Cisco today applauded the United Arab Emirates for its continued drive and focus towards becoming one of the world’s most ICT-enabled nations.

According to the latest WEF Global Information Technology Report 2014, sponsored by Cisco which measures the capacity of 148 economies to leverage ICT for growth and well-being, the UAE recently improved its global Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranking from 25 in 2013 to 24 in 2014.

“The UAE government has been relentless in its pursuit of technological excellence, as is clearly exemplified by bold commitments to smart city development and infrastructural innovations related to events like Expo 2020,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE.

“The country’s visionary ICT leadership and a determination to adopt a cutting-edge strategy is enabling it to adapt to pressing and ever-changing ICT trends, whether it is the surging growth of big data, or the increasing pervasiveness of technologies in areas such as cloud computing and mobility.”

“In the UAE, the notion of the Internet of Everything - the increasing networked connections of people, processes, data and things - is not an intimidating obstacle, but an opportunity to transform the quality of lives of its citizens, fortunes of its businesses and the innovation of its government. The foundations for long-term, ICT-driven success are now well and truly in place, and Cisco is committed to continue to support this momentum,” added Dabboussi.

The report found that the UAE’s improved ranking is due to improvements in its ICT infrastructure (where it ranked 30th) and ICT uptake by individuals (29th), both of which have resulted in positive associated economic impacts (27th).

The momentum is fueled by a strong government ICT vision (which is once again ranked as the best in the world), which is reflected in the already high and rapidly increasing levels of ICT uptake across all stakeholders. 85 percent of its population use the Internet (14th) and have access to a personal computer at home (18th); government services are largely available online (9th) and e-commerce is relatively well established (20th).

Published under the theme “Rewards and Risks of Big Data”, the GITR’s NRI is the result of a long-standing partnership between the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, and, since last year, with the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. 

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