The Assets of Knowledge Society in Oman: People and ICT

Abstract

The technological progress has been considered as driver of overall development in the world and a lot of countries have adopted a diversified economic growth model such as Oman. Oman is a Middle Eastern country with an economy that relies heavily on Oil. As part of its 2020 vision aiming at sustaining social and economic growth and development, Oman has been seeking to develop a Knowledge Society (KS). This paper focuses on people and ICT as important and vital assets and resources to successfully develop a KS. The main objectives of this paper are the following:  To investigate the role of people and ICT in developing the Knowledge Society in Oman  To propose a framework on how to involve people in developing KS in Oman  To identify how to align the development of the Knowledge Society with the human resource development in Oman The main research method used in this paper is interview. Also, secondary sources such as books and online journals are utilized to get the maximum understanding of the topic of the research. The results of this project are expected to show how Oman KS project affects the development of human resources, their life and their work. Moreover, the finding of this project shows that for Oman to develop KS, there are certain areas that have to be considered such as ICT infrastructure and training of human resources. The development of human capacity is essential in developing the KS in Oman. The main concern is to focus on the development of education as it is the key investment in humans. This paper seeks to develop a framework for involving people in KS development and aligning KS development to go along with human resources development.