JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh ranked 30th place in the United Nations e-Government Survey on the assessment of municipal portals in 40 cities. The report published, by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs this month, presents a persistent positive global trend toward higher levels of e-government development. The report had focused for the first time on local e-Government development in 40 pilot cities across the world. According to the Local Online Services Index (LOSI) used in determining their rankings, Riyadh came in the 30th place in this assessment of municipal portals, which studied 7 cities in Africa, 6 in the Americas, 13 in Asia, 12 in Europe, and 2 in Oceania, with the top three leaders among them being Moscow, Cape Town and Tallinn. The LOSI covers the technical and content aspects of the city/municipality websites, as well as electronic services provision and e-participation initiatives available through the portals. The e-Gov Survey supports the transformation of cities toward sustainable and resilient societies.