Qatar has announced that it will set up an Artificial Intelligence (AI) committee to ensure that the nation's National AI Strategy, launched in 2019, is implemented and has follow-up mechanisms to ensure that it is done correctly. 

The country's cabinet has approved the draft decision on March 3 that stated that the committee will be set up under the country’s Transport & Communications Ministry (MoTC). Three MoTC representatives, including the head of the committee, will be joined by representatives from several other ministries and national institutions such as the Ministries of Interior, Education & Higher Education, Commerce & Industry and institutions such as Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar National Research Fund and Qatar Development Bank, with the representative from Qatar Computing Research Institute, serving as the vice-president of the committee. 

Qatar's national AI strategy has prioritised focus on education, data access, employment, business, research and ethics to ensure that the country produces “world-class AI applications” and to establish the country as an efficient consumer of AI, with “a properly educated citizenry, sound laws and ethical guidelines”. The committee will help supervise all the State-led AI-centric programs and initiatives and act as a connecting bridge between the ministries and relevant authorities in developing plans and programmes “for preparing human cadres in the field of artificial intelligence applications”. 

Qatar is one of the latest countries from the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region to advance AI adoption as a national priority. Previously, in late 2020, Saudi Arabia unveiled a plan to create 20,000 AI specialists and experts, support 300 active startups, and bring investment worth $20bn nationally as well as internationally for the AI industry, by 2030.