Having established a Smart City Platform as a hub for knowledge sharing, solution enablement and capacity building, Oman is now looking to replicate this success at the national level is support the development of smart governorates as well.
This vision, among other objectives, is outlined in a new report, titled ‘Towards Oman’s First National Smart City Stack’, released by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MCTIT) on Thursday.
Commissioned by the UK Science and Innovation Network, the document seeks to support the work of the Oman’s Smart City Platform. It provides an independent view to both the Omani and UK governments of smart city sector developments across the Sultanate and its governorates, including areas of growth, policy recommendations, and lessons learned around the UK’s journey of decentralisation.
In a foreword, Dr Ali al Shidhani (pictured), Under-Secretary for Communications and Information Technology at the Ministry, commended the Ministry’s partners in the venture – Connected Places Catapult — for creating a framework to enhance the competitiveness of cities and governorates in Oman.
According to Dr Ali al Shidhani, the idea behind developing sustainable smart governments is set out in Oman’s long-term Vision 2040 developmental strategy.
“Looking forward to the future, Oman is embarking on Vision 2040 with a multitude of aspirations, including creating sustainable smart governorates and cities,” said the Under-Secretary.
“To align with Vision 2040, The Smart City Platform is shifting the focus towards designing an ecosystem of competitive smart governorates in the Sultanate. We aim at creating a list of policies and tangible digital projects in Omani governorates. One of the key initiatives is to develop a Smart Governorates Index as a benchmark to measure progress and drive improvements. Additionally, we are looking forward to strengthening international collaborations to exchange knowledge and experience and execute projects towards sustainable cities and governorates.”
Significantly, the report spells out a number of steps that authorities must initiate to unlock the country’s potential to develop an array of smart cities.
“Oman has all the raw materials to become a leading Smart City player,” the report affirms.
“But as with all Smart City programmes, there are always opportunities to be leveraged to accelerate and optimise their delivery. When looking at areas of opportunity to develop Smart Cities in Oman, the right legislation, policy, standards and regulation will enable the government to guide the development and growth of the sector and of regional development.”
Also integral to this objective is the need for physical infrastructure, such as roads, and digital infrastructure, such as broadband penetration and communication networks in all governorates, according to the report. This is necessary to support business, academia, and innovators, while also providing a key attraction to foreign investors looking to tap into regional potential.
It also stresses the need for the deployment of key tools, such as sandboxes, labs, testbeds and acceleration programmes, to support the development of the Smart City concept across all sectors of the economy.
According to the report, a number of governorates are already beginning to develop differentiators that capitalise on their unique strengths, resources and features – an exercise inspired by Vision 2040.
These distinguishing characteristics, if suitably developed, can help in the creation of a high-level classification of the governorates, it points out.
Muscat Governorate, for example, stands out as the main hub of innovation and growth. Another category can group governorates with cities that are engines of growth and have high levels of investment momentum.
A third category can include low density or rural governorates with leverageable industry assets and opportunities, while governorates with some natural or historic assets with growth potential can be clubbed together in a classification of their own.
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