Tribune News Network
doha
The Ministry of Labour held a ceremony to inaugurate the cloud computing process which falls within the second phase of the digital transformation scheme. It is part of the ministry’s strategy to accelerate development of services in line with future requirements and best technological practices that conform to the broader objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by HE Dr Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, Minister of Labour, HE Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, senior officials of MCIT, and representatives of private sector companies participating in the implementation of the project.
MoL seeks to take advantage of cloud computing technology to develop services provided to the public, raise the level of information security controls, make data-based decisions, improve business flexibility, reduce operational costs, and increase employee productivity.
MoL’s Digital Transformation Unit is working in partnership with Microsoft, Oracle, Al-Mannai and PricewaterhouseCoopers Middle East in Qatar to implement the cloud computing, as the premier entity in the State of Qatar to rely on cloud solutions in developing services.
Dr Marri affirmed the commitment of the ministry to implement digital government initiatives, for the sake of providing a better life for individuals and companies in the State of Qatar, pointing out that digitising services contributes to achieving excellence in performance to ensure the quality of services and double the benefits for the labour sector and workers on the long-term.
In his speech during the inauguration ceremony, Marri explained that the ministry launched approximately 55% of services electronically to contribute to achieving excellence in performance, expediting the completion of transactions and streamlining procedures. He noted that the neoteric technologies depending on "Agile” methodology, is part of the ministry’s strategy for digital transformation.
The ministry is working to develop, modernise and launch nearly 80 new electronic services and transactions by March 2023, he said.
As part of commending other cooperative ministries, he praised the Ministry of Communications’ tireless efforts to develop the ICT sector in the country, rendering Qatar a regional centre for digital transformation in the region, and provided an attractive infrastructure for investment in this field, under the generous sponsorship of our wise leadership in this vital field.
"The launch of the cloud computing process in the Ministry of Labour to provide fast, reliable and secure cloud services, accelerate the pace of innovation, and gain high flexibility comes in line with efforts to achieve our digital aspirations, indicating that a central data centre will be established that the Ministry can use to facilitate the direct access process, data, and extract reports on demand to take advantage of artificial intelligence to facilitate the decision-making process, so that the Ministry of Labour will be a basic data reference for other ministries,” he said.
Moreover, it meets the requirements of the sector’s regulations and compliance systems, within the framework of the Ministry’s strategy and directions aimed at accelerating and developing services in line with future requirements and best practices.
He noted that the inauguration of the cloud computing process came in partnership with (Microsoft and Oracle) to develop a plan based on cloud interoperability, which is the first of its kind to move to a cloud environment in line with the national computing policy. MoL seeks to render by the second quarter of this year all the ministry’s services functional on secure cloud computing.
Lana Khalaf, General Manager of Microsoft Qatar, highlighted that the Ministry’s digital transformation strategy is a distinctive example of using different technologies and services from multiple companies on the Azure Microsoft cloud platform to innovate in proportion to their needs and ambitions. The cloud computing process will provide a flexible and secure cloud infrastructure, which in turn will improve the efficiency of their operations and raise the level of their services.
Oracle technology solutions have played a key role in supporting the strategic initiatives of the Ministry of Labour over the past several years and e-services platform is a major programme that will overhaul MoL’s services in the country substantially, Cherian Varghese, Senior Vice President, Technology Software, Middle East and Africa, Oracle, said
"PricewaterhouseCooper in Qatar is proud to be part of the transformation journey in Qatar, in line with the National Vision 2030 and to work with MoL from strategy to implementation to create new e-services platform which will digitally transform the labour sector”, Bassam Al Hajhamad, the responsible partner and head of the consulting department at PwC in Qatar said.
For his part, Khaled Al Mannai, director of the Board of Directors of Al-Mannai Trading Company, stated that the development of the new technology will give everyone the ability to track applications in real time on end-user devices, noting that it will enhance productivity and reduce the processing time of services from two months to a few days.