The special report, commissioned by Google and produced by the Descartes Institute in cooperation with Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority, ranks Qatar 8th in their global digital policies index.
The third edition of the Future Readiness Economic Index (FREI) report has launched at the Doha Forum on Monday.
The unveiling took place during the ‘Building a Digital Economy: Is Your Country Future-Ready?’ session, which was panelled by Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar in representation of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Qatar’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, was also in attendance, as well as the President of Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority, Ahmad Al Muslemani, Costa Rica’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship, Arnoldo André Tinoco.
Google Cloud Emerging Markets’ Government Affairs and Public Policy Director, Selim J. Eddé, the United Nations Development Programmes’ Head of Digital Programming, Keyzom Ngodup and
Selim J. Eddé, Google Cloud Emerging Markets’ Government Affairs and Public Policy Director, Keyzom Ngodup Massall Head of Digital Programming, UNDP Chief Digital Office, the Descartes Institutes’ Founder, and author of this year’s FREI report were also on the panel.
During the session, Lanvin summarised the report’s findings.
According to the report, Singapore, Denmark, Switzerland, the United States and Sweden ranked in the top five positions.
The FREI uses a four-pillared framework with a further series of sub-indicators to rank countries based on their physical capital, human capital, technology and competitiveness.
Further sub-indicators include digital infrastructure, market environment, environmental performance and digital policies. The digital policies sub-indicator assesses a country’s digital governance, which includes their regulation of information and communication technology, cybersecurity measures and policies related to emerging technologies.
This year, Qatar ranked 8th worldwide on the FREI’s digital policies sub-indicator. According to the report, Qatar’s performance was especially notable in terms of AI regulation, cloud governance, online content, data privacy, and data transfer.
During the panel discussion, Al Mannai said: “Global Trends in digital policies such as AI governance and the implementation of the Digital Services Act and Digital Market Act are reshaping the digital landscape.”
“These developments align perfectly with Qatar’s focus on AI safety, digital identity systems and adherence to International standards and regulation.”