State Council approves proposals that address, “Challenges of national manpower, Entrepreneurship and Bank & Insurance”
19 Jul 2020
| State Council approved today two proposals submitted by the Economic Committee titled, “Challenges facing national manpower in the private sector” and “Promoting Entrepreneurship and Local Added Value". Approval also came for the proposal of the working group tasked to study "Bank loans and insurance”. The approvals came with formation of three Technical Drafting Committees to include the views of honorable members on these proposals. |
| The ninth Ordinary Sitting of the first annual session of the seventh term of the Council chaired by HE.Dr.Yahya bin Mahfoudh Al-Manthri, Chairman of the Council, was held in the presence of the honorable Council members, the Secretary-General of the Council and some honorable Council members through video communication. The sitting commenced with the discussion on the proposal “Challenges facing the national manpower in the private sector”. Hon.Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Harthy, Economic Committee Head, in his statement explained that the study aims to study aims to create a national policy and training plan that is included in the state's five-year plan and is based on calibrating the elements and components of the training process from the perspective of national policies in training and qualification. This is done with a view of achieving the economic growth targets through planning, activating and measuring the returns of that system and addressing the problems of training governance, management system and institutional performance, in line with the criteria proposed in the study. He further added, “The new challenges arising from the Covid 19 pandemic, and the consequent bankruptcy of a large number of commercial institutions and loss of jobs for many workers, underscores the need to accelerate the pace with future rapid changes with solutions to boost the market, and intercept the economy from plunging into deep recession. The Economic Committee head highlighted the efforts of the Council in this regard, noted that the study had accomplished during the last term on "challenges of developing the private sector and labor market policies." The Council approved the proposal, and took into consideration the comments of the honorable members. Subsequently, the Council discussed the proposal submitted by the Economic Committee titled, “Promoting Entrepreneurship and Local Added Value". The committee head clarified that the importance of the study is related to the circulation of money within the local economy and achieving the largest possible value to supply the diversity of growth sources for the business sector and investment in the local market and the optimal exploitation of the available resources in the various sectors such as manufacturing industries, oil and gas, minerals, fish wealth, airports, ports, communications, electricity and other sectors. The statement indicated that the study concluded that the added local value is one of the most important tools that can be relied upon to achieve economic diversification and generate more employment opportunities. The statement concluded that the results of the several committee hosting’s confirmed that the experience of local added value in the Sultanate still needs to develop a comprehensive view of the foundations, principles and standards in the framework of developing the capabilities and skills necessary to integrate the local added value in the government procurement system, increasing the capacity of local companies and support innovation and localization of local technology, in addition to the necessity of developing a comprehensive knowledge about the local added value in terms of goals and definitions, adopting standards and specifications, and unifying the program at the level of sectors and targeted activities. The Council next discussed the proposal to study "bank loans and insurances" submitted by the working group formed for this purpose. Hon.Dr. Saeed bin Sultan Al Busaidi, head of the working group explained that the banking sector is working to provide cash liquidity to individuals to secure their personal needs through loans. This is in accordance with many conditions and controls that must be taken into account while submitting a loan application. He stated that age is one of the most important factors that determine the loan amount and its duration, the higher the age of the individual, the loan amount is smaller, indicating that the current banks policy often prevents lending to individuals over the age of sixty, in accordance with the provisions of the Omani legislation which refer such existing employees to retirement. He said that based on the procedures followed when reaching the retirement age by deducting and reducing the monthly salary, the banks intend to follow a special policy towards this age group in society, as some banks refrain from providing any loan, whether it is personal loan or other loans, despite the absence of any legislation prohibiting age discrimination in obtaining insurance services and bank and credit loans. Adding further he said that the proposal aims to review the policies and legislations of the Central Bank of Oman and the Capital Market Authority for Insurance and Lending for those who are over the age of sixty years, and to submit proposals that ensure the preservation of the rights of that category, and to review the reasons for the reluctance of commercial banks to lend to Omani workers in private sector who receive salary below RO.500. The sitting reviewed several reports, including the report submitted by Hon.Shaikh Ali bin Nassir bin Hamad Al Mahrouqi and Hon.Dr.Hasan Ali Mohammed Al Madhani pertaining to the third session of the Arab Parliament and its standing committees and in addition reviewed a study submitted by the Information and Research Center at the Council on, “The environmental impact of development projects of the Sultanate of Oman - Sociological treatment of the environment.” |
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