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QATAR ICT LANDSCAPE 2009
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<a href="index_ar.htm" target="_self">عربي</a>
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<a href="files/Cover_en.pdf" target="_blank">Cover</a><br>
<a href="files/Contents_en.pdf" target="_blank">Contents</a><br>
<a href="files/Introduction_en.pdf" target="_blank">Introduction</a><br>
<a href="files/Executive_Summary_en.pdf" target="_blank">Executive Summary</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_1_Residents_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter One: Residents</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_2_Business_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Two: Business</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_3_Government_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Three: Government</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_4_Education_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Four: Education</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_5_Health_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Five: Health</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_6_Tourism_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Six: Tourism</a><br>
<a href="files/Chapter_7_ICT_Workforce_en.pdf" target="_blank">Chapter Seven: ICT Workforce</a><br>
<a href="files/Appendix_en.pdf" target="_blank">Appendix</a>
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<a href="files/ictQATAR_Landscape_2009_en.pdf" target="_blank">>> Download full report</a>
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© 2009 Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR)
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Executive Summary
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Background
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Qatar is well on its way to building an information-based society. Spurred by the opening of the telecoms market to competition and a strategic and comprehensive three- year ICT master plan , Qatar is being recognized internationally for its progress.
In the 2008-09 World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report, Qatar rose from a ranking of 32nd among 127 nations to 29th among 134 nations.in the networked readiness index. This same report details the leap over the past year in government readiness and usage of ICT. Qatar is ranked 22nd in government readiness in areas like government prioritization of ICT, government procurement of advanced technology products, and importance of ICT to government’s vision of the future. In government usage of ICT, Qatar ranks 25th.
Qatar’s progress in ICT adoption among all sectors of society has not been without challenges. As Qatar’s ICT Landscape 2009 details, an important demographic characteristic that separates Qatar, along with UAE and Kuwait, from the rest of the world is 40% of its population age 18 and older, is transient, made up of unskilled labor living in temporary housing and working mainly in construction. The number of these workers increases or decreases from year to year depending on construction and real estate trends, impacting overall population figures. Because these workers have a low ICT adoption rate in terms of basic ICT indicators, figures based on the entire population are less favorable.
In terms of businesses, micro enterprises (comprising 10 employees or less) constitute the majority of all enterprises in Qatar. They have lagged behind other businesses in ICT adoption.
Analysis of key findings from the primary and secondary research gathered in 2008 are summarized below and detailed more fully in the individual chapters of this report.
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The Overall Picture
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Over the past several years, Qatar’s people, institutions, and government have made steady progress in adopting ICT into daily life.
The adoption of ICT in Qatar over the past few years puts the country among the best three in the Arab world in terms of combined performance in basic ICT indicators such as the numbers of computer users, Internet users, mobile telephone and broadband Internet subscribers.
Qatar’s three major stakeholders – government, businesses, and residents – are not on the same level of ICT adoption. Residents (excluding the transient labor population) performed better in overall ICT indicators than government and business; businesses have the most progress to make.
The three main pillars that support widespread ICT adoption – availability and quality of ICT infrastructure and services and ICT skilled users show that lack of ICT skills, especially in businesses, is the strongest barrier to widespread ICT adoption.
Below outlines the key findings from the sector-specific research: residents, businesses, government, education, healthcare, tourism, and ICT workforce.
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Residents
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Overall, residents in Qatar have been steadily increasing their ICT adoption rate, especially in terms of basic use of ICT tools, such as using a word processor on a PC or using e-mail and searching the Internet. Among the resident population (excluding the transient labor population,) basic ICT indicators are comparable to European averages; basic ICT indicators are low when the transient labor population is included.
Excluding the transient labor population, Qatar’s residents post a 63% Internet penetration, 54% computer users, and 120.8% mobile subscribers.
A benchmark inconsistency surfaces in Qatar’s Internet users between basic Internet usage, such as use of e-mail and search engines and advanced Internet use, such as those related to e-banking and e-government services. While residents perform comparably to their EU counterparts, their performance in advanced use is behind those of Europe. This is likely explained by lack of public awareness, variety, and ease of use of advanced services.
Qatar is among the top countries in the world in terms of low ICT costs as a percentage of monthly per capita GDP. However, the cost for some key ICT services, such as broadband Internet use, remains too high for the lowest income strata – the largest population segment – constituting a relatively large portion of their income, as evident in the Residents Survey.
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Business
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Micro enterprises (less than 10 employees) dominate the business sector by sheer number, as they constitute around 80 percent of all enterprises in Qatar. However, they employ 18 percent of the total workforce. Enterprises with more than 100 employees (large and super large companies) constitute only 1.84 percent of all companies, but they employ as much as 53 percent of Qatar’s workforce.
While Qatar’s business community has in recent years increased its ICT adoption to assume a leading position among developing countries, micro enterprises (constituted largely in the retail business, catering directly to consumers) have fallen far behind in ICT adoption measurement. They trail the rest of business size segments in all indicators, including: e-business infrastructure, broadband Internet connectivity, web presence, and Internet utilization to interact with government agencies and financial institutions.
One quarter of all enterprises in Qatar use advanced Internet services such as e-commerce, e-banking and e-government services compared to an average of almost two thirds in EU countries. While it is expected that an early Internet adoption in Europe should position EU countries ahead of Qatar in terms of advanced use, the gap may be explained by a combination of factors, such as lack of ICT training of employees in advanced Internet use.
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Government
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The government has been aggressive in its ICT adoption in several areas including ICT training of staff and the ratio of PCs to employees which stands at 88.2 PCs per 100 employees.
A significant number of government services are yet to be transformed into e-services to encourage widespread use of e-government in Qatar.
The percentage of IT staff vis-à-vis total staff in the government sector is low compared to the world average.
Nevertheless the government sector outperformed the business sector on all indicators, from the number of ICT training hours provided for employees to PC and Internet use.
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Education
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Qatar’s schools have an average of 12.7 PCs per 100 students, the highest in the Arab world. Independent schools have the best ratio among the four school types at 16.2 PCs per 100 students, significantly higher than the European (EU-15) average of 12.1.
Unlike the EU countries where the ICT adoption level rises as the grade level rises, Qatar does not follow the same pattern. For example, intermediate schools in Qatar registered a higher PC-to-student ratio and Internet connected PC-to-student ratio compared to secondary schools.
Furthermore, the PC-to-student ratio in Europe is almost 1.5 times that of Qatar’s and the percentage of schools with PCs in the classroom in Europe is nearly 3.5 times the percentage observed in Qatar’s schools.
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Health
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The government-run health sector in Qatar is better equipped to provide ICT tools and infrastructure than privately-run facilities. However, all told, nearly 70% of health professionals in Qatar have Internet access at work.
Of Qatar’s healthcare providers, 15.6% have health-related websites and only 3.1% offer transactional services – compared to a community of healthcare professionals and residents that are proficient in Internet use. This suggests that Qatar focus on e-health services to link patients with healthcare providers and services.
Nearly 76% of physicians in Qatar were connected to an online health professionals’ network as of Q3 2008. Comparatively, 57% of nurses and 70% of allied health professionals were connected to such networks.
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Tourism
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A minority of visitors utilized Qatar-based websites to look for travel and recreation information in Qatar. This indicates a probable weakness in availability and visibility of reliable multi-lingual websites providing comprehensive, accurate and helpful information for visitors.
Most visitors to Qatar are ICT literate. The majority of visitors are business professionals who require easy and reliable access to the Internet for information and communication purposes while in Qatar. Yet, despite increased ICT adoption in Qatar’s tourism industry, 10 percent of hotels do not offer Internet access to guests.
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ICT workforce
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Demand for ICT professionals in Qatar outweighs local supply by several folds. However, this shortage in local supply is not expected to pose a major challenge. Qatar is expected to continue attracting ICT workers due to the country’s rise as a regional business hub and its ability to withstand the global economic downturn.
While workers possessing most ICT skills are available for Qatari employers to recruit, the challenge lies in ensuring optimal use of these skills and enhancing them to ensure increased productivity and operational efficiency.
An issue that needs to be addressed is an increasing challenge facing fresh graduates from local universities who are competing for jobs. While it is in Qatar’s interest to see that all students from local universities with ICT specialization find placement in the Qatari market upon graduation, it may become more difficult for them to compete with a probably increased influx of expatriate ICT professionals drawn into Qatar as a result of the global economic downturn. Qatar is expected to be among the least affected by a global recession.
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Looking ahead
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This first country-wide report assesses Qatar’s progress in ICT adoption and identifies areas of greatest need. In the next several years, Qatar will again evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts to connect people and institutions to the technologies that enrich lives and drive economic competitiveness. As this report demonstrates, Qatar has begun to lay a strong foundation for sustainable economic and social development. While Qatar’s people, institutions, and government have made steady progress in adopting ICT into daily life, much work still remains. The country must accelerate its efforts in order to realize the nation’s vision of a flexible, diversified economy that benefits all who live and work in Qatar. ictQATAR will be at the forefront of this effort.
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