Oman Air Achieves Gold In Travel & Tourism Of Oman Web Award
Date: 24 Mar 2008
Oman Air Website has been awarded for the third successive year a Gold Award on Oman Web Awards, this year in Travel & 
Tourism, accomplishing success amongst 13 entries within this category. The website has contested against more than 170 websites overall with more than 24 different categories. This event has already been considered by the industry as one of the top award programs.
Mr. Habib Bhacker Habib, Head of Information and Computing, Oman Air said that Oman Web Awards was created to recognize excellence in web design and development skills. We as winner are automatically qualified now for next level of awards that is Pan Arab Web Awards 2008, where Oman Web Awards will compete with winners from other Arab countries for the prestigious Pan Arab Web Awards competition. He said in the wake of honoring websites, Oman Web Awards is of increasing importance to wider international recognition, since Oman has proved to be an ideal developing ground for e-commerce activities. Oman Web Awards he added promotes and drives the development of IT industry in the region, also encourages and inspires greater creative Web designing excellence in order to highlight the innovations in the Arab world. Head of Information and Computing, Oman Air further stated that undoubtedly technology and innovation are critical foundations of economic growth and development. Enhancing the impact of IT on the Millennium Development Goals is an enormous challenge, requiring a global response. Oman Web Awards he acknowledged encourage all sectors to become involved in the digital economy.
Corporate Communications and Media of Oman Air stated that Oman is now upgrading its information technology infrastructure, being the shortest way to strengthen developing economies. The changing face in Sultanate of Oman's IT resources is designed to stimulate economic progress and the progress of the entire population. With this aim they added, the government has taken measures to deregulate the entry of information technology. Internet is widely available for the people of Oman furthermore the Sultanate business community is becoming increasingly aware of the value of electronic commerce. The Sultanate of Oman under the directions from His Majesty has addressed this subject with much attention, and Oman’s progress to date has been encouraging. Besides adopting the macro-economic policies in the country for ensuring a high degree of economic freedom conducive to enterprise and investment, the Sultanate formulated a national information technology strategy that sets the track of the path for the coming years they said. This is going according to the plan, so as to achieve Oman's digital society.
They noted that the Omani Ministry of Manpower and ICDL GCC Foundation, the governing body and certification authority of the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) programme in the Gulf states, have signed of an agreement to implement the internationally recognised ICDL certification program to train more than 20,000 male and female students enrolled in the public vocational training centers and the technology colleges as well as the private training centers in Oman. Jamil Ezzo, Director General of ICDL GCC Foundation said that this initiative taken by the Ministry of Manpower is considered one of the most important digital literacy initiatives in the region. This is clear evidence he said, that the government of HM Sultan Qaboos bin Said is focusing on promoting digital literacy in the Sultanate. Corporate Communications and Media of Oman Air explained that The International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL), is an internationally recognised computer proficiency standard that is owned by the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation (ECDL) and introduced by the UNESCO's Cairo Office (UCO) for Arab states in 2001, is gaining increasing acceptance in the Middle East, with several governments adopting and prescribing it to their employees, they concluded stating.
Corporate Communications and Media of Oman Air acknowledged that the UN survey of the electronic government readiness of nations around the world indicated that all the GCC states have significantly improved their readiness, according to the 2008 e-Government Survey produced by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs since the last survey in 2005. The strong performance by the GCC countries the report said has been attributed to heavy investment in broadband infrastructure coupled with increased implementation of e-government services for citizens. GCC governments were highly praised for their efforts and called on to invest in more programmes that will improve the people’s ability to utilise electronic services. The Sultanate moved up from 112th to 84th and represents a major improvement.