Qatar’s innovative urban development positions it as a global model, says LuLu Group executive

Qatar could become a new model for urban living owing to its world-class infrastructure and focus on building smart cities, such as Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD) and Lusail City, a top official of LuLu Group said.Acknowledging the growing trend for cognitive cities due to artificial intelligence (AI), innovation, and rapid technological advancements, Dr Mohamed Althaf, director of LuLu Group International, said Qatar would be an "interesting” testing ground for different pilot projects."First of all, much of the world now knows that a lot of work has already been done in Qatar, thanks to the successful staging of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which thrust the country into the international spotlight,” Dr Althaf told Gulf Times.He continued: "We already have a smart city infrastructure, excellent broadband connectivity, and all that is already there. Much of this technology, and all the other support mechanisms, are already established.”Althaf was referring to two of Qatar’s world-class real estate gems, MDD - the flagship project of Msheireb Properties - and Lusail City, Qatari Diar’s flagship project touted as the country’s "smart city of the future”.According to Khalifa al-Mana, senior manager, City Control Centre and Smart Operations at Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, Lusail’s 20-year development journey "represents a bold step forward in sustainable, smart urban living”.With "$45bn” worth of infrastructure investments, Lusail is "the largest real estate project in Qatar”, spanning 38mn sq m, al-Mana pointed out. The project is known for its state-of-the-art infrastructure and forward-thinking design, he said, adding that Lusail offers a mix of residential, commercial, and entertainment districts."By leveraging AI technologies and interactive applications, we aim to offer superior smart city experiences that make the city more efficient and sustainable,” al-Mana further explained.MDD, on the other hand, is recognised as the world’s first fully built smart and sustainable city district, and a flagship project for sustainable urban development and technological innovation in Qatar, according to a previously published Msheireb Properties statement.Earlier news reports also quoted Msheireb Properties CEO engineer Ali al-Kuwari as saying: "MDD demonstrates how intelligent urban planning can transform cities through smart solutions that place residents at the centre of development. Our innovative approach blends traditional architecture with cutting-edge technology to enhance daily life while preserving our cultural heritage.”Last month, Msheireb Properties organised the inaugural edition of ‘Downtown Tech’, which featured four specialised zones dedicated to AI, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and autonomous vehicles interconnected through a central nervous system design, symbolising the fusion of human creativity and technological innovation.According to Ahmed al-Korbi, Senior ICT Manager at Msheireb Properties, ‘Downtown Tech’ represents a commitment to making technology accessible and engaging for everyone."As operators of one of the world's most advanced smart cities, with over 650,000 connected IoT devices, Msheireb Properties wanted to create an interactive platform where the community could experience the future of technology firsthand,” al-Korbi noted.Dr Althaf emphasised that during his travels around the world, he learned that industry experts with a keen interest in machine learning and AI-related projects have lauded Qatar, particularly MDD, describing the area as "a microcosm of the world's population.”He said: "If someone in India told me that running a data marketing campaign to gather a dataset for training AI in the country is challenging due to its diversity in languages and states, I would understand. To collect such material, they would need to cover a wide geographic area."However, by focusing on just one or two buildings in Qatar, he could potentially obtain a diverse range of languages and people, providing excellent training data for large language models.”Dr Althaf added: "I think Qatar’s status as a young country with modern infrastructure makes it more open to such discussions. This is interesting, and I hope Qatar will generate interest among developers. I am optimistic that the country could become a new urban living model.”