Month: July 2021

Categories
Datasets

International Agreements

Oman has signed a significant number of international agreements with countries and international organisations on a variety of matters ranging from taxation and investment, to human rights and the environment. This dataset provides a list of the international agreements that Oman has ratified by royal decree from the year 1974 onwards. The dataset includes the title of the agreement, details of the ratification royal decree, the date of signature, the classification, the counter-party, and the subject.

Dataset Description

SourceThis dataset is based on the open data published on Duwaly.gov.om, and later independently updated from the data published on Qanoon.om.
Time period covered1974 to 2022.
Frequency of updateYearly

Metadata

FieldDescription
CodeSerial code to identify the treaty.
Title – ARThe title of the treaty in Arabic.
Title – ENThe title of the treaty in English.
Royal Decree NoThe royal decree number in the format of YYYY-NNNN where YYYY is the year in a four-digit format and NNNN is the sequence number in a four-digit format.
Royal Decree DateThe date on which the royal decree was issued in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
Signing DateThe date on which the treaty was signed in the format YYYY-MM-DD. This usually is only available for bilateral treaties.
ClassificationThe classification of a treaty as bilateral, closed multilateral, or open multilateral. Bilateral treaties are signed between two states. Closed multilateral treaties are treaties signed by more than two states and open only to a select group of states. Open multilateral treaties are treaties that are open for any state to join.
Counter-partyThe counter-party to a treaty. This applies only to bilateral treaties.
SubjectThe subject of a treaty. This applies only to bilateral treaties.

Data

Categories
Blog

New Omani Government Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Today, the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology issued a new policy on government use of AI technology. Similar to other policies issued by the MTCIT, this document is not legally binding it is essentially a form of instructions and recommendations for government entities.

The policy appears to have been finalised last June and is addressed to government entities only. It sets out six very high level principles for the use of AI: inclusiveness, human-centrism, accountability, fairness, transparency, and safety.

The key concrete policy provisions include:

  • A requirement to undertake a risk assessment in regard to the use of AI (but no details as to when such a risk assessment should be done, if it is a one-off requirement or a periodic requirement).
  • A requirement to ensure that no AI bias takes place and disclose to those affected by the AI system of the existence of such a system and the impact it may have on them.
  • A requirement to obtain prior approval of those affected by the AI system.

The policy also briefly mentions a requirement to comply with open data policies.

You can read the Arabic version of the policy on this link.

Categories
Datasets

COVID-19

This dataset covers the key COVID-19 corona virus data, such as cases, recoveries, deaths, and hospitalisation, as published by the official Omani government COVID-19 Twitter account.

Dataset Description

SourceOmanvsCOVID19 Twitter account.
Time period covered15 March 2021 to 19 May 2022.
Frequency of updateNo updates. The government stopped publishing this data after 19 May 2022.

Metadata

FieldDescription
DateThe date on which the COVID-19 data was reported in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
New CasesThe number of newly confirmed individuals infected with COVID-19.
New Cases -OmaniThe number of newly confirmed individuals of Omani nationality infected with COVID-19.
New Cases – non-OmaniThe number of newly confirmed individuals of non-Omani nationality infected with COVID-19.
Total Reported CasesThe number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since reporting started.
New TestsThe total number of new COVID-19 tests that have been carried out.
Total TestsThe total number of COVID-19 tests since the reporting of tests started.
New DeathsThe total number of newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
Total DeathsThe total number of COVID-19 deaths since reporting started.
New RecoveriesThe number of newly recovered individuals infected with COVID-19.
Total RecoveriesThe total number of total recoveries of individuals infected with COVID-19 since reporting started.
New AdmissionsThe number of COVID-19 patients newly admitted to a hospital within the last 24 hours.
Current AdmissionThe total number of COVID-19 patients currently in admission at a hospital.
Current ICU AdmissionThe number of COVID-19 patients admitted in an intensive care unit at a hospital.
SourceA link to the tweet publishing the data for the relevant date.

Simplified Dataset

Visualisation

Full Dataset

Notes

The dataset has gaps due to the government’s decision at a later stage to reduce the amount of information released and to suspend reporting on weekends and national holidays. You can read our blog post on this issue here.

The government stopped publishing COVID-19 data after 19 May 2022.