Oman ranks 50th in Global IT Report - Directed and energised by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s vision and directives for eOman, great strides have been made in the field of Information Technology within the Sultanate.

Times of Oman 15/4/2009

Directed and energised by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s vision and directives for eOman, great strides have been made in the field of Information Technology within the Sultanate in terms of secure infrastructure, services, legislation, online payments, frameworks, policies and awareness.

 As a result of these continued efforts, Oman has been placed in the 50th position in the Global IT Report 2008-09 featuring 134 countries, published at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

In addition, Oman’s efforts in procuring advanced technology products for its IT systems have been ranked in the 22nd position, thus increasing the overall government readiness index to the 39th rank.

The position of Oman in Government Usage is at 45, and this is based on the government’s success in ICT promotion, availability of government services online, presence and efficient use of ICT within the public sector and e-participation.

This Global IT Report is part of the Global Competitiveness Report issued at the recently held World Economic Forum. With over 100 indictors along with a detailed profile for each of the 134 countries featured, this report is the most comprehensive assessment of its kind in global rankings.

Despite the global trends of economic and inflation, Oman has improved its position from 53rd in the 2007-08 report to its current place in a ranking, which focuses on mobility in a networked world.

Information and Communication technologies as an enabler contribute significantly to the core of national competitiveness.

This report measures ICT diffusion in various dimensions to present Network Readiness Index (NRI).

NRI is a unique tool for policy-maker and all relevant stakeholders, allowing them to follow the progress of countries over time based on standard metrics, evaluated by a neutral and authoritative platform with the aim to enhance networked readiness and competitiveness.

Oman’s significant ranking places it highly in terms of government readiness and usage.

The placement of Oman in terms of the importance given to ICT in the government’s vision for future is ranked as high 21 among the 134 countries considered.

In the realisation of His Majesty’s vision to augment public sector e-services, associated infrastructure is expected to grow, eventually improving this ranking further in the coming years.