Oman ranks 50th in networked readiness out of 134 countries

The World Economic Forum released last week its ranking of countries for internet readiness in The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009. You can read the full report here.

Oman came 50th, up from 53 last year, beating countries like Greece and Kuwait.

The Country report for Oman highlights 1 or 2 really low ranking scores that contributed to keeping the overall ranking as low as it was.

The one that caught my eye was our miserable rank of 126/134 for Freedom of the Press. These are the only countries reported as having a less free press than us:
Moldova, Lesotho, Chad, Armenia, Libya, Venezuela, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. To be beaten on this by paragons like China, Saudi Arabia and the Kyrgyz Republic is something we could perhaps do something about.

Also, we didn't do too well on invention, with zero patents in 2007 (albeit along with 45 other countries). We were even beaten on that one by Zimbabwe. Enforcing contracts seems complex too.

But we did very well in some other areas: having a low burden of Government regulation, low taxes, and it being relatively easy to start a business, amongst others.

here's a selection of some of the indicators.

Oman
Key indicators

Population (millions), 2007............................................................2.6
GDP (PPP) per capita (int’l $), 2007 ......................................23,987
Internet users per 100 population, 2007 ..................................13.1
Internet bandwidth (mB/s) per 10,000 population, 2007..........4.8
Mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population, 2007......96.3
Networked Readiness Index
Edition (number of economies) Rank
2008–2009 (134) ...................................................50
2007–2008 (127) ...............................................................................53
2006–2007 (122)..............................................................................n/a
Global Competitiveness Index 2008–2009 (134) 38
Environment component 51
Market environment 42
1.01 Venture capital availability..................................................22
1.02 Financial market sophistication .........................................46
1.03 Availability of latest technologies ......................................55
1.04 State of cluster development ............................................49
1.05 Utility patents, 2007* ........................................................89
1.06 High-tech exports, 2006* ................................................119
1.07 Burden of government regulation .......................................7
1.08 Extent and effect of taxation...............................................7
1.09 Total tax rate, 2007*..........................................................11
1.10 Time required to start a business, 2008*..........................38
1.11 No. of procedures required to start a business, 2008* ....46
1.12 Intensity of local competition ............................................84
1.13 Freedom of the press......................................................126
1.14 Accessibility of digital content...........................................77
Political and regulatory environment 44
2.01 Effectiveness of law-making bodies..................................22
2.02 Laws relating to ICT ..........................................................42
2.03 Judicial independence .......................................................34
2.04 Intellectual property protection .........................................30
2.05 Efficiency of legal framework............................................27
2.06 Property rights ...................................................................41
2.07 Quality of competition in the ISP sector ...........................95
2.08 Number of procedures to enforce a contract, 2008*......127
2.09 Time to enforce a contract, 2008* ....................................81
Infrastructure environment 78
3.01 Number of telephone lines, 2007*....................................89
3.02 Secure Internet servers, 2007*.........................................79
3.03 Electricity production, 2005*.............................................45
3.04 Availability of scientists and engineers..............................95
3.05 Quality of scientific research institutions ..........................59
3.06 Tertiary enrollment, 2006*.................................................77
3.07 Education expenditure, 2006*...........................................81