Theqa is a non-for profit governmental program that aims to support the online shopper’s community in Qatar regardless of their gender. Theqa which means “trust” in Arabic is an eCommerce trustmark, an electronic label indicating that an online merchant has demonstrated its conformity to standards regarding business practice, privacy, and security.
Theqa was created to help drive eCommerce in Qatar given the high internet penetration rate. This badge of trust gives peace of mind to local residents and nationals that it is safe to shop from local merchants due to the challenging market.
Theqa aims to inspire trust and empower growth across Qatar by encouraging spend and facilitating entry to market of new eCommerce players. The entrance of new merchants will increase job and investment opportunities across the country.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has been working on setting up the trustmark for over a year and officially launched in October 2019 with 42 early members from the local online merchants community. MCIT is planning to grow nationally with local service providers and internationally by partnering with international trustmark associations to ensure their common goals are achieved together and the network of eCommerce in Qatar becomes international.
Today, the program have successfully certified 246 merchants. Also Qatar will be one of the first countries piloting social eCommerce by piloting Social Theqa.

https://www.theqa.qa/

• Qatar

• Youth
• Older persons
• Women
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Migrants
• Remote and rural communities

This initiative helps promote the trust of online shoppers and incentivize business owners to conduct their business online and hence empower economic growth across the Qatari society, therefore all countries that have an online shopping market can benefit largely from such a project.

This project is sustainable as it is a long term program with the aim of expanding and growing on both the national and international levels. Moreover, the need for such a program will resume for the long term given the high level of expansions electronic markets are going through.

The initiative mainly aims to enhance the spread of e-commerce services by increasing consumer trust in local merchants and facilitating the entry of local merchants into the e-commerce market, especially for groups with low incomes and women, who may find some barriers in providing traditional commercial services mostly related to the availability of required capital for investment, skills and social conditions. This all enhances conducting e-Businesses easily and directly promotes the WSIS ALs: C3, C4, C5, and C7 (e-Business).