The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) of the Sultanate of Oman won Global Geospatial Excellence Award for the Implementation of Oman National Spatial Data Infrastructure in Modern way for supporting economic growth of the Nation. This international award is given in multiple categories and NCSI has been awarded under category of Geospatial Policy Implementation Awards designed to recognize the efforts of national policy makers and implementers whose work directly impacts in development of geospatial science, technology, and business for the country.
The award was received by Engineer Hasan bin Alawi bin Hamad Al Ghazali, Director General of the NSDI at a ceremony held during Geospatial World Forum 2018 at Hyderabad, India, between January 16 and 19, 2018. H.E Dr. Khalifa bin Abdullah Al-Barwani, Chief Executive Officer of NCSI, said: "The award is an international recognition of the advanced level achievement of the Sultanate in the area of Geographic Information sector. The Sultanate has given high priority to this sector due to its vital role in the success of Government eTransformation initiative, especially in planning.
Al Barwani said that this initiative was in consistency with the latest technological developments which are serving the strategy of economic diversification and investments in the Sultanate. It would help strengthening the capabilities of government organizations in exchanging spatial data among themselves. This would also improve the quality of institutional spatial services and increase the yield of government investments in geographic information and spatial information sector.
Eng. Hassan bin Alawi Al Ghazali, Director General of the NSDI, said: "The NCSI, in cooperation with government agencies is implementing the initiative of building The National GeoSpatial Data infrastructure in the Sultanate. It is also working for geoenable e-transformation program to serve Government organizations, residents, visitors, entrepreneurs, investors, academia and small and medium enterprises. He said that this was also an initiative to prepare a range of legal and legislative frameworks for cooperation, strengthening and developing competencies and required expertise. It was also meant for technical framework to prepare for the transition from e-government services to smart spatial government services. He said that the Oman NSDI is governed by a Steering committee consisting of top executives from nine government entities which makes strategy, policies and annual budget. It also does a follow up of implementation of plans to ensure proper execution of it, as per the guidelines of the government. Technical Executive Committee, comprised of membership from 26 government organizations manage the technical issues related to Oman NSDI. This committee also develops appropriate technical procedures for the implementation of the roadmap and review of technical standards of procedures and operations of the programs of the infrastructure. Oman NSDI currently have more than 100 stakeholder entities utilizing the OMAN NSDI Services. Eng. Hassan Alghazali mentioned that Global National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) organizations traditionally have been focusing on development of an integrated geospatial data system, enabling users to identify and access spatial information acquired from different sources, from local via national to global level, in a comprehensive manner and had been focused on GeoSpatial data only. However, the demands from Business owners in the current and future Modern society requires are much higher. The modern society requires high quality GeoSpatial information ready to be integrated with key decision-making processes for optimal resource management, efficient determination of adequate solutions and continuous sustainable development.
Al Ghazali said that Oman NSDI is building a National Spatial Data Infrastructure, which is focused on satisfying the needs and wants of the Modern society where the Government & semi Government Entities, Private Businesses, Academia and public will be able to leverage the GeoSpatial technology to support their Businesses and Decision making to achieve the objectives of Geo Enabled eGovernment and Smart City Initiatives and support the economic growth of the Sultanate of Oman. The National Strategy of Geographic Information prepared by the NCSI defines the vision and Mission and a number of important objectives and guiding principles for the next stage of the national infrastructure of geographic information
On the initiatives of the NSDI, Saud bin Salem Al Nofali, Director of the Department of Spatial Information at the NCSI, said: "The NSDI is implementing several initiatives to create modern infrastructure of national spatial data. It also supports entrepreneurs and decision makers in achieving e-governance goals in the Sultanate of Oman. It has also designed the national geographic database as the main source of spatial data in the Sultanate. Al Nofali also said that the NSDI has launched a unified national base map for governmental, semi-governmental, private sector, academic and public sector organisations. He said that the national spatial data standards are designed to improve the efficiency and quality by expanding the use of geospatial information and improving the decision-making process. The NSDI has launched the Metadata Standerd and a number of policies, including the national geographic data ownership policy, the policy for updating data, the security Policy and the dissemination of these data, and the open geographical indications policy.
Majid bin Saeed Al Busaidi, Head of Operations, said: "The NSDI has made the Mobile Framework to develop smartphone applications which can be improved and support multiple platforms. He pointed out that this program is available for all partner governmental and semi-governmental organizations. This platform provides 70% of the important geospatial functions needed by the agencies ready and thus optimizing of time and cost to develop Mobile applications. Al Busaidi also said that the spatial portal of the NSDI serves as single source for all the services being provided by Oman NSDI including searching and downloading spatial data. Its services are available services to the government organizations, Academia and public based on the National GeoSpatial Data Access Policy.
It is worth mentioning that the NSDI has proved very beneficial for the government and semi-governmental organizations. The program allows the participants to have immediate access to the information.
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