DOHA: Cities around the world are increasingly transforming into ‘Smart Cities’ as rapid urbanization is exerting growing pressure on the traditional infrastructures. Smart Cities initiative, which integrate digital technology to optimize the efficiency of cities’ operations and services, are now the global trend due to the several economic benefits it offers including the potentials to boost the economic development of global cities by over 5 percent and deliver at least $20 trillion in additional economic benefits by 2026, according to a recent white paper by ABI Research on the ‘Role of Smart Cities for Economic Development’.
Cities are now undergoing rapid transformations by taking advantage of the enormous opportunities smart technology offers in developing a more sustainable society. From Singapore, that has developed a system that allows drivers to save up to 60 hours a year through autonomous taxis, to Chicago - where more than 500 sensors have turned this metropolis into a smart region with its traffic lights, street lighting and rubbish containers all connected to the internet and many others, the cities of the future are gradually emerging.
Realizing the enormous potentials of the Smart Cities initiative as one of the key factors to accelerate the achievement of all pillars of the Qatar National Vision 2030, the “Smart Qatar” initiative, also known as TASMU, was launched by Qatar at the 2017 edition of the Qatar Information Technology Conference & Exhibition (QITCOM) - the largest Information and Communication Technology showcase and event in Qatar.
TASMU, which emphasises on harnessing the power of technology and innovation to drive sustainable economic diversification while improving the quality of life and enhancing the delivery of public services in Qatar, is focused on five top priority sectors -Transportation, Healthcare, Logistics, Environment and Sports. The initiative is expected to generate significant revenue for Qatar’s growing economy and boost its development by over 5 percent while delivering at least $11bn, out of a projected $275bn nominal GDP, by 2022.
Doubtlessly, the backbone for smart cities is Internet Connectivity and Qatar has done extremely well in this regard. With the launch of the 5G telecoms on a commercially available network globally in May 2018, Qatar cemented its position as a world leader in high-speed broadband access for households and businesses.
The country has consistently topped the list of the ‘highly-wired’ nations. It was ranked number one in the world in Internet penetration (99 percent ) for the January 2017 to January 2018 period, according to ‘DIGITAL IN 2018’ Insight report published by ‘We Are Social and Hootsuite’ authored by Simon Kemp. P2From Business page 1
The latest annual report released by Northwestern University in Qatar on Media Use in the Middle East survey also indicated that Qatar has one of the world’s highest Internet use rates with a saturation level at 95 percent . The market size of the Internet of Things (IoT), a fundamental component of the smart cities, is growing exponentially in Qatar with sales projected to reach $573M by 2022, compared to $172.5m in 2018, while the monetary value of smart homes in Qatar is estimated to rise to $344m, according to data from Statista, within the same period.
Statistics from Qatar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) indicated that the ICT sector is one of the major beneficiaries of the Smart Qatar initiative. Qatar’s ICT market, which was estimated to be around $3.9bn in 2017, is expected to grow by 2.3 percent per annum to reach $4.4bn in 2021. Figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted the software market in Qatar to reach some QR1.55bn ($412m), the IT service market to more than QR1bn ($275m) and the infrastructure market to more than QR800m ($220m), by 2021. In terms of growth, the cloud service segment is predicted to be the major gainer in this sector, witnessing a massive increase of up to 226 percent with spending expected to be in excess of $111m.
