Qatar's Ministry of Communications and IT Emphasizes Government's Key Role in AI Ecosystem Development

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Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology stresses that government leadership and investment are essential to building the nation's AI ecosystem, highlighting the need for public-private collaboration and substantial infrastructure support.

At the MWC26 event in Doha, Reem Al Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for digital industry affairs at Qatar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), outlined the pivotal role the Qatar government intends to play in nurturing the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Al Mansoori emphasized that developing AI capabilities cannot fall solely to the private sector due to the scale of investment and infrastructure required.

She described the AI ecosystem's growth as needing to occur "organically," differing from prior technology advancements by requiring deep collaboration between public institutions and private enterprises. Al Mansoori stated, "The government needs to be at the heart of that. It has to take the biggest step and the responsibility."

Highlighting the enormous costs associated with AI infrastructure—including data centers, GPUs, and deployment services—she argued that private companies alone could not sustain the necessary investment. The government’s role, therefore, involves cultivating a strategic vision, establishing frameworks and processes, and leading ecosystem development.

Infrastructure remains a foundational focus area; Al Mansoori urged accelerating investments into data center capacity and AI-friendly technologies to enable businesses and organizations to build on this base with their own AI use cases. This layered approach can streamline AI adoption and innovation.

Moreover, she called on organizations planning AI deployment to first ensure foundational readiness and to identify clear demand and business value in their AI applications. Al Mansoori encouraged a focus on efficiency improvements, growth potential, and economic impact as key measures of AI value.

Qatar MCIT’s stance reflects an intention to actively guide the evolution of its national AI landscape through government leadership, cooperation with private sector stakeholders, and targeted infrastructure investment, positioning the country to harness AI’s transformative capabilities in the coming years.