Saturday 16 / November / 2024
Muscat: Ways to boost the Omani economy and help the government reduce the budget deficit, rationale expenditure and encourage the private sector to play a bigger role in supporting the national economy, were discussed by Majlis Al Shura and heads of permanent committees with experts in economy, planning, banking, oil, tourism and logistics fields.
They highlighted the need to reduce the burden on expenditure on unproductive manpower in the public sector and provide more ways for retirement for those at advanced ages or transfer employees from Ministries that have excess manpower to ministries that have shortage of manpower.
It also discussed with them a number of other aspects and indicators that augment the balance of payment, reduce deficit and rationalize expenditure.
The session reviewed the mechanisms to improve the economic performance of the Sultanate and listened to their views on the current economic performances, the challenges facing the Omani economy and the solutions that may help in containing the implications of sharp decline in oil prices.
The experts provided a number of options, including long term economic solutions rather than short term financial solutions, in addition to proposals related to preventing the exhaustion of foreign currency reserves, providing more incentives to local investors to enhance the added value of the Omani economy and introducing strict legislations and controls that prevent corporate tax evasion. These solutions hopefully can enhance the growth of the national economy.
The experts affirmed that the banking sector should play a bigger role in supporting the development plans and establishing a specialised investment bank that may contribute to diversifying sources of income. They added that the private sector has an ideal opportunity to start economically feasible projects. Some experts called for subsiding the added value commodities. They also hailed the government decision to increase the tax on the net profits in some sectors and lifting the subsidy on fuels and tourism activities.
They also proposed to consider providing private sector with staff working for the public sector alongside with some incentives to reduce the burden on the current budgets.
The office hosted Abdul Qadir Asqalan from the banking sector, Murtadha Hassan Ali from the economic planning sector, Eng. Said Al Maamari from oil sector, Eng. Mohammed bin Hassan Al Dheeb from the logistics sector, Loay B. Batainah from the investment sector, Eng. Ali bin Ahmed Al Barwani, from oil sector, Eng. Abdul Rahman Burham from tourism and economic development sector , Abdullah Al Shizawi an economy writer and His Highness Sayyid Adham bin Turki Al Said, economy academician.
Majlis on Wednesday held its 7th regular meeting of its first annual session (2015-2016) of its 8th term (2015/2019) under the chair of Khalid bin Hilal Al Ma’awali, Chairman of Majlis Al Shura.
On the other hand, the Office reviewed the reply of the Chairman of Oman Environmental Services Holding Company S.A.O.C “be’ah” to the question about awarding a contract for consultancy services for one of the private sector companies.
Omanisation
Majlis Al Shura’s Youth and Human Resources Committee discussed the Omanisation in senior positions in the private sector, highlight the major challenges and obstacles that stand in front of Omanising those positions in the private sector.
The meeting reviewed some statistics and figures on Omanisation rates in senior positions in some sectors, pointing to the need for a clear and accurate data on Omanisation and accurate job titles in all sectors in Oman.
