Page 70 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

UAE Ranked 1st in Arab world in Online Service Index

The United Arab Emirates has been ranked first in the GCC, Arab
region, and Western Asia, and 8th globally in the Online Service
Index (OSI), issued by the United Nations within the E-Government
Development Index (EGDI). The UAE is also ranked 4th in Asia in this
indicator, advanced one rank in the E-participation Index as well
as progressing from 17th (2018) to the 16th position. According
to the same survey, the UAE is ranked 7th in Telecommunication
Infrastructure Index in the ICT Infrastructure Index (TII). In its
current edition, the survey focused on the role of countries
in serving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially
“Leaving no one behind” and the role of digital transformation
programs in narrowing the gap between segments of society in
various fields. The survey addressed government programmes
around the world in engaging customers in developing services,
policies and programs for everyone’s benefit. The UAE has been
ranked 21st globally in the overall index, which consists the sub-
indicators: Online Service Index, OSI; Human Capital Index, HCI;
and Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII; in addition to the
E-participation Index, EPI, that falls within the online services. With
this result, the UAE assured its leading position on the Arab level
in digital transformation key indicators, which reflects its global information to its citizens or “e-information sharing”, interacting
position and leadership in adopting the principles of the future with stakeholders or Commenting on these results, Hamad Obaid
government that are based on embracing advanced technologies, Al Mansoori, Head of the UAE Digital Government and TRA Director-
and particularly ICT technologies, and using them to provide General, said, “Despite the intensity of competition between
customers with easy and interactive government services. The countries, with these results, the UAE maintains its position among
results also confirm the UAE’s global role in implementing the the most advanced countries in digital transformation. We realise
sustainable development goals, as it has been among the first that the more we advance, the more difficult the competition will
countries to establish a specialized platform for this purpose in be, but under the directives of our wise leadership and with our
cooperation with the United Nations and relevant international national competencies and accumulated experiences in this field,
bodies. After the UAE, Bahrain has been ranked second in the we are determined to place the UAE among the best countries in
GCC in EGDI, followed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 3rd, the world, and we will achieve our aim through cooperation and
Kuwait 4th, and Oman 5th. Moreover, the UAE is sharing the 4th working as one team. These results lay upon us new challenges
rank in OSI in Asia along with China and Japan, following Korea, that we will overcome with hard work to achieve the first global
Singapore and Kazakhstan. The survey highlighted distinguished position in smart services.” Al Mansoori added, “In this context, I
UAE experiences in interacting with customers, and emphasized thank all government entities that worked with us hand in hand, to
the ‘Rammas’ Application launched by Dubai Electricity and implement the concepts of a unified and integrated e-government
Water Authority (DEWA), which is a virtual employee that uses within the framework of the OSI executive team, and I wish them
Artificial Intelligence to respond in English and Arabic, where a more innovation during the remainder of the 2022 survey. I am
question can be directed to “Rammas” verbally to get the answer confident that we will live up to our leadership’s expectations.”
immediately. Despite the intense competition between countries In turn, Salem Al Housani, Acting Deputy Director General of
in the E-participation Index, the UAE has achieved a breakthrough the Information and mGovernment Sector, and Head of the OSI
by advancing one rank and reaching the 16th position, which Executive Team, said, “I congratulate my colleagues in the OSI
reflects the implementation of digital transformation programs in executive team for their efforts over the past two years. We worked
the UAE in line with the wise leadership directives, by engaging together as one family, developed plans, constantly revised
the various segments of society in designing services and policies them, developed our work, learned about global experiences,
that enhance society’s happiness. The E-Participation Index took customer needs into consideration, and held our meetings
(EPI), is derived as a supplementary index to the United Nations regularly to unify understanding and coordinate efforts. We are
E-Government Survey. It extends the dimension of the Survey by ready for the next stage, and we will work in the same spirit to
focusing on the government use of online services in providing achieve more progress in the OSI and related indicators.”

70 JUNE-JULY 2020