Muscat: The government’s decision to provide 25,000 jobs for Omani nationals will be met by focusing on private sector, said Abdullah Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower.
The Omani government, in cooperation with the private sector, will provide, starting this month, 25,000 job opportunities in six months.
Al Bakri said the government has prepared a general strategy for providing employment to citizens that has been approved by a number of specialised committees.
He further said that providing jobs to 25,000 Omanis is the first package of the strategy and more job opportunities will be created during the upcoming period.
On October 3, the Council of Ministers announced that 25,000 jobs would be created for Omanis in both private and public sectors starting from December.
Al Bakri pointed out that many meetings were held in various government departments during the past weeks to implement the decision of the Council of Ministers. He said jobs will be provided to Omanis in tourism, industry, logistics, free zones, mining, financial and knowledge sectors.
He affirmed that the government’s goal is to facilitate access of citizens to employment opportunities while taking into account the growth in the number of graduates.
He added that around 40,000 job opportunities should be created annually as number of active jobseekers have reached 47,000, out of which 62 per cent are women.
He stressed that Omani nationals should be given priority while making recruitments in the public and private sectors and expatriates should be hired for only those specialised jobs where no qualified Omanis are available.
The government said earlier this year that it had created more than 150,000 jobs in the past four years.
The 2017 general budget focused on austerity measures and spending cuts owing to the plunge in oil prices.
Government spending this year is projected to be 11.7 billion riyals (Dh111.3 billion) and revenues are estimated to 8.7 billion riyals, which would result in a deficit of 3 billion riyals.
Oman posted a budget deficit of 5.3 billion riyals in 2016, as revenues declined by more than 30 per cent.
Oman has smaller oil reserves and less of a cushion in government savings than its wealthier neighbours, making it vulnerable to the impact of lower oil prices that has depressed growth across the region.
Moody’s Investors Services cut Oman’s rating to its second-lowest investment grade in July, citing the country’s limited progress in addressing structural vulnerabilities.
