IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Other major areas of cooperation between Oman and IDA are done through e-Cop and Oman's eGovernment Architecture Framework (OeGAF) with the ITA. With OeGAF, the Sultanate's Government entities seek to seamlessly integrate their IT Infrastructure and collaborate to deliver better citizen services. The e-Cop is establishing a national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the Government. The ST LogiTrack had implemented their innovative Radio frequency Identification (RFID) Solution, ELiMS to the Sultan Qaboos University's main library.

To explain the details of the fourth edition of this award, the ITA held a workshop on Tuesday. About 120 participants represented around 45 governments, private institutions, and SMEs at the workshop.

Actually, it is simple and cost-effective for SMEs to run IT solutions, which give a boost to their businesses. According to the Oman IT Market Report, released recently by Business Monitor International (BMI), the Oman market is forecast to be worth US$410mn in 2013, up 6.5 per cent from an estimated US$385mn in 2012. The BMI report says the government is expected to be a significant driver of Omani IT spending over the next five years. The Information Technology Authority (ITA) has launched a number of IT-related infrastructure projects, with one core component being the ICT SME Development Programme, a business development initiative designed to create a database of ICT-related SMEs in Oman.

The jury members evaluated and discussed the 70 projects submitted by 39 public and private sector institutions vying to win an award which will be distributed at the official ceremony in December 2014.

The new system will help prevent fraudulent practices such as using forged passports. “Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) is using special software to store fingerprint data of the migrant workers going abroad for employment,” M.M. Deshapriya, the Counsellor of Labour at Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat, told Times of Oman.

Mobile services in Oman have been the focus of a new study by an SQU researcher. The work has looked into the ICT sector and current m-government initiatives in Oman in order to understand the key factors to their adoption and diffusion. Dr Syed Jafat Naqvi, who conducted the investigation at the College of Economics and Political Science, says the popularity of mobile devices, in the country, is on the rise, thus, creating more opportunities for the m-services. There are clear potentials to these services in Oman and the government can consider more mobile applications in parallel with the current e-government projects for modernisation of the public administration. The current m-government initiatives, he points out, are getting popular with users, which emphasises the possibility of m-government to be a driving force for more e-government adoption and dissemination.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has floated tenders to appoint a consultant for organisational branding and office design for the state-owned company. Similarly, another tender was floated for taking office space for the company.

An e-link was launched by the Ministry of Manpower with the Ministry of Justice yesterday.

The launching ceremony was organised at the General Diwan of the Ministry of Manpower in the presence of Hamad bin Khamis Al A’amri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Manpower for Labour Affairs and Issa bin Ahmed Al Azri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice.

Mobile apps are the best platform for eServices and to provide the right infrastructure for the public and private sector to develop these services, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) has signed a contract with HCL Technologies to implement the Mobile Applications Development Centre.

The contract was signed at COMEX 2015 by Dr Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, and Arindam Sengupta, director, Middle East and Turkey, HCL Technologies Ltd.

The contract is valid for three years at a cost of around OMR2 million. The ITA will provide training to three batches every year with 54 trainees in each batch. They will receive training for three months after which 10 trainees from each batch will go for a 6-month advanced training programme.

NDC is designed to provide a multi-tenant high availability data centre for all ministries to host their data as well as disaster recovery solution, with the objective of achieving improved business continuity for their IT systems.

The Sultanate of Oman, located in the Persian Gulf, has a population of 2.9m citizens and residents. Although 68% of the Sultanate's revenues derive from oil, the economy also relies on non-oil producing sectors, such as agriculture, industry, tourism, mining and fishing.

Dr. Mohammed bin Ali Al Wahaibi, Chief Executive Officer of majority state-owned Omantel, noted that the number of Internet subscribers recorded a 12 per cent jump during the 12-month period ending February 29 - from 93,668 to 104,928. "Such a growth indicates the Omani society's keenness to use the Internet in the backdrop of the ambitious transformation into a digital society and an e-government environment," he said.

An agreement for implementing the new ‘electronic visa system’, touted as ‘highly efficient and modern’ by officials, was signed here on Sunday between the Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the Information Technology Authority (ITA).

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company and the Ministry of Technology and Communications (MTC), a government authority of the Sultanate of Oman, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch a Center of Excellence (CoE) for open source.

The MoU was signed by Dr. Salim bin Sultan Alruzaiqi, Chief Executive Officer, MTC and Sanjeev Tayal, Vice President and Business Head, Middle East, Wipro Limited. Under this MoU, Wipro and MTC will collaborate to build, deploy and sustain the CoE as well as accelerate adoption of open source technologies in the public and private sectors of Oman and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Cash payments will not be accepted at the government hospitals starting from January next year, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Starting from January 1, 2018, only electronic payment via debit/credit cards will be accepted. "The Ministry of Health (MOH) would like to draw the attention of the public that, effective from January 1st, 2018, the collection of all fees and amounts due to the ministry in all its health institutions will be via e-payment through the credit/debit card," the MOH said in a online statement issued on Tuesday.

They include 58 projects from 27 government firms and seven from an equal number of private sector firms. Another five projects from an equal number of SMEs will compete for the first time in this competition.

Tariq Atiq, asst general manager - cards & eBanking, said, “Bank Muscat’s strategy to provide banking services via mobile phones complements the government's efforts in creating a digital society and providing electronic services which spell convenience to customers. Developments linked to e-Government in Oman is the motivation behind our innovative initiatives.