With a growing number of industries intensifying their digitalisation programmes and the government investing heavily on ICT projects, Qatar will see major changes brought about by technological advancements in the coming five years, Microsoft Qatar’s Country Manager Lana Khalaf (pictured) has said.
Speaking to The Peninsula recently, Khalaf said: “In the coming five years, a lot of things will change, from the transportation industry, to the healthcare, and the services industry. Even the hardware industry might disappear more and more with time.
“When talking about the future of technology, definitely IT, AI, and cloud computing are key to the development of any digital strategy of the country. And especially with the investment of Qatar in smart cities, sports, healthcare, and transportation, AI becomes key in decision-making, predictive analytics, and in creating new smart services to empower and improve the life of citizens and residents here”.
According to market analysts, Qatar currently has bits and pieces of smart city practices as showcased in The Pearl Qatar and Lusail City. However, the country has yet to see its own full-blown smart city.
The Msheireb Downtown Doha, which is nearing completion, promises to be the world’s first smart and sustainable downtown regeneration project, embedding smart city technology and connectivity. It is also poised to outperform other smart city developments in the world in terms of the resident’s digital experience.
Khalaf added: “There is the Qatar Smart Program (TASMU) invitation for tenderers/bidders (ITB) that is out, and I think by 2030 we should have a smart city. Qatar is having the right strategy and right vision towards it, and we hope to see it soon through programmes like TASMU and others”.
TASMU, which runs under the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), was created to serve as a platform for the realisation of Qatar’s digital economy and smart future as set forward by the country’s National Vision 2030.
To ensure its success, the Qatari government will finance public and private sectors as it plans to spend QR6bn over the next five years in order to develop the required technological infrastructure and activate initiatives across various sectors.
The MOTC in March has also announced a new tender aimed at developing and operating the Qatar Smart Central Platform. TASMU seeks to transform Qatar by harnessing ICT.
Among the designs included in the programme is providing automated IoT-based smart parking solutions aimed at increasing parking utilisation for populated urban corridors, deploying autonomous neighbourhood vehicles to bridge the last mile transportation gap between public transport drop-off points (i.e. metro and bus stations), and receiving real-time roadway information from central traffic management systems among others.
