The Sultanate has achieved its highest rise at the global level in the 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International. The Sultanate's National Competitiveness Office (NCO) reported that the Sultanate has advanced eight points on CPI and ranked 53 in the world out of 180 countries and it jumped fifteen positions worldwide and came in third place in the Arab world. NCO said that the Sultanate has a score of 52 out of 100 in this index in 2018, compared to 44 in 2017, adding that the Transparency International based its assessment on the data and reports issued by six international institutions, namely the Global Competitiveness Report, released by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany, which measures the Index of Democratic Transformation and Economic Development, the Economists' Economic Intelligence Unit which provides risk assessments, the US Global Insight, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, and Varieties of Democracy Project that is hosted by the Political Science Department at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in collaboration with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame University, USA.

The National Competitiveness Office said that these results reflect the efforts exerted by the Sultanate to tackle corruption perceptions, which has had a clear role in the Sultanate's regional and global status. It stresses that the Sultanate is working to create a stimulating and supportive business environment for the national economy which will enhance its competitiveness in the International indicators systems and contributes to building national capacities in the field of enhancing competitiveness and analysis of international reports, as well as measuring and monitoring competitiveness assessment at the national, regional and international levels and proposing policies and laws to improve this competitiveness and work with all parties to achieve their vision. The National Competitiveness Office (NCO) noted that the Corruption Perceptions Index is based on 13 surveys and evaluations conducted by experts to determine the degree of corruption perceptions in the public sector in 180 countries and regions worldwide by assigning a score of zero to the most corrupt and 100 that is the fairest.