Qatar's online government services becoming popular
The trend of availing government services online is gaining ground in Qatar. The number of visitors to Hukoomi, Qatar government's portal for providing different services, has almost doubled to 1.5m in 2013 from 776,379 in 2012.
Over the first 10 months of 2014, the portal has received more than 1.6m visitors, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR) data.
The portal hosted record 3.2m transactions in 2013 much higher than 2.7m in 2012. Around 3.4m transactions were completed on Hukoomi in the first 10 months of current year.
This online platform provides easy access to information, e-services, events and contact information for various public services, entities and agencies. Through Hukoomi users can access services related to residency permits, can renew driving licences, pay utility bills and traffic violations, apply for business visas, renew health cards and commercial registrations.
Hukoomi now offers around 400 services of which companies, nationals, residents and visitors can complete more than 150 electronically from start to finish. The rising popularity of the government portal is the result of convenience it gives to the users, say officials.
"Hukoomi offers paperless single sign in access, which allows users to connect to all the services online - from completing forms and applications to applying for visas and permits to checking fines and making online payments - with one integrated log-in," said a senior official of ictQATAR.
"Hukoomi also engages with the end users through its SMS gateways for any new announcements, services and information as well as through its social media channels allowing visitors to learn about new government services, news or upcoming event," he said.
Visitors completed 1.7m transactions for residence renewal during 2013 and nearly 1.55m applications for exit permits, in addition to 522,290 transactions for visit visas and 338,020 applications for new residence permits.
In 2013, the portal processed more than 125,690 applications for smart identity cards and 125,010 for sponsorship transfer applications. The past year also saw the issuance of 101,230 tourist visas and 62,950 commercial registration certificates through the portal.
this is cool - when I can get it to work...