Question

Is Oman eligible to become a smart city?why?

Answer 1

Yes, I believe Oman is eligible to become a smart city considering the current initiatives and planning in place for the future.

• The Oman government has planned an develop a vision of setting up the smart city which will help for the economic growth to improve and offer more opportunities for sustainable development.
• The emphasis is more on IT Focused management of cities. The pillars would involve making it intelligent, sustainable, digital, creative, innovative & in an overall sense a city which is reinvented.
• Oman Vision 2020 is focused on adding more innovation & investment to the infrastructure.
• The 2040 vision is to achieve digital transformation by deploying ICT - Information and communications technology to make the city advanced.

Other areas:

• In present times Oman has its smart government initiatives where digital Oman strategy and other areas like e-transformation plans, e- payment fateful, unified addressing system and e-census are being built.
• The focus is also on developing e-health, education portal and open data initiatives
• Even the national centre for statistics information is involved in Oman national spatial data information to provide standard and easy information access to everyone.
• The smart city initiatives are being collaborated with many private firms to ensure affordability & sustainability in the plan execution.
• The smart city plan is interlinked with e-government plans to make sure development happens in a planned manner.
• The idea is to make sure that the business community is adopting and using tech-savvy processes and tools.

What is needed:

• Policymakers, strategists and think tanks to develop policies & plans align ith smart nation vision.
• Institute a proper HR planning to attract the right taken which can handle such areas of ITY domain especially in the public sector.
• To balance between economic growth & development witnessed in Muscat & other parts of the country.
• It is important to ensure that the development reached out to all the cities and areas than just the capital.

It is important to ensure that environmental protection and plans are given equal importance. The growth of the tourism sector, the risks associated with the oil & gas sector etc all factors should be considered by the environment revolution should be on the top list.

The citizens need to be motivated and encouraged to develop eco-friendly and overall environmental friendly solutions to make sure all stakeholders benefit and the vision 2040 is realised.

Overall it is clear that the country is laying down a strong framework for becoming a smart city. Inclusive development is on the agenda & with sustainable environment plans aligned it will be on track to become an attractive tourist destination & a smart city.

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