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Qatar To Host Mobile World Congress For Next 5 Years

This will be the first time the tech event has been held in the MENA region, and will help to drive digital innovation and attract investment to Qatar.

Published

11 months ago

on

qatar to host mobile world congress for next five years
Qatar News Agency

Qatar has secured hosting rights to hold the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Doha for the next five years. The news marks a significant milestone, as it’s the first time the prestigious event will be held in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The official agreement was signed in Barcelona by Qatar’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, H. E. Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, and John Hoffman, CEO of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), during the MWC 2025 event.

Minister Al Mannai highlighted that MWC Doha will serve as a global meeting point for industry leaders and experts, fostering collaboration and innovation:

“This milestone reflects our commitment to accelerating the adoption of digital solutions and enhancing our leadership in the ICT sector. Hosting this event represents a strategic opportunity to attract investments and support the implementation of the Digital Agenda 2030. This event will enhance collaboration among leading sector companies, opening new horizons for growth and innovation in the region,” Al Mannai stated.

The premiere edition of MWC Doha is scheduled for November 25–26, 2025. The event will showcase the latest developments in mobile technology, AI, financial technology, and smart connectivity. Additionally, discussions will cover key issues such as digital inclusion, sustainability, and emerging technologies, offering a valuable platform for networking and knowledge sharing.

GSMA CEO John Hoffman expressed his enthusiasm for the event, saying, “We are delighted to welcome MWC25 Doha to our world-renowned MWC Series. Our vision is for MWC Doha to become integral to Qatar’s emerging role as a global hub for digital innovation, showcasing the Middle East’s digital transformation across AI, advanced 5G, and smart mobility”.

Hosting MWC Doha is expected to have a positive economic impact on Qatar, drawing thousands of attendees, including top executives, industry experts, and investors from across the world. This influx is anticipated to drive economic growth, promote international cooperation, and highlight the capabilities of Qatari and regional tech firms.

Also Read: After Two Decades, Microsoft Announces Skype Shut Down

Furthermore, the event is poised to attract foreign investment by providing global investors with firsthand insight into Qatar’s business-friendly environment. With its advanced infrastructure and supportive regulatory landscape, the country is positioning itself as a prime destination for digital ventures and entrepreneurship. Additionally, MWC Doha is expected to facilitate strategic partnerships between Qatari and international companies, further cementing Qatar’s reputation as a regional and global tech powerhouse.

GSMA currently organizes multiple regional editions of Mobile World Congress to promote digital advancement worldwide, including MWC Shanghai, MWC Las Vegas, and MWC Kigali. MWC Barcelona remains the flagship event, drawing over 101,000 attendees from 205 countries, along with more than 2,700 exhibitors.

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UAE-Built Falcon-H1 Arabic Leads LLM Benchmarks

The lean Emirati-built language model beats larger global systems and puts Arabic at the center of training.

Published

23 hours ago

on

January 15, 2026

By

uae-built falcon-h1 arabic leads llm benchmarks
Abu Dhabi Technology Innovation Institute

Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute has released an Arabic-first large language model that tops global test boards, an uncommon edge for a region long served by English-centric systems.

Falcon-H1 Arabic comes in 3B, 7B and 34B versions. The flagship posts 75.36% accuracy on comprehensive Arabic tasks and ranks first on the Open Arabic LLM Leaderboard. It also outperforms Meta’s Llama-70B and Alibaba’s Qwen-72B while using less than half their parameters. The smallest model beats Microsoft’s Phi-4 Mini by ten percentage points on equivalent benchmarks.

Arabic remains hard territory for AI. Flexible word order, dense morphology and constant switching between regional dialects and Modern Standard Arabic leave many global models missing context or tone. Academic research has pointed to a shortage of annotated datasets for dialect and informal speech. The impact shows up in classrooms, call centers and government portals where Arabic chatbots lag their English counterparts.

TII trained Falcon-H1 Arabic on formal writing, dialects and culturally grounded content. Beyond scores, it handles practical use: long conversations, reasoning rather than literal translation, and inputs of up to 192,000 words — enough for medical records or legal filings.

“The aim is innovation that is accessible, relevant, and impactful,” said Faisal Al Bannai, Adviser to the UAE President and Secretary-General of the Advanced Technology Research Council.

Also Read: Governata Raises $4M For Saudi AI Data-Governance Push

Arabic is spoken by more than 450 million people across over 20 countries, yet has often been treated as a secondary language for foundation models. The UAE move signals a push to flip that logic and build Arabic-native stacks rather than wait for global systems to improve.

Falcon models have led their categories since 2023. With H1 Arabic, TII is offering free access via chat.falconllm.tii.ae for developers, media, healthcare and public-sector users looking to automate in natural Arabic.

As the region continues to invest in sovereign computing and data localization, the addition of Falcon-H1 Arabic adds a powerful tool built for the native language, instead of an afterthought attached to an English-trained system.

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