The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology has issued a comprehensive report titled "Harvesting the Digital Economy in the Sultanate of Oman: From Foundation to Empowerment," highlighting growth and progress indicators in various axes, programs, and fields of the digital economy during the period from 2021 to 2025. According to the report, the contribution of the core and direct digital economy reached approximately 800 million Omani Rials in 2023, which reflects the role of the digital economy as one of the main drivers of growth and the enhancement of economic diversification in the Sultanate of Oman. This comes in light of the continuous efforts led by the National Digital Economy Program to accelerate the pace of digital transformation in government services, develop digital infrastructure, and support digital innovation and advanced technologies across various economic sectors, in line with the targets of Oman Vision 2040.

The program launched in 2021 focused on implementing eight main initiatives, including government digital transformation, artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies, cybersecurity industry, digital industry, space, e-commerce, financial technologies, in addition to digital infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology oversees five of these executive programs, while the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion, the Central Bank of Oman, and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority supervise the remaining programs. His Excellency Engineer Said bin Hamoud Al-Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology, explained that the ministry adopts an ambitious vision to build an advanced and sustainable digital economy, in line with the high directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq – may God protect and preserve him – on the necessity of harnessing modern technologies to enhance the national economy. His Excellency pointed out that the efforts have primarily focused on accelerating the government digital transformation, enhancing the digital society, and enabling business digitization, which has resulted in tangible progress in international indicators, particularly in the e-Government Development Index and the Cybersecurity Readiness Index.

His Excellency added that this phase witnessed the launch of several pioneering quality initiatives, most notably the Omani language model (Ma'in AI) to enhance digital sovereignty, along with the launch of the AI Studio to support digital innovation, the expansion of fifth-generation networks, and the development of digital infrastructure.

Regarding the future vision, His Excellency the Engineer revealed that the next phase of the program will focus on digitizing promising economic sectors and exporting digital economy services, with the aim of increasing the contribution of the digital economy to the GDP to 10% by 2040.

For his part, His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Amer Al-Shehhi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology for Communications and Information Technology, affirmed that the National Digital Economy Program (2021-2025) was launched to translate the noble directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq – may God protect and preserve him – in making the digital economy a priority and a fundamental pillar of the national economy. This aligns with the objectives of "Oman Vision 2040," forming a comprehensive national framework that leads the transformation toward an economy based on technology, knowledge, and digital innovation. Explaining that the program adopted a comprehensive approach aimed at developing digital infrastructure and enhancing the efficiency of the digital government, with a focus on stimulating the business environment to adopt artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, and building the capacities of the young national workforce.

Government Digital Transformation

The program has made progress in several vital sectors; the unified portal for digital government services was launched, the "Irtiqa" program for empowering national competencies in government digital transformation was initiated, and the national platform "Tajawab" for suggestions, complaints, and reports was launched. Additionally, 3,166 government services were simplified, 2.26 billion data records were exchanged thru the national electronic integration platform, and more than 200 million electronic authentication requests were completed, achieving a performance rate of 94%. The number of automated services and permits that have been digitized over the past five years reached 2,277 services and permits, and the number of completed annual government digital transactions exceeded 29 million transactions.

Artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies

In the field of artificial intelligence, investments exceeded 79 million Omani Rials, and included the launch of several projects and initiatives, the most notable of which are: the National Generative AI Language Model as the first specialized national government model, the Oman Digital Triangle Initiative, the National Open Data Portal, the AI Studio, and the development of a special area for startups specializing in artificial intelligence. The startup ecosystem has expanded to include around 22 companies specializing in artificial intelligence.

The digital industry

In the field of building national capacities, more than 11,000 national competencies have been qualified thru the Makkin initiative to support the labor market with qualified digital workforce. The percentage of Omanis working in technical, specialized, and leadership positions in information technology professions from the total employed in these jobs across all sectors is about 69%. The percentage of Omanis working in the information technology sector from the total workforce in the sector is 45.5%.

The cybersecurity industry

As for the cybersecurity sector, around 8,000 beneficiaries within the Sultanate of Oman and 5,000 international beneficiaries have benefited from cybersecurity industry programs and initiatives. Additionally, three cybersecurity innovation centers have been established in several academic institutions, and 2,976 specialized training opportunities have been provided for cloud and data center employes.