A number of recently published international studies demonstrate the UAE’s favorable performance from an international perspective across various ICT indicators.
The UAE ranked the 1st of all the Arab states in the 2009-2010 Networked Readiness Index (NRI) study issued by the World Economic Forum, and 23rd among all 133 countries assessed.
The NRI measures the capacity of an economy to fully leverage ICT for increased competitiveness and development. The NRI study was published in The Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 and is based on data collected by organizations such as the ITU, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
In terms of the individual indicators analyzed, the UAE ranked first among the Arab states on:
- Internet user rates;
- International internet bandwidth capacity;
- The importance of ICT to Government vision of the future;
- ICT use and Government efficiency;
- e-Government readiness index;
- Presence of ICT in Government agencies; and
- The number of telephone lines.
Internationally, the UAE was ranked:
- 1st in mobile penetration rate;
- 2nd in e-Government readiness index;
- 2nd in the importance of ICT to Government vision of the future;
- 2nd in Government success in ICT promotion;
- 2nd in ICT use and Government efficiency; and
- 2nd in Government procurement of advanced technologies products.
In a separate study, Measuring the Information Society, the ITU developed an ICT Development Index (IDI) which combines 11 indicators into a single measure to assess the level of ICT development within a country. The study includes 159 countries which enables benchmarking both on a global and a regional, level. The UAE ranked overall 29th in the world in the IDI (2008). This was the highest rank of all the GCC and Arab states in the ICT Development Index. The UAE also recorded the 3rd highest growth in ICT between 2007 and 2008 of all 159 countries examined in the report.
The report categorizes each of the 159 countries into one of four groups used to describe the level of ICT within the economy: higher, upper, medium and low. The UAE was one of the 33 countries placed in the highest category.
The overall measure is also divided into three sub-indices relating to ICT infrastructure and access1 , ICT usage2 and skills which provide a further level of insight. Key findings from sub- indices include the following:
- The UAE ranked the highest of all the GCC and Arab states in the IDI infrastructure and access sub-index; and
- The UAE also ranked the highest of all the GCC and Arab states in the IDI use sub-index.
Other findings of the Measuring the Information Society report were:
- The UAE ranked 2nd in the world in the fixed telephony sub-basket3
- The UAE ranked 8th in the world for the mobile telephony sub-basket4
- The UAE ranked 22nd in the world in the ICT Price Basket measure5
1 This sub-index is based on five indicators: fixed line penetration, mobile penetration, international Internet bandwidth per Internet user, the proportion of households with computers, and the proportion of households with Internet access.
2 This sub-index is based on the following three indicators: Internet user penetration, fixed broadband penetration, and mobile broadband penetration.
3 This measures the 2009 prices of fixed telephony as a percentage of GNI per capita.
4 This measures the 2009 prices of mobile telephony as a percentage of GNI per capita.
5 The ICT Price Basket measures the sum of the 2009 prices of fixed telephony, mobile telephony and fixed broadband Internet as a percentage of a country’s monthly Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. The lower the price as a percentage of GNI per capita, the better the ranking.
