The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) participated in the Virtual Regional Workshop for E-Government Experts 2021 related to the United Nations E-Government Development Index, organized by the Information & eGovernment Authority in the Kingdom of Bahrain, with the aim of supporting cooperation and exchange of experiences between Arab countries in the e-government field.
The workshop sought to enhance and develop a better understanding of what the United Nations E-Government Development Index aims at, address issues and challenges related to e-government development indicators, and exchange knowledge between the GCC countries and a number of other Arab countries regarding the best practices in this area, through the engagement of the participating countries to present their achievements, projects, and initiatives in the digital transformation field, which will be evaluated according to the United Nations' standards.
The workshop held virtually on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 was attended by several experts and senior officials in the ICT sector from GCC countries and a number of Arab countries, in addition to a group of speakers from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
During her participation in the high-level workshop, Ms. Mashael Ali Al Hammadi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Information Technology Affairs at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, said: "The State of Qatar pays great importance to the ICT sector, for its great impact in accelerating the pace of social and economic development, creating a knowledge-based economy, and supporting efforts to achieve comprehensive, sustainable development. Qatar has achieved distinguished positions globally and regionally, as it ranked the first worldwide on the Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation (DARE) Index 2020, released by the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies, and second on the Government Electronic and Mobile Services (GEMS) Maturity Index 2020 among 15 Arab countries covered by the report issued recently by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)".
Al Hammadi added: "Qatar has also adopted innovative and flexible solutions in the ICT field, as part of its digital strategy, through which it has been able to take a wide range of measures to contain the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and mitigate its effects, as it has expanded the scope of e-services provision to ensure that they continue to be provided remotely in light of the pandemic".
Al Hammadi also pointed out to the key directions of the new Qatar Digital Government Strategy (QDG) 2026, which will be launched this year, including the reliance of the government on big data, analytics, business intelligence, transformation of the governance framework in the digital government environment into a more flexible and scalable environment to support innovation, creation of a digital government that aligns and contributes to achieving UN sustainable development goals, enhancement of e-participation to ensure applying the best practices of gathering public feedback on policies and services, adoption of digital well-being as a cornerstone, and renovation of user experience from digital to more proactive smart services to meet the needs of all segments of the society.
Source: Government of Qatar