Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

TABLE 4-2Readiness of Arab countries to adopt e-government applicationsCountryIndex2005Index2008Ranking2005Ranking2008Change in ranking2005, 2008UAE 0.572 0.630 42 32 10Bahrain 0.528 0.572 53 42 11Jordan 0.464 0.548 68 50 18Qatar 0.490 0.531 62 53 9Kuwait 0.443 0.520 75 57 18Saudi Arabia 0.411 0.494 80 70 10Lebanon 0.456 0.484 71 74 -3Egypt 0.379 0.477 99 79 20Oman 0.341 0.469 112 84 28Syria 0.287 0.361 132 119 13Libya .. 0.355 .. 120 ..Algeria 0.324 0.352 123 121 2Tunisia 0.331 0.346 121 124 -3Morocco 0.277 0.294 138 140 -2Iraq 0.333 0.269 118 151 -33Djibouti 0.238 0.228 149 157 -8Sudan 0.237 0.219 150 161 -11Yemen 0.213 0.214 154 164 -10Mauritania 0.172 0.203 164 168 -4Comoros 0.197 0.190 155 170 -15World 0.427 0.451 .. .. ..Source: United Nations, 2008Review of sites thathave been updated tooffer e-governmentservices in the Arabcountries overthe last few yearsreveals that most ofthem remain at theinformational stageTABLE 4-3Readiness to adopt e-goverment applications in some comparable countriesCountryIndex2005Index2008Ranking2005Ranking2008Change in ranking2005, 2008Cyprus 0.587 0.602 37 35 2Turkey 0.496 0.483 60 76 -16Azerbaijan 0.377 0.461 101 89 12Source: United Nations, 2008into groups according to the nature of theservices provided, such as informational,one-way interactive or two-way interactive.The last of these extends to include sitesthat handle financial transactions and sitesthat allow networking with other sites. Areview of sites that have been updated tooffer e-government services in the Arabcountries over the last few years reveals thatmost of them remain at the informationalstage.Table 4-2 presents the values of theindicator that measures the state ofreadiness of the Arab countries to adoptINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES157