a world-class National Data Centre to provide the secure storage of data that is essential to the ongoing success of business in the Information Society.

Innovation and capability building
The objective of this programme is to foster ICT literacy through educational projects. It also aims to stimulate the ICT job market and the development of technology ventures, including research and development. Under the programme, foreign ICT enterprises will be encouraged to open development centres in Qatar.

Regulatory and legal frameworks
The purpose of this programme is to draft the regulatory and legal frameworks required to govern a competitive market, while ensuring universal access. Also under this programme, laws will be developed to protect privacy and prevent cybercrime, and e-commerce regulations will be compiled to enable secure transactions.

Local content and multilingualism is critical for universal access to information and knowledge. An Arabic keyboard used by Qataris.
Sourc:e ictQatarSafety and security

This critically important programme covers the creation of a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), with the mission of making Qatar a regional ICT security hub. It also has the task of setting up emergency communications in support of disaster relief operations.

Connected citizens
Encouraging the creation of interesting content and attractive online services is the purpose of this programme. It also aims to connect more homes to high-speed internet access and increase the number of computers and other access devices in households.

Connected business
This programme will encourage small and medium-sized businesses to invest in information systems, software and internet access. It will also promote the use of ICT to make business processes more efficient.

Connected government
To enable the delivery of online data, information and services, this programme seeks the deployment of a government-wide intranet.

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e-Education
Under this programme, ictQATAR will promote and support opportunities for the adoption of ICT into education by laying the ground for the development of systems, training of resources and upgrading infrastructure across educational institutions and for the community at large.

This will be coupled by the development of standards and guidelines for ICT in education to expedite and facilitate the creation of our knowledge communities.

e-Health
This programme will implement such projects as the Electronic Health Card, Electronic Patient Network and the Integrated Healthcare Network connecting all healthcare institutions and bodies.

e-Finance
This programme focuses on ensuring the security and integrity of financial transactions, the diversification of delivery channels for financial services, and the deployment of electronic billing and payment systems.

e-Tourism and sports
The broadband internet connectivity of hotels, conference centres and other public areas is to be improved under this programme. It will also make high-quality mobile and wireless broadband available in sports facilities, and develop services and applications such as high speed video streaming and web hosting.

ICT in other economic sectors
The use of ICT in industries such as oil and gas will be promoted through this programme, as well as the adoption of e-Procurement to streamline supply chain management in day-to-day business and commerce for improved efficiency and effectiveness.

ictQATAR is finalizing a comprehensive nation wide strategy for e-Education that aims at enabling the population to use ICT to improve the quality of life and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. It focuses on universalizing access to ICT and expanding the pool of resources and opportunities while improving the quality of education to nurture a population ready for competing in the information age. The strategy taps on providing services to the education sector per se but extends to the over all community while addressing the governmental needs and partnering with the corporate private sector.

In September 2005, ictQATAR initiated the first of many projects that translate the objective of the e-Education strategy into tangible activities and results. The Knowledge-Net initiative was launched to pilot the dissemination of ICT as a platform for teaching, learning and communication in preparatory and secondary schools, while building the capacity of the teaching body to adopt ICT in their delivery of information. This endeavor, which entails the development and implementation of a Learning Management System in schools, will be rolled out nation wide as of September 2006. It is the first step to the development of the national portal for education that focuses on enhancing student's skills and awareness in ICT and its application in the knowledge economy, preparing the community for the market demand, and expanding the teaching professionals' capabilities and resources.

ictQATAR has also embarked on the development of the guidelines for ICT curriculum to be adopted for the K-12 community, while it continuously coordinates the ICT standards and requirements across all educational institutions and ensure integration of ICT in the professional development of the education professionals.

ictQATAR will also promote research and experimentation in the world's most advanced technologies and will pilot opportunities for students to adopt, for example, tablet PCs and PDAs as the core base of their learning experience wile supporting e-curricula development and infrastructure upgrades.

Source: International Telegraph Union 2006

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Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs
HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar
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Qatar Supreme Education Council
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