Digital Reach

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with a mission to make Qatar a regional IT security hub. Another
initiative is to promote and support the capabilities of emergency
communications during disaster recovery operations.
5) Connected citizens: Includes initiatives to promote attractive
online services and content, reduce barriers to use and
increase the number of homes with PCs and Internet access.
6) Connected business: Includes initiatives encouraging small- and
medium-sized businesses to invest in information systems,
software and Internet access, and to promote the use of ICT
to make business processes more efficient.
7) Connected government: Includes initiatives to supply information
and services online, and to deploy a government-wide intranet.
8) e-Education: Includes initiatives to expand the ICT infra-
structure of schools, increase the ICT literacy of staff, build
knowledge communities, develop laws and policies for ICT
use and exploit the full potential of ICT as an educational tool.
9) e-Health: Includes initiatives such as the Electronic Health
Card and Electronic Patient Network, and the Integrated
Healthcare Network linking all healthcare institutions
10) e-Finance: Includes initiatives addressing the security of finan-
cial transactions, diversification of delivery channels for
financial services, and electronic billing and payment.
11) e-Tourism and sports: Includes initiatives to deploy broad-
band Internet in hotels, conference centres and public areas,
make best-in-class mobile and wireless broadband infra-
structure available in sports facilities, and develop such
services and infrastructure as high speed streaming video
and hosting sites in Qatar.
12) ICT in other economic sectors: Includes initiatives to promote the
use of ICT in industries such as Oil and Gas, and to promote
adoption of e-Procurement to streamline the supply chain.
With the national ICT strategy and masterplan complete,
ictQATAR has begun the implementation effort on five critical
initiatives from within these development programmes:
Telecommunications and e-commerce Legislation – ictQATAR
has appointed a renowned international law firm to draft the
telecommunications and e-commerce legal and regulatory frame-
works. Progress is well underway on a number of related fronts:
[ ] 33
Environment
Readiness
Usage
Agency 1Agency 2Agency 3Agency 4Agency 5
Sources of
Initiatives
Initiatives addressing
E-R-U Framework
Total Program
Perspective
ictQATAR
"Connected Government
Initiatives
Current e-Government
Project Strategy
Interviews and Surveys
Conducted in Qatar
International Best
Practices/BAH Expertise
Masterplan
By Agency
"To be"
e-Services
(Agency Specific)
Figure 2: Approach to developing the e-Government strategy and
masterplan
• Drafting amendments to the existing ICT Act, new primary
legislation, or new secondary legislation as appropriate
• Drafting appropriate secondary legislation (bylaws, regula-
tions, rules of procedure) as necessary to further implement
the telecommunications regulatory framework, addressing
principles and procedures including licensing, pricing, penal-
ties and privacy protection
• Developing an e-legislation framework to address everything
from censorship to electronic transactions and from digital
signatures to encryption and piracy.
Q-CERT – The Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-
CERT) is a joint venture under discussion between ictQATAR and
world-renowned cyber-security group CERT/CC from Carnegie
Melon University in the US. Q-CERT will aid the international
Internet community by building cyber-security expertise in the State
of Qatar and the Gulf Region. Q-CERT also will work with public
and private institutions as well as the general public to provide
proactive and guided approaches to managing ICT security.
Cyber-security workshops conducted so far have focused on raising
the awareness of cyber-security issues across the IT community in
Qatar and the need to establish a lead national incident response
and cyber-security centre to deal with increased cyber-security risks.
National e-Government strategy – ictQATAR is making good
progress in developing a national e-Government strategy and master-
plan. The effort is being driven through five core imperatives:
• Baseline the structure of the current e-Government programme
to compare against relevant international best practices
• Assess the current e-Government strategy against relevant
international best practices
• Redevelop a national e-Government strategy and masterplan in
line with relevant international best practices, to leverage as much
as possible fromwhat is currently available or underway in Qatar
• Develop a migration plan to move the current e-Government
programme under the auspices of ictQATAR
• Prepare the programme management environment necessary
for effective and efficient implementation and begin to pros-
ecute the strategy and masterplan.
Driving the e-Government strategy development framework will
result in both a governing masterplan and prioritized, agency-
specific e-services. The approach used is illustrated in Figure 2.
e-Education: The School Knowledge Net, which aims to estab-
lish building blocks for implementing a Qatari education portal,
is being piloted by ictQATAR and the Supreme Education Council
in seven independent schools. ictQATAR will also pilot the use of
Tablet PCs in schools to enhance the students’ learning experience
and creativity. Tablet PCs will leverage an end-to-end solution
integrated with the School Knowledge Net portal.
In addition, ictQATAR will work with the Ministry of
Education to upgrade the existing network infrastructure and
computer labs in order to support the changes in the ICT teach-
ing curriculum.
e-Procurement: In line with international trends and best prac-
tices, ictQATAR is working with Qatar’s Central Tendering
Committee to help establish a world class e-Procurement capa-
bility. Like many projects, this is an evolutional process towards
the end goal. In Qatar’s case, this evolution will begin with a
pervasive e-tendering system becoming operational.