The government’s job Omanisation efforts is progressing in earnest and the Ministry of Labour (MoL) has in recent past intensified a long-standing programme to create employment opportunities for citizens by training and equipping them with additional skills.
According to figures, the rate of replacing expat employees with Omanis has risen remarkably in different sectors such as commercial banking, oil and gas, communications, insurance and hospitality.
The government is exerting efforts to ensure the wellbeing of youth in the labour market as the Sultanate of Oman is pushing forward its Omanisation programme with the aim of creating employment opportunities for citizens.
The attention accorded by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to youth got reflected in the Royal support to employment initiatives and during the meeting of the Council of Ministers last year, he touched on the executive position of employment initiatives and programme.
He underlined the importance of raising the awareness of youth about global standards of work culture and the need to encourage them to undertake self-employment.
In this context, His Majesty the Sultan instructed the departments concerned to furnish appropriate environment for citizens to take all types of jobs and enterprises.
Giving preference to nationals when offering jobs is a key government policy for all countries, and Oman too has been working towards achieving a right mix of Omani and expatriate workforce in the private sector.
The new policies issued by the Ministry of Labour (MoL) is gathering steam, more so to tackle the difficult economic conditions.
The visa ban on specific job roles for expatriate workers in the private sector and in-depth training programmes introduced to sharpen the skills of Omanis have definitely had a positive impact on Omanisation.
His Majesty the Sultan had spoken about the role of education and vocational training in supplying the labour market with skilled national workers.
In this context, His Majesty the Sultan gave directives to devise an integrated executive plan to develop this sector in cooperation with international institutions.
He also called for the development of the technical education sector to help provide the labour market with technical expertise.
I have to mention that there is a need to classify the unemployed workforce and look at what the capabilities and qualifications of the youth are and then look at Oman’s Vision 2040.
This will help locate projects that can be activated as soon as possible so that adequate training can be given to Omani candidates to take the jobs as the projects take shape.
The Royal directive to support the wages of new Omani entrants to the labour market in the private sector by an amount of RO 200 provided that the employer bears the difference in the salary agreed upon, for 15,000 job opportunities for a period of two years, was a good move and it boosted the economy while helping the private sector to employ more Omanis.
However, replacing all foreigners is not a solution. We need more people in order to have a more sustainable economy. Who will live in the apartments? Who will do shopping in stores? Who will stay at the hotels? Who will go to private clinics?
The solution is to get more projects into the country, as quickly as possible.
Till then ...
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
