Oman has improved its ranking in the Network Readiness Index, jumping from 55th place to 44th in 2020. 

COVID-19 and lockdown strategies have accelerated digital transformation not just in Oman but around the world, according to the Network Readiness Index (NRI) Report 2020. 

The rankings of the latest edition of NRI were released by Portulans Institute, the Washington DC-based think tank which took over from the World Economic Forum in 2019 to publish the annual rankings assessing how countries are ready to leverage information technologies to be future-ready. In the latest edition – titled Accelerating Digital Transformation in a Post-COVID Global Economy – 134 economies are covered. 

Sweden, Denmark and Singapore top the rankings while Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen have the lowest overall ranking. 

The objective of the index is to assess how countries are leveraging information technologies to be future-ready. When it comes to regional distribution, the UAE (30) is the best performing Arab state, followed by Qatar (38), Saudi Arabia (41), Bahrain (42), Oman (44) and Kuwait (53) among others. 

The NRI model recognises the pervasiveness of digital technologies in today’s networked world and therefore rests on four broad categories: Technology, People, Governance and Impact. 

Oman has done remarkably well in sub categories of Internet access in schools (Rank 1), gender gap in Internet use (3), Cybersecurity (18), government promotion of investment in emerging technologies (23), and government online services (24), among others. 

Elsewhere, Mauritius (61), South Africa (76) and Kenya (82) have the highest NRI in Africa. In the Asia-Pacific region, the highest ranked countries are Singapore (3), Australia (12) and South Korea (14), whereas in Europe, in addition to Sweden and Denmark, the Netherlands (4) holds the third place. 

The USA (8), Canada (13) and Uruguay (47), hold the first three places in the Americas. In the CIS region, Russia (48), Armenia (55) and Kazakhstan (56) ranked the highest. 

Soumitra Dutta, co-founder of Portulans Institute and co-author of the report, said, “The main concept underlying the new NRI model is that our collective future will require a harmonious integration of people and technology. People and technology will increasingly interact as collaborators and partners in most parts of society and business.”