Bahrain ranks third globally in ICT feat

Manama : Bahrain has been ranked third internationally in a key report that assesses the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to governments in improving overall competitiveness.

Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) CE Mohammed Ali AlQaed announced this based on the Global Information Technology Report 2016 issued during the World Economic Forum. In the report, Bahrain has positioned itself third internationally within the ‘Government Usage’ index. The index comprises three indicators – Importance of ICTs to Government Vision, Government Online Service Indicator and Government Success in ICT Promotion. 

The index assesses the importance of ICTs to government vision by possessing a clear implementation plan for utilizing ICTs to improve the country’s overall competitiveness. It also assesses the quality of online services provided as well as success in promoting and supporting the use of ICT. In the ‘Social Impacts’ index, Bahrain was ranked 13th internationally. The index focuses on the impact of ICTs on access to basic services such as health, education, financial services, etc. In the ‘Individual Usage’ index, which assesses the spread of Internet and mobile phones, Kingdom was ranked 14th worldwide. Commenting on the report, AlQaed confirmed that the results reflect the support, directions and guidance provided by the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT) chaired by Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister. 

The report comprises an explanation to the economics of 139 countries by a study that focuses on how ICT has been spread and utilized in each country. The study is built on four chief categories; namely, environment, readiness, usage and impact that embraces 10 sub-categories which are measured by 53 individual indicators distributed across different pillars.