Qatar has participated in the 41st meeting of the Directors-General of Passports of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) States, held at the GCC General Secretariat headquarters in Riyadh. Qatar’s Director-General of Passports Major-General Mohammed Ahmed al-Ateeq al-Dosari led the Ministry of Interior (MoI)’s delegation to the meeting. The meeting discussed multiple topics on its agenda, which included developing passport operations and improving services, enhancing integration and co-ordination among member states, and adopted appropriate recommendations thereon.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar are gaining access to enterprise-grade logistics without owning any of the underlying infrastructure themselves, through a shared-service model addressing three interlinked barriers that have long held smaller businesses back. This is according to Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Thani, co-founder and CEO of WareOne, a Qatar-based logistics platform that told Gulf Times how it is addressing these challenges for local SMEs. He said logistics is usually sold in large, fixed blocks, such as an entire warehouse, a full fleet of trucks or a 12-month lease, terms better suited to large companies than to brands processing a few hundred orders a month. Sheikh Khalifa noted that logistics services are often fragmented across multiple providers, with one company handling storage, another transport, a third customs clearance, and a fourth delivery, leaving business owners to absorb the blame when something goes wrong between them. “When something goes wrong between them, nobody takes responsibility. The owner does,” Sheikh Khalifa explained, further pointing out that running such an operation also demands expertise that most small teams simply do not have. WareOne addresses this by operating its own fulfilment centre for complex e-commerce work, supported by a network of partners handling storage, freight and delivery across Qatar and the GCC, Sheikh Khalifa noted. Customers get a single contract, one view of their operation and one accountable WareOne team, he also said, adding that businesses simply connect their Shopify store or marketplace account, select a delivery promise, and pay by the cubic metre, by the order or by the delivery. This, he said, allows businesses to focus on what they sell and how they grow, while WareOne manages the logistics behind it. Asked how WareOne measures its impact on SME competitiveness beyond cost savings, Sheikh Khalifa said cost remains significant and is the main reason most businesses approach the company, though he stressed it is not the only measure of success. He said WareOne instead tracks on-time delivery and order accuracy, the number of sales channels and markets a business operates in without needing to hire extra staff, and whether the business survives its busiest season, typically when small companies falter. “The best sign of our work is not what a customer saves. It is what they try next,” Sheikh Khalifa pointed out. Sheikh Khalifa cited an unnamed Qatari brand that grew more than four times within a few months after moving its operations onto WareOne’s platform. “They grew...in a very competitive market, without building a logistics team or any infrastructure of their own,” Sheikh Khalifa emphasised. The brand, which sold across several channels simultaneously, needed product-level fulfilment on every channel, consistent delivery promises, multiple payment methods and service standards matching its brand, he said. WareOne brought the operation into its fulfilment centre and connected the brand’s orders, inventory and deliveries through a single system, according to Sheikh Khalifa. “Logistics should help a good business grow. It should not hold it back,” he added.

As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in healthcare, government services, cybersecurity, scientific research, and economic development and with possible restrictions on existing AI platforms, a Qatari researcher has cautioned that countries can no longer afford to depend entirely on foreign AI providers highlighting the need for sovereign AI for each nation. “Sovereign AI is a nation's ability to build, run, and govern its own artificial intelligence. That means owning or at least controlling the computing infrastructure, the data, the AI models and the rules that shape how the technology is developed and used. From this perspective, AI is rapidly becoming as strategically vital to nations as electricity, telecommunications, and energy,” Dr Aref al-Tamimi, senior manager of the National Cyber Security Research Lab at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) told Gulf Times.Dr al-Tamimi, said artificial intelligence has evolved from an emerging technology into a critical national asset. “Its importance reaches far beyond the technology itself. A country with sovereign control over its AI infrastructure is better placed to protect sensitive government and citizen data, safeguard its language and culture, strengthen its economy, and ease its reliance on technologies built elsewhere. Above all, it becomes far more resilient when geopolitics turn unpredictable, and unpredictable is exactly what the current moment has become,” he explainedDr al-Tamimi noted that the urgency of achieving AI sovereignty became evident following recent international developments. He described “In June 2026, the US government invoked export controls to suspend access to Anthropic's most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all foreign nationals. The concern was understandable; the consequences, however, were global. Because Anthropic could not verify users' nationality in real time, both models went dark for everyone, everywhere, overnight. Although Claude Fable 5 is now officially back online after the controls were lifted in early July, the nineteen-day blackout demonstrated how quickly access to critical AI tools can vanish.”This incident, he said, has highlighted the risks of relying exclusively on external AI platforms. “A university running AI research, a startup building its first product, a hospital relying on AI-assisted diagnostics, or a ministry delivering digital services can all be left stranded by a decision taken in another capital, with no warning and no appeal. It does not matter how loyal a customer you are or how legitimate your use case is; if the tool is not yours, it can be taken away. For governments and institutions in the Gulf and beyond, the episode was a wake-up call: total reliance on external AI providers is not a convenience; it is a strategic vulnerability,” he cautioned. "The message was clear," Dr al-Tamimi continued. "If a country's critical AI systems depend entirely on technologies owned elsewhere, they remain vulnerable to decisions made beyond their control."The official said that Qatar has already read the moment well. “Through its National AI Strategy, and through institutions such as the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, the country has made real strides in AI research, Arabic language technologies, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. A prime example is Fanar, the Arabic-centric large language model developed by QCRI, a homegrown AI system built to serve the language, culture, and values of the region, and a concrete demonstration of what sovereign AI capability looks like in practice,” he highlighted. He further recommended that diversifying AI sources—including commercial platforms, open-source models, and domestically developed systems—would improve resilience against future disruptions.“Every year AI models get bigger, the datasets get more complex, and entire industries discover new uses for intelligent systems, from analysing security data to powering government services. Meeting that rising demand will require continued and expanded investment in high-performance computing, national AI infrastructure, skilled local talent, and sustained support for startups and researchers. The foundation is in place; the challenge now is to keep building on it at the speed the technology demands,” added Dr al-Tamimi.