HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti has said Qatar National Day is a dear annual occasion to renew the determination to complete the ancestral march towards building a modern state that looks forward to the future and adheres to its heritage, stressing that celebrating the National Day is a clear embodiment of the bonds of love and the values of robust interconnectedness between the people and their wise leadership.
In a statement to Qatar News Agency on the occasion of the National Day, he said this memory calls for pride in belonging to this generous land, with its rich history established by the ancestors, since the founder Late Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, who charted the State’s path of development, growth and prosperity, and after him the wise leadership of this country carried the torch.
On the occasion, the minister and all the employees of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications extended sincere congratulations to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
He added that this precious occasion is an opportunity to renew determination to continue building on previous achievements and to make all efforts to raise the nation, support the development and comprehensive renaissance process, and achieve further development, growth and prosperity for the Qatari people, in addition to showcasing the tremendous achievements and successes that have contributed to strengthening Qatar’s position at the international level as a role model for comprehensive and sustainable development.
Al-Sulaiti pledged his determination to move forward in making more achievements for the country and to translate the visions of His Highness the Amir in the country’s advancement and to continue the great developments that it is witnessing in all fields.
He said: “The National Day of the State descends upon us in the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, as we look every year to achieve a new achievement through which we can fulfil even a small amount of the nation’s dues on us.” 
He noted that the transport and communications sectors, owing to the unlimited support provided by the wise leadership, are taking accelerated development steps in all their aspects, adding that the Ministry continues to develop future plans to achieve sustainability for these two vital sectors.
The forward-looking vision and sound directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani have enabled and supported the work of the government in facing all crises through its prompt response to challenges
The minister affirmed that the “Ministry of Transport and Communications is continuing to make more achievements and programmes that will contribute to continuing to promote the name of Qatar in all fields, in order to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030, which is the ambitious vision that illuminates the path to the country’s growth and prosperity for the coming years”.
He also pointed out that the Ministry has continued its tireless work in organising land and sea transport, working to develop and improving transportation services, studying and supervising projects related to them and following up their implementation, in order to achieve expansion of the economic movement and serve the requirements of national development.
He affirmed that the Ministry has worked to supervise and develop the communications and information technology sector and to secure and improve it efficiency. In this context, the Ministry continued through its various programmes to educate the public on the importance of communication and information technology and its safe use. The Ministry has also worked on implementing and overseeing e-government programmes, he added.
The Ministry has worked on updating its strategy in an integrated manner that includes the structural integration of the strategies adopted for both the transportation and the telecommunications sectors, along with updating the indicators standards and the mechanisms for evaluating achievements, within an integrated and homogeneous framework that harmonises the parallel tracks of the strategic and the operational plans, he said.
Realistic and flexible strategic and stage objectives have been adopted, in line with the holistic vision of the Ministry and its mission to develop an integrated system for the transportation and communications sectors.
The minister explained that the Ministry holds, on annual basis, a comprehensive and intensive external audit process regarding the compliance of the Ministry’s administrative system with internationally recognised standards in accordance with the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO). This is to confirm the Ministry’s commitment to the international certificate it has obtained in Quality Management (ISO 9001: 2015), and also comes in line with the Ministry’s strategy in building an effective, safe and sustainable transport system.
He pointed out that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has intensified its efforts to issue the necessary instructions and directives to limit the spread of Covid-19, in addition to a series of protective and precautionary measures, to limit the spread of the virus. 
In the field of land transport affairs, the Ministry has launched the electric vehicles strategy as part of the Ministry’s strategy to provide a world class integrated multimodal transport system. Most important steps for implementing this strategy are converting 25% of the public transportation bus fleet to electric and environmentally friendly buses by 2022; using electric buses in the main services during the 2022 FIFA World Cup; establishing a number of major stations for electric buses; completing the establishment of 2,700 bus stops during 2022; and co-ordinating with Mowasalat Company (Karwa) on a comprehensive plan to convert taxis into electric powered cars in the coming year. The Ministry has completed 90% of the project of acquiring an electronic system for analysing data on road assets, and more than 70% of the International Road Assessment Programme.
Al-Sulaiti stressed the Mministry is carrying out many strategic studies that serve the future of transportation in the country by 2050.
He explained that among the strategic studies are comprehensive plans for transport; vehicle parking; road freight; and the guide on the rate of trips and parking in Qatar.
On maritime transport affairs, he affirmed the Ministry supports sea transport projects, in co-operation with Karwa Company as the operator of these projects. The project includes a detailed study of using environmentally friendly energy in water transport projects using the latest technology; finalising the (database) programme and developing information security standards in the maritime field; conducting training programmes for specialists in maritime transport in accordance with the requirements of international organisations; and with regard to the mechanism that was followed to prevent the Covid-19 for both employees and customers requesting maritime certificates, the ministry applies all decisions and circulars issued regarding the pandemic in addition to developing training programmes for the employees.
Al-Sulaiti said Qatar ports were able to continue breaking the previous records in handling this year with its success in overcoming all obstacles to local supply and supply chains by ensuring smooth flow of operations in light of the global pandemic, and thus strengthening Qatar’s position in the global port and maritime transport sector as well as contributing to the realisation of the plans emanating from the Second National Development Strategy (2018-2020) by working to transform Qatar into a vibrant regional trade hub.
Qatari ports provided their services to more than 2,700 vessels during the period from January to this October. It also received about 1.6 million standard containers and handled more than 1.04 million tonnes of general and bulk cargo, in addition, to handling more than 370,000 heads of livestock. As for Doha Port, and despite the suspension of navigation traffic in March of this year to limit the spread of Covid-19, Qatar Ports provided services to up to 60 cruise ships carrying more than 200,000 tourists during the 2019-2020 tourist season.
In the IT sector, more than 1,200 digital services have been launched and many shared services have been built by several government agencies, in addition to the publication of eight related policies and frameworks.
He indicated that many initiatives and projects have been implemented in light of the Qatar Digital Government 2020 Strategy. In addition, emphasis has been placed on transparency as one of the main pillars of the Qatar Digital Government strategy, as a government data portal “Qatar Open Data Portal” was launched, with the aim of facilitating the process of disseminating government data to various entities through a single national platform available to the public.