The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released the results of the Government Electronic and Mobile Services (GEMS) maturity index - 2022 in the Arab region, in which 18 Arab countries participated. The State of Qatar ranked second in the Arab world, with a total score of 83%.

The communications and information technology sector in the State of Qatar is witnessing a massive expansion towards completing the transformation of Qatar into an integrated information society that achieves prosperity and well-being for citizens, residents, and visitors on the social and economic levels, in line with the broader and more generic national goals of the Qatari government set out in the Qatar National Vision 2030.

The index seeks to measure the maturity of government services provided through electronic portals and mobile applications in Arab countries. It seeks to bridge the existing gap in most international indicators. The GEMS Maturity index is based on three main pillars or core dimensions in the classification and evaluation process. The first pillar measures service availability and sophistication, the second measures service use and user satisfaction, and the third measures the government's efforts to public outreach, in addition to the number of sub-pillars.

Qatar ranked second in the overall index of this edition, as well as second place in the result of evaluating all the three main pillars of the index, as it obtained an overall rating of 92% in the first pillar, an overall rating of 72% in the second pillar, and an overall assessment of 88% in the third pillar.

Commenting on Qatar's attainment of these advanced ranks, Ms. Mashael Ali Al Hammadi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Information Technology Affairs at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, said: "I would like to applaud the efforts and the continued achievement of the advanced ranks in the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index, which reflects the State of Qatar's relentless endeavour to reach the highest ranks of advancing e-Government services."

"The ESCWA Index has the distinction that its criteria is based on a number of pillars that are not addressed by many other international indicators, namely, not only to focus on the availability and completeness of the digital government service at all stages but also to know the evolution, use and user satisfaction of the service, as well as the extent of the government's efforts in reaching the public. To this end, the indicator relies on the assessment of 84 essential government services, whether for individuals or for business, spread across a number of sectors, for example, health, education, employment, family, travel, tourism, social welfare, transport, traffic, construction and institutional processes, and the principle of the life cycle has been adopted in the selection of these services. Specific services required by the individual have been selected, as well as what a company needs in establishing and managing its operations and even with its closure transactions," Ms. Mashael Ali Al Hammadi added.

GEMS Maturity index indicates the high number of services and institutions involved in the report and highlights the growing interest in digital transformation in the Arab region in addition to the significance of giving greater attention to government services via mobile applications in the Arab region to increase availability and usage, and the importance of providing means of gathering users' opinions on services both through the portal and mobile applications.