MUSCAT: The Governorates Competitiveness Index, launched by His Highness Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Youth, during the Governorates Economies Forum, serves as a strategic tool to guide investments and set development priorities. This initiative aims to ensure the success and achievement of Oman Vision 2040 objectives, which focus on enhancing the national economy and maximizing the economic and social impact of development projects.
Dr Nasser bin Rashid al Maawali, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, stated that the index is a tool for measuring and evaluating the developmental performance of the governorates, their enablers, and the competitiveness of each governorate through a set of criteria and indicators covering economic, social, infrastructure, education, health, and other aspects.
Al Maawali added that the index will provide a comprehensive picture of developmental performance and identify developmental gaps in each governorate. This will enhance development decision-making based on accurate evaluation data and help direct policies and investments to reduce developmental disparities among governorates, thereby enhancing their competitiveness and ensuring sustainable development.
He explained that the index is built on the four main pillars of Oman Vision 2040: economy and development, people and society, governance and environment, and performance evaluation for the development of governorates and the achievement of Oman Vision 2040 objectives. He noted that the Ministry of Economy is responsible for the index and will follow up and define its purpose by consolidating scattered statistics from various entities into a single index. This will provide governors and the government with comprehensive data and insights on the developmental performance of each governorate.
The index will be implemented this year, with relevant entities participating at a later stage following the completion of the pilot phase. He highlighted the collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) by establishing a direct link between the data available at ESCWA and the National Center for Statistics and Information. — ONA
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