Online transactions have risen sharply in Qatar in the first half of this year, driven by growing tech-savvy population and coronavirus outbreak, which has pushed more people to go online to avail different government services.

Hukoomi, Qatar’s official e-government portal, has witnessed a rise of 31 percent in the number of visitors accessing the portal in the first half of this year. Over 2.1 million users accessed Hukoomi portal in the first half of 2020 compared to 1.6 million in the first six months of 2019, according to the Hukoomi portal. During the first six months of this year, June witnessed the highest number of visitors to the website as 457,893 visits to the portal were registered during the month. March was the second busiest month as 369,894 visitors accessed the portal during the month.

COVID-19 outbreak is one of the main factors that have pushed up online transactions. In order to limit the spread of the coronavirus infection, employees were asked to work from home, including the government employees. People were asked to renew their vehicle registration and health cards online only.

Many other services such as the technical inspection of vehicles are being provided remotely. The data show that more people have moved online to avail government services.

Online services of the General Directorate of Traffic, especially through the Metrash2 application, have witnessed a significant increase during the first half of 2020. According to the Directorate, the total number of online traffic transactions, carried out during the first half of 2020 reached 514,000 compared to about 303,000 transactions in the first six months last year.

During the first six months, about 450,000 online vehicle registration transactions and 36,000 driving licence transactions were conducted by citizens and residents. Various services offered by different government departments can be availed through Hukoomi.

Renewal of Residence Permit for expatriates, health card renewal, applications for driving licence, renewal of vehicle registration and many others can be accessed through Hukoomi.

Page views on Hukoomi also reflect the growing popularity of the portal among the public. It recorded over 7.5 million page views during the January-June period of the current year.

Source : The Peninsula

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