The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF) previewed the rankings of Arab countries in the Global Knowledge Index (GKI) 2023. The UAE stands out as a leading performer, particularly in terms of its knowledge infrastructure.
Revealed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the MBRF, these rankings highlighted the UAE as a leading performer among Arab states in the GKI 2023.
Covering a total of 133 countries, including 12 Arab states, the GKI evaluates 155 variables sourced from over 40 international databases. The GKI assesses the performance of six pivotal knowledge sectors, including pre-university education, technical education and vocational training, higher education, information and communication technology (ICT), research, development and innovation, and the economy.
Arab Countries’ Areas of Strength
The GKI 2023 shed light on the strengths and areas requiring improvement in Arab countries, aiming to narrow the existing divide.
The UAE: Excels in various areas, such as active mobile broadband subscriptions, educational attainment, entrepreneurial activity, and ICT skills, highlighting its exceptional performance in internet connectivity, education, human resources, communications, and information technology.
Qatar: Ranking second among Arab countries in the GKI, Qatar’s strengths are concentrated on research and development, human resources, education, and training.
Saudi Arabia: Exhibited strong performance across various domains, including a high percentage of individuals with standard ICT skills, the development of industry clusters, an increase in innovative companies, firms with new-to-market products and services, and households with internet access.
Kuwait: Showcases strengths in various indicators, including industry and service value added as a percentage of GDP, fixed broadband internet traffic per subscription, pupil-to-trained-teacher ratio in pre-primary and primary education, and the vulnerable employment ratio.
Egypt: Excels in higher education, production, and research, with exceptional female-to-male teacher ratios in tertiary education, in market concentration and within firms introducing new products and services. Moreover, Egypt has a favorable cluster development status and the citations per document are noteworthy.
Morocco: Shows strengths in industrial design applications per 100 billion GDP, the percentage of researchers in higher education, and government expenditure on secondary and primary education (% GDP). These indicators promise growth in the industrial, research, and educational sectors.