IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

UAE also has the same rank as Sweden, outpacing Spain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal and Russia in the smart electronic services index

The UAE has added another feather to its cap, by reaching the sixth position globally in the smart electronic services index and the second in the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII), according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ (DESA) E-Government Development Index (EDGI) Survey 2018.

The noteworthy advancement that the UAE has made is a rare achievement for a country since the UN started releasing the E-Government Surveys in 2003.

This giant progress was reflected in the overall rank of the UAE in the eGovernment development index. The UAE has advanced from rank 49th in 2010 to rank 28th in 2012. Over this short period, Emirates eGovernment has succeeded in regaining the leading position of the UAE in the field of eReadiness in the region and the world. The UAE had suffered a setback in that field before the activation of the federal eGovernment programme.

The Global Information Technology Report 2007 – 2008, released by the World Economic Forum based on the estimates of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – showed that the UAE ranked first on: internet users rate, international internet bandwidth rate, the importance of ICT to government vision of the future, personal computers rate, ICT use and government efficiency; e-government readiness index, government prioritisation of ICT, laws relating to ICT, and the number of telephone lines.

The UAE has missed the number one spot in the Middle East this year because the UN surveyed the federal portal, which Salem Khamis Al Shair, Director-General of the UAE General Information Authority (GIA) said has been “lagging behind”.

The UAE is thus joining the group of 25 emerging leaders for the first time, after developing at astonishing rates its electronic government services.

Strong support and priority by the government to the information and communication technology (ICT) sector raised the UAE's ranking among the world's most networked economies globally by four positions to 23rd place in a latest study.

According to the World Economic Forum's latest The Global Information Technology Report 2009-10, the UAE's impressive performance in recent years has been driven by a strong and consistent government focus on ICT – second and 29th for government readiness and usage, respectively — as a key factor for its vision for the future.

Huge success and progress in the country’s smart transformation initiatives

The UAE prominently featured major developments in its e-services and ranked high in the latest UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ (DESA) E-Government Development Index (EDGI) Survey 2016, according to UN DESA’s Vincenzo Aquaro, Chief E-Government Branch, Division for Public Administration and Development Management.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai secure impressive top 20 positions in IMD Smart City Index 2024

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made significant strides in smart city development, according to the latest IMD Smart City Index 2024. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi secured impressive positions within the top 20 ranked cities globally compared to 2023.

Abu Dhabi climbed three spots to claim the 10th position while Dubai enjoyed a five-place jump, landing at the 12th rank. Notably, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two cities from the Middle East in the Top 20.

The United Arab Emirates has climbed 21 places to stand at 28th rank in the 2012 United Nations e-Government survey of more than 190 countries. It had stood at 49th rank in 2010.

The UAE leads the rest of the Arab World with Bahrain following in at 36th place. The top ranked country was South Korea, followed by Holland, Denmark, USA and France. The last at 190th was Somalia.

Nation has invested heavily in adopting and implementing ICT for smart transformation, TRA says

The UAE has moved up from 40th to 34th in ranking for its use of information and communication technology to improve the quality of services provided by the digital government, a study by the Waseda University Institute of e-Government revealed.

The investigation was carried out in 65 countries.

Goddy Ray, DQL research lead at Surfshark believes that our lives are profoundly affected by our digital well-being as over half of the population is using the internet. By conducting this survey, DQL wanted to understand what matters most for people in the digital sphere and compare digital experiences around the world.

The survey is carried out every two years and takes a deep look into how countries around the world are progressing towards achieving true e-Government status.

"Countries that lead the index and those that have moved up have moved beyond basic e-services to integrated systems that link different institutions and departments offering a single point of contact to the public. This is where Gulf countries shine," the report said.

Three Arab countries — the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain — are ranked among the top 30 countries for harnessing information communication and technology (ICT) to transform society, according to a new report.

The UAE ranked 24th out of 138 countries, Qatar placed 25th while Bahrain was 30th in the 2010-11 Global Information Technology Report Transformations 2.0.

Globally, the top five were Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland and the US. The report is released annually by the Insead international business school and the World Economic Forum.

The rating is the highest in the GCC and represents a major improvement since the last survey in 2005 – then the country was in the 42nd place.

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa stood out among the emerging economies covered in the report, with all but one ranked in the top half of the 134 countries listed in the report’s networked readiness index. Most have improved their rankings consistently since the first report was released in 2001.

The UAE has recorded the highest increase in rank, shooting up 12 places to 33rd in the IDI 2012.

Abu Dhabi has surged to 5th globally in the 2025 IMD Smart City Index, a testament to its strategy linking policy, tech, and visible projects. Residents praise its safety, efficient public transport, and digital services like the TAMM platform. The city's focus on human-centered technology, from autonomous vehicles to AI cleaning fleets, significantly enhances urban living.

Abu Dhabi has moved rapidly up the global smart-city ladder in 2025, earning a top-five place in the IMD Smart City Index and widespread recognition for safety, digital services and urban innovation. The rise reflects a concerted, strategy-led push that links public policy, private tech partnerships and visible projects on the ground.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) launches the 5th edition of its report – Measuring the Information Society (MIS). The report, which has been published annually since 2009, features key ICT data and benchmarking tools to measure the information society, including the 2012 ICT Development Index (IDI) which captures the level of ICT developments in 157 economies worldwide and compares progress made during the last year.

The UAE maintained its Arab and regional leadership in a number of ICT related indicators, according to the Global Innovation Index Report 2020, which included results related to Global Competitiveness indicators for ICT sector.

According to the report, the UAE ranked first on the Arab and regional level in information and communication technologies (ICTs) pillar, ICT access indicator, and ICT use indicator. The UAE also ranked first in the Arab region in Generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and in Country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) (.ae). This reflects the UAE’s efforts in enforcing the digital transformation embodied by the government’s directions towards being one of the leading countries in the world.

The report, covering 144 countries this year, ranks countries in terms of leveraging information and communications technologies to boost national competitiveness. The achievement of the UAE is a significant considering that it is considered the largest recorded jump in the Government Usage of ICT index in the report this year.