IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Both discussed ways to boost Omani-Estonian relations in the fields of e-government services, improving the business environment and increasing trade exchange between the two countries.

He added that the Human Resources System "Mawrid," which obtained the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in e-governmental service as the best 1358859507389632200 e-governmental project from governmental institution to governmental institution, is considered as one of the successful projects as it also obtained two awards from the United Nations (UN) and one gulf award.

The symposium on 'Excellence in eGovernment' begins tomorrow at the Shangri-La's Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa. The meet is part of the initiative of the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment 2014.

Tadoom will drive creation of advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS), high-precision 3D mapping and immersive smart city initiatives

Tadoom, Oman's premier IoT service provider renowned for its capability to deliver IoT and smart city solutions, has entered into a strategic partnership with Oman’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to develop a cutting-edge smart city platform and innovative use cases for the Sultan Haitham City.

The Ministry of Technology and Communications, in partnership with Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) and the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn), launched a pilot project for smart cities in the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) today that was implemented by "Cisco" and "Bahwan Information Technology”.

The inauguration ceremony was held under the patronage of Azza bint Sulaiman al-Ismailia, Minister of Technology and Communications.

In a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA), Ross Cormack, CEO of the Omani-Qatari Telecommunications Company (Nawras) said that the company after seven years of its existence has managed to make steady strides in providing excellent services which meet the requirements of the growing customer base.

"Traditionally, Oman is not known to be an IT spender. But in recent years, it has improved due to increasing competition in the telecom industry and the launch of e-government projects," says Sam Alkharrat, managing director, SAP Middle East and North Africa. But areas such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), which integrates internal and external management information across an entire organisation, have seen very slow adoption. Oman sees three to four ERP implementations a year, mainly by the large conglomerates, says S Jayakumar, general manager, International Information Technology, a unit of OHI Group.

Residents are being encouraged to pay fees and fines electronically, the Muscat Municipality said on Sunday.

The municipality has introduced several electronic services through its website and smartphone application — called Baladiyeti — which includes building permits, rent contracts, municipal permits, and car parking lots.

The Smart Cities Platform is organising a symposium called the Smart Cities Without Borders on June 10-11 which is part of a virtual event entitled “Challenges and Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

The Omani Smart City Platform is a digital platform for knowledge exchange and to drive smart city initiatives in Oman.

The aim of the platform is to provide an environment for the exchange of information, cooperation and communication between stakeholders in smart cities.

Winners of the fifth edition of Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment 2016 were announced on Tuesday evening in an award ceremony held at the Grand Hall of Sultan Qaboos University Cultural Centre, under the auspices of H E Dr Abdulmunim bin Mansour bin Said al Hasani, Minister of Information.

Organised by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), the ceremony saw the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) winning three awards while Omantel got the private sector award.

Zero-paper Municipal Council elections drew appreciation from voters, electoral officers and other stakeholders.

Addressing a press conference, Khalid bin Hilal al Busaidy, Under-Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Chairman of the Main Committee of the Municipal Council election, said the electoral process was at par with the technological advancement that helped automation and integration of data and other operations.

The Information Technology Authority (ITA) received the second batch of the continuous visits of the director generals and IT managers from the government entities in its headquarters at Knowledge Oasis Muscat. The visit aims to show the new ITA efforts and initiatives in implementing the e.oman strategy.

The visit started with Sas Centres' specialised in ICT industry development; it contains three centres: Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship, Sas Centre for Virtual Reality and Sas Centre for Mobile Apps Development.

Sultan Haitham City has achieved full completion of land preparation and levelling works, while progress continues on main roads, underpasses, utility networks and bridges.

Oman is accelerating its transition towards smart, sustainable urban development through a series of major national projects aligned with Oman Vision 2040. Led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, strategic initiatives such as Sultan Haitham City, Al Jabal Al Aali City and A'Thuraya City are reshaping the country’s future urban landscape.

The Sultanate of Oman ranking has improved in the United Nations eGovernment Survey 2018 published by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), according to the ITA. Oman is ranked 63 out of the 193 member state countries.

Compared to the 2016 scores, Oman has improved on all the three indices and is ranked 6th among the Arab countries and 2nd in the online services index.

These include the use of ICT in government and various economic sectors such as education, finance, healthcare and tourism, and promoting exchanges on the use of ICT by the government and private sectors.

TRA has acquired the approval of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to have Omani domain name written using the Arabic alphabet, so websites with Arabic content now can have their domain names also in Arabic instead of having it written using the Latin alphabet.

The One Stop Shop of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry won the Best Government-to-Government Shared Service, while the Information Technology Authority won first prize for ‘ITA e-Inclusion Project, the election system for the Shura Council and the municipal councils. The Ministry of Interior won the second place in the best e-services provided to individual and the Ministry of Manpower’s electronic registration project captured the second place in the best e-integrated service category.

The Blockchain Symposium in Muscat (Oman) this past week represents the very best that Blockchain technology can do in bringing government and private business together. Such a successful event shows the incredible potential for Blockchain technology and its related fields to be supported by senior government officials in countries with small populations, for example, with only 4.7 million inhabitants in Oman.

Oman Broadband keeps an ambitious target of reaching to 130,000 houses by the end of 2016 as it already has access to 60,000 houses in Muscat. The national broadband company of the Sultanate aspires initially to assist the government to achieve its larger goal of e-government and serve the national aspiration of serving the people with the smartest possible broadband facility. This was stated by Hamood al Rashdi, Manager Business Relationship, during the opening of the Oman Broadband Exhibition at the Salalah Tourism Festival (STF). He called the occasion as reaching out to people and raise awareness about the service.

Information Technology Authority (ITA), represented by Dr Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, chief executive officer of ITA, and Oman Broadband Company (OBC) represented by Eng. Said bin Abdullah Al Mantheri, chief executive officer of OBC signed an agreement to implement a private and resilient fibre optic backbone for Oman Government Network (OGN).

This agreement will be directly implemented to connect the current 63 government entities hosted by OGN providing high-speed connectivity and linked to the National Data Center at ITA in addition to another backup data centre.