Doha, Qatar: Around 1,650 of approximately 2,300 services provided by government entities in Qatar are now fully digitised, as the country advances towards a new model of proactive government services designed to anticipate the needs of citizens and residents, according to an expert in strategy and government development.
Speaking to Qatar Television, Dr. Mohammed Khalifa Al-Kubaisi, an expert in strategy and government development, said Qatar has made significant progress in digital transformation, but stressed that increasing the number of online services alone should not be considered the ultimate measure of success.
“Among the 2,300 government services provided by all state institutions, there are 1,650 fully digitised and integrated government services,” Al-Kubaisi said. He explained that government digital transformation has evolved through three broad stages: electronic government, digital government and proactive government. Under the first model, services are placed online for users to request. Digital government goes further by connecting systems and simplifying procedures, while proactive government uses available data to anticipate a person’s needs and initiate a service before it is requested.
Al-Kubaisi said the bigger measure of progress is therefore not simply whether another 1,000 services can be digitised, but whether services can increasingly be delivered to citizens and residents before they have to request them.
He also highlighted the importance of integrating government data to unlock the potential of artificial intelligence. Comparing data to fuel and AI to an engine, Al-Kubaisi said information held across sectors such as education, health, housing, employment and social services could support more intelligent and integrated government services when systems are able to work together. AI, he said, could help anticipate needs, design services according to individuals’ circumstances, support government employees and leaders in making faster and better decisions, and turn call centres from complaint-receiving facilities into early-warning systems capable of detecting recurring or emerging problems.
He pointed to Qatar’s national strategies related to AI and data, as well as the Tasmu programme, as examples of progress in using integrated and real-time data. Al-Kubaisi said measuring the impact of digital transformation should also go beyond counting the number of services available electronically. “If we have 3,000 services, but the citizen still has to enter five platforms, enter his data every time, wait for a long period and then call an employee, then in reality we have digitised the problem rather than solved it,” he said.
Instead, he called for a shift from measuring outputs to measuring impact, including how much time digital services save citizens and residents, how many forms, procedures and requirements have been eliminated, whether users can complete a service successfully on the first attempt, and whether people choose digital channels because they are genuinely more convenient.
He noted that Qatar moved from 78th to 53rd among 193 countries in the United Nations E-Government Development Index 2024, describing the improvement as an indication of the efforts being made in this field.
Al-Kubaisi also identified several challenges facing the next stage of transformation, including what he described as “data silos,” where entities may hesitate to share information, as well as differences between government systems and standards.
Al-Kubaisi stressed that the transition towards proactive government should not be viewed merely as a technology project.
“Digital transformation and the transformation towards proactive government is not only a technical project; it is a major government reform project,” he said.
“It is not only about purchasing programmes and applications, but about building a culture of strategic integration between entities and developing qualified personnel to manage this transformation.” Al-Kubaisi said data has become a valuable national asset and forms part of the wider knowledge economy, making both its effective use and protection increasingly important as Qatar continues its digital transformation.
