Qatar Moves to Top 30 in ICT Rankings
Qatar has advanced three places in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 - to 29th. The annual Report, released by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD on March 26th, is the world's most comprehensive international assessment of the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on nations' development and international competitiveness.
This year the Report surveys 134 developed and developing economies that account for more than 98% of world GDP. Last year's report included 127 countries.
The cornerstone of the Report is the Networked Readiness Index. In the 2008-2009 Index, Qatar moved up from 32nd place ranking among 127 surveyed nations in 2007-2008. The preceding year, 2006-2007, Qatar was ranked 36th. In 2005-2006, the first year Qatar was included in the global assessment, the country was ranked 39th.
To download a PDF version of Qatar's profile in the report, detailing the rankings by sectors, follow this link.
The Networked Readiness Index examines how prepared countries are to use ICT in three areas: general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; readiness of government, individuals, and businesses to use and benefit from ICT; and the actual usage of available ICT by these stakeholder groups. The Report underscores that good education fundamentals, innovation, and wide ICT access are key to nations' social growth and economic competitiveness.
Dr. Al Jaber: Proud of Qatar's New ICT Ranking
"Since 2006, Qatar has jumped ahead in the Index because both the public and private sectors are dedicated to leveraging ICT to help Qatar achieve its leadership role in the global economy -- even as more competitor countries have been added to the survey," said ictQATAR Secretary General Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber. "But most importantly, our efforts are benefitting people of all ages and income levels throughout the country."
The only other country from the Arab region in the top 30 economies is UAE, ranking two places ahead of Qatar, at 27th. Denmark ranks first in the world, as it did last year. Portugal follows Qatar, at 30th place.
Qatar's government readiness and usage of ICT has witnessed this year a leap. The report indicated that Qatar is ranked 22nd in government readiness covering areas like government prioritization of ICT, government procurement of advanced technology products, and importance of ICT to government vision of the future. In government usage, Qatar is ranked 25th covering areas like government success in ICT promotion, availability of government online services, ICT use and government efficiency and presence of ICT in government offices.
ictQATAR's accomplishments since opening in 2005 include opening the country's mobile and fixed line telecoms sectors to competition, launching Hukoomi, the easy-to-use online gateway to government information and services, and implementing innovative programs to help students of all ages learn.
"With the exciting programs we have underway in ICT sector development, government, literacy, and telecommunications liberalization, we are confident ICT will continue to benefit all those who live and work here," concluded Dr. Hessa. "In May, ictQATAR will release a comprehensive landscape assessment that details ICT adoption sector by sector and examines its impact."
Links to download the report, and Qatar's ICT Profile arew available on ictQATAR's website: www.ictQATAR.qa
Its like the repetition of last year celebration for 2016 olympic celebration.
[repost of an email to Q-GLUG]
Many GNU projects use the Bazaar version control system (http://bazaar-vcs.org/). I've been tearing my hair out for the past few days with random errors. Never the same one twice.
[...]
Finally tracked down the problem. Bazaar issues http requests for byte ranges, which are then trampled on by the default Qtel proxy. Manually changing the proxy has (so far) fixed the problem.
[...]
The two proxies are running with different caching servers, or at least a different patch level. It makes me sad that bzr pulls have probably been broken in Qatar for years.
--nigel
Normally, I wouldn't post technical stuff to QL, as few people care about my gripes. However, if ictQatar really thinks that Qatar is flying up the rankings of tech nations, it is deluding itself.
The Qtel proxy effectively banishes Qatari programmers from being involved in the most important programming projects. I don't even bother complaining directly to Qtel about this kind of stuff anymore because it affects very few people and will not be fixed.
So mohan.Advocating the overtly fanfared and hyped ICT qatar. You do fall into the aforementioned category. Like I told before. Milk it while it lasts mohan. Just milk it. Till then I am working back with my people in sydeny. Where real IT means something.
xyned...the difference is that Qatar has implemented IT...mostly in the Govt sector.....and it directly touches the people for their betterment.
A few examples are:
1. Medical
2. Traffic
3. Visa status online
In India the Government sector is the least computerised of all the sectors....One sector that is massivly computerised is the Airline and Railway reservation sector.
Yeah sure! Whatever. What with all the worthless IT staff that are working here. 90% dont have a formal IT/Comp. Sci degree. Most of the staff have completed 2-3 months course and joined workforce from clerical jobs. Others are highschool leavers with similar non degree background. The best you get here are people in workforce doing part-time correspondence HND's which like most correspondence courses lack the strength of a proper degree. Medium businesses are reliant on consultancy or specialised IT firms to clean up botched up IT projects and upgrades. Its a shame. Just setting up an ICT council doesn't mean a lot.
When you see classifieds like
" SITUATIONS WANTED
Computer Operator
ABCDEFG National with 2-3 years of experience
Ms Word, Excel......."
Really!!!!!! What next. "I KNOW HOW TO USE A KEYBOARD"
Ridiculous. A laundromat worker knows more.