MUSCAT, DEC 10 - The Ministry of Technology and Communications (MTC) launched three specialised centres to establish an inspiring space for Omani specialists and graduates from different Information and Communication Technology (ICT) fields. These centres are: Sas Centre for Virtual Reality, Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship and Sas Centre for Mobile Applications Development. The naming of these centres “Sas” is derived from the local dialect and it means the base of a thing like a house or a building. This holds a significance for Sas centres as representing the base of developing skills and talents, and encouraging entrepreneurship and development in the ICT field in Oman.
Sas — Entrepreneurship
Since its launch in 2013, Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship worked towards enhancing the ICT industry in Oman through encouraging and supporting technological entrepreneurship. In addition, it encourages and supports SMEs in developing their business to be able to compete at the local and international level as well as creating new products, innovative services, and job opportunities. Since its launch in 2013, and up to 2019, the centre incubated 76 SMEs that provided more than 400 job opportunities. These incubated SMEs brought in a total income of RO 6.426 million during the period (2013-2018).
The ministry made several initiatives to accelerate the growth of the incubated SMEs in the centre and in Oman. For example, it signed a cooperation agreement with Google Developers Platform to launch “Sas Accelerator.” Last November, the centre organised Sas48 challenge in collaboration with Omantel. This challenge was organised to enhance the culture of entrepreneurship and encourage creative thinking in different ICT fields. The centre also participated in the second version of the “Oman Science Festival” through several of its incubated SMEs specialised in astronomy and education like “Wathiq” and “Space Tech.”
Moreover, the centre provided its incubated SMEs with several services since its launch like: Offering more than 4,000 hours of consultation, 4 workshops on entrepreneurship skills, and 23 training workshops, participating in 42 local exhibitions, participating in 20 international exhibitions and taking 6 work trips to Singapore, Greece, Portugal, KSA, Qatar and the UAE.
Sas.VR
Sas Centre for Virtual Reality was launched in 2014 to become a regional centre to develop the infrastructure for Virtual Reality projects and Multimedia contents for the local and regional market.
Through its training courses, the programme benefited 1,043 people, 68 of them in 2019 only and 123 in 2018. In 2018 and 2019 20 per cent of the beneficiaries were Male while 80 per cent were female.
Moreover, Sas for VR implemented a number initiatives like training 36 Omanis in the VR intensive training programme in 2018, and participating in 8 local events. It also collaborated with Roznah Company to train 181 Omanis in short training programmes through presenting 12 workshops.
Last June, the ministry signed a contract with the Chinese company “Guangxi Chance Technology Co Ltd” to train 10 students who graduated from Sas Centre for VR. They participated in an on job training on projects based on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for a duration of 3 months from September to November 2019 in the company’s HQ in China.
Sas Mobile
Sas Centre for Mobile Applications Development was launched in 2016 to offer a high quality platform that contributes in developing national skills, talents and abilities and transforming their ideas into sustainable businesses.
The centre offers services like training and consultation to SMEs working in the field of applications. The number of people who benefited from the offered programmes reached 2,453 people, including 541 in 2019 and 1,066 in 2018. The data shows a significant turnout of female trainees in 2019 which witnessed 239 female trainees as opposed to 302 male trainees who attended the programmes.
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