Qatar must take full advantage of the potential offered by information and communications technologies (ICTs) to drive social and economic transformation, an official of Cisco has said.
Cisco vice president on Global Technology Policy Dr Robert Pepper said: “Qatar can make massive strides in connecting more citizens and bringing about positive social and economic change by improving its networked readiness. With political will and commitment from the private sector, progress can be made in bringing the benefit of ICTs to more people.
“We are already facing the next wave of the Internet, the Internet of Everything (IoE). Qatar needs to prioritise ICT development if it is to benefit from the new experiences and efficiencies that the IoE will bring.”
Pepper said what is crucial to achieving societal and economic transformation is the ability to embrace IoE and the connections between people, process, data and things to create unprecedented opportunities for Qatar’s citizens and the public and private sectors.
“In order to embrace the IoE, Qatar’s government and businesses must be fully-digitised, supported by a highly-robust and secure network. Becoming digital requires an agile Information Technology model and the ability to rethink core processes for the digital era.
“Embracing new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies required to fully-digitise takes imagination, investment, and expertise. This is why networked readiness is such a crucial indicator of a country’s ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs,” Pepper said.
According to the Global Information Technology Report 2015 (GITR), Qatar ranked 27th out of 143 countries, dropping four places in the World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness Index. Only 39% of the global population enjoys access to the Internet even as more than half now owns a mobile phone, according to the World Economic Forum.
Similarly in Qatar, despite having one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates, at 152.6%, the lack of access to the Internet “is depriving many Qatari citizens of the opportunity to take full advantage of e-Learning as well as online financial, data, and health services.”
The GITR report suggests that investing in infrastructure and education, supporting the development of local content and creating an enabling environment by promoting competition through sound regulation “will correct the imbalance in Qatar”.
Cisco Qatar general manager Mohamed Hammoudi said the government can shape policies that will spur development of broadband access.
Hammoudi said Cisco is committed to working with public and private sector organisations in Qatar to work on strategies for the digital transformation, thereby helping them transform their IT strategy, connect everything, embrace analytics, and secure technology and operations.
“At Cisco, we have learned that technology helps people find innovative solutions to address societal problems. We believe there has never been a better time to combine human ingenuity and technological innovation to improve the lives of all Qatar citizens.
“As home to the world’s second-fastest employment growth, the wider Middle East is ripe for transformation and is an increasingly attractive environment for global business investments. Technology is at an inflection point and Qatar’s economy needs to prioritise ICT adoption to take full advantage of the benefits that embracing digital transformation strategies will offer,” Hammoudi stressed.
Mohamed Hammoudi: Cisco Qatar general manager
