Muscat: Darwish bin Ismail al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council, affirmed that the 2020 state budget places top priority on fiscal sustainability and the empowering of the private sector so that it continues to achieve the growth target and provide job opportunities. The budget also attached a special importance to the allocations of the health, education and housing sectors.
This came during the third regular session of the first annual sitting (2019-2020) held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Khalid bin Hilal al Maawali, Chairman of Majlis Ash’shura.
The minister explained that the budget has focused on reducing deficit and public expenditure in order to keep the public debt at a suitable level as a percentage of the GDP.
Majlis Ash’shura, in a non-public session, discussed the draft 2020 state budget statement presented by Darwish bin Ismail al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council.
The meeting witnessed elaborate discussion by the council members on the draft state budget for 2020 as well as the recommendations reached by the Economic and Financial Committee, the final results of the Oman Vision 2020, the ninth development plan and the Omani Vision 2040 project.
The council members demanded an increase in foreign investments with the aim of providing job opportunities for the national job-seekers in line with the public demands to raise the issue of job-seekers. Besides, the members pushed for laying down a national plan to replace expat workforce by national job-seekers in public institutions which may provide 10,000 job opportunities according to the committee’s report. The members also demanded that the private sector should raise the Omanisation rate which has not exceeded 20 per cent so far.
Regarding the issue of promotion in the public establishments, the council members, on light of the committee’s report, demanded devising sustained solutions instead of partial measures that doesn’t serve neither the general finance of the state nor the productivity. — ONA
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