The World Bank has classified the UAE among the best countries in the world for digital government transformation, according to data from the "Government Technology Maturity Index: The State of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector" released yesterday. This index aims to monitor the maturity levels achieved by governments globally in adopting digital transformation and relying on modern technologies in public sector operations, covering the year 2020.
The World Bank's report accompanying the index stated that the UAE is classified within "Group A," which represents countries that have reached a "very high" level of maturity in government technology and digital transformation in the public sector. Leaders in government technologies in these countries have demonstrated advanced or innovative solutions and good practices in four key sub-indicators: "Core Government Systems Index," "Public Service Performance Index," "Citizen Engagement Index," and "Government Technology Enablers Index."
The report revealed that countries within this group scored between 0.75 to 1.00 (the perfect score) in government technology maturity, while countries in other groups scored 0.74 or lower. It added that there are 43 member countries in "Group A," including the UAE, which is the only Arab country in the group. The UAE scored 0.80 on the index, while the global average did not exceed 0.52.
The group includes the following countries, listed alphabetically by their English names: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, China, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay. Notably, Group A did not include Russia, Iceland, or Ireland.
The World Bank report noted that the UAE is categorized within a sub-group of 11 countries in "Group A" that feature good practices regarding government technologies. This sub-group also includes Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, India, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Switzerland.
The report dedicated a section specifically to the UAE, stating that the website titled "Digital UAE" provides visitors with information about the digital government strategies adopted by the UAE, including the Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy, the Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the National Innovation Strategy, and the UAE Blockchain Strategy 2021.
The report clarified that the UAE uses a unified model for digital government maturity as a reference to assess its digital maturity. It added that the UAE publishes its performance concerning citizen engagement with its digital services and has a dedicated website, "mSurvey," which allows the public to easily express their opinions on these services and provide transparent feedback on policies and other issues related to digital transformation.
The report anticipated that the Dubai government would transition to a fully paperless government within the current year after eliminating over 1 billion pieces of paper used annually in government transactions. The report also indicated that the digital transformation strategy for 2021 aims to adopt and use advanced technologies to convert 50% of federal government transactions to the Blockchain platform during the current year. Additionally, it is expected that Dubai's blockchain strategy will contribute to transforming Dubai into the first city to be fully managed using a Blockchain platform.
The report included graphical illustrations of some of the UAE's notable digital transformation experiences, such as "Smart Dubai" and "Digital Identity." It concluded by presenting the scores achieved by the UAE in the aforementioned sub-indicators, where it exceeded global averages in all of them. The UAE received a score of 0.60 in the "Core Government Systems Index," while the global average is 0.48. The UAE scored 0.92 in the "Public Service Performance Index," compared to a global average of 0.61. Furthermore, it received 0.88 in the "Citizen Engagement Index," while the global average was 0.46. Finally, the country achieved a score of 0.79 in the "Government Technology Enablers Index," where the global average was only 0.53.
