The Planning Council signs a contract with iHorizons to reconstruct its official website

Preparations are taking place to build and launch the new website of the Secretariat-General of the Planning Council which singed a contract with iHorizons, a pioneer in internet software and e-business systems, to redesign, develop and implement an interactive advanced site for the Council.

The new site will be launched in the coming few months, and it will contain lots of information, studies, researches, and statistics about the entire economic, population, and social domains issued by the Council about the State of Qatar in several timelines, besides many electronic links for several local and foreign concerned bodies. This will, subsequently, enhance the Council's role in the constant communication with the competent commissions and shall also facilitate the provision of data and information exchange. Moreover, the site is expected to provide many researchers, interested people, and decision-makers within the country and abroad with a tremendous mass of data in the form of reports, graphics and maps linked, in turn, with geographic information systems.

In order to manage and publish such a massive content, the Planning Council will employ the techniques developed by iHorizons Company pertaining to content management which are used by some of the largest Arabic internet sites. This system enables the various work teams to enter, edit and publish texts and images through a user-friendly interface, all of which function within an environment of operating systems and content applications of the giant Microsoft Co.

Mr. Hmoud Al Subaie, Manager of the Administrative and Financial Affairs Department at the Planning Council, expressed the Council's interest to develop the current site which is considered the direct contact channel between the Council and government ministries and institutions, the international, regional and Arab commissions. The current site offers many studies and statistics related to various fields such as health, education, environment, labor force, economic data pertaining to foreign trade which account for exports, imports, re-exported goods, and other data regarding transport and transportation, energy, industry, banks, business and others. The update and development of the site serves as a mechanism to facilitate the publishing of a greater volume of data and to easily and simply convey them to the beneficial parties.

Mr. Khaled Halaweh, the Country Manger of iHorizons in Qatar, stated that the two parties view this agreement as a long-term strategic project that will achieve a distinguished success. It is expected to constitute the start of a unique information portal about Qatar.