Dubai: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat are among nine new cities that have been added to the 2014 edition of the Networked Society City Index report published by Ericsson.
The other new cities are Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Athens, Rome and Warsaw.
Dubai is ranked 22nd while Abu Dhabi is ranked 23rd and Muscat 32nd.
The report ranks 40 cities and measures their ICT (Information and Communications Technology) maturity in terms of leverage from ICT investments in economic, social and environmental development.
Cairo is ranked number three in terms of ICT maturity improvement from 2013 to 2014.
“With steady strides in the ICT development in the last decade, the biggest opportunities and the beneficiaries of progress will be experienced in most cities. ICT will provide cities of tomorrow the required springboard for economic progress and social sustainability, from entrepreneurial innovation to better public governance and services,” said Rafiah Ebrahim, President of Ericsson Middle East.
She said such progressive, forward-looking initiatives are already widespread in some cities in the Middle East. Leading the charge — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Cairo are adopting smarter practices to foster innovation, productivity and efficiency.
“It is therefore no surprise to see these four cities included in the index and it’s our privilege to be facilitating their growth through our cutting-edge solutions,” she said.
The top five cities (Stockholm, London, Paris, Singapore and Copenhagen) remain the same, though Paris has now surpassed Singapore to take the number three slot.
One of the key findings from the report is the fact that cities with a low ICT maturity tend to be improving their ICT maturity faster than high performing cities, indicating a catch-up effect.
