HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti stated that the ministry continues to work on developing and improving transport and communication services, as well as upgrading the technological and information infrastructure of the telecommunications sector.
The minister said, in a statement to Qatar News Agency on the occasion of the Qatar National Day, that ministry will continue to build on past achievements and make all efforts to support the development process and the renaissance and achieve further development and prosperity for the Qatari people.
It will also present the tremendous achievements and successes that contributed to Qatar’s international standing as a model for comprehensive and sustainable development.
He stated that National Day is an occasion to be proud of belonging to this country and its long history that was made by its ancestors, in particular the Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, who laid down the country’s path for development and prosperity.
On this occasion, the minister congratulated His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
He pointed out that the National Day is an annual occasion on which the Ministry of Transport and Communications renews its determination to complete the march of the forefathers to build a modern state that looks to the future and adheres to its heritage and past.
He emphasised that the celebration is a clear embodiment of the strong bond between the people and their leadership.
The minister stressed his determination to move forward in accomplishing more for this country and implementing the vision of the Amir of promoting Qatar and continuing the great developments that are taking place in all fields.
This year, the Ministry of Transport and Communications continued its hard work in organising land and sea transport, developing and improving transport and communication services, studying its projects and supervising and following up on their implementation in order to expand the economic movement and serve national development requirements.
The ministry also worked on the ICT sector and its development.
The ministry has taken important steps to study and its infrastructure projects in the transport and communications sectors in order to achieve the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
The ministry adopted Qatarisation strategy and has worked to attract qualified national employees from both genders to fill administrative and specialised positions in the transport and communications sectors in the country.
The ministry also took responsibility for the training and development of its employees who have been registered in many training courses since its establishment.
The ministry also obtained the ISO 9001: 2015 International Quality Management Certificate, which is considered one of the most important international certificates to be awarded to institutions in recognition of their compliance with the standards set by the International Organisation for Standardisation (IOS). At the legislative and regulatory level, the Ministry of Transport and Communications sought to develop legislation related to the transport and communications sector in the country through the issuance of laws and ministerial decisions, as well as signing agreements and memorandums of understanding with a number of countries .
In the field of land transport, the ministry sought to keep up with the rapid growth witnessed by Qatar during the past few years in population and economic expansion, which requires infrastructure updates, in addition to improving the logistics support and using the latest technology to improve the quality of land transport services.
The ministry completed the strategy of the land transport sector, which included a number of objectives.
The most important objectives were the establishment of an integrated transport system and the planning of a network of roads with international standards to ensure efficiency at various levels, including high quality integrated public transport networks that ensure sufficient options for different users.
Additionally, the strategy will cover environmental sustainability, providing transport for long-term sustainable development and development of land transport policies and plans to achieve these goals.
In this context, a number of legislative laws have been approved to regulate the land transport sector.
The most important laws was the draft law regulating road transport and its executive regulations, which aims to set the conditions and procedures for licensing the activity of land transport and determine the obligations of the those with licenses, in addition to ensure safety on the roads.
Additionally, there was a draft law on the regulation of railways and their executive regulations, which aims to regulate the establishment and operation of railways according to safety requirements set by the best international standards and practices in this regard.
Regarding international road transport, a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements have been signed to facilitate trade and transport of goods and passengers, as well as to benefit from the conventions of international organisations concerned with the activation of international transport.
The ministry also completed the draft laws on rules for car rental agencies and its executive regulations and referred it to the competent legislative bodies to complete the necessary procedures for issuing it, with the aim of regulating limousine and car rental activities.
The law also develops the requirements, conditions and standards required to issue licenses for leasing limousine activities.
The ministry has also been keen to put public policies and strategies for the development and improvement of public transport networks in Qatar and to improve the quality of its services and to identify programmes and priorities for the implementation of these projects through the strategic planning of bus transport networks.
Routes and timetables for public bus transportation are being developed, in addition to improvements to serve regular buses and bus services.
A new transport service is being provided to areas developed within the urban renaissance.
In addition, an integrated system for the payment and issuance of public transport tickets in  Qatar was established in order to facilitate the mobility of all means of transport using the unified smart card.
The ministry also launched a number of new studies for the next five years to develop a new plan for the development of the bus network and provide a number of new services and routes, including serving the opening of the Doha Metro.
The ministry is also completing the design of 18 new stations, warehouses and bus stops, as well as developing an online website and mobile phone applications to serve bus users.
The ministry has also completed the preliminary engineering designs for roads in the West Bay region (package 20A), and work is underway to complete a number of preliminary engineering designs for a number of road projects, the most important of which is linking the city of Lusail in ways that are free and traffic flows.
The technical conditions for the project “Initial Design of the New Sealine Road” have been completed and the finalisation of the project is under way to launch a public tender.
The ministry is also working on a project that includes traffic accident analysis to determine its causes and propose suitable engineering solutions to minimise the negative effects of traffic accidents.
As part of its strategic plans to maintain the State’s investment in road infrastructure and supporting services, the ministry is currently preparing a field survey of 21,000km of road network assets, including lighting, signs and other assets using specialised technical devices to measure the condition and performance of road assets based on the best international standards and specifications.