Eng. Omar Al Ansari, Secretary General of Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council (QRDI).
Doha, Qatar: Qatar is at its optimum position of transforming into a technology-based country with modern innovations. As an established business hub in the region, officials in the country remark that the country aims to advance and enhance its capabilities to use innovation and technology.
Speaking to The Peninsula in an interview, Eng. Omar Al Ansari, Secretary General of Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council (QRDI) said: “Whether it is Artificial Intelligence (AI) or any other technological trend, the most interesting aspect for us is to have the capabilities to use innovation and technology and to leverage these responsibly.”
Al Ansari highlighted that adopting the latest technologies is the topmost and most effective tool across all sectors.
He said that “For us, a priority in Qatar is to actually develop these capabilities across government agencies, and state-owned enterprises. Not just AI but the use of any technological innovation requires us to build an innovation mindset across different leadership, staff, and board so that we can make our ecosystem friendly.”
In line with Qatar National Vision 2030, the most significant objective for Qatar is to build a “knowledge-based economy” to leverage innovation and human capital, explained Al Ansari.
“We have been hearing multiple times about the importance of leveraging innovation. What that means is that we will be leveraging everything Qatar has already built. Imagine all the infrastructures Qatar has built and that will be leveraged but in a way for our platform to test technologies by innovators," he noted.
He further added that "This will be a huge opportunity for innovators to actually test things in collaboration with real clients."
During the third edition of the Qatar Economic Forum held last week, Al Ansari discussed innovative technologies and leveraging emerging economies along with other experts including Hon. Minister Paula Ingabire, Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Innovation, Republic of Rwanda.
“The private sector played a critical role in capitalising these terms and I think what we are witnessing today, especially with AI is very important,” Al Ansari told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event.
Outlining the challenges in emerging economies he stressed that the lack of expertise, knowledge, specialisation within these areas is a key factor.
Pointing that AI and new technologies can be a key aspect in the community he added that people will have the ability for better access to education and healthcare.
