Smart City Expo Doha explores future of cities through innovation

Doha, Qatar: The Smart City Expo Doha is a milestone in Qatar’s journey toward smart and sustainable urban transformation. Guided by the Digital Agenda 2030, the country is advancing an ecosystem that integrates technology, governance, and creativity to shape smarter, more connected communities.

The fourth edition of Smart City Expo Doha organised by Fira de Barcelona, in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), within MWC25 Doha took place for two days and highlighted the vision for the future of urban environments. The event provided a global platform to exchange ideas, showcase cutting-edge solutions, and explore the future of city life through innovation and technology.

Speaking during a panel session entitled, ‘Urban connectivity enabling sustainable growth of the future digital economy’ Assistant Undersecretary for Digital Industry Affairs at MCIT, H E Reem Al Mansoori highlighted the new phase of the ‘Smart Qatar – Tasmu’ programme which includes the launch of over 30 national smart solutions over the next two years and also the key milestones in the national effort to diversify the economy and upgrade quality of life in Qatar’s digital transformation pathway.

She said, “We started setting the foundation for a smart programme for the country since 2017. Qatar has set the priority for building the infrastructure that will enable delivering the vision of Qatar, diversifying the economy and enhancing the quality of life. And this all will happen by rethinking of the services and putting the citizens at the heart of the design of our services.”

So the Smart Qatar programme is designed in a way that it starts from citizens, enhancing quality of life, diversifying the economy, down to leading the development of services, smart use cases, and a robust infrastructure for five main sectors.

Al Mansoori added, “Today, we are very much surrounded with AI technologies, there is a big demand and need for cognitive services. We are at phase two, where we set a very ambitious plan, and we will see within the next two years, as part of this five-year plan, a very robust infrastructure unified for the country to deliver the promise by integrating more technologies, delivering cognitive services,” she added.

Responding to a query regarding the relation of Smart Qatar agenda with the National Digital Agenda, Al Mansoori pointed out the National Digital Agenda is focusing on diversifying the economy and delivering a digital economy, and Qatar playing a role on a regional and international level. Also, “we have the AI agenda, so the Smart Qatar programme is really evolving to deliver the promise of those two strategies,” she said. 

Also speaking during the session, CEO of Fira Barcelona International, Ricard Zapatero said, “We started Smart City Expo in 2011 in Barcelona and it has grown a lot. There were many cities in the region that were asking how can we have an international edition, we were already having international editions in China,  America, but we were not in Middle East,” he said. 

He noted that when discussions began with MCIT six years ago, it was clear that there was genuine interest and a strong desire for Doha to become a regional hub for developing smart city policies in the Middle East.

Zapatero pointed ou, for the first edition, “we had an expo called Qitcom which was very successful and we said, we have to come back.

Qatar has now become highly influential in the region, viewed by Middle Eastern countries as a successful model in implementing smart city projects,” he added.

More than 30 international experts discussed at Smart City Expo Doha how technological advances will help develop and transform cities in the Middle East, in order to make them more efficient, sustainable and liveable.

Under the slogan ‘Beyond connectivity: a digital solutions pathway to a smarter, thriving future’ the expo had a programme around five main thematic areas.