IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

At the beginning of the ceremony, Omar bin Salim al Shanfari, Head of Corporate Sector and Consultancy at ITA delivered a speech where he said that the Sultanate has initiated an ambitious journey to transfer Oman to a sustainable knowledge based society through utilizing ICT in enhancing government services, enriching business sector and enabling individuals to improve the quality of their lives. He also affirmed the importance of this project.

A unique system for mobile payment clearing and switching (MpClear) was launched on Sunday, said the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in a statement. This will enhance the payment infrastructure of the country.

With the launch of this system, Oman is the first country within the GCC countries to implement such system under the Central Bank leadership.

Based in the capital city of Muscat, the Oman National Computer Emergency Readiness Team will also work on detecting security incidents affecting the country’s information assets and initiating emergency responses.

The ‘Sultan Qaboos Awards for Excellence in e-governance’, organised by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), was until now restricted to government organisations.

“This year’s award will include a new target segment, ‘Private Sector’, alongside the existing government sector — We anticipate an exciting year ahead, as the spirit of competition is openly embraced among all participating entities to provide innovative projects and eServices of high quality,” an ITA spokesperson said.

With Oman undoubtedly at the forefront of Digital Transformation, Intelligent CIO discusses the country’s digital development with Vlad Postelnicu, Director Alliances and Strategic Partnerships, Software AG, and Firas Saifan, Managing Director, Technologies Strategies Middle East (TSME).

Q: What has been the impact of Digital Transformation in Oman?

Oman has been at the forefront of Digital Transformation as one of the key initiatives for the country in line with its Vision 2040 and e.Oman 2030 (Digital Oman Strategy) that lays emphasis on Digital Transformation and innovation to boost the economy and prosperity of the society. The e.oman strategy focuses on IT industrial development in order to enable the society and individuals and enhance eGovernment and eServices in the next five years.

Spatial development: International consultants sought to masterplan and design sustainable cities in alignment with Oman Vision 2040 and also UN SDG goals

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has kicked off an ambitious initiative to support the development of ‘Smart Cities’ in three major locations of the Sultanate of Oman: Suhar, Nizwa and Salalah.

A second deal it signed seeks to promote the trust of citizens and businesses when utilising e-services. The Government IT Training and Certification (GITTC) project has trained 44,604 employees so far, certifying 32,139 of them.

This will help the company achieve its objectives aiming at developing the postal services to keep pace with market requirements and to meet wishes of the both citizens and residents. Oman Post website came to pursue the government’s direction to provide all its services through the umbrella of the e-government in all sectors.

Measures are under way, in the meantime, to tackle two major impediments confronting the campaign — institutional bottlenecks and shortage of skilled manpower. Also, an ‘eOman Awareness Road Show’, which visited all the region's of the country from May 17 last year to February 17, 2007, is poised for its second stage soon that will be “more intensive and interactive.”

Oman ranks fifth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the ICT industry continues to develop rapidly across the region, behind Qatar, the highest-ranked MENA country at 23rd, United Arab Emirates (25th), Bahrain (29th) and Saudi Arabia (31st). The report notes that: 'Gulf Co-operation Council states have sharply improved their overall performances and have continued their investments to make ICT one of the key national industries that attempt to diversify and transform their economies'. This is reflected in Oman's global ranking.

The Sultanate has ranked fifth in the Arab world in the list of countries with highly developed electronic governance systems, according to a report issued by the United Nations.

A statement issued online by the Oman News Agency (ONA), said: "The United Nations ranked Oman fifth in the Arab world in the list of countries considered 'very advanced in the field of electronic government' across the world for the current year 2020, according to a new report issued by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs affiliated to the UN."

The Sultanate continues to score high in government functions such as effectiveness of law-making bodies (12th) and the efficiency of the legal system (14th), clearly indicating that Oman's transition plans to become a knowledge-based society are making significant headway.

Winning the honours for the sultanate were the Information Technology Authority (ITA), the Ministry of Civil Service, the Ministry of Education and the National Association for Cancer Awareness.

The theme of the 2011 forum was “Transformative Leadership in Public Administration and Innovation in Governance: Creating a Better Life for All.”

ITA was a first-place winner with its “Transforming the Society through the e.oman Communication Strategy’” in the category of “Advancing Knowledge Management in Government.”

Ahmed bin Said al- Busaidi, Assistant Director General of Studies and Development at PACP received the Award in the presence of Peter A, Chairman of the Award and a number of personalities from the different parts of the world.

US-based architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has unveiled masterplan proposals for a smart city project in Oman.

Known as Sultan Haitham City, the project spans 14.8 square kilometres and is located in the Al-Seeb district to the west of Muscat. According to media sources, the new city will have over 2.9 sq km of public space and 20,000 housing units catering to more than 100,000 people, as well as a university, schools, health facilities and mosques.

Revenues handled by the portal increased to OMR 365 million last year, up from OMR 207 million a year earlier. The number of electronic transactions effected using Oman’s National ePayment Gateway nearly doubled in 2017, reported Oman Observer.

In a statement, Information Technology Authority (ITA), the operator of the National ePayment Gateway, said that around 1.9 million transactions were made using the portal in 2017, up from around 1.1 million in 2016.

The state-of-the-art e-payment solution will support the delivery of e-services of the public sector and will also assist the private sector's moves into e-commerce. ePG will enable efficient electronic transactions and simplify the processing of payment transactions for electronic services within the country. It will be operational in line with Oman's forthcoming e-Government Gateway, the UBAR Portal.