UAE maintains global ranking in ICT index

DUBAI — The UAE has maintained its 12th position global ranking in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) index, one of the key indicators included in the 2016 Global Innovation Index (GII) revealed earlier this week.

The country topped the Arab nations and placed 41st worldwide in overall performance. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) undertakes the responsibility to provide the best technologies for the ICT sector in the country and carries out the role to develop the sector’s infrastructure, with the aim of serving and supporting all projects implemented by other sectors. This enables various sectors to perform their principal role and improve their innovation based on available technical capabilities, which are essential for other sectors to drive performance and achieve real quality innovation.

The index which ranks the country in 12th place is the first main indicator under the Infrastructure Index - one of the seven major indexes stated in the global innovation report, which was used to evaluate the innovation level in the country. The Infrastructure index covers several sub-indicators, including ICT access where the country moved up from 31st last year to 26th. In terms of ICT use, the UAE inched to 20th place from 21st, while maintaining the 13th and 12th spots in e-Government services and e-participation, respectively.