The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by the World Economic Forum and Insead Business School, has this year ranked the UAE in 27th place, up two places from last year's 29th place.
The GITR covers 134 countries and is in its ninth year of publication. It is seen as one of the most comprehensive international assessment of the impact of Information Computer Technology (ICT) on the development process and the economic competitiveness of states.
"There is a strong correlation between networked readiness and growth&there is another kind of correlation between the usage component and the readiness component," said Bruno Lanvin, executive director of Elab at Insead.
"The more the networked readiness increases, the more the usage increases," he added.
Within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Bahrain recorded the highest improvement in its score, and leapt eight places to be ranked 37th this year.
As a region, the Middle East has grown faster up the rankings than any other region globally, having started from the 7.5 decile and reaching the fourth decile in 2008-09.
"This shows a long term trend& and this kind of figure is very important to foreign investors," Lanvin said.
Despite an overall GITR ranking of 27, the UAE is a "world champion" when it comes to perceptions of importance to ICT to the government's vision of the future, ranked third, with Qatar at number six. Already Dubai's eGovernment services are fast gaining international recognition as a progressive step towards cementing the Emirate's role as a key regional business hub.
Dubai eGovernment was formally declared a full government department earlier this year, and the fully integrated online portal manages more than 2,000 services, including ePay, eLearn and eJob, to ease citizen and business interaction with the government.
Although Lanvin was encouraged by the progress made by Gulf states in this area, which, according to him will be particularly pertinent once a recovery in the global economy begins, challenges remain.
"Qatar and the UAE should have the biggest interest in developing eSkills, especially local skills to benefit from the infrastructure, this is a very encouraging sign," said Lanvin. "But&the challenge is getting local people at the right level, and not relying as much as now on expatriates. I hope we will see more inter-Arab cooperation," he said
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Rachna Uppal
Quelle/Source: GulfNews, 16.04.2009
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
