During the plenary session ‘Innovative Ideas Transforming Transportation and Logistics’; Land Transport Affairs, MoTC, Qatar, Qatar Ports Management Company, Qatar Rail and QMIC experts discussed trends shaping the industries and what the future may look like at QITCOM 2017 yesterday.
The discussion topics included; changing ways in which people and goods are moving around. Whilst both industries are being shaped by data and infrastructure transformations, logistics industry is also exploring possibilities presented by 3D printing and drone delivery.
Dr Ulrich Koegler, Partner at PwC, pointed out that productivity is increasing and this can be capitalised on by government through introduction of standards, forward looking and adaptive regulation, and incentivising of experiments.
Silvester Prakasm of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore reminded the audience that sometimes the biggest barrier to technology is human acceptance and hard work is required to win trust.
Capt. Abdulla Al Khanji, CEO of Qatar Ports Management Company, Mwani Qatar said “Mwani Qatar, is closely involved in development of seaports and related services to highest internationally recognised standards of safety, security and quality.”
“Now, people can easily access to Hamad Port, Entry passes can be issued through internet in this case people will be able to save time, money and energy. ‘Smart Scanners’ are placed all around the port, the entry and exit can be made by cards provided by Hamad Port. To maintain the security standards, we can operate the functions over our mobile phones,” he further added.
Unveiling the Innovations to enable smart living, Dr Adnan Abu Dayya, CEO of QMIC said: “QMIC provides solution to address mobility and data economy challenges since 2009, from R&D to large-scale platforms.
QMIC has an innovative initiative of CAV ( Connected and Automated Vehicles) which facilitates reducing the accidents up to 80 percent, enhances traffic efficiency and enabler for automated driving.”
While discussing progress of the company and future initiative Abu- Dayya noted “QMIC have had a significant progress in Qatar, In April 2014 QMIC conducted First field demo of V2X in MENA region at QSTP. QMIC will carry out a field pilot in Qatar from 2017 till 2018. By 2019/ 2020 QMIC will launch Potential Early Deployment.”
Panel sessions also covered importance of cybersecurity, data privacy, regulation, and interoperability.
The sessions were moderated by Mark Spelman, Co-Head of Initiative on Shaping the Future of Digital Economy and Society at World Economic Forum, and Simon Giles, Accenture Managing Director, Global Cities Lead.
The conference continues today with six sessions running between 09:30am and 5pm covering Qatar Smart Nation, cybersecurity, strategies for healthier societies, emerging challenges of environmental sustainability and sports mega events.
The second keynote speech will be given by Carlo Ratti, Professor at MIT, at 10:00 on the subject of disruptive technologies transforming cities.
