Oman’s ranking has improved in the eGovernment Survey 2018 published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Oman ranked 63 out of 193 countries.
Compared to the 2016 scores, Oman has improved on all three indices and is ranked sixth among the Arab countries and second in the Online Services Index. Oman made great improvement in the eParticipation index by 33 positions to be ranked 43rd.
For the first time, the UN eGov report has highlighted the Global Cyber Security Index in which Oman is one of the top ten member states with the highest commitment to cybersecurity.
eGovernment Development Index
The survey tracks progress of eGovernment development via the E-Government Development Index, which assesses eGovernment development at the national level. It is a composite index based on the weighted average of three normalised indices.
One-third is derived from a Telecommunications Infrastructure Index based on data collected from Oman and provided through the International Telecommunications Union. One-third of the index is derived from a Human Capital Index based on data provided by Unesco’s Institute of statistics. One-third is from Online Service Index based on data collected from an independent survey questionnaire, conducted by UNDESA.
Online Services index
In the Online Services index, Oman scored 81 per cent compared to 59 per cent in 2016 survey to be the second best country in the Arab region in this index. The data in this index is collected by UNDESA through several surveys. The researchers assessed each country’s national website as well as the websites of the related ministries of education, labour, social services, health, finance, and environment as applicable.
Telecommunication Infrastructure Index
The noticeable improvement in the scores of the Telecom Infrastructure Index from 51 per cent in 2016 to 54 per cent in 2018 survey is a reflection of the government initiatives in improving the Internet connectivity and broadband services.
Human Capital Index
In the Human Capital Index, Oman has improved its score to 70 per cent compared to 67 per cent in 2016 report, which reflects the investments and focus made by the government in the education sector and the efforts of the Omani National Committee for Education, Culture and Science for updating data in the database of the Unesco Institute for Statistics.
eParticipation Index
As part of the report, UN also published the eParticipation Index and Oman has improved significantly by 33 positions to be the second best ranking in the Arab region.