The Peninsula
The Smart Qatar Program (TASMU), is one of the key initiatives led by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, has announced its 2020 achievements that were accomplished in cooperation with partners in the public and private sectors.
These achievements will help transform Qatar into a smart country and support key sectors in responding and adapting to economic challenges. With the people at the heart of its strategy, TASMU identified 12 personas that come from all walks of life, from retired individuals, to new moms and blue-collar workers.
Studying and understanding their backgrounds, needs, digital skill levels and pain points, TASMU is developing smart solutions and applications that will benefit and empower the people.
“TASMU strives to build a smart Qatar that is sustainable and capable of providing a better quality of life for our society” said Reem Mohammed Al Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development, at MOTC, adding that “Investing in human capabilities and advanced technology, we are developing smart solutions and applications that will transform our lives for the better by making services more effective and accessible. Our efforts will help build an economy that supports innovation and drives investment. TASMU smart solutions and applications will provide precise analytics and comprehensive insights that will support the country’s decision makers.”
She added: “With strength in mission, unity in purpose and agility in problem solving, the TASMU program successfully delivered upon its mandate in 2020. We are proud of the progress the program has achieved by fostering innovation through collaboration and coordination with all stakeholders that will fuel the country’s digital transformation. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, as we need to intensify and focus our efforts in order to support Qatar’s economic competitiveness and contribute to digital position and role as an innovation hub in the region.”
The TASMU program has 23 initiatives operating under four main pillars that will ensure all sectors have the capability to achieve the goals of Qatar’s digital transformation. Simultaneously, TASMU has developed a five-year roadmap for policies and standards that will serve as the regulatory framework underpinning the smart country initiatives.
Reem Mohammed Al Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development at MOTC
From protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, to reducing ethical risks and negative social and environmental impacts of adopting emerging technologies, TASMU developed six common policies: Security Policy, Data Policy, Interoperability Policy, Electronic Commerce & Transaction Policy, Experience Policy and Societal Impact Policy. These ensure the ICT ecosystem in Qatar has the necessary guidelines to develop meaningful, safe, and relevant experiences to the users of TASMU smart solutions and applications.
The TASMU Central Platform will have a website and a Mobile Application. Developers will be using the platform and its services to build smart solutions. With the initial launch planned for 2021, TASMU Central Platform will eventually be the nerve center for smart solutions development and the orchestration of these services across the five priority sectors.
Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani, Chief Commercial Officer at Ooredoo, the lead partner of the consortium that has been awarded the TASMU Central Platform development contract at QITCOM 2019 said: “We are proud that Ooredoo is supporting this smart city project for the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the State of Qatar, working with esteemed organizations including Malomatia, Microsoft, Delta Partners, PWC, Accenture, Atos and other consortium members”.
He added, “The TASMU Central Platform will be a key enabler for the Smart Qatar Program in our drive towards achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030. The Platform will also accelerate the growth of the smart city ecosystem and facilitate launchto-market for use case providers to enhance citizens’ lives. We are also excited to announce that we are taking part in an Acceleration Program, as part of the Smart Qatar Central Platform initiative, aimed at helping startups in Qatar and beyond”.
Remarkable achievements were also accomplished in terms of smart solution implementation. In the healthcare sector, working closely with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and other stakeholders, TASMU accelerated the implementation of Virtual Consultation service, which ensured that the local community is empowered to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, and can access medical advice, diagnosis and prescriptions from the comfort and safety of their homes.
The first virtual consultation clinic was launched on March 26, 2020 and 188 clinics were made available to date across MOPH, Primary Health Care Corporation, Hamad Medical Corporation and Sidra Medicine.. Since then, more than 720,000 voice and video consultations have been conducted with patients from over 100 different nationalities in collaboration with healthcare providers, out of which more than 56,000 were done through TASMU Virtual Consultation solution.
Commenting on the achievements of TASMU in the healthcare sector, Dr. Juliet Ibrahim, eHealth Director at Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), said: “TASMU is a highly valued program for the health sector in Qatar, as it will provide smart services that aim to improve the timeliness and convenience of healthcare services, as well as support improved health outcomes through innovative digital services and applications.”
In the Environment sector, TASMU’s Digital Farmer Community solution has been successfully piloted in collaboration with the Agricultural Affairs department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME). In 2020, seven farms participated in the pilot phase which tested some of the platform features ahead of the full launch planned to take place this year.
The platform will grant all farms in Qatar with full access to the smart solution that integrates realtime weather data from the Qatar Meteorology Department and high-resolution satellite images from the Center for Geographic Information System to assist farms with professional advice on production planning, crop best practices, pest and disease management. 2020 also saw the successful completion of phase one of the National Food Security Analytics solution, in collaboration with the Food Security Department of the MME.
Supporting stakeholders from five priority sectors, TASMU is refreshing the smart sector strategies of each sector outlining their key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure they will produce tangible results in correspondence with the needs of the people of Qatar. The strategies also determine the project governance, implementation plan, data governance and functional blueprint that will guide the sector in the implementation of the sector platform, detailing how data should be managed and accessed, and how the platform technology could be leveraged to optimize the sector’s efforts in implementing smart solutions and applications.
In 2020, TASMU finalized the detailed strategies of three of the five priority sectors: TASMU Healthcare, TASMU Environment and TASMU Sports. By holding workshops with stakeholders, the refreshed strategies outlined 21 healthcare, 23 sports and 25 environment priority smart solutions that stem from the real-life pain points and challenges of different population segments based on sectors’ priorities and KPIs.
These smart solutions will leverage advanced and innovative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, Blockchain and Big Data Analytics. The smart solutions will also benefit from TASMU’s policies and standards to ensure that they are safe and relevant to TASMU users. Eng. Fahad Ebrahim Juma Al Muhana, Director of Strategy and Projects Management Office at Qatar Olympic Committee, said: “Digital transformation, sustainability and knowledge management are the foundations of the Qatar Olympic Committee’s strategy, where digital transformation contributes to enhanced performance and increased organizational effectiveness, as well as the development and progress of human and technological capabilities, to keep up with the pace of evolution and acceleration in the technical world.
On behalf of Kahramaa, Director of the Customer Services Department, Yousef Al Jaidah, stated: “Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) said “The collaboration between the foundation and the Smart Qatar Program (TASMU) was an opportunity to benefit from technology, innovation, and digital initiatives to achieve the foundation’s goals and projects. This collaboration between Kahramaa and TASMU resulted in the signing of partnerships for the completion of a number of strategic projects in the fields of environment and sustainability and contribute to the rationalization of individual energy and water consumption.”
To support Qatar’s digital ecosystem and accelerate the implementation of smart solutions and applications, TASMU oversees the TASMU Digital Valley (TDV), which acts as the acknowledged ecosystem orchestrator driving the priority sectors’ growth through various strategic initiatives and powering the supply of TASMU smart solutions and applications.
