Qatar's may not be the largest IT market in the Gulf, but it appears better placed than some other markets in the region to withstand the current global economic headwinds. BMI's core scenario is for Qatar's total IT market to reach US$621mn by 2013. Despite the global economic slowdown, government spending, investment and private consumption growth are all expected to remain in positive territory throughout the forecast period. Qatar cannot expect to be immune to the troubles of the global economy however, and lower oil prices and tighter credit conditions will lead to a slowdown in spending growth in 2009. IT managers are looking to cut costs, and some projects have been scaled back in key sectors for IT projects such as oil and gas, construction and engineering. However the Qatar IT market has a number of positive factors which should help it going forward. The government remains keen to promote economic diversification, and investment by other verticals such as Telecoms, Banking and Education should be relatively immune, thanks to drivers such as regulatory compliance. Much will depend on the speed of the global economic recovery, and whether the current period of low oil prices turns out to be prolonged. Industry Developments Qatar's e-government programme reached a landmark in 2008 with the launch of Hukoomi - the new one-stop shop portal for Qatar government entities. Qatar ICT authority, ictQatar, recently released its inaugural annual report which highlighted a number of priority policy areas, including telecoms liberalisation, online government, e-learning, e-health and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A government priority is to increase utilisation of ICT by SMEs. In 2008 ictQatar launched several new programmes targeted at SMEs (with a small enterprise defined as 1-9 employees, and medium as 10-99). The e-Business Pilot project is an 18 month programme to help a selected group of SMEs by maximising ICT use. According to ictQatar a total of 21 e-business initiatives will be implemented by 2012. The government is also implementing a major IT initiative in the healthcare area, namely the development of an integrated national health information platform. The new platform, first launched in 2007, enables medical records and information to be accessed at the point of care. Other Healthcare sector IT projects include advanced primary care clinical and emergency department systems
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