Gap Alert: Digital Economy
Severity: AMBER
The digital economy accounts for an estimated 3 to 4 percent of GDP, below the aspirational target of 10 percent by 2030.
Gap Analysis
Oman’s digital transformation is proceeding but at an insufficient pace to achieve ambitious targets. Broadband penetration is rising, e-government services are improving, and fintech is emerging. However, the ICT sector remains small, digital skills in the workforce are limited, and the startup ecosystem lacks the depth and venture-capital infrastructure seen in the UAE or Saudi Arabia. Data-localisation requirements add compliance costs for digital businesses.
What Needs to Change
Scale the digital economy through a combination of demand creation via digital government procurement, supply development via coding academies and digital skills in schools, and ecosystem building via regulatory sandboxes for fintech, startup visas, and venture-capital fund-of-funds structures.
Risk Assessment
Amber severity. Digital transformation is a cross-cutting enabler for productivity, diversification, and competitiveness. Falling behind in the digital economy will have cascading effects across all Vision 2040 pillars and limit the effectiveness of reforms in other areas.
Recommended Interventions
Recommended actions: establish a Digital Economy Authority with Cabinet-level reporting; launch a national digital-skills programme targeting 100,000 workers by 2028; create a OMR 100 million venture-capital fund-of-funds for tech startups; adopt an open-data policy for all government datasets; and negotiate mutual recognition of digital certificates and e-signatures with major trading partners.
This gap alert is issued by the Oman Vision 2040 Research Unit and is updated quarterly. Severity levels: GREEN (on/ahead of track), AMBER (gap widening but recoverable), RED (structural gap requiring urgent intervention). Data sources include NCSI, World Bank WGI, IMF, and relevant international indices.