As part of its mandate to develop the Internet domain business in the region, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) conducted a training workshop to promote and increase utilization of country domain names in partnership with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). CRA is especially interested in encouraging locally-owned businesses and SME’s to register their businesses through the Qatar Domains Registry (QDR), a department established by CRA to manage all the Qatar-specific domains, to benefit from a local, Qatari domain name.
Participants in the workshop included representatives from QDR and its accredited registrars, Ooredoo, Vodafone, and local Internet businesses. Qatar has been recognized as one of the most connected countries in the Arab region with Internet penetration over 91 percent. With a population of over two million, and with its rapidly developing infrastructure and robust economy, the country still has huge potential in terms of ccTLD penetration.
Currently, Qatar has 20,517 domain names registered with QDR. “CRA wants to enhance the presence of Qatari businesses online and brand Qatar in the global digital marketplace,” said Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President, CRA.“We will continue to organize similar strategic trainings to build capacity among QDR’s accredited registrars and to equip them with the required skills to boost the uptake of national domain names.”
The international experts at the workshop included Thomas Barrett, President & Founder of Encirca Inc.; StéphaneVan Gelder, Executive Vice President of StartingDotRegistry; Baher Esmat, Vice President, ICANN Stakeholder Engagement - Middle East; and Mohammed El-Bashir, Technical Department Manager, CRA.
“This workshop reaffirms the importance of our strategic partnership, cemented with the MoU singed between ICANN and the Government of Qatar last year to support the development of the Domain Name Industry and Internationalized Domain Names (such as Arabic script) in the region, as well as to promote the multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance.
This was a significant step for us and for future collaboration on joint projects and activities,” said Baher Esamt, Vice President, ICANN Stakeholder Engagement - Middle East. The current set of extensions that are made available by QDR through for public registrations include ".qa" and ".com.qa", "net.qa", and the Arabic equivalent of ".qatar ""(.قطر ) "each second level ".qa" with its unique set of eligibility requirements.
QDR has accredited registrars, including some based locally, to facilitate the domain registration process. A full list of the QDR accredited registrars is available at this link : http://www.domains.qa/en/registrars/accredited-registrars
CRA would like to especially encourage locally owned businesses and SME’s to register their businesses through the Qatar Domain Registry.
To find out more, go to https://www.domains.qa/en and connect with QDR through Twitter @QatarDomains.
About ICANN: ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.