Digital Oman Strategy, spearheaded by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), had taken its cue from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s great vision of transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy.
Dr Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, Chief Executive Officer of ITA, said this at a seminar organised by the College of Economics and Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
Dr Salim was delivering a talk on “E- Oman: towards a knowledge based economy”, at the Oman Knowledge Economy seminar recently.
“ITA works with a vision of transform the Sultanate of Oman into a sustainable knowledge society by leveraging information and communication technologies to enhance government services, enrich businesses and empower individuals,” the ITA CEO pointed out.
Three targets
“The three economic development targets for Oman by 2020 are Omanisation, privatisation and diversification. Omanis have the knowledge and skills and realise that creation of employment opportunities for nationals is important. An effective and competitive private sector will also play a bigger role in economy. The targets for 2020 foresee diversification: the economy will not be reliant on oil and gas; but should be driven by industry, services and domestic investment. The e-Oman strategic pillars, include society and human capital development; e-government and e-services; ICT industry development; national infrastructure development; promotion and awareness; and, governance, standards and regulation.”
Training activity
“As part of the e-Oman initiatives, ITA has trained 74,000 civil servants with the support of 200 certified trainers. We have distributed 64,000 open source software DVDs across the country. Within the National Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Initiative, the ITA has established three FOSS labs for training and research and development. As many as 55,700 citizens have been trained in information technology through 11 community knowledge centres (CKS) established in different parts of the Sultanate.
Promoting ICT
“Specialised IT training has been given to 4,875 professionals. As of now, a total of 120,000 personal computers have been distributed among people. Special attention was given to promote ICT among persons with special needs,” the ITA CEO added. He also spoke about SQU’s award for excellence in e-governance.
“The Award aspires to bring about a qualitative transformation in public-service delivery by honouring technology projects that have resulted in exceptional achievement of impact and innovation in harnessing information technology for electronic services,” he said.
Commenting on the goals of the 9th plan of the Sultanate, Al Ruzaiqi said it envisages the transition of the country to a digitalized economy. Job creation for Omanis will also be given priority.
“The ICT sector is expected to contribute more to the economic output of the nation while making life easier and more convenient for citizens. Enhancing supply of ICT services and more efficient government operations and services is on the cards,” he concluded.
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Quelle/Source: Times of Oman, 14.10.2015
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