No 138
January 2012
EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief HH Sayyid Tarik Bin Shabib Group Editor Mayank Singh Assistant Editor Visvas Paul D Karra DESIGN Senior Art Director Sandesh S. Rangnekar Senior Designer M. Balagopalan Senior Photographer Rajesh Burman Cover concept Mohammed Nazar Production Manager Govindaraj Ramesh MARKETING Business Head Jacob George Senior Advertising Manager Avi Titus Advertising Manager Arif Abdul Bari Assistant Advertising Manager Sanjeev Rana CORPORATE Chief Executive Sandeep Sehgal Executive Vice President Alpana Roy Vice President Ravi Raman Senior Business Support Executive Radha Kumar
CHANGE - THE ONLY CONSTANT
I
was at Ernst&Young’s Executive Management Development Programme for Omani Nationals recently. The results of a study done by E&Y on the global trends that are changing the world of business were presented at the session. As we enter 2012, it may be a good time to look at some of these factors impacting the business landscape. z The rise of emerging markets: They will become equal competitors with mature markets and command more economic and political power. Each of these markets have their specific needs and mature-market companies will need to customise their products and services to cater to customers in emerging economies. z An increasing focus on resource efficiency and climate change: World over, the pace of legislation and policy initiatives focused on green issues is picking up and organisational responses to resource efficiency and sustainability efforts are becoming a deciding factor in business performance. z The financial landscape is undergoing fundamental transformation: The financial sector’s recovery will be marked by heightened regulation and restructuring of the industry. With governments owning stakes in many financial services firms, its role and influence in the sector is bound to grow. z Increased role of government in the private sector: Following the global financial crisis, the governments’ involvement with private industry will be closer. They will also be faced with the onerous choice of balancing between the needs of global competition and supporting domestic economies.
OER Presentation
z The evolution of technology: Sophisticated analytical tools will give businesses an unprecedented competitive edge. New digital platforms will reshape entire industries and, by leapfrogging technologies, emerging markets will be able to access productivity-enhancing technologies at lower cost.
OER Suplements on: – Perspective – TRA
The common thematic thread running through these trends can be summed up in one word – change. The world is going through unprecedented change and the winners of tomorrow will be those who can negotiate and harness this process.
Business Support Executive Zuwaina Said Al-Rashdi Distribution United Media Services LLC
Published by United Press & Publishing LLC PO Box 3305, Ruwi, Postal Code - 112 Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Tel: (968) 24700896, Fax: (968) 24707939 Email: publish@umsoman.com Website: www.umsoman.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The publisher does not accept responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person or organisation acting or refraining as a result of material in this publication. OER accepts no responsibility for advertising content.
Mayank Singh
Copyright © 2012 United Press & Publishing LLC Printed by Oman Printers Correspondence should be sent to: Oman Economic Review United Media Services PO Box 3305, Ruwi 112, Sultanate of Oman Fax: (968)24707939 Email: editor@oeronline.com Website: www.oeronline.com
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January 2012
OER -magazine
To read, click on link at: www.oeronline.com
OMAN GREEN AWARDS
First OGA newsletter released
A
s a sequel to the second edition of its prestigious Oman Green Awards (OGA), United Media Services has released a newsletter highlighting some of the recent environmental initiatives in the country. The newsletter carries a report about a first-of-its-kind initiative for paper recycling at schools launched in Barka by Nomac Oman, a subsidiary of ACWA Power International. As the first step of the initiative, Nomac Oman handed over recycled drums to Al Amal Secondary School in Barka in order to collect used papers from the school premises. The company
WELL PLACED FOR THE NEW YEAR In the latest Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Oman 32nd out of the 142 covered in the annual study, with an improvement of two places from last year. It means that Oman’s economy has become more competitive in the past 12 months, and is steadily making the transition from having an efficiencydriven economic base to an innovationpowered one, a process that will gain further momentum thanks to increased government budget outlays. The Minister Responsible for Finance Affairs Darwish bin Ismail Al Balushi recently informed the Shura Council that the total spending for 2012 has been set at RO10bn, with expected forecast to be RO8.8bn. The government will be increasing expenditure by around 10 per cent compared to 2011, with much of the additional outlays aimed at boosting the economy and increasing employment opportunities for Omanis. The increase planned for next year is expected to help the economy grow 4
January 2012
by 5.5 per cent in 2012, with GDP projected to expand by 5 per cent. Ismail Kunju, Darsait
CARRY FORWARD LESSONS While it is good to see the coverage given by Oman Economic Review for the year gone by, it is also a time of reflection and rejuvenation. While none of us can gaze into the crystal ball for 2012, it is always good to do a course correction in the anticipation of not knowing what the bend ahead will reveal. It has been a tumultuous year both on the domestic front and on the global arena. Unprecedented political upheavals, financial catastrophes and natural disasters of the scale never seen before have all given us a jolt and made us realise the fact that even though we think we know everything, still we don’t know much about anything. We thought we had recovered from the global financial crisis, yet Eurozone debt crisis brought down the rest of the financial markets. Japan, an economic powerhouse, was forced to bite the dust
will replace the drums once it is filled to the capacity, and send the waste papers for recycling. The newsletter also sheds light on some recent green updates in the country such as the presentation of the Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environment Protection 2011 to the representative of the Nigerian Institute for Forestry Research; Environment Society of Oman (ESO)’s contribution to the UN’s Billion Tree Campaign; and some important initiatives undertaken by Panasonic. Al Bustan Palace, Infoline, MB Holding Company, Panasonic and Vale are the strategic partners of the OGA, the first environmental award in the Sultanate.
by the sheer brute fury of the tsunami. And the Middle East witnessed people power like never before. As far as Oman is concerned, we should continue to build on the sound economic principles that continue to guide the country on the path of economic development. According to latest reports, the fiscal position is good and the government will continue to spend. John V, Azaiba
CORRIGENDUM In the Environment page of December 2011 issue, Nomac Oman’s green initiative was erroneously described as ‘for paper and plastic recycling at schools’. The initiative is aimed at paper recycling only. The designation of the company’s Operation and Maintenance Engineer Talal Al Mabsali was wrongly put as Operation and Maintenance Manager. The errors are regretted. – Editor Write to us with your comments/ feedback at: editor@oeronline.com
INSIDE
GOLF UPDATE
IN THE NEWS
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Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries, speaks about the evolution of the brand and product extensions
FACE2FACE
An effective approach Dr Ali Qassim Jawad shares his views on transforming government entities and capacity building
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RETAIL
Building on synergies
V Sundaresan, Director and General Manager, The National Detergent Company talks about its takeover of Al Ahlia Detergents Sohar factory
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Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP) has initiated the construction of a $600mn hydrocarbon project in Musandam
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Ready for a fair tee-off The eighth edition of OER CEO Golf, the most awaited corporate event in the country, is happening on January 12 at the Muscat Hills Golf and Country Club
INTERVIEW
Aspirational edge
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Fuelling Musandam’s growth
January 2012
NEED FOR A 29 PARADIGM SHIFT Oman Debate 2011 witnessed a noholds-barred discussion as government representatives, private sector leaders and the public talked about the most pressing issues facing the country
INSIDE
AUTO TALK
Buying into a Bentley
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SUMMIT
Crucible of cultures The third Muscat Youth Summit showcased Oman’s stance on youth entrepreneurship, urban development innovation and creativity
ENVIRONMENT
86 87 Editorial
2
Golf Update
28
Economy Watch
10
Media Corner
64
Event
24
Auto News
80
Business Briefs
12
Billboard
82
Executive Movements
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Market Watch
84
Publication
20
Gizmos
85
CARTOON CORNER By Kannan Murali
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Leaving a green footprint Registration has started for the third edition of Oman Green Awards (OGA), Oman’s first environmental award
BEYOND BOARDROOMS The prosecutor
Tim Sebastian, an award winning broadcaster and journalist shares his views on Hardtalk, The Doha Debates and people who have left an imprint
SPOTLIGHT
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Workplace aesthetics A defining characteristic of modern day workplaces is that they rely heavily on information technology
ECONOMYWATCH
NUMBERS Oman GSM Sector Indicators Oman Cellular Subscriber base (in mn) 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00
4.52
4.50
Oman Quarterly Customer Additions (in mn) 4.62
4.50 2.7%
4.38
3.0%
2.6%
0.15
3.0%
0.10
0.0%
0.3%
-3.0% -3.0%
Q3-2010
6.0%
Q4-2010
-6.0%
Q1-2011
Q2-2011
Q3-2011
Oman Cellular Subscriber base (in mn) - LHS
Q-o-Q growth
0.13
0.05
0.12
0.12
Q2-2011
Q3-2011
0.01
0.00 -0.05
Q3-2010
Q4-2010
Q1-2011
-0.10
-0.15
(0.13)
-0.20
Source: Industry Sources & Global Research
Source: Industry Sources & Global Research
At the end of Sept. 2011, Oman’s total mobile subscriber base was at 4.62 mn, registering a YoY increase of 2.5 per cent. 3Q11 witnessed a QoQ growth of 2.6 per cent or 117.9k subscribers during the quarter. The subscriber growth has been slowed down due to implementation of new regulation on active subscribers. Operator - wise Subscriber Base (in mn) 3.00 2.50
2.49
2.49
2.03
2.01
Operator- wise Customer Additions (in ‘000) 2.69
2.57
2.45
1.93
1.93
1.93
2.00
150.0
120.9
117.0
81.0
100.0
49.4 50.0
1.50 1.00
11.1
-
0.50
0.9 3.0
(4.6)
(50.0)
(42.9)
Q3-2010
Q4-2010
Q1-2011
Q2-2011
Q3-2011
(100.0) Q3-2010
Nawras
Q4-2010
Omantel
(92.0) Q1-2011
Nawras
Source: Industry Sources & Global Research
Q2-2011
Q3-2011
Omantel
Source: Industry Sources & Global Research
In 3Q11, Omantel’s mobile subscriber base grew marginally by 4.6 per cent QoQ while Nawras’s subscriber base remained almost flat with a marginal QoQ growth of 0.05 per cent.
In 3Q11, subscriber base of Nawras grew by 0.9k QoQ while Omantel’s subscriber base increased by 117k.
Quarterly Market Share based on Subscribers Q4-2010
Nawras
Omantel
Nawras
Nawras
58.2%
57.1%
55.9%
Omantel
41.8%
42.9%
44.1%
44.8%
55.2%
Q3-2011
Q2-2011
Q1-2011
Omantel
Nawras
Omantel
Over the last few quarters, Omantel has been gradually gaining the subs. market share, increased from 56 per cent in 1Q11 to 57 per cent in 2Q and 58 per cent in 3Q. The movement in subs. market share is also getting affected by ongoing clean up of subscriber base mandated by the regulator.
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January 2012
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BankMuscat to set up Islamic banking window NLP WORKSHOP IN FEBRUARY An NLP practitioner certification workshop will be held in Muscat from February 25 to 29. The workshop will be conducted by Nandan Savnal, reputed trainer and pioneer in the field of NLP in India, who also heads a fullfledged training and consultancy firm PeopleSys. NLP offers powerful and rapid methods for personal growth and achievement and influence. It is the science of how people do things, why they do certain things, how they think, behave and process information.
MHD AWARDED ISO 27001 Mohsin Haider Darwish has been awarded the prestigious International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO 27001) certification for Information Security Management, covering the IT infrastructure, data centre and all departments operating from its group corporate office in Ruwi. The ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation is the only auditable international benchmark for information security management.
UAB ‘BANK OF THE YEAR 2011 UAE’ United Arab Bank (UAB) has received ‘The Bank of The Year 2011 UAE’ award from the Financial Times Banker Magazine. This follows the earlier receipt of the same accolade from the Global Banking & Finance Review, London. Regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence, a Financial Times independent panel of judges evaluated banks worldwide based on their ability to deliver shareholder returns and on a number of other criteria including transparency, corporate governance, sustainability, innovation, and customer service.
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January 2012
The board of directors of BankMuscat has decided to set up an independent Islamic banking window at the bank and launch Islamic banking operations in accordance with the injunctions of Sharia, subject to approval from the Central Bank of Oman. In the run-up to comply with the CBO requirements, the bank unveiled the logo of its Islamic banking window under the brand name ‘Meethaq’ at the Oman Islamic Economic Forum recently.
The bank’s Islamic banking operations will be segregated from its conventional counterpart in all aspects. Further, in line with CBO requirements, the bank announced the formation of a three-member Shariah
board to ensure the Meethaq operations are in compliance with Sharia. The BankMuscat Sharia board members are Sheikh Dr Ali Qaradaghi, Chairman, Sheikh Essam Muhammad Ishaq and Sheikh Majid Al Kindi.
Shell enters into agreement with OOT Shell Oman Marketing Company signed a ten-year agreement with Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals & Co (OOT) based at Sohar Industrial Port to receive and store lubricant raw materials known as base oils for Shell’s Mina Al Fahal lubricants blending plant. The
agreement was signed at the OOT’s office at Sohar by Shell Oman Marketing’s managing director Adil Bin Ismail Al Raisi and Zeger Van Asch Van Wijck, CEO of OOT. Shell Oman lubricant blending plan is a state-of-the-art, ISO 9001:2008 certified plant currently
producing over 60 million litres of different types and grades of lubricants for various uses ranging from consumer cars to aviation, marine and industrial products. The plant produces various products for local market and 70 per cent is exported to over 22 countries.
Ernst & Young to honour entrepreneurs Ernst & Young launched the ‘Entrepreneur Of the Year 2012’ awards in Oman, aimed at celebrating individuals who build and lead successful, growing and dynamic businesses. The event has been running globally for 23 years and is held in 135 cities across 50 countries worldwide. Rajeev Singh, partner and entrepreneur Of The Year Leader at Ernst & Young, Muscat says, “I’m delighted that this year the Entrepreneur Of The Year programme will be running as a country programme in Oman
for the first time. Globally, every year the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award gives entrepreneurs the recognition they deserve. Even in the most challenging times,
these business pioneers are looking for opportunity and continue to proactively take calculated risks to grow. This is a trait that we celebrate and a value that we espouse.”
HM’s e-Governance award presented HAMAD AL WAHAIBI FINISHES FOURTH IN DIR Oman’s Hamed Al-Wahaibi and Ulster co-driver Allan Harryman finished an excellent fourth overall in the 33rd Dubai International Rally, the final round of the 2011 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), recently. At the wheel of the Wahaibi Motor Sport (WMS), the Omani was never able to match the powerful S2000 cars over the fast, desert stages on day two but had the consolation of finishing as the top Group N runner in fourth overall.
OMAN AIR LAUNCHES FLIGHTS TO ZURICH Oman Air started its new service between Muscat and Zurich, in Switzerland recently. Oman Air offers four flights a week between the two destinations. Zurich is Oman Air’s 41st worldwide destination and its sixth in Europe. The new service will also offer Swiss travellers the opportunity to experience Oman Air’s luxurious new fleet of Airbus A330 wide body aircraft.
OMRAN’S ANTI-LITTERING CAMPAIGN IN JABAL AL AKHDAR Two hundred volunteers joined hands with Omran to launch an ‘Anti-Littering Campaign’ in Jabal Al Akhdar to instill environmentally-conscious behaviours amongst community members and tourists in one of Oman’s most naturally beautiful and prized orchard destinations. The campaign was organised in partnership with Nizwa Municipality and various Community Civil Associations including The Omani Women’s Association and the Mountain Youth Group.
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January 2012
The Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in e-Governance 2011 was presented at a function held at the Grand Hall of Sultan Qaboos University Cultural Centre recently. The award ceremony was held under the auspices of HH Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said in the presence
of HE Ali Bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Chairman of ITA, ITA board members, Dr Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA and senior officials and representatives from participating government institutions. Former US president Bill Clinton participated in the awards ceremony. The best eContent award was won by the
Ministry of Manpower Portal, while the Muscat Municipality won the best eReadiness award. In the category for the best eProject (individual), the award was won by the Oman Education Portal: Ministry of Education, while the award for best eProject (collaborative) was awarded to Employment Collaboration Project: Ministry of Manpower.
Haya Water recruits 100 new Omanis Responding promptly to the Royal Decree from His Majesty for the creation of 50,000 new jobs for Omani nationals, Haya Water has announced the creation of 100 new jobs for Omanis. The company is now providing talented and enthusiastic young Omanis with the opportunity to develop and pursue rewarding, challenging and stimulating long-term careers with one of the nation’s most dynamic and fastest growing business organisations. They will now have the opportunity to help Haya
Water in their development of its world-class water reuse project in the Muscat Governorate that will ensure
significant long term health and environmental benefits to individuals, businesses and society at large.
Performance at its best
Ahlibank lays foundation stone for head office EMIRATES NBD LAUNCHES ARABIC DOMAIN NAME On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the United Arab Emirates, Emirates NBD, became one of the first corporate organisations and the first bank in the UAE to launch an Arabic website with an Arabic language domain name. The new website will serve as a portal to the bank’s complete range of services.
Ahlibank laid the foundation stone of its new head office in Wattayah recently. HE Yahya bin Said bin Abdullah Al Jabry, chairman of Duqm Special Economic
zone, was the chief guest of the official ceremony which was also attended by highranking officials from Central Bank of Oman and Capital Market Authority as well as
Says Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, CEO, ahlibank “ahlibank’s growth strategy in Oman hinges on three pillars: people, technology and infrastructure.”
TEEJAN AWARDED ISO 14001 Teejan Trading and Contracting has been awarded the internationally recognised ISO 14001 certificate of compliance for its environmental management system (EMS), making it one of the first companies in Oman to achieve this recognition. Teejan received its certificate at an exclusive ceremony recently at the City Seasons Hotel.
TRA’S DIRECTORS DISCUSS STRATEGIC PLANS The board of directors of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held their fourth meeting recently at the headquarters of the authority recently. HE Dr Mohammed bin Hamed Al Rumhi, Minister of Oil and Gas and board chairman of TRA presided over the meeting which was attended by the board of directors and the CEO of the TRA. The meeting reviewed the authority’s strategic work plan and the executive plan for 2012 which included the most important strategies to be implemented during the year such as a study for reframing frequency bands to ensure expansion in the provision of 3G services.
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January 2012
the Chairman of ahlibank, Hamdan Al Hinai along with other members of the board of directors and senior management of the bank. The new office which is expected to be completed and fully functional by June 2013 will have a built-up area of 6500 sq mtrs on a prime property of of 10700 sq mtrs.
The Wave opens new golf course The Wave, Muscat opened its new golf course, Almouj Golf, recently. The first nine holes of the golf course have been greened and are now ready to cater to its first players. Almouj is home to a 7,300yard links style championship course that was designed by golfing legend Greg Norman.
Says St John Kelliher, general manager of Almouj Golf, “Our story begins with the inspiration behind the brand which blends the elements that we believe will keep visitors mesmerised: the sport of golf and the heritage, culture and landscape of Oman.” Michael Lenarduzzi,
CEO of The Wave, Muscat, said that he hoped that the new golf facilities would soon be able to cater to young, talented, home-grown golf champions keeping with The Wave, Muscat’s tradition of offering a multitude of residential, recreational and social facilities to its clients.
ITA’s Talal elected deputy chairman of UNESCO institute Talal Al Rahbi, deputy CEO of the Information Technology Authority (ITA), has been elected as the first deputy chairman of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. He replaces Sheikh Hamad bin Jabor Al-Khalifa of Qatar in a meeting held recently at the Institute’s headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Talal Al Rahbi was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the institute
in 2009. Holding this high office at an international organisation is a unique honour for Oman. The efforts made by the Sultanate have gained attention as well recognition by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and other UN organisations. UNESCO Institute for Statistics was created in 1999, in response to the growing need for reliable data contribute to the
development of policies and plans of UNESCO, and its member states.
ALARGAN unveils Qurm Hills OMAN RANKED 32ND IN COMPETITIVENESS INDEX Oman’s stable economic performance has seen it ranked as the world’s 32nd most competitive country in the 2011/12 World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). This ranking, a rise of two places on 2010/11, places it above the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia and India and European Union member states Spain, Poland, Italy and Slovenia. The ranking reflects that the institutions and policies in place in the Sultanate are constantly working to maintain and improve the business environment in the country.
BANKMUSCAT AMONG 50 SAFEST BANKS BankMuscat has achieved a remarkable ranking among the 50 safest banks in emerging markets. BankMuscat is the only bank from Oman to make it to the first-ever ranking of the 50 Safest Banks in Emerging Markets by Global Finance. The criteria applied for the 50 safest banks in emerging markets were the same as applied to the annual world’s safest banks ranking.
AL NABA EXTENDS CIVIC SERVICES AS CSR Al Naba Services, undertook a major clean-up of roads left ruined by flash floods in the Wilayat of Sur in December 2011. The gesture, part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, demonstrates its longstanding commitment to supporting the well-being of communities in which it operates. In the wake of heavy rains that rendered many streets impassable, teams of volunteer staff went into action across the wilayat to help get traffic moving again.
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January 2012
ALARGAN International Real Estate Company, a Kuwait based developer, unveiled its latest project in the Sultanate, Qurm Hills at a ceremony attended by Minister of State and Governor of Muscat, HE Sayyid Saud bin Hilal al Busaidi, as chief guest, and Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Sultanate. The project, comprising 109 plots, including road networks, service facilities and landscaped park areas includes a variety of residential units in addition to
retail, commercial and office space. Khaled Al-Mashaan, chairman and managing director of ALARGAN International, says: “We are pleased to announce the
launch of Qurm Hills, a project which we have meticulously planned to create a new concept in the area which will offer excellent investment opportunities.”
Times of Oman wins Arab League award
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the crown prince of
Dubai, presented the Times of Oman with an award for quality and excellence at a ceremony in Dubai, recently. The Tatweej Academy for Excellence and Quality, which is part of the Arab League’s Organisation for Administrative Development, acknowledged leading companies and leaders from across the Arab world. Times of Oman’s chairman and editor-inchief, Essa Mohammed Al Zadjali, said the awards are
an incentive to work even harder. “This kind of award gives a sense of support. It’s a boost to work more,” Al Zadjali says after the prince gave him the gold medallion. Al Zadjali adds he plans on improving the paper year after year, and wants to expand its operations regionally. The Tatweej awards are also a sign of international recognition for the Times of Oman and the Sultanate in general, says Al Zadjali.
Milcon Gulf teams up with Al Barij International Milcon Gulf Group and Al Barij International have formed a strategic partnership to launch a series of new ventures in the rapidly growing Middle East and Asia Pacific markets. The groups shall leverage their existing expertise in the areas of energy efficiency, surveillance, information technology, aviation, and related services
to set up strategic ventures in order to cater to the rapidly growing GCC market on an opportunistic basis. The companies also identified a number of areas where they would jointly cooperate on partnering or acquiring stakes in companies that would suit the demand coming from active markets where demand exists.
“With Milcon Group we feel we have found a wellsuited strategic partner who is involved in a variety of sectors and industries, much like ourselves and we look forward to developing our many synergies and exploiting gaps in Mena and Asia Pacific markets,” says Mukhtar M Hasan, chairman of Al Barij International.
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PEOPLE
TECHNOLOGY
PROCESS
Jones Lang LaSalle has appointed Mark Wynne-Smith as the new Global CEO for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, promoted from his current position as EMEA CEO for the Hotels business. Arthur de Haast, who currently combines the Hotels
Global CEO role with a number of other leadership remits, will become Chairman of the hotels business, which specialises in hotel investment transactions and real estate services for hotel owners and operators. Both will be London-based roles. The moves follow strong and consistent growth in the firmís hotels business, despite the challenging broader economic climate, and an assessment of favourable medium and longer-term business opportunities across the sector generally and for the firmís hotels business in particular, once the near-term pressures on Eurozone and other economies have abated.
Falcon Insurance Company has appointed AR Srinivasan as its new General Manager. In his new role, Srinivasan will be responsible for the operational set up and overall management and development of the company.
A qualified Chartered Accountant and an Associate of Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), Srinivasan brings with him more than 25 years of valuable experience in the insurance industry in the Middle East and India. He is no new name in the Oman Insurance Industry, and has been associated here since 1994. Very recently he has also been elected as a Board Member of the Oman Insurance Association. Established in 2005, Falcon Insurance Company offers a wide range of coverage in general, life, medical expenses, and savings plan.
PUBLICATION
ICT BAHRAIN REPORT RELEASED
I
CT Report 2011-12 Bahrain’ published by United Media Services was recently unveiled by Basil Al Arrayed, director-communications & consumer affairs, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), Bahrain. ICT Report 2011-12 is the first of its kind publication in the Kingdom of Bahrain. “The maiden edition of ICT Report Bahrain is a handy comprehensive reference dossier to get an overview as well as complete and latest details of the telecom and IT sectors, and the major ICT companies operating in Bahrain. The bilingual publication with a print run of 8,500 copies will be distributed to key stakeholders in the ICT industry, relevant top managers in the public and private sectors, apex trade bodies and trade missions in the region and embassies apart from being available at the leading book stores,” says Vinod Thangoor, regional manager, United Media Services. 20
January 2012
Basil Al Arrayed, Director-Communications & Consumer Affairs, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Bahrain (centre) along with UMS officials, Akshay Bhatnagar (left) and Vinod Thangoor (right) The publication showcases the vision for the ICT sector in the long term economic development plans in the country, interviews with top industry leaders, analysis from domain experts, reports on key sub-sectors within the ICT industry, etc. “We recognise the need to make a thorough assessment of the future telecommunication needs of Bahrain so as to ensure appropriate actions are taken to achieve competitive broadband
communication services, at internationally competitive prices, to support economic and social goals as outlined in the government policy. The assessment will result in a national broadband strategy for Bahrain based on the predicted future needs and requirements of consumers and businesses in the Kingdom,” states Dr Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer, chairman of TRA, Bahrain in an interview with ICT Report.
IN THE NEWS
Fuelling Musandam’s growth
storage, and export facilities. The gas will be used to feed a future power plant to provide reliable electricity for Musandam. Further, the project will act as a foundation for additional oil and gas developments in the region.”
Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP) has initiated the construction of a $600mn hydrocarbon project with a production capacity of 45 million cubic feet of treated gas and 20,000 barrels of oil per day in Bukha, Musandam. Muhammed Nafie reports
According to Sang-Rok Sung, senior executive vice-president of Hyundai Engineering Co, “This is an important deal for Hyundai Engineering, as it returns to Musandam province with local supporting services and spreads the reputation of HEC’s oil and gas project in the Sultanate.”
Integrated project The total capacity of the gas plant will be 20,000 barrels of oil per day and 45 million cubic feet of treated gas. This project will also entail construction of 23km of subsea pipeline to bring products from West Bukha field to the plant, storage facilities for oil, a jetty for exporting oil and eventually, another four kilometers of export pipeline for the crude oil.
M
usandam, Oman’s strategically important exclave overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, is all set to host a major $600mn oil and gas processing plant with huge potential to spur economic growth in the peninsula. Operated by Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP), the upstream subsidiary of Oman Oil Company, and situated in the Wilayat of Bukha, the Musandam Gas plant (MGP) will be part of a major integrated development project comprising the West Bukha field development, an offshore production pipeline, and crude storage and export facilities. Expected to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2013, the plant will produce the natural gas to feed Oman’s first gasbased Independent Power Project coming up in Bukha. The plant is also expected to help the Sultanate set up a new oil export 22
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terminal on its north coast. The formal construction of the green field plant started recently with a foundation-laying ceremony in Bukha, organised by OOCEP and Hyundai Engineering Company, the prime contractor to build the project. Sayyid Khalifa bin Almurdas bin Ahmed al Busaidi, Governor of Musandam, presided over the ceremony which was attended by Ahmed al Wahaibi, CEO of Oman Oil Company, and Salim al Sibani, CEO of OOCEP, Sang-Rok Sung, Senior Executive Vice-President, Hyundai Engineering Co Ltd and South Korean Ambassador Choe Jong-hyun among other dignitaries. Says Salim bin Zaher Al Sibani, CEO of OOCEP, “This is a very significant project for Oman and Musandam Governorate. The Musandam Gas Plant is part of a major integrated development comprising the West Bukha field development, offshore production pipeline, crude
The plant will get its feed stock from Bukha and West Bukha oil fields operated by RAK Petroleum. At present, the Sultanate has two offshore fields adjacent to the Musandam peninsula. These fields, Bukha and West Bukha, are operated by RAK petroleum. The Bukha field has been operating since 1994 and West Bukha since 2008. The production is currently commingled on the Bukha platform and transported via subsea pipeline to the Khor Khawair Processing Plant in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE. Salim also noted the initial production of gas from the plant will be earmarked for power generation and the additional supply will be used for industries. “In the event of gas being available more than Musandam’s requirements, we are interconnecting between the Oman gas grid, the new Musandam grid and the UAE grid via Ras al Khaimah. So there will be a gas interlink between Oman and the UAE via this project.”He also said that the development of blocks 17 and 40, which are part of Musandam governorate, would help in additional supply of natural gas for the processing plant. PetroTel is expected to execute appraisal and exploration activities at block 17 by 2012, Salim informed.
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EVENT
WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE The Al Mar’a Excellence Awards recognised and honoured exemplary women achievers
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he Al Mar’a Excellence Awards, the first-of-its-kind in the Sultanate honoured women achievers across different fields at a glittering event at The Amphitheatre, Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa on December 5. The event was held under the auspices of Her Highness Sayyida Dr. Muna bint Fahd Al Said, Assistant Vice-Chancellor for External Co-Operation, Sultan Qaboos University. A number of other dignitaries and the who’s who of Muscat were also present at the event. The Al Mar’a Excellence Awards were presented across 12 categories; namely: Corporate Leadership, Fashion Design, Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Educational Services, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Health Services, Science and Industry, Technology, Sports, Petroleum Services and Social Responsibility. Apart from these, two women were the recipients of the prestigious Woman of the Year and Most Promising Woman of the Year Awards. Special Awards were
given to four women who have made significant contributions in the fields they have chosen to be in. The Awards were judged on the basis of nominations received which were then reviewed by a panel of esteemed judges and the final ranking process was appraised by Ernst & Young. The Awards judged women on the basis of criteria like innovation and creativity, the impact their contributions have had in society, leadership abilities and the goals achieved. The red carpet event also featured some dazzling entertainment choreographed by Emmanuel Castis, a talented international vocalist with many music awards to his credit. The Al Mar’a Excellence Awards was a wonderful platform that not only felicitated woman achievers; but also revealed the passion and inspiration of women who have aspired to attain great accomplishments in their chosen fields and have gone that ‘extra mile’ to turn their dreams into reality.
The Al Mar’a Excellence Awards 2011 is an Al Mar’a Initiative. Strategic Partners: Mercedes-Benz (Zawawi Trading Company, the authorised general distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Oman), BankDhofar and Nawras. Support partners: Taageer Finance Company SAOG, Areej Vegetable Oils (AVOD) and Givenchy. Assessment Partner: Ernst & Young. Media Partners: Times of Oman, Al Shabiba, H! and Al Youm Al Sabe. Radio Partners: Al Wisal FM and Merge 104.8 FM. Printing Partner: Ruwi Modern Printers. Travel Partner: Travel City.
LIST OF WINNERS CORPORATE LEADERSHIP
TECHNOLOGY
Ayisha Al Mawali
Seema Al Kabi Mariam Al Alawi
UNVEILED
FASHION DESIGN Anisa Al Zadjali
SPORTS
Khadija Al Lamki
Fatma Al Nabhani Muna Al Shanfari
PERFORMING ARTS Jokha Al Naabi Ilham Al Toqi FINE ARTS Budoor Al Riyami Alia Al Farsi EDUCATIONAL SERVICES H.E. Dr. Madiha Al Shaibani ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
PETROLEUM SERVICES Abla Al Riyami Maliha Al Abri SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Yuthar Al Rawahi Mariam Al Zadjali WOMAN OF THE YEAR Lujaina Mohsin Darwish
INNOVATION Etab Al Zadjali Zainab Al Lawati
MOST PROMISING WOMAN OF THE YEAR Hana Syed
HEALTH SERVICES Dr. Adhra Al Mawali
SPECIAL AWARDS Khawla Khalifa Al Amri
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
Sheila Jamal
Nisreen Jaffer
Dr. Fatma O. Ali
Bushra Al Abdwuani
Mrunal Khimji
The Al Mar’a Excellence Awards also saw the unveiling of the new look of Al Mar’a English edition which will now be called The Woman. It will continue in the same mould of Al Mar’a, though in a contemporary, peppy and spirited avatar. It will reflect all what a woman stands for, in pages of what they like, what they aspire to be and what inspires them to be the best. The Woman is a symbol of a woman’s dreams, hopes and ambitions… and will of course; revel in the different shades a woman stands for. A woman’s guide to everything she wants from life.
INTERVIEW
ASPIRATIONAL EDGE Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries, speaks to Mayank Singh about the evolution of the brand, product extensions and how Oman proved to be a learning ground for the company
How has Titan evolved over the years and has the brand proposition changed over the years? We started as Titan and it continues to be our most profitable brand, it is also the only brand that we sell globally. But the business has changed from a single brand to multiple brands – from Titan to Titan plus, Sonata, Fastrack, Nebula, Zouk and Zylus. Recently we have acquired a Swiss Brand called Fabeluva. Titan the flagship has managed to progress with the times. In India we sell close to 1,500 varieties while in Oman we offer 1,000 designs. When we launched in the 1980s the Indian market was closed and we were in the premium end of the market. Titan established itself as a good quality watch, which was stylish and offered a wide variety. But as the Indian market liberalised after 1992, we realised that limiting ourselves to India and the same customer base would be risky. Coincidentally, this was the time that we entered the Middle East market and this helped the brand to evolve. Our international experience, though limited to Middle East, gave us a lot of clues about what it meant to compete in the international market. Our products started being accepted in the Middle East and we soon acquired leadership status in terms of marketshare in Oman. Globally, we are one of the most attractive brands in the mid market segment. This segment comprises well educated, internationally aware customers who value their money and look for a combination of quality, style and price. We are not as premium as the Swiss nor as unknown as the Chinese. We are still aspirational and this is achieved through constant product innovation. The core image of Titan is that of elegance, quality and trust. You have gone into segmentation like Raga, Fastrack, Nebula etc; why is it important 26
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for a watch maker to segment its products? Watches have today become a lifestyle product. If you want time, it is available on your mobile phone, laptop, computer, TV etc. Watches have become an accessory, and as an accessory it is important to create a certain kind of look and brand image for different segments. Apart from the mid market we address two other segments – the mass market and the youth, women being a sub segment within Titan. The Mass market requires exceptional quality and product guarantee. Customers in this segment may not be looking for a large variety, but they are definitely looking for longevity and price and that’s our brand Sonata. When you talk about youth there is a certain irreverence and fastrack stands for playful irreverence. Fastrack started our journey into accessories like sunglasses, bags, belts and wallets. We are now exploring fashion footwear, helmets etc under the brand. Under brand Titan we have gone into eyewear. We have a chain of 185 eyewear stores in India. This is the third business that we have entered after watches and jewellery. Overall we have 380 Titan stores in India. Havw Titan’s Edge, which was marketed as the slimmest watch in the world and HTSE as helped strengthen your innovative image? How important is it to constantly showcase the brand’s technological strength? The Edge initiative has not only given us stature but real business as well. We did Edge initially to promote Titan as a brand that is at the forefront of technology, but later it became a full-fledged business proposition. We have priced the product very reasonably as we wanted to popularise that technology. The same is true for HTSE, which is a watch which works on light energy. Do you invest a certain part of your turnover in R&D? It is not a conscious investment of one or two per cent, but we have a separate team that pursues R&D and is called innovedge. The team comprises 17 people who work on products that will come three to five years from now and that’s our investment in R&D. In our business you need not to invest in a high tech R&D
Titan – In numbers Varieties on offers: 1,500 Manufactures (per anumn): 16.5mn watches Turnover: $2bn Marketshare in India: 25 per cent by volume and 40 per cent by value
labs but in people’s brains. For example, we are working on a product in which you can download and change the dials. We also have a full fledged design studio that works on coming up with new designs. Where do you have your manufacturing facilities and what kind of capacities do you operate on? What is your expected turnover for financial year 2011? Close to 95 per cent of our watches are assembled in India. Out of the 16.5mn watches that we manufacture annually, three million is made in Hosur in the state of Tamil Nadu; our other plants are based in Uttarakhand in Roorkee, Dehradun, Pantnagar. The company’s turnover is expected to be $2bn dollars this year. We have 25 per cent marketshare in India by volume and 40 per cent by value. How many countries do you have a presence in and how much do your international operations contribute to your business? Our international operations contribute around eight per cent of the watch business which is around $25mn. We export to 27 countries, primarily in Asia, Middle East and Far East. We have a presence in Africa with South Africa being a very strategic market. Oman was one of the first markets that Titan forayed into internationally – how has your experience been here? Oman has been one of our most satisfying markets; we achieved number one marketshare status quite early and we have been the market leader for years now. We operate in Oman through our partner Bahwan Electronics. Oman taught us the quality-price equation, in India as we were market leaders it gave us
the luxury of pricing ourselves higher and higher each year. When we launched in Oman, we knew that we were competing against Japanese and other faceless brands and it sharpened our wits. This helped us in dealing with competition in India when the market opened up in the late 1990s. On the operations side we learnt about deliveries – that is aligning our entire production system to what the market wants from companies like Seiko that does this extremely well. From a design standpoint Oman showed us what others were offering, the latest trends in terms of product technology. The aggressiveness with which brands vied for showcasing the product, visual merchandising and getting shelf space in the Sultanate proved to be of great help for us. Finally, the market showed us the importance of the retailer. As international brands set up shop in India, will this take away your aspirational edge? We have two big initiatives to negotiate this trend – we have opened a chain called Helios in which we market international brands like Movado, Roamer, Emporio, Armani, Fossil, Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK, Casio, Seiko, Citizen etc including our own. We have 14 Helios stores which are up and running. This is a retailing effort to participate in the growth of international brands. Secondly, our own play in the high end of the market; it may not be as high as some of the international brands but through Zylus, Nebula the gold watch and now Fabluva we are positioning ourselves in the high end of the market. Aren’t you being opportunistic by doing Helios, while you have an opportunity to build up Titan itself? Every brand has a price band and you cannot go very high or very low from it. A Rolex sells for INR2.5 lakh and it would be foolish for a Titan to sell at that price, but there is a market at the high end so Titan is pushing the price point up slowly. We have automatic watches at INR30,000 ($569) and we will go upto INR50,000 ($948). We have just launched a INR3.5 lakh ($6637) Nebula which is called the Palace Collection and is based on various palaces in India and stands for Indian luxury. January 2012 27
EVENT
READY FOR A FAIR TEE-OFF The eighth edition of OER CEO Golf, the most awaited corporate event in the country, is happening on January 12, 2012, at the Muscat Hills Golf and Country Club
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t’s that time of the year, when you need to carry your networking skills along with your glove and golf club. And this will happen on January 12 at the OER CEO Golf 2012, the much sought after businesscum-leisure premium networking event, which is brought to you by Oman Economic Review, the Sultanate’s number one business magazine. The event offers revitalisation for Oman’s corporate heavy weights, giving them an opportunity to network and compete on the greens. The event will host the top echelons of corporate Oman at the country’s most exciting greens of Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club. OER CEO Golf has become the biggest and most memorable event in Oman’s corporate calendar with golfers and golfers to be enthusiasts taking part in this not-to-be-missed action-packed day. There are few events that can boast of such variety and all-round entertainment. High profile business leaders, top CEOs and managers will network over a game of 18-hole golf. While golfers vie to win, beginners get an expert initiation to the game and participate in a competition for winning the crowning glory – a Rolex watch. OER CEO Golf 2012 is being presented by Nawras Business Solutions while the associate presenter is INFINITI. The official timekeeper of the event is ROLEX from Khimji’s Watches. Samsung is the prize partner. Publicity partners are Times of Oman and Al Shabiba while media sponsors include Hi and Al Youm Al Sab’e. The category partners of the event are AXA; Oman Printers & Stationers; OUA; Infoline; Aggreko; and Travel City Travel Point.
Exciting day It’s going to be non-stop entertainment 28
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the whole day with the Golf Day beginning at 7.00am and ending at 2.00pm while the evening entertainment function will be held between 6.30pm to 10.30pm. The most exhilarating time for Golfers at the OER CEO 2012 will begin when they compete with their fellow golfers for the thrilling new format known as the 18hole Texas Scramble golf. Generally, the Scramble is one of the primary forms of tournament play for golf associations, charity events and the like. A scramble is usually played with 4-person teams, but 2-person scrambles are popular, too. In a scramble, each player tees off on each hole. The best of the tee shots is selected and all players play their second shots from that spot. The best of the second shots is determined, then all play their third shots from that spot, and so on until the ball is holed. Trick-shot specialist Michael Scholz will be on hand to display his magical skills with the ball and the swing. Apart from the high powered business networking while swinging the golf club, an elegant red carpet evening has been
arranged complete with world-class entertainment, socialising, fine dining, a glittering awards ceremony and loads of exciting entertainment and prize giving. The highlight of the evening’s entertainment will be Daniela Maxova, renowned international illusionist. For the golfers to be, a special programme has been arranged apart from the golf clinic. Leadership consultant, John Mitchell, will deliver a talk on ‘Driving Change from the fairway to the boardroom’.
COVERSTORY
NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT
Oman Debate 2011 witnessed a noholds-barred discussion as government representatives, private sector leaders and the public talked about the most pressing issues facing the country
SNAPSHOTS OF OMAN DEBATE OMANDEBATE
A cross section of the audience
HE Darwish Al Balushi delivering the keynote address
Sandeep Sehgal, CE, UMS giving the welcome speech
Oman Debate in progress
VIP’s in rapt attention STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Mayank Singh, Editor, OER, as the Master of Ceremonies
Dignitaries at the Oman Debate
Guests at the welcome area
A lighter moment
In the networking arena
Applause for a well-made point
Making their way to the Oman Auditorium
Guests enjoying a break between the two sessions
At the Audi stall PARTNERS
SNAPSHOTS OF OER TOP 20 AWARDS
OER Top 20: Galfar Engineering and Contracting
OER Top 20: Omantel
OER Top 20: BankMuscat
OER Top 20: Shell Oman Marketing Co
OER Top 20: Renaissance Services
OER Top 20: Al Maha Petroleum
OER Top 20: Oman Oil Marketing Company SUPPORT PARTNERS
OFFICIAL CALL CENTRE
OER Top 20: Oman Cables Industry
OER Top 20: Nawras
OER Top 20: Oman Holdings International
OER Top 20: BankDhofar
OER Top 20: Areej Vegetable Oils & Derivatives
OER Top 20: Raysut Cement Company
OER Top 20: Al Jazeera Steel
OER Top 20: Bank Sohar
OER Top 20: Dhofar Power Co
OER Top 20: OMINVEST
OER Top 20: Al Hassan Engineering Company
OER Top 20: Salalah Port Services Company
OFFICIAL MEDIA
COVERSTORY
caption
Excerpts from Session 1, titled ‘Development versus stability’, which saw a spirited discussion revolving around education, job creation and training Panellist names – Session 1 HE Dr HE Salem ben Nasser Al Ismaily
Chairman, Public Authority for Investment Promotion & Export Development
HE Ahmed Hassan Al Dheeb
Undersecretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Hussain Jawad
Chairman, W J Towell
Hani Al Zubair
Executive Chairman, Zubair Automotive Group
Adil Taqi
CEO, Muriya Tourism Company
Dr Hatem Al Shanfari
Faculty Member at the Department of Economics and Finance, Sultan Qaboos University
Tim Sebastian Moderator 34
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Tim: There is no doubt that as 2011 comes to an end, we can look at the most far reaching and momentous events in the Arab world in decades and they are still unfolding. What is the better time than this to review how Oman has reacted to its own experiences with the Arab Spring? I always think that the most important word to define a debate is to challenge perceived wisdom and the beliefs that are put around, which require us to think differently in these uncertain times. I’d like you to consider the statement or question, “Has Oman done enough this year to meet the demands of its people?” Please vote now – The results are as follows – 66 per cent say Yes, 44 per cent say No. One more question: “Should the reforms stop here?” The results – 87 per cent say no, while 13 per cent said yes. Now we go on to the panelists. Dr Salem, what do you think of the votes. There is a long way to go, isn’t there?
HE Dr Salem: I am a bit disappointed with the first vote. I don’t think we should stop here. It is a recipe for failure if you stop and think you have done enough. You should continue to evolve. Tim: How urgent is the situation? HE Dr Salem: It’s not a matter of urgency, it’s a matter of the need. When the people need it you give it to them. Tim: And they certainly needed it this year… HE Dr Salem: Yes they needed it. Tim: Did they take you by surprise? HE Dr Salem: Yes they did. Tim: Should they have taken you by surprise? HE Dr Salem: No they shouldn’t have. They took us by surprise, we were in denial
Tim: Why? HE Dr Salem: We didn’t expect that something like this will happen in Oman. Initially, we didn’t think they were Omanis, when we discovered they were Omanis, we were still in denial. You know, over here, we live, eat and breathe conspiracy theories. So it was always somebody else doing it. Tim: So it was all foreign inspired? HE Dr Salem: That’s what we felt, but they were Omanis. If you look at the city where it started in Sohar, ironically it had the largest investment of $14bn and if you look at the unemployment rate for the youth it is 25 per cent. That is worse than West Bank. Tim: So the largest investment produced the largest unemployment? HE Dr Salem: Absolutely. Something is incredibly wrong. Tim: That is a huge indictment. HE Dr Salem: Indeed. Tim: So where are you going to start? HE Dr Salem: We started already, that was a wake-up call and I thank God that it happened. Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb were you shocked as much as your colleague Dr Salem? HE Ahmed: I would agree in certain ways but let me just explain one thing. There are reforms but everything cannot happen in one year. There are plans and the results take years. There were demands and these were responded to very quickly. The orders given by His Majesty in response to the demands, were more far reaching than what was being asked for and this process will continue, but people have to realise that it is very difficult for a government which is following a plan, like a five-year plan for example, to do everything in one year. Let’s take job creation, you cannot create 70,000 or 80,000 jobs in one day or in one go. Tim: But the challenge is to stay ahead of the people’s demands… HE Ahmed: Of course, this is why the government is spending billions of rials. This is what HE Darwish said, in the
Tim Sebastian, Moderator of Oman Debate 2011 next five year plan, we are going to spend RO43bn so that we build infrastructure, prepare for what is coming and for creating jobs. His Majesty ordered for the creation of 50,000 jobs per year and we have already started it. The Civil Services has already taken 14,000 people in 2011. Tim: But you are talking about investment. We just heard that the biggest investments produced the greatest number of unemployment. HE Ahmed: Sure, but there are certain issues in Sohar. Most people in that area are fishermen and the investments in that area affected them in certain ways. A number of them gave up fishing and started looking for jobs. The other issue, a number of Omanis who lost their jobs in neighbouring countries came back and all this happened during the same time and
that’s why the percentage of unemployed people increased in that area. Tim: Does that explain how the biggest investment produced the greatest unemployment? HE Dr Salem: It could be one of the justifications but the real reason is that we started with capital intensive basic industries and they don’t generate jobs and it takes time. Jobs creation happens once you start going into downstream industries. Tim: So are there conditions for this phenomenon to be repeated? HE Dr Salem: As long as the expectations of the people are high, it will be repeated. Not everybody understands our programmes. January 2012 35
COVERSTORY there is this boiling pot. And we need to find out what’s going on, when is it going to erupt? You asked the question earlier ‘were we surprised?’ Yes we were surprised. Was it inevitable? Yes it was, but it is timing, we need to talk to them and come up with plans that please them at the end of the day. Tim: The government then has not done a very good job of listening to its people. Is it going to do a better job? HE Ahmed: I would say, not a very good job, but it did a good job to a certain extent. Do we need to improve it, yes we need to improve it. I think the government consists of the citizens… we are fathers also, we have sons, we are aware, we are really caring about the future of our sons.
HE Dr HE Salem ben Nasser Al Ismaily Tim: Hani Al Zubair, is there enough dialogue in the society? Hani: I think there is a lot of dialogue happening between the concerned authorities and business leaders and everybody else except the most important part of the society which is basically the youth. I think the issue is that we take it for granted that we know what the youth want. We know in our household what our children want or what they are aspire for. Tim: Do you mean the ordinary people of Oman or the government? Hani: The government and the people who have the ability to make the changes. Tim: The government is saying we know best? Hani: Absolutely. I am saying as parents we know what is best for our children. We do know for sure when it comes to ensure their safety and security, but do we know what their aspirations are? Or do we actually sit with them and find out what do they want? Tim: But the kids these days tell you what 36
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they want without waiting for you to ask, don’t they. Hani: (laughing) Times are changing, but I think we do need to listen to them a little bit more. It’s no longer acceptable for us to say to them, go away, sit together, decide what you think you want and have a nice weekend. There has to be a forum in which they sit with us and they tell us, face to face, what they want. What their aspirations are. Tim: You have had youth summits here, haven’t you Hani: We have had (emphasis) youth summits here. But the youth summits were for youth speaking to youth within Oman, outside Oman, talking about entrepreneurship or whatever. But it’s not them telling us what they want, what do they need, what do they aspire to going forward? We think we know what they want because we are the business leaders, because we are the government so we know what’s best for the country. Yes we know, I think we heard some fantastic figures from His Excellency the minister, that the business scenario is good, everything is fine but underneath
Tim: But clearly there is a reason why the people went to the streets because they weren’t being listened to? HE Ahmed: That I see. I say we need more, yes we do in a certain way. From the people who went to the streets there are lessons we have to learn. We cannot say they are totally wrong and we cannot say they are totally right. Tim: By and large, you think they were justified otherwise you wouldn’t have taken a number of very quick measures that you did take? HE Ahmed: As I said there were certain issues in which they were right, that’s why the government took decisions very quickly to meet their demands. That’s why we said ok, 50,000 jobs were announced by His Majesty, that was a very quick order. There are other issues being agreed upon and I think everybody knows about the issues which happened in the last 6-8 months. But still there are issues that are being worked upon and they have to wait till they are implemented. Things cannot be changed just like a miracle. When you talk about the mega projects in Sohar, the gas based industries, now we are talking about the secondary projects. These downstream projects will come but not in one year. It will take 2-3 years to create jobs for them after that. I think the important thing is education, to educate our children, we
COVERSTORY have to train them. Even the job seekers need to be trained for loyalty, how to honour their jobs. Education here has to emphasise on such issues. Tim: Adil Taqi, are you comforted by what you heard from HE Ahmed? Adil Taqi: I think the sense of urgency stems from two things. One, the consequences of not doing something are very negative. So if for example, the government had not met the demands the way it did, it could have got out of control. So, that was a driver of the sense of urgency… Tim: It did get out of control. Adil: It could have got out of control more, let us say. The other driver of the sense of urgency are the lost opportunities. Every minute gone by is gone forever. And I think, the world will not wait for us. And that cuts across everything. We just got to move three notches faster, whether there is a reason or not. Acting quickly is the way of life. And I think that mindset needs to come into play. And it is an important driver. If you take that to a macro level, if we had made decisions in the years gone by when we had fantastic growth, we would have achieved 60 years of growth in 41 years. And that is why speed is very important. Tim: Do you think that the demands will keep coming now that you have opened the flood gates? Is there a fear now that all that they need to do is to go on the streets and you will back down and do what they want? Adil: No I think this is in a sense a natural process and we have to evolve to find a new point of equilibrium. But I think Hani was making an important point – it’s about engagement and dialogue. We as government and citizens as HE Dheeb said, the government are citizens quite rightly and I agree with that. We were all surprised. The fact that we were all surprised suggested that we were not in touch with the street as business leaders, government officials etc. And we need to understand and not become too complacent too quickly by thinking that we have done enough. We also need brutal honesty, we have to be honest with 38
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ourselves, face reality, take decisions and make mistakes in the process. Everybody makes them. People who don’t make mistakes don’t work hard enough and don’t stretch the envelope far enough.
to go ahead. Today we have more than 220,000 Omanis working in the private sector, more than the government, which has only 140,000. So there are so many opportunities.
Tim: How far has Oman gone in placating the people’s demands? Do you think the people will go back on the streets? Dr Hatem: The possibility is always there. But I think the quick reaction has been quite assuring. It is necessary but it’s not sufficient for getting us out of the mood that we are in at the moment.
Tim: You are saying that the private sector is willing but it’s just the bureaucracy which is blocking it. Hussain: Yes the bureaucracy and the lack of coordination…
Tim: Was it a knee-jerk reaction, actually? Dr Hatem: It is and there will be consequences of some of the decisions that we have taken to put people in jobs that are not productive. It will have negative consequences. We are just starting to see that almost every year we will have 50,000 job seekers. We have to find jobs for them and the government cannot take all of them on board. The private sector does not have that much capacity either. We have a dilemma, we have been able to accumulate wealth, have achieved excellent growth but that growth has not been inclusive. And 50 per cent of the Omani population is between the age of 15 and 29. There are about one million Omanis in that age group. This is an immediate challenge for the government. And the public and the youth have to be assured that the government is in tune with their demands and able to meet their aspirations. Tim: The government is passing the pressure primarily on to the private sector Dr Hatem: Private sector has very limited capacity and if you keep pushing them, they will crack and this has to be well balanced. The government has more responsibility to handle this challenge. Tim: How much more can the private sector take in terms of pressure? Hussain: Well I think there is still a lot of opportunities for the private sector to grow. I think the bureaucracy and the lack of coordination in the government ministries is putting brakes on the private
Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb, what do you have to say? HE Ahmed: Well I don’t buy that the government has to do everything. Tim: But you do buy that the government is asking the private sector to step up to the plate but it is blocking it with bureaucracy… HE Ahmed: Let me put it this way. There is a role for the government and another role for the private sector. When we say the role of the government, its role is to prepare the legislation, the policies for the country and the private sector in terms of incentives. The role of the private sector is to utilise these services and run the businesses and create jobs. When we say creating jobs, the government alone cannot create 50,000 jobs per year. Tim: What about bureaucracy? HE Ahmed: Well, I don’t know where Hussain had this experience but I agree that the government is not having dialogue. In all the government plans and policies there are committees and the private sector participates in this. Tim: So you are saying there is no bureaucracy? HE Ahmed: In a certain way yes. Tim: How do you react to that Hussain? As a first exercise in dialogue, it’s not very hopeful. Hussain: In Oman we are always known to be really polite and diplomatic. I think we have to be diplomatic and say yes but in fact, it is a time when everybody’s eyes are open to see that we are in a very beautiful country and there are opportunities but we need more coordination and less bureaucracy.
commitment towards education. I think the government speaks about education as being the most important thing currently, however, there is a missing link between all the ministries. For example, we had thousands of posts in the army and people left their schools and colleges to join the army. So where is the priority for education?
HE Ahmed Hassan Al Dheeb Tim: The private sector has done pretty well, it’s had some very good years. Now the government wants its assistance. But the private sector is complaining about bureaucracy and making excuses. Now isn’t it time the private sector stood up and did its duty Hani: Absolutely. I don’t think it’s a one sided debate or a one sided argument. The private sector does have to play its role and I think the private sector in the past has not been active in employing local people. We paid a lot of lip service to it and we tried to find different methods and ways of doing things. I will give a small example. We used to have these sectoral committees to look after employment in certain sectors that are now being revived which I think is a great idea. And I was on the panel of two of these committees. One was in the automotive sector and the other was the accounting sector. When we looked at the numbers we found that 50 per cent of all registered foreign accountants in Oman were illiterate. Everybody around the table was shocked. For me, it wasn’t such a shock because our sector also played its role in those numbers. The Ministry of Manpower says
that you can’t have expatriate car washers but we know that trying to get Omanis at that early stage to wash cars all day long, 8-9 hours a day is very difficult. However we could have as many accountants as possible because there weren’t any in Oman and nobody was really checking as to what they were doing. So there were a lot of accountants washing cars. So people find ways to get around a system that is not working for them. Has the private sector done enough? No. Are we taking our part in the creation of the 50,000 jobs? Yes. But there is also a limitation. Has every company that has committed itself been able to fulfill its quota? I don’t think so. Not to that extent that anybody would wish because you can’t find the right people for the right job. We need to do more but we need to have the right people at the same time. It’s no good saying you need to take 20,000 more. But I need engineers or people who are at a certain level. But I can only have school leavers. Audience: Good morning I am Salman Hussain Al Lawati. I am an industrial engineer. I want to see more
HE Dr Salem: I don’t think education is only the priority of the government. This is God’s priority. If you are a Muslim, the first word that God said was Ikhra, read, recite, learn. So investment in people is extremely important. If you have a population that is not educated or trained it cannot be effectively engaged in production and therefore it is very important to educate people. Equally important and as I say, one of the most important human rights, is the right to employment. Employment is what is going to generate your livelihood. Therefore the private and the public sectors have got that responsibility. I think it is high time that corporate Oman realised that the society in which you operate is your most important stakeholder. Dr Hatem: Education is the passion of the community everywhere and without proper education it is difficult to go forward. Education is an enabler, it does not solve the problem. Obviously there are a lot of questions on the quality of education. We had been channeling a huge amount of money in the education sector, but its impact has not been equally effective as we have been trying to address the quantity side of education in the past – the amount or number of Omanis who were able to enroll in higher education was proportionately very low in the past. This year we had an exceptional time as about 64 per cent of the high school graduates have been taken by higher education institutes inside and outside Oman. The quality is another challenge. We have tried to address this issue by revising the curriculum and preparing the teachers better in the future but it has been a challenge. And practically, no matter how good the plan that we have for improving education, without committing more resources into education and trying January 2012 39
COVERSTORY hundreds and thousands of expatriates who have not even qualified from school. So how do we match this demand-supply situation which is available within the country. We don’t want this problem to recur five years from today, so what are we going to do about the education where we equip our Omani nationals to take up positions in future that is demanded by the private sector? HE Ahmed: I totally agree about the importance of education. Do we need to increase the quality of education? Yes I agree we need to. Tim: Is there a political will now to do it? HE Ahmed: There is, there is a will. I think we all heard about how the ministry of education is working on modifying the curriculum and trying to improve the level of education. And we have done it several years ago, when we started with basic schools, which changed the old way of education.
Hani Al Zubair to check the quality, we will not be able to realise the objectives.
able to compete internationally. We have still a way to go.
Tim: So is there a political will to do that? Dr Hatem: Officially yes
Audience: My name is Sridhar and I have been living here for the past 30 years. In a country which has hundreds of thousands of expatriates, finding jobs for about 50,000 people each year should not be a difficult issue. I think, two issues have come to me from the panel. One is Hani’s point. He said, I am willing to take people provided I get the right talent and experience. And the other point is about education. I think we need to look at it in two manners. How do I solve the present problem? The present problem is that we have hundreds of thousands of Omanis requiring jobs. At the same time, I have
Tim: And in practice? Dr Hatem: In practice you have to go beyond the commitment verbally and commit resources. Education everywhere is the top priority of the government. In England, for example, Tony Blair has said, education, education, education. We have not even got close to that. Every country in the world which want to be competitive has to address the issue of education. This is an important prerequisite to be 40
January 2012
Tim: But it wasn’t enough HE Ahmed: Yes it wasn’t enough. But the world is changing fast. We have to go with the changes. A few years ago, we were not online, now we are on Twitter and Facebook live. So there is a change and we have to go with the change. We have to go very quickly I agree. The government has a lot of responsibility but it is not just the government’s responsibility, we need the participation of the private sector to provide good private schools. Regarding the balance between unemployment and the employed, there are a lot of expatriates who are below secondary schools, but when it comes to Omanis business houses want qualified Omanis. Why do we ask for a qualified Omani and not the same from an expatriate worker? I think the reason is the financial difference. The government is working on providing quality education to Omanis through training institutions, technical colleges and scholarships. Tim: Maybe the government is not reacting fast enough to change the education or maybe the right people aren’t in government?
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COVERSTORY HE Ahmed: Well I would say we have to move fast and increase our speed a little bit… Tim: Maybe we need new faces as the priorities are changing. HE Ahmed: If I said yes, I would be replaced (audience laugh and clap) HE Dr Salem: I don’t want to go on an overkill on the education. While it is important, it’s not everything. I know many countries which have invested in education and they have lot of people who are educated but are unemployed. What’s important is the creation of opportunities. Tim: Is that an argument against education? HE Dr Salem: No its not. It is an argument for creating an environment that is conducive to do business. And that is important. Equal opportunity is important. Suppose what will happen if we want to marginalise people because of their gender. Or if we say, women cannot work in our country. We are only working on 50 per cent of the installed capacity. The gentleman who has been here for the past 30 years has played a very important role in the development of our economy. And I believe that any person who lives in Oman, whether Omani or non-Omani, has the potential to contribute to economic development. And therefore, should have an equal opportunity to participate in the development of the economy. Tim: You mentioned women. Are there enough opportunities for women? HE Dr Salem: If not, we have to create them. Let me give you an example, I don’t know if you know about a guy named Abdul Fatah. He was from Homs in Syria. Because he didn’t have an equal opportunity in his country, he emigrated to California in the US. He found a nice American lady and had a baby. Unfortunately, the parents didn’t want an Arab Muslim to marry their daughter. So the child was adopted. That child did not finish formal education but was one of the most important innovator in our time and his name was Steve Jobs. I 42
January 2012
wonder how many Steve Jobs are waiting to be still discovered in Homs, Syria today because of the lack of opportunity (audience claps) Adil: Very often you hear on debates and you hear it elsewhere that there is mindset of a private public sector that you need to work on. Most businessmen will tell you that their employees are their most important resource. And I think it is way beyond lip service. Any sensible businessman would say, my good employees are my real assets. These are the guys who create opportunities and create value. The private sector will always be under countless pressure. They will have shareholders who will demand to make money. But I think self interest is the wider objective. Recruiting the right sort of people is what the business needs. And I think we need to, in the short term, have the quota systems and the percentages of Omanisation. In the long term, I think if the Omani workforce is competitive as any other, the employer will pick the right employee and the right value creator for him. And in my view it is the competitiveness that we should focus on. Tim: The best person for the job or the best Omani Adil: I think the best person for the job because… Tim: Despite the quotas… Adil: I think despite the quotas, because I think if you have the right competitiveness, the quotas would become irrelevant. Audience question: Good morning, my name is Lubna Al Kharusi. I think we all understand what the issues are, education, encouraging entrepreneurship, transparency. But my question is about whether we have clear vision, plan, targets on how to address these issues. If there are no measurable targets we will keep talking for the next 20 years and nothing will happen. (Audience claps). Dr Hatem: Well the intention is always there. And the ministry has been very vocal, especially the young minister of education has been trying extremely
hard and I think she has what it takes to move the education and to improve it significantly in the future. She needs a lot of support. As I said, support from the government in order to provide the financial resources, support from the community to understand where we are heading, and as far as measuring the education performance, it is very clear, there is always high or international standards and there are competitions across the globe where nations compete to see how their education system is faring. And when there is a lack of progress in some countries, they raise a national alarm. Tim: Dr Salem can you help the question on clear vision? HE Dr Salem: I believe that the vision is probably slightly blurred for the time being but it has been tuned in and I totally agree with the lady’s suggestions for cleaning up procedures by creating institutions, because these institutions coordinate and interact with individuals, firms and the government. And they have to be well functioning in terms of its enforcement. However we have to slowly move from the dependence on an individual to the dependence on systems. Because if we empower a person, that person inherits a seat or position that he has and the worst thing that could happen is that somebody in public places utilises it for private benefit. If we eliminate the person, we go back to transparency, good corporate governance and depend upon a system rather than an individual. It means you can get your services, whereever you are, whenever you need them, without the need to see a person. That will be the day the people can say we can relax a bit. Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb, the accusation is, there is no clear vision and the government doesn’t do anything. HE Ahmed: Well, I can say that the government has a vision but how clear it is… Tim: It is not clear enough to the lady (points out at Lubna). HE Ahmed: If I were to ask the minister of education whether we have a vision,
the people and say, look it’s a job and it earns a living and it’s a way of feeding your family. Audience: My name is Eihab Al Hajj, I have a private company and in this, 30 per cent of my staff is busy handling the bureaucracy. What kind of message does that send to the investor in the market? That’s an extra burden you have to take on board when you want to set up a business.
Adil Taqi she will say yes we have vision. But if we ask whether this vision satisfies others, then that is another issue. Tim: It may be there but it’s not being clearly articulated. HE Ahmed: Of course, people’s aspirations are more than what we have as of now. Do we need education only education’s sake or for employment? We say we have to educate our people for the future so that they get jobs in Oman. Why should they get jobs only in Oman, they can get jobs outside Oman as well. Every year the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education coordinates with the government and the private sector asking about the workforce that is needed, what sort of demand will arise in the next five years so that opportunities can be created for school leavers and graduates. Tim: Hani Al Zubair, is it a fair accusation that there is no clear vision? Hani: I totally agree. I think if the people creating these visions were in the private sector instead of being in the government sector, they probably will be out of their
jobs. We have a plan, a vision and there are clear timelines, clear goals that are measurable. Everybody in the company knows where we are going. It has to be clear for everybody to know. Tim: Do you think government needs more discipline Hani: I am not sure whether they need more discipline. I think I have go back to my earlier point, which is dialogue. There may be some great plans somewhere but nobody knows about them. We just know that the government is looking at tourism. Is there a clear line as to where we want to be, how do we want to get there, how do we encourage the private sector because this is what the government says – the private sector has to play its role. We want to play our role but is it crystal clear, where we want to go, so that we actually know how to navigate in order to get there? Before you move on, I just want to make a comment on job creation. A great percentage of expatriates are in very low paid jobs and unfortunately, you cannot find Omanis that are willing to take up those jobs. So there has to be a way for us to limit that expectation of
Adil: I think employability is an important point, if you look at the gross numbers. We have 40,000-50,000 thousand people coming on to the job market every year. I think there is a consensus that employability is our biggest challenge. We have to recognise that with the 220,000 people in the private sector and the 140,000 in the public sector, the required rate of job creation cannot be sustained with our current way of thinking. We have to look at entrepreneurship as being important and we need to look at how many entrepreneurs we have created in the last 20 years. Fifty years ago, just about everybody was an entrepreneur. The government has to see itself as an enabler of the business environment and do what its customers requires it to do. And this is a two-way street, private businesses have thrived and made money in the last 40 years in this country. They also got to listen and do what the government expects them to do. But the dialogue has to be facilitated and managed. Hussain and I were talking before we came in and we were saying what we need in the government is a department of simplicity and this department has to issue reports, be accountable and transparent. Trust me, the cost of doing business in Oman could drop considerably by just doing that one simple thing. Hussain: Simplicity and less bureaucracy will automatically lead to many things. And when we come to the point of planning, I think we really plan well. But today’s world doesn’t need complicated planning. Over the years we have been to different countries, we go to Singapore and take really good ideas and say, yes, Oman is small, like Singapore and why January 2012 43
COVERSTORY can’t we do this? It is very easy. But when we come to the implementation part, and to get the ball rolling it gets difficult. Tim: Dr Salem, Adil Taqi’s point on the department of simplicity. How much more simple can you get? HE Dr Salem: What I wanted to say is that it is very important for people, when they are not happy with what they see from the government, to be able to change through peaceful means. And the government has to react to those demands. Otherwise if we do not allow them to change through peaceful means, they will use other means. But let me ask you one question (pointing to the audience and addressing them). How many of you, this year, voted for Majlis A’Shura? Can you raise your hands… (Very few hands go up among the audience) And you are asking for change. You don’t even practice your basic right to vote. How can you have change. HE Darwish cannot approve the budget before it is discussed and challenged by Majlis A’Shura and these are your elected representatives. You should sit with your elected representatives and place all of your concerns with them because now they have been empowered based on the demands of the people. And you know very well a few ministers who were elected by the people directly were appointed as ministers. They should be accountable for their actions. Do you think it is a free ride? And you have that instrument, that institution, use it. Tim: I would like to take one more vote. How many people didn’t vote because they didn’t think it would make any difference? (Some hands are raised). OK. Quite a few people. Which is a different problem isn’t it? HE Dr Salem: Yes it is Tim: If they felt their vote wouldn’t change anything HE Dr Salem: They have to change their paradigm of thinking Tim: They don’t believe that it is going to change anything, that it s going to work HE Dr Salem: When people spoke, 15 44
January 2012
Dr Hatem Al Shanfari
ministers lost their jobs, what else do you want? (audience claps) Audience: I am Sana Al Balushi, from the ministry of education. Regarding the earlier question of whether the government has the will to change things, I want to say that the government has the will and we have seen that since 1970 the concentration has been on the spread of education. Initially, the focus was on the quantity side, but from 1995, our focus has been on the quality, but it takes time. Besides, there are a lot of reforms underway right now. One of them is the establishment of the National Career Guidance Centre. We are also working on a panel to promote entrepreneurial skills. Dr Hatem: I know they are doing a very hard in trying to move the process forward improving the quality of education. They are just at the beginning. They have a long way to go. There can never be enough dialogue. We just started this, we
need to do more of this. The government is disciplined but they have not been inclusive and the way they were doing things in the past will not be relevant and they have to think about new ways. Audience: I am a student at the British School Muscat. And my question is — Has the expatriate community been engaged enough in the long term solution and debate. Especially because they are the key stakeholders and occupy many of the high skilled jobs in Oman? HE Ahmed: First of all we would like to thank the expatriate community. They have done a lot for the development of the country. I think yes we do, really the government considers expatriates’ experience in different sectors. We at the ministry of commerce and industry have committees which have expatriates from the private sector as members and we take their advise. We cannot ignore the role they are playing and we cannot replace the whole expatriate community.
COVERSTORY Tim: You don’t want to replace a lot of them… HE Ahmed: We would like to replace them with Omanis and create jobs. This is the aim and objective of any country in the world, to create jobs for your own citizens. This is not something unique to Oman but a lot of countries around the world do it. Tim: Isn’t there a danger that in the process of Omanisation that the expatriates will feel unwanted and undervalued HE Ahmed: I don’t think so. When we started Omanisation, the number of expatriates kept on increasing because of the increasing development programmes. We don’t say that we are going to have 100 per cent Omanis in all sectors. It cannot be and it will not be. Five years ago, we had about 500,000 expatriates, now we have close to a million. We don’t think there is a threat of replacing all expatriates. But there is a demand and request from our citizens. And I hope that the government will be able to satisfy the request of its citizens by creating jobs for them. Adil: I Just want to make a small point about Omanis and expatriates. I think in terms of employment, Omanisation is a percentage of total employment, so in a sense the more expatriates we have, the more jobs we have for Omanis if you look at it another way. But I’ll come to the Omanisation point I made earlier. The SMEs is the one sector that is forgotten. Tim: SMEs? Adil: Eihab (from the audience) was talking about bureaucracy and Omanisation as an added cost for a start-up business. But If you are relaxed with them by way of regulation, I think you possibly allow more businesses to set up and therefore more chances for greater number of businesses in the future that then will take a larger number of Omanis. But if you increase the cost of doing business right from the word go, chances are that a lot of money that would have gone to setting up businesses would sit in banks. 46
January 2012
Audience: As a small part of the private sector, I think that the point of dialogue with the youth is very important. But the dialogue has to be two-way. Yes we have to listen to their aspirations but we have to make sure that the aspirations are realistic. My customers demand of me professional competence and experience. Experience does not come with a piece of paper. Experience comes with starting at the bottom and working your way up through the system. The young Omanis I interview on a regular basis do not want to start at the bottom. Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb, what would you say to that? HE Ahmed: Omanis don’t want to start at the bottom and this was true maybe 5, 7 or 10 years ago. But now you will find Omanis in all the sectors and at all levels. You will now find a demand for all kinds of the jobs. But there are some complaints about the way they are treated and the salary levels they are getting from the private sector. I have seen an old lady working in the private sector for 25 years and she has been getting only RO250. This is not fair and people would not be willing to do this kind of a job. And that is why we saw people from the private sector getting onto the streets. On the other hand we have companies who have achieved 70-80 per cent Omanisation and the workers are very happy with those companies, because they are treated well, there are growth plans, and training opportunities. So we have companies who complain about Omanisation, and we have companies who say Omanisation is good and Omanis are hardworking. So there are sides, everyone is not excellent nor is everyone bad. Just to talk about bureaucracy, this issue has cropped up many times here in this debate. Things have changed in the last three to four years ago. For example, at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s one stop shop, 85 per cent of applications received are processed on the same day. And these numbers are documented with us. There are some things which have a long process but as I said we are improving.
Hani: I want to go back to the lady who is working for RO250 for such a long time. I think there has been failure on two parts for that lady. The organisation, not helping her to develop; and the woman not developing herself. We have had similar issues within our organisation. If we have drivers, I can’t potentially see that I am ever going to pay a driver RO1,000 or RO2,000, no matter how long he works for me. But what I would like to actually do is to develop the person to be able to take the next tier job, so that he can move into a different bracket. And I agree that the private sector doesn’t play its role in developing its own internal people as much as possible but also I think there is also a lot of resistance, with some people who just want to do the same job. They are comfortable and they are happy where they are. I don’t think salary is a factor of how long you have been with a company, but it should be productivity and quality and the level of job being actually done by the person. Hussain: Well, I want to comment on the question that the Omanis don’t want to start from the bottom. Culturally, our forefathers worked outside Oman in the neighbouring countries in all kinds of jobs. Of course, in this new generation, we have a generation gap. The generation that came out after the 1970s, opened their eyes to the modern things and there is a cultural problem. Omanis are reluctant to work in the construction sector or in other sectors that require working in harsh conditions and this will take time to change. I think the private sector needs to bear a responsibility to train such youngsters, even at a cost. Tim: Is it also the case in the society that the expectations from young people are too high, professor Shanfari? Dr Hatem: It is understood that the expectations will always be high from the young ones. The people are always aspiring to a better position, to a better life, and if they are not able to get what they wanted, they get very disappointed and express their disappointment in many ways, sometimes in unpleasant ways. But I think the young Omanis and the community in general is very
Omanis don’t want to start at the lowest level. I think, as a desire, that is not a crime. We all want a little better. It’s how that expectation is managed and addressed through the education system. I think attitude is the big part of the education system that has often been overlooked. I just want to pick up on the Omanis in the construction industry. We have three fantastic sites where we’ve got 550 Omanis based on site. And they do work up to 12 hours a day. They have dug our marinas, they have moved the earth, constructed villas and done a lot of other things. So I think there are two sides, there is awareness and there is a need to engage people to shoulder the challenge. And I think people will respond, people do respond.
Hussain Jawad
reasonable and the events that have taken place in February and March despite its negative aspects showed that there is a lot of maturity and understanding. People are not insane in their expectations, people are aspiring for a better future; the fact is that they have been excluded from the benefit of the wealth that has been created and the economic growth plus the jobs that have been created in the past. Even though it has been growing at a very fast rate, it was not the right types of jobs that Omanis are aspiring for. It’s the not the jobs that can create sustainability. Tim: Dr Salem, you wanted to add something. There is also the point that people are not taking responsibility for themselves which is Hani’s point. HE Dr Salem: Indeed and this is not an attack or an accusation that Omanis do not want to take jobs at the bottom but what I want to say to the Omanis is that they have to start from the bottom. I started with the British Bank of the Middle East with the salary of RO25, and then I moved to Cable and Wireless,
laying cables in the ground and believe me the terrain over here is not that easy to dig channels and lay the cable; then I got an increase of RO25 so I got RO50 . I have done other jobs like a table waiter for Mc Donalds, then a truck driver etc. I wish I had started as a minister, but my overnight success to become a minister took me 28 years. . (audience claps). Audience: My name is Nutayla Al Kindy. If we go to the government sector, and you go into their offices, the mood is completely different from a private company. People are very lazy, laid back and nobody is willing to work. On the contrary if you go to the private sector you see people working long hours, they are probably paid better but at the end of the day they are efficient. If we want our children to understand that they have to start small and then grow, then we need to train them. We have a large expatriate community, because they are willing to work harder. So, how are you going to tackle this element? Adil: I just want to pick up on the topic,
Tim: Let me go back to the questioner here. You raised a lot of questions. How would you answer some of them? Nutayla: How would I answer? I have to become a minister first. It goes back to the education. I don’t think that education system is up to par. We only have about four really good schools and if you can’t afford to put your children there, then they don’t have a good base. So it has to start there. That’s one. Secondly, why can’t the public sector start establishing training institutes? Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb. Why can’t the public sector do them? HE Ahmed: We are organising trainings. At the same time, we have over 50 private training centres providing courses and the government subsidises the training of Omanis. These private training centres are supposed to have good quality trainers so that they can create qualified Omanis. Well I would agree that we have to put a lot of money and quality human resources and trainers for training. One of the reasons why we have 90 per cent Omanisation in the banks is because we have very high quality financial colleges with the graduates that can go to the banks and do the jobs. I do agree totally that in our industrial estates we should have very good training institutes that can train Omanis who can be absorbed into industries. But this is not only the government’s job, it is also the job January 2012 47
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COVERSTORY past education system was not up to the standards that everybody expects.
of the private sector. The government is spending millions of rials on the initiative.
Audience: (Dr Amer Rawas, CEO, Omantel). I would like to build on Dr Hatem’s latest comment on education that a graduate in history in UK will find a good job in a bank. I think for us to achieve that we need a paradigm shift in the way we deliver education. Right now our education is predominantly a teaching paradigm. I think we need to move to a learning paradigm. We should equip our students with the capacity to learn independently. I think this is a role that can only be driven by the government and the government should lead this paradigm shift. But once these graduates move onto a job, then the private sector has a greater role to play by accommodating these graduates, not expecting them to deliver on the same day; but do some on the job training and equip them with specific skills required for the specific function for them to deliver the expected results.
Hani: May I just add that the comments I think are absolutely spot on. The private sector also needs to play its role in this area. The biggest worry that I have in Oman is that every company fears that it is competing with everyone else and nobody wants to help anyone else out. Finally after many years of arguing, fighting and deliberations, I think the automotive sector has finally managed through the efforts of a single person to sit down together and agree that we all pool our resources together and create a big institution that we can actually deliver the kind of people that we need for our organisations. I think that if the other sectors can do a similar kind of thing that’s the best way to really start up the SMEs. Tim: Dr Salem, you want to throw a pebble into these comforting waters, certainly don’t you? HE Dr Salem: I think if the government were to give subsidies to these institutes for training, you will get institutes but you won’t get training because people will always go after the subsidies. I think what’s important is to have a healthy competition, when you have healthy competition, you will have innovation and creativity. If the government were to provide subsidies they should give them to the people and allow the people the freedom to choose which training institute they want to go to and allow the market to decide in terms of which one would meet their requirement. Tim: We have one question from Twitter. What is being done to bridge the gap between education and employment in terms of skills beyond the seminars? Dr Hatem: I believe in education for the sake of education to start with. In countries where the education programme is good like UK for example, a graduate in history is able to take a very challenging job in the banking industry or investment banking. So it’s not the issue of education. Do you have the right education and if you have 50
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Audience question: Dr Amer Al Rawas the right education, the right attitude? These skills can be transferable and through on job training you can change through the challenges that are ahead of you. So I say that still the quality of education is a real issue. Without having the right skills it is very difficult to progress and very difficult to have the employability as others who have a good education. Audience: I am Saad Al Jenaibi. What happened back in February was something that I would call a wake-up call. A wake-up call for both the private and the public sectors. Because both of us are losers if we don’t work together. I think the government has done enough, but the private sector has to do a lot more and they have to work together. I also think we need to scrap our vision of 2020 and go to 2040, realising that the
Audience: My name is Mohammed Al Kharusi. I am from the MB Group of Companies. What we need is a radical rethink in terms of the vision, strategy, training and what Oman wants to have in terms of employment. The sort of industries we are creating are probably capital intensive needing very high level of skills which takes a long time to actually develop. What we need are industries or individuals who can be trained very quickly say within three or four weeks and they can be up and running. Industries which can take Omani products and add value to them, so that we can employ the 50, the 60 or the 70 thousand people who will be coming out in the next five years. I would suggest some sort of a think tank consisting of technocrats, government and investment authorities and entrepreneurs to look at all the issues that are hindering us from moving forward. Tim: OK. Thank you very much. There is one more question. Audience: My name is Mohammed Al Harthy. I am the CEO of OPAL. There are two comments which I want to make.
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COVERSTORY to change policies and discussion topics in the country, if they feel that anything that they do is not going to have the right result or in a quick time as possible, that this is going to happen, I think it is worrying. Hussain: I voted for no because as the road is going on, I feel we have learned the lessons and we are all going to change. If we are not going to change, of course, then the 70 per cent are right.
Audience question: Nutayla Al Kindy, Head of Corporate Communication, PDO One is about expatriates versus Omanis. Expatriates needs to be respected and they are respected. With respect to salary differences, let’s not only talk about low level salaries, but as a CEO, I would love to have an expatriate salary as well. Second is about education. Education is important and a paradigm shift is needed, however I think, we need to start from the basics – we need to study the supply and demand properly to understand what needed and then gear our education system to provide those needs. Tim: Thank you. We are running out of time. I would like to take one more vote from you. Question: Do you fear a repeat of the protests that took place in February? Here we are. 71 per cent fear a repeat of the protests, 29 per cent do not. Dr Salem, before you go back to some of the other questions, your reaction to this vote. This is quite alarming, isn’t it? HE Dr Salem: But its natural. Tim: Why? HE Dr Salem: Because we have to work on improving, we cannot stop… Tim: Under the threat of continuing protests? 52
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HE Dr Salem: Indeed, we have to be very much proactive. We have to… Tim: Is that going to bring out the best in you? HE Dr Salem: I hope it will. Tim: Ahmed Al Dheeb. Are you alarmed by that? HE Ahmed: Well if we didn’t improve our services and we don’t create jobs for Omanis yes will find that. I think from most of the questions that we heard today we can make out that most people are not satisfied about the bureaucracy, the government’s speed of decision making. But what I can say is that the government is working, we will have to increase our speed, I think. Some decisions have to be made faster. A lot of people have been talking about the vision and the right vision. A vision is usually an indicator, a guideline for the government. We have had a vision from 1995, which is the Vision 2020. It has targets and numbers and tools to those goals. In fact in certain sectors, we are already way ahead of what is enumerated in Vision 2020 document. Hani: I think this is scary. If we have a room full of business leaders, government officials, people who have more capability
Dr Hatem: If you were to ask the same question to the young people in Oman, the percentage would be very high, close to 100 per cent. And I am more happy to see this because this is reflective of the people’s feelings. It’s not scary, because it’s the reality that we have to face. If we were going to be reactive, it is going to cause more problems. Adil: I think the statistics are useful and healthy. One, it is reflective of how people feel and also it is going to keep complacency at bay. I think it is going to keep us focused and raise the level of urgency. But I think what this highlights is that we believe and know that the issues are never going to go away fully. People evolve, their aspirations evolve and grow, and they will always have issues and this goes back to the point made earlier by Hani about the dialogue. We need to find ways to engage the street in the policy making. And then only will it be a much better place. HE Dr Salem: We started with education and we ended up with education and in the middle job creation. I hope we don’t confuse between job creation and job substitution because Omanisation at the end of the day is nothing but job substitution. We don’t create anything by replacing one person with another person. Again, we have to change the basic meaning of education. It should not be teaching students of what to believe but it should be teaching students how to think. When they are creative then other things will follow. Tim: Thanks audience.
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COVERSTORY
PERFORM OR PERISH
The Oman Debate 2011 Session 2 titled ‘Oman – At the Crossroads’ raised concerns about the increasing cost of doing business, dominance of family businesses and lack of employable Omanis. Excerpts
Participants – Session 2 Dr Mohamed Abdulaziz Kalmoor CEO, Bank Sohar;
Ross Cormack CEO, Nawras
Faisal Al Lawati
Executive Director, Genetco
Dr Brian D P Buckley
General Manager & CEO, Oman LNG
Tim Sebastian Moderator 54
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Tim: Is the private sector committed to Omanisation? OK, we have the results: 60 per cent say it is and 40 per cent say that it is not. Dr Brian Buckley, What do you think? Dr Brian: One of the commitments of companies in joint ventures with foreign partners is for technology transfer, skill transfer, Omanisation and that is like a cradle. If you look at the region, there is a need to create 60 million jobs over the next ten years to meet the aspirations of young people. Oman’s challenge with this
50,000 minus 20,000 people retiring every year is to create around 30,000 jobs per year. So in this context the need for Omanisation is urgent and very strong. Tim: How committed can the private sector be when they have only 15 per cent Omanisation? Dr Brian: I would not like to speak on behalf of the entire private sector as you have quoted a figure that I am not aware of, I am only aware of my sector which is the oil and gas sector and probably it is a bit privileged. The sector accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s income and is a
very important sector. In the oil and gas sector we are talking about 75 per cent of Omanisation and in some companies anywhere between 90 –95 per cent Omanisation. This is a sector which is very technical, requires advanced skills and is a sector where Omanisation has worked. Faisal: It is not a question of whether the private sector is committed to Omanisation or not, but whether the right skills are available for companies to employ. If I were to speak about our company we are always on the lookout for Omanis, but finding the right skills in the market is a challenge. Tim: What would you recommend doing about that? Faisal: Training; there is a need to concentrate on a lot of training. There are colleges and universities for higher skills, but there is a need for a lot of lower level skills in the market and that needs to be addressed. Dr Mohamed: The private sector requires employees to conduct work, and they would prefer to have Omanis, but there should be a case where Omanis should also be inclined to take home the available jobs. You mentioned a figure of 15 per cent, we need to see as to which sectors and in which organisations these 15 per cent are; in certain sectors this figure is as high as 92 per cent; it is the same Omanis and it is the same private sector. So the question is not whether the private sector is committed or not; I presume they are committed to Omanisation. Some sectors have the enablers to give what it takes to get Omanis on board. And what are these, the first one is pay, which entices an Omani to take up a job. Secondly there are jobs where the minimum salary that is being paid is not good or attractive enough for the private sector. Thirdly, there is the social acceptability part of the jobs – would Omanis like to be sweepers or construction workers? One should not just look at statistics but go deep into it. Ross: Omanisation has been one of the secrets of our success.
Dr Mohamed Abdulaziz Kalmoor Tim: Yet His Majesty asks you to do more, so in that sense it cannot be that much of a success? Ross: It’s been a success because we have been in a position to create employment beyond our company. Listening to the Debate till now I think we need to create whole swathes and sectors which can provide employment for Omanis, and small and medium enterprises are going to be a focal point for this. We were given very stiff Omanisation targets and this has helped our success as it has helped us be closer to our customers, understand our customers, whom to work with as partners and we have built up a large distribution network because we had the right people. Tim: Right people with the right skills? Ross: Not initially, but we emphasised a lot on training. We got a lot of people from outside our industry as the only place that we could have got people was from our noble competition and that would never have worked as we would have ended up fighting for the same resources. We have some people who worked in other countries and that worked well as they
worked as envoys for training Omanis and they moved onto other markets. Tim: I would like to hear from some people who voted no or felt that the private sector is not committed to Omanisation? Audience: My name is Ahmed Fahad Salem, I have been in a unique position for the last one year and nine months as I am a regional trainer in my company, while I was a trainer for a year. One of the things that I have noticed here in Oman is the lack of self motivation and it is not something that can be resolved by governmental decisions, but can be resolved through strict quality assurance regulations for the private and public sector and this will take care of the lack of motivation. Audience: My name is Hassan Ali, I think that the private sector and employers are not committed to Omanisation because there are no proper statistics available for Omanisation. For example, in 2002, there were 71,000 people employed in the private sector and today it is 200,000; and if you see the number of January 2012 55
COVERSTORY people coming out of schools and colleges it is around 70,000 to 80,000. The government publishes the number and percentage of people who are employed, but it does not publish unemployment figures. In addition, we have a problem of sponsorship. Earlier an expatriate could open a company with an Omani sponsor and the latter would be paid RO20-25 on the employment of every expatriate per month, and because of this we do not have exact unemployment numbers. Dr Brian: If I look at the pyramid of the expatriates employed at senior employment levels then we may have cases of some who are highly paid; but then I do not have the protection of the labour law and have a fixed contract more than that I have three jobs – one is to grow the business in a professional way; second is to train Omanis and third is to make myself redundant and that is a serious aspiration. Tim: You have not succeeded on the third one? Dr Brian: I am working on it, when we look at the other end of the pyramid, in our business we require small companies to bid for the workforce. They require to take on qualified workers and then it is the lowest cost. So when there is a subsidy wherein the expatriate labour will get in because of his lower cost, then there is an issue. It reminds me of an anecdote of a Scottish couple returning from India in 1949-50. They were returning from India after Independence and they had earned enough to bring back an Indian maid, they arrived on Monday. And on Wednesday, she comes to the lady of the house and says, Memsahib, memsahib, please come to the window, there is a white man collecting garbage. In a way there is a lot of this unskilled and semi skilled work, apart from this, there is a lot of trade work for which we neither prepare nor train our people for and it is honourable work that earns a good income. If you see the percentage of retained income in the country if a local workforce is employed then there will be a huge multiplier effect in the economy. So there is a traditional and cultural values that need to be approached, more so when we have a 56
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Audience question: Samir Fancy, Chairman, Renaissance Services country which has a young population. Tim: Ross are you working on making yourself redundant and if so is there a timeline? Ross: Yes, If you see how we have built our company then you can see this happening visibly. Tim: You are grooming an Omani successor? Ross: Yes, that is the intention. The way we do this is that we have more than one potential successor. It is a competitive approach. Audience: (Samir Fancy, Chairman, Renaissance Services). I was amazed at that figure wherein 60 per cent said that the private sector is committed to Omanisation and 40 per cent said no, because in reality the private sector does not operate like that. The private sector sees Omanisation as a cost and a problem, they do not see it as a imperative and an opportunity and the gap is what needs to be filled by the government, because all the issues being discussed fall into that gap.
Tim: Mohammed Kalmoor, would you like to comment on that. Dr Mohamed: Yes there is a cost and it comes down to the organisation and whether it will survive. The issue once again comes down to the pay as to whether he is getting the right pay for the job and for the private sector organisation to pay it must be in a position to do competitively what it is doing. To have more Omanis working we need to enlarge the private sector itself, and bring it upto a higher level than what it is. Tim (to Samir): Do you agree with it? Samir: Partially yes; the reality is a sum of what everyone has said. There is a big educational process, for example if you have a technical business then you are forced to employ Omanis but there are none in the field. So what does one do, one takes on Omanis so that one is able to get the right technical expertise from outside. Faisal: Yes I agree that the private sector is committed to Omanisation, but there
COVERSTORY is a cost. In certain cases we need to have a certain percentage of Omanis in a certain job, but we are not in a position to find them. We go to the ministry and ask them to help us find these people and they say sorry, we do not have any. There is a choice of taking Omanis from other fields and then training them, but there is a cost. The point about transparent statistics is important because it helps you to understand how many Omanis are available per skills or region. Tim: The next question coming up for voting is – Have the recent changes in the labour law affected productivity? The results have come in; 74 per cent say it has affected productivity and 24 per cent say no. Ross: Yes, it has affected productivity but not from a personal stand point where it hit most was the SMEs, as their costs have increased substantially overnight. We have not felt the impact directly but the whole input price has been affected upwards as a result of this. Three years back we saw inflation climbing up and the government intervened with a cap on rentals, food etc, and I see a lot of that returning. In an industry like ours where people expect rates to come down all the time, we are facing an upward pressure. Tim: Is this a huge pressure when people are still reeling under the impact of the global financial crisis? Dr Mohamed: No necessarily. When one talks about productivity, it means the amount of work that one does in one hour. When a person gets two days off and he comes back rejuvenated and they can be productive in those 45 hours that they work. It varies from organisation to organisation on how a company keeps up motivation levels. It may however affect productivity in the manufacturing sector as you require a certain number of people per machine. Dr Brian: There are so many factors that affect productivity at a work place where the Labour Law has a relatively minor impact. Secondly, you need to see the law in the context in which it has evolved like the FTA with the US, requirements of the ILO and the need for a structure that 58
January 2012
Ross Cormack provides some protection for workers and this is just an evolution of that. The key factor that affects productivity is based on how the management manages and motivates its staff. It does have an impact on small business with two or three staff, the retail business and restaurants, but entrepreneurs, I am sure, will find out ways to get over these. Faisal: One of the things that we need to look at is the way they were able to get these changes done; it was done by force; because of the people’s actions and resistance the government decided to increase minimum wages and bring about changes in the Labour Law. What I am worried about is that it gives people a feeling that whenever they want something they can go on the streets and get things done and this will certainly affect productivity. Dr Brian: The changes in the Labour Law and the increase in minimum wages are two separate questions. The increase in minimum wages has had a huge impact
on the economy of this country, so the cost base of everyone has increased and contractors and service providers are struggling to cope with this increase. Tim: Can we hear from someone who has been badly affected by the changes in the Labour Law? Audience: My name is Hussain and I have a small business of manufacturing safety boots for the last 15 years. The increase in minimum wages and the reduction of the number of working days has impacted the sustainability and profitability of our business. The government looked at only benefitting the employee and not the employer, while the latter play the main role in running the economy. Hundreds of companies may close in the next one or two years if things do not change in terms of government support to the private sector. Tim: What should the government do to help out these companies? Dr Mohamed: It’s not about how to
COVERSTORY relieve the burden but how to increase competitiveness of the country as a whole, because if these companies are not able to pay those wages then it means that they are not competitive. So there is a need to restructure the economy. Tim: What about the role of banks? Dr Mohamed: Banks are there for the economy as a whole. If anyone comes to a bank with the right project and knows what he is doing, then the banks will be very happy to help them. Tim: Mr Hussain, what kind of help are you expecting from the government? Hussain: When these changes occurred, we formed a committee and requested the government to reduce our rents, but there was no response from the government. We put forward 200 proposals, but we have not heard anything from the government for the last eight months. Faisal: The government does take a lot of time in studying and executing things and this is something that we would like to see changed. While the government needs to speed up the process of decision making, it also need to take the right measures. Tim: In Britain whenever they want to delay something they set up a Royal Commission, you will not be going in that direction. Faisal: No. Audience Question: (Mohammed Ali, MD, Galfar). Oman’s economy is based on government spending and there is a move to shift from government spending to a more robust private sector. With the increase in wages, Oman has become uncompetitive in the region in the manufacturing sector. Because of the protectionism of the economy the entrepreneurial spirit of the Omani youth is not being nurtured, and that needs to be promoted so that we can become competitive and survive. Tim: Lets go to the third question – Is the lack of employable Omanis a standard excuse by the private sector? The results are as follows – 49 per cent say yes and 51 per cent say no. 60
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Audience question: Dr Mohamed Ali, Managing Director, Galfar Ross: I have heard this being said in numerous sectors but in the telecom sector this has not been a problem. We have stunningly competent people and 87 per cent of them are Omanis. Omanis are naturally entrepreneurial and if you do not have Omanis in your team you are unlikely to be successful. People have the right skills, but they are not prepared for the world of work and they do not have the kind of expectations that I wish they had like looking for the entrepreneurial opportunity once they are out of school. Faisal: The way I look at it is that it differs from industry to industry and for different positions. In our company when we advertise for higher level jobs we get a lot of CVs, but for the lower level jobs we have a lot of difficulties. Dr Brian: When we advertise for jobs, we get 10-12 CVs for every technical job and around 150 CVs for every non technical job. So there is a mismatch in the needs of the economy and what is coming out of schools. Audience question (HH Sayyid Tarik bib Shabib). The room being split mid way is because one half of the people who are not being employed is because of the excuse being used while for others the reason is the mismatch in skill sets. This is not so black and white. The other thing
that I find very important is the theory of a mismatch and the fact. If you look at a CV and it does not meet your expectation then you do not take that person on board and take things to the next step and then do whatever is required to bridge that gap and in some cases you need to go through a large number of people in order to create that match. Tim: Is there is enough desire by the private sector to employ Omanis? HH Sayyid Tarik bib Shabib: If they have had a positive experience, then people persist and move forward. Tim: Let’s move to the next question – Are established business houses a hindrance to SME development? The results are – 56 per cent think that established business houses are a deterrent to SME development while 44 per cent think that they are not. Dr Mohamed: This question assumes that family houses do the SME business and since they are in this field they do not give a chance to new entrants. We have to again look at the structure of the economy, if we look at a large number of family businesses they are large because they have a large number of SMEs in them. They are large because they have the financial means and they are able to build on the economies of scale, they are
able to use the resources that they have across the organisation. Tim: The question is whether there is a level playing field, where in the SMEs can take on established business houses? Dr Mohamed: At the end of the day SMEs are there to serve the customers and end users, then if you come to the question of who is going to be more competitive – the established business houses or the new businesses -- the new businesses need to be given a chance. This is happening only because of entrenched family businesses. Or do we need to establish new family businesses to come up? Ross: In Europe, Italy is SME based, China and Singapore are both different economies but they are also SME based. SMEs feed from the opportunities created by other companies. For example travel houses feed into Oman Air and various hotels. SMEs are extremely important for this economy as they are going to drive the growth of the future. Dr Brian: The country has been very fortunate to have a large number of established family business houses in the last 40 years, which is a relatively short time. The question is whether they have a monopoly and the fact is that they manage well the sectors in which they operate and they do rely on serving the smaller businesses. They invest in the economy and encourage SMEs to develop, because it is in their interests. But SMEs have to survive on their own in a competitive environment and while some may succeed others will fail. Faisal: In some cases it does create a difficult environment for smaller businesses. You have to understand that family businesses also started as SMEs. But because of the size and economies of scale it becomes difficult for SMEs to start a business. Tim: Does Oman need a Competition Commission to make things fair? Faisal: It would be a good idea when more companies come in and the business environment becomes more competitive.
Faisal Al Lawati Dr Brian: I think it is fine, while it is not for me to tell the government what to do, the rules of competition should apply to everyone whether they are big or small and it needs to be fair. Dr Mohamed: My concern with this question is that it implies a defeatist attitude; it reflects a zero sum game, it shows that this is all that we have, and therefore we need to share; this is all the employment that we have and so it needs to be Omanised and shared. This is the only economy that we have and so we need to take it from one group and give it to another group. It is competition that has led to family businesses reach where they are because it is the survival of the fittest. So when we say we have to be fair, it needs to start by creating new opportunities. Thus we need to grow the economy and then move onto people. Tim: Does this mean that if you do not kill you do not eat? Dr Mohamed: No, I agree that the government has a huge role to play in a developing economy, to jumpstart the economy and to provide all the conducive
factors so that the opportunities may arise. Tim: We have a question coming on Twitter – Will building brand equity for made in Oman be a better alternative to managing employment numbers? Faisal: It is important, it will probably help SMEs also come out as well, but again we come down to the issue of how it is going to be done and who is going to do it, but in principle it is good. Tim: Ross Cormack, you seem to be amused by it? Ross: More than amused, I am enticed by it, there is something spirited about this as this is completely different from a quota. A lot of people see Omanisation as a quota and never get down to understanding as to why it works. If you have a brand and an inspiration then it makes you behave and believe in a very different way. Instead of Made in Oman, I would go in for Created in Oman. I don’t think that Omanis realise the whole potential, you do not need a lot of capital for having great ideas. Great ideas like Google, Facebook and Baidu January 2012 61
COVERSTORY the world. We have new technology, we know now how the brain works, we know the importance of soft skills. Yet we don’t develop these in our schools. Tim: You still need to read, write and do arithmetic? Dr Mohamed: These are the basics, but you need to do it in the right way. For example all books can be fed into an I-pad and learning can be made interactive rather than being one way.
Dr Brian D P Buckley
Tim: The next question is – Has the education system failed to impart jobrelated skills? 89 per cent say that the education system has failed to impart job related skills while 11 per cent say no.
Dr Brian: The time spent in school matters. A series of schools were set up in New York for the underprivileged, and children who were difficult and kicked out of the state schools. These schools do not give holidays, and have very long hours. The percentage of children from these schools who go to Harvard and Stanford is phenomenal, so it does count. The old adage – we can learn, learn, learn but then we need to practice. The more time you give to children the more returns you get.
There is a related question on Twitter – Omani schools teach 120 days in a year, compared to the international norm of 180-200 days? That’s clearly a setback, why is that so? Dr Mohamed: This is clearly one of the deficiencies of the system and even the number of hours within a day which are less.
Audience: My name is Hussain Salman. If the government thinks that education cannot solve a number of problems then it is mistaken. Our government has not done enough to raise awareness about the importance of a working culture among Omanis. So when they come to work, they do not see work as worship, but see it only as a means of payment.
Faisal: I agree, it all comes down to what people need in the market and what people are taught to do and it all starts from the school system. It is not just the amount of time spent in school, but the quality of what you get.
Dr Mohamed: The education system of the whole world is not at par with what is happening in the real world and there is a need for a complete revamp of the education system and I am not just talking about Oman. I am talking about everywhere in
in China were made by young guys and girls working in garages with no capital at all. We should be challenging Omanis through schools by telling them whether they want to go and work for one of the big companies or do something on their own.
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Tim: We need to do two more interactive questions – Is public-private partnership still a distant dream in Oman? The results – 71 per cent think it is a distant dream, while 29 per cent think it is not. Dr Brian: I think that the country can look at separating private and public in many areas, with the government being there as a regulator, monitoring the rules of the game. The partnership should be limited to education, the legal structure that supports business, but overtime it needs to get out of business and have that separation. Ross: Public Private Partnership is not so formalised here, meaning that there is a lot of government investment in projects and out of that come a lot of opportunities for private companies. For instance in our industry the government is investing RO100mn in laying fibre to deliver services to homes at the same time replacing the drainage system in greater Muscat, so that will be a big opportunity for our industry and the content industry, customer service and other kind of stores. Tim: Now we come to the question that underlines all the other questions -- Is there a need for more accountability and transparency in the public and private sectors? The results – 97 per cent say yes and 3 per cent say no. It’s like the old days in the Soviet Union, where they used to say that it is not the way that people vote, but the way we count. But today we have not only voted properly but also counted properly. It’s a good place to end today’s debate and we would like to thank all our panellists and the audience.
MEDIACORNER
Know Brainers win Times of Oman Quiz Contest
After an exciting battle of grit, nerves and wit, a new champion emerged at the 15th edition of the Times of Oman Open Quiz Contest. Know Brainers (Sujatha Ashok, R S Sumanth, Raji Sumanth), put a stop to the dominance of the defending champions Mostly Clueless to lift the ultimate quizzing trophy in Muscat at the packed-to-the-brim City Amphitheatre recently. The four-time champions, Mostly Clueless (Dr Anupam Kakaria, Shafeek M K, Shaheen Jamil) and
last year’s runners up, Questionable Characters (Rohini Dinesh, Sushmita Gupta, Udayan Gupta) displayed amazing performances to put up a brave fight to finish second and third respectively. ISG Sreeraag Mohan and team (Sreeraag Mohan T, Darshan Regi Kalathil, R. Rajaganapathy Sankar) were crowned the school quiz champions. ISM Quizzing ISMiites (Rohan Karnawat, Srujan Keskar, Shuvankar Goswami) and ISG
Anmol Kakaria and team (Anmol Kakaria, Fahd Rayees, Anirudh Sen) finished first and second runners up respectively. But the true champions of the evening were, of course, the audience, who turned out in impressive numbers despite rain clouds looming large over the skies of Muscat. They didn’t allow the thoughts of inconvenience the rains could have brought and stopped them from attending this Times of Oman event that’s so close to their hearts.
Book on Oman’s greatest brands Oman’s 180 Greatest Brands (2012-13)’, a 400-page book published by Oman Daily Observer recently, pays rich tribute to top-notch brands and brand builders in the Sultanate. Packed with groundbreaking ideas, thought-leading case studies across a range of industry sectors, the book traces the achievements of leading Omani brands and comprehensively investigates their branding strategies to unearth key success factors. Written by 64
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Hasan Kamoonpuri, a senior Oman Observer journalist, the book is richly detailed and aspires to be a comprehensive exploration of Omani brands and can very well serve as a barometer for the state of brand management in the country. The book opens with a message from the Minister of Commerce and Industry Shaikh Sa’ad bin Mohammed Al Mardhouf Al Sa’adi. The key part of the book is a comprehensive brand survey across 180 brands in
30 categories. Oman Flour Mills Company has scored a spectacular double in the 2011 Observer Brand Awareness Survey, winning the No.1 slot in the wheat flour category as well as in the overall listing of 180 greatest brands. So far three brand surveys have been conducted and the key finding common to all is that Omanis are highly brand conscious. Their strong brand habits seem to override the effects of changing prices on their daily purchases.
SUMMIT
Crucible of cultures The 3rd Muscat Youth Summit showcased Oman’s stance on youth entrepreneurship, urban development innovation and creativity. Mayank Singh reports
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he third Muscat Youth Summit (MYS) was held at the Millennium Resort in Al Musannah from December 4 to 7, 2011. Over 200 young people aged 15 – 24 drawn from 21 countries participated in this international residential programme organised by the Brand Oman Management Unit (BOMU). Over the course of the four days, 36 presenters delivered 18 workshops on topics that included social entrepreneurship, hybrid cities, urban sustainability, street photography, DIY publishing, graffiti art and social media. Besides Oman, the summit’s participants came from countries such as Belarus, Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France, the United States, Great Britain, Tunisia, Singapore, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Malaysia, and Brazil. “MYS intends to help young people 66
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find new opportunities in life with a particular emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and urban development. It’s been designed to strengthen youth-related policies, help government organisations and the private sector address youth concerns and support new information and learning channels for young people. Moreover, MYS blends social interaction with cultural, economic and entrepreneurial components to create an experience that promotes cross-cultural youth dialogue and socially responsible leadership. It’s an outstanding and rewarding four days for everyone involved,” remarked HH Sayyid Faisal Al Said, COO, BOMU. As a nation, Oman actively encourages and welcomes innovators, talent and ideas that add value to the country and increases its national competitiveness and it’s this philosophy that’s at the heart of MYS. The endeavours of the Sultanates youth in enterprise, their energy, enthusiasm
and success presents a wonderful image of Oman to the world and is a key part of BOMU branding efforts. “We’re very excited about this year’s Summit as we’ve attracted some really outstanding international and domestic workshop presenters. And through the 18 workshops we’re looking to promote citizenship and community participation; develop skills, aspirations and talents in order to increase employability; nurture young leaders and provide them with opportunities to develop entrepreneurial and creative skills; and of course increase cultural awareness, diversity and understanding. On reflection, I don’t think there’s an event quite like MYS anywhere in the Gulf. It’s an outstanding advertisement for Oman,” HH Sayyid Faisal added.
Engaging young minds Floor Lieshout, director, Youth for
Road Safety (YOURs) and a presenter says, “Our aim is to give young people an understanding of the risk and the importance of road safety. Every year 400,000 young people under the age of 25 years die in road accidents and the youth needs to be a part of the solution. Research shows that young people retain only 10 per cent of what they read about such issues after two weeks, so we take a more interactive approach giving them an overview of issues like the importance of wearing seat belts, avoiding over speeding and distracted driving.” Speaking about his presentation on Sustainable Cities, Peter Oborn, deputy chairman, Aedas Architects, says “Our presentation to the students focuses on the importance of creating sustainable cities. These are cities which are in harmony with itself and where one can live, work, play and prosper. In addition one can look after the needs of the future generation. The challenge for cities world over is to moderate themselves. As young people are the decision makers of tomorrow, it is important that they are aware of this important issue.” In the same vein Maryam Hamad al-Sharji, architect, head of design, Ministry of Housing, Oman says, “We are trying to acquaint youngsters with
the concept of hybrid cities involving its various components. Though this is an abstract concept, we were impressed by how students were able to understand the various nuances of the concept in a short time.”
A wide canvas Says Sarah White, arts advisor and general manager, Bait Al Zubair Foundation, “My presentation is titled – ‘Art and the artists response to the environment’. I am analysing my own works, especially those from my school days, so that I can show the students how the environment has affected my work and the feelings that I want to project in my work. The idea is to get them to start thinking about different types of environments like architectural, global, landscape based or personal environments, and the message that they want to project through their art work.” Radhika A Hamlai, an artist says, “This is the first time that I am here and it is very interesting. I was very impressed by the way the MYS blends in different cultures and gives students a chance to do something that they have not done before.” Carlos Chirinos from SOAS Radio says,
“Our workshop aims to produce short radio programmes addressing the UN’s Millennium Development Goals like eradication of hunger and poverty, gender equality, maternal health, combating malaria and so on. Today the 18-24 year generation is the same world over because of global connectivity and our effort is to make them think about what will be beneficial to them and the developing world.” While pointing out that MYS receives high-level local and global support, HH Sayyid Faisal thanked the Sultanate’s Ministry of Education, Oman National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNPA and UNESCO. “Not only for their important support of MYS, but also for the shining example these organisations continue to set to the wider community, through their practical and positive commitment to the wellbeing of Oman’s youth,” he said. Ali Kamal Khadra a grade 11 student participating in the MYS says, “The MYS is a great experience for all of us. It is very well organised. The atmosphere is really nice and one gets to meet students from different countries. Every day we work on a different topic and it is all about team work. We have learnt a lot here.” January 2012 67
FACE2FACE
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r Ali has worked on number of research projects with Oxford University, Cranfield University, London School of Economics, and INSEAD. He is on the Advisory Board of Cranfield School of Management and the American University in Cairo School of Business. He also is on the Advisory Panel for Thinkers50 which is the definitive listing and ranking of the world’s top 50 global business thinkers and gurus. Ali is a co-author of Leading Smart Transformation: A roadmap for world class government published by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2011. You have advised a number of governments like Egypt, UAE and Oman in the region; in what capacity have you worked with these entities? My area of specialisation is government transformation and effectiveness. I have been called to handle different projects by various government entities to review strategic plans being worked upon by various consultants to ensure smooth implementation. Strategy implementation is more challenging than just coming up with an attractively developed strategy. For example, I was invited by the Abu Dhabi government to work on the implementation of their five-year Strategy Planning and Economic Vision 2030. I was also involved in developing the transformational plan of one of the Abu Dhabi’s government entities in 2007 which entailed not only restructuring the organisation but also re-defining the role of that entity in order to become a more effective player for building a knowledge-based economy which is the core of vision. We did a benchmarking of that organisation against similar entities from 19 countries drawn from the G-7 and other countries which had been successful in their economic transformation and diversification efforts. Your book titled Leading Smart Transformation – A Roadmap for World Class Government talks about this theme in detail. Can you explain the term Smart Transformation in a nutshell? The book was published in March 2011 but was written in 2010 and it precedes the recent changes in the Arab World, but even while authoring this book we felt that governments in the region would soon come under pressure to change and transform in order to perform better. The book looks at what it takes to transform a government entity. We look at the key aspects that can drive this change and 68
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AN EFFECTIVE
APPROACH Dr Ali Qassim Jawad is a visiting scholar at Yale University and a senior advisor to governments on strategy, leadership, and innovation. He shares his views on transforming government entities and capacity building with Mayank Singh
these are leadership, a transformation programme, and communication. There can be no smart transformation without smart leaders and this remains one of the major challenges in the region. Our research indicates that Leaders should have the ability to envision, translate that vision into a well defined roadmap, and finally communicate that vision and the map to all stakeholders, both internally and externally. These are what we called them in our book the ‘smart enablers of change’.
There is so much to learn from these models, but the ability to adapt them to the local needs is extremely critical, so while we need to comprehend these models we should also be in a position to adapt these model to the local needs and culture and this is a real challenge. In general, we tend to either reinvent the wheel by not learning from best practices or we try to adopt rather than adapt existing models as they are and both these approaches proved to have serious challenges in terms of effectiveness.
You also talk about Project Management Office (PMO) as an important component of the transformation process. Why is the PMO so critical to success. From research and experience, I can say that there has been so much emphasis in the region on developing strategies, which is very important. However, in my opinion, we tend to over strategise, while the biggest challenge is to transform this strategy into reality. One of the primary purposes of PMO should be to translate the vision, mission, and objectives, into specific well-defined initiatives. Then those initiatives should be monitored for performance. The monitoring should be from an efficiency point of view which sees whether we are utilising the right resources while the effectiveness is measured in terms of whether a particular initiative is having an impact on the core business of the organisation. I was involved in setting up PMO in one of the government organisations. They had 129 initiatives which needed to be carefully monitored for performance.
As you mentioned, your book was written before recent events in the region. Given the changed circumstances, are your hypothesis still valid? The simple answer is definitely yes. Recent events in the region have added a third dimension to the performance equation. Till recently governments were expected to be high performing and this meant being efficient and effective, but now governments need to be not just high performing but also high(ly) responsive. This is something kind of new that governments have to deal with. What is happening now is not an incremental change; it is a major transformation. This requires a serious revisit to the role and contribution of government organisations.
Usually, the PMO only looks into efficiency – as in whether things are getting done within a stipulated time and the budget, but in that particular project, we added a third dimension which is the link between each of the 129 initiatives and the national vision and this is what a smart PMO should focus on. You have been associated with some of the best universities and institutes in the world; going by your experience, is it possible to replicate models which were developed in advanced countries in a region like the Middle East or GCC?
The public sector with its entrenched bureaucracy is often seen as being inadaptable to change, given this proposition can governments become high responsive? My simple answer is, yes. Governments can become high responsive and currently I am working on a research titled, ‘High Performing Bureaucracy’ and we have a number of such examples around the world. Norway is one example that comes
There can be no smart transformation without smart leaders and this remains one of the major challenges in the region
to mind, Singapore is another. There are a number of elements that a high responsive government needs to have. Among the most important ones is aligning strategy with available capabilities. Unfortunately, I have seen many strategies which were not aligned with national or organisational capabilities, therefore, we end up producing wishlists rather than strategic objectives. Talent is the core of such capabilities. Talent building has been a major area of discussion lately, does the region have local skill sets that are commensurate to the best or is there a need to do more in terms of education ? There are two issues here: capacity and capability. Countries within the region differ from one another. Some countries suffer from both capacity and capability shortage, as they neither have enough nationals to implement their vision, nor do they have the right talent to do so. Other countries have the capacity but not the capability. In Oman, I believe that we certainly have the capacity, The issue is whether we have the right capability or even whether we are developing the right one! In general, the biggest challenge in the region is aligning education outcomes with the national agenda. In other words, building the right talent to contribute effectively to the socioeconomic development of the country. That is something that needs to be carefully addressed by policy and decision makers of the country. I often get invited to talk about the impact of training and development programmes and how we can measure such an impact. In my opinion, developing talent is all about developing knowledge, skills, and behaviour. This is not something that can be achieved by a single government entity. Different entities will have to work together in order to develop the right policies, regulations, infrastructure, and programmes – the whole ‘Talent Echo System’. Otherwise, the work will be incomplete and partially ineffective. I am very positive that this can be achieved in Oman since we have a leader who believes in developing the right talent and creating the right opportunity for them as indicated in His Majesty’s recent speech. January 2012 69
RETAIL
BUILDING ON SYNERGIES V Sundaresan, Director and General Manager, The National Detergent Company talks about its takeover of Al Ahlia Detergents Sohar factory. An OER report What is the idea behind the acquisition of Al Ahlia’s factory in Sohar? This is something that we had been looking around for and we had our own plans for expanding our capacity. For the last few years we were constantly growing and we were in need of additional capacity. We have been allocated a fairly large tract of land in Sohar Industrial Estate and have plans to shift part of our machinery there over a period of time. When Al Ahlia closed down four years ago we were seriously looking at buying the company in a running situation, but we were not able to determine the financial liability of the company to any great accuracy, so the shareholders decided not to venture into it. Nevertheless, we made an offer to buy their machinery and they were prepared for it, but we could not arrive at a feasible value. As the company went into liquidation and things were put up for sale, we took the necessary legal clearances and made a bid for the company. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry found our bid of RO2.55mn to be the highest and we got an approval to acquire the plant and machinery. We got physical possession in September 2011. How much work has taken place on the plant since September to get it up and running? We have planned to do it in two phases 70
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– in the first phase we plan to do some ground work and start commercial production from January 2012. The next phase which will take another six months to one year, we will revamp the entire plant and machinery, increase capacity, correct the process flow. Hopefully by the next year we should have the full plant ready. We will invest around RO1mn over these two phases. How much will the plant add to your capacity? The acquisition will double our capacity from 30,000 tonnes per annum to 60,000 tonnes per annum, but we may take a decision to increase our capacity there and reduce our capacity in our existing plant in Ghubra, over a period of time. Eventually we would like to have all our production in one place as that would give us an advantage, but that will take two to three years. How will the acquisition benefit
The National Detergent Company? We already had a plan to shift our base to a bigger capacity plant and the Al Ahlia factory fits into that. Secondly, being in Sohar there should be certain export advantages in terms of freight and the development of the Sohar Port. Our overseas market accounts for 75 per cent of our sales and being in Sohar should benefit us in exports. Though the freight scenario has changed recently due to the rule of using only vehicles registered in Oman, earlier shipping out goods from Sohar used to give us a saving of 8-10 per cent on freight costs compared to Muscat. How has the company fared in 2011? The GCC markets and the Middle East accounts for a bulk of our exports and despite the unrest in the region, these countries have shown good growth helping our sales. NDC’s export volumes grew by 12-15 per cent in 2011.
SMART OFFICE
SPOTLIGHT
Smart offices have fast become the need of the hour. A defining characteristic of modern day workplaces is that they rely heavily on information technology
WORKPLACE AESTHETICS
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mart, elegant looking offices have become part of our corporate culture. A swanky office impresses everyone. Two decades ago, technology at its best meant a fax machine and an electronic typewriter; today it’s an iPad connected to your enterprise cloud solution. The modern office is a smart office which makes use of things designed and made in such a way that these are practical and aesthetically appealing. Smart technology at the office place is revolutionising the way people, process and technology integrate.
Conference calling, web conferencing, unified messaging, voice mail, replay line, fax-on-demand, virtual office, software solutions are some areas where cuttingedge technology is required to make an office look smart. Today, research on smart environments represents some of the most innovative work being done in computer science, electrical engineering, and information systems. The interdisciplinary scope of the field integrates aspects of machine learning, human-machine interfacing, wireless networking, mobile
communications, sensor networks, and pervasive computing. As research efforts devise intelligent environments for use in homes, offices, classrooms, hospitals, and automobiles, farreaching applications – from design and architecture to health care issues and software engineering–become increasingly evident. Electronic systems used in an office environment are comprised of hardware and software components. When used together, these components are capable of storing, retrieving, manipulating, January 2012 71
SPOTLIGHT
SMART OFFICE
Khimjis’ Office Furniture-All about dream offices under one roof Khimji Ramdas has carved a niche for itself as the most preferred supplier in its field. On offer at the Bait Al Ahlam showroom is a diverse range of attractive and cost effective office furniture backed up by professional advice and support
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nder the flagship of the Infrastructure Division of Khimji Ramdas, the office Furniture division over the last four decades carved a niche for itself in the minds of the discerning customers.
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They offer the best in class solutions: – Comprehensive range of office furniture and Interior solutions and turnkey service for your business. Their range caters to all customer segments-Omanis, expatriates, locals or MNCs. – Extensive range of furniture available from Italy, Spain, Korea in an array of budgets, styles, colors, all under one roof. Executive, managerial and staff settings – Interiors, special seating and storage solutions – Service provided includes space
transferring, computing, and printing information. Hardware components include, but are not limited to, electronic typewriters, word processors, personal computers, work stations (keyboards and visual displays) linked to a computer, and associated equipment such as printers, optical scanners, and modems. Typical types of software used in office automation work include word processing, electronic mail, calendar, project management, database management, desk-top publishing, graphics and spreadsheet. Nowadays, office interiors are being renovated to accommodate the demands of such communication, keeping aesthetics and space management as top priority. Overhead projectors, plasma screens, surround sound systems, sleek microphones, video cameras and other gizmos find discreet space. 72
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planning and interior refurbishment proposals Interior designing, space planning, flooring service, executive desking, workstations, partitions Flooring solutions like carpets, Raised Access floors, Security products, warehousing, storage and archiving solutions from the world’s leading manufacturer. An individual customer can also enjoy a retail experience Special seating at Libraries, Auditoriums, Stadiums
Professional interior designers with decades of experience in their field offer innovation tailor made solutions that encompass corporate interior designs, facility planning, architecture, project management, 3D visualization, computer aided design (CAD) and graphics, giving both value from the
Modern Office Automation Office automation refers to the varied computer machinery and software used to digitally create, collect, store, manipulate and relay office information needed for accomplishing basic tasks and goals. The history of modern office automation began with the typewriter and the copy machine, which mechanised previously manual tasks. Today, however, office automation is increasingly understood as a term that refers not just to the mechanisation of tasks but to the conversion of information to electronic form as well. The advent of the personal computer revolutionised office automation, and today, popular operating systems and user interfaces dominate office computer systems. This revolution has been so complete, and has infiltrated so many areas of business, that almost all businesses use at least one commercial computer business
product as well as the best aesthetic look that suits their business needs. Dedication to quality and commitment to timelines has been a key factor for Khimji’s Office Furniture Division to become the most preferred supplier in its field. Spread across 1000 sq meters, Khimji’s Office Furniture showroom’s layout and state of the art displays have been strategically designed to facilitate comfortable and convenient shopping experience for its clients. The showroom exhibits a wide range of modern desks and seatings.The division also keeps enough inventories to meet the immediate requirements of clients. With its mission to make customer work environment inspiring and motivating Khimji’s Office Furniture has today witnessed steady growth and foresees greater opportunities and success in the years to come.
application in the course of daily activity. Even the smallest companies commonly utilise computer technology to maintain financial records, inventory information, payroll records, and other pertinent business information. Office automation helps in optimising or automating existing office procedures. The backbone of office automation is a Local Area Network (LAN), which allows users to transmit data, mail and even voice across the network. All office functions, including dictation, typing, filing, copying, fax, telex, microfilm and records management, telephone and telephone switchboard operations, fall into this category. Office automation was a popular term in the 1970s and 1980s as the desktop computer exploded onto the scene. A universal truth is dawning on the multinational brand names the world over that brands are incidental
All about dream ofÀces under one roof
OFFICE FURNITURE • INTERIOR SOLUTIONS • SECURITY PRODUCTS • ARCHIVING & STORAGE SOLUTIONS KHIMJI RAMDAS LLC
OfÀce Furniture Division – Infrastructure Group P.O. Box 19, P.C. 100. Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Tel: +968 24852800/2890 • Fax: 24852899 • Toll Free No: 80075000 E-MAIL : kfdsales@kr.om • Website: www.khimji.com
SPOTLIGHT
SMART OFFICE
Keeping abreast of latest technologies Mohsin Haider Darwish (MHD) is the first organisation in its sector to achieve ISO 27001 certification in the Sultanate of Oman. The MHD is a leading diversified business group in the Sultanate
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omputers, Office Automation and Telecommunications division of MHD primarily deal in Office Automation, Telecommunication, Office Furniture, Security solutions and IT products. Dr Manmohan Singh Rehsi, director of the division is focussed on providing world-class solutions, products and services to the customers in the Sultanate. Office Automation department represents industry leading products in its portfolio with KONICA MINOLTA as its flagship brand. Konica Minolta Business Technologies Inc, a leading Japanese Company in advanced imaging and networking technologies from the desktop to the print shop, brings together unparalleled advances in security, print quality and network integration via its award-winning line of bizhub® range of colour and monochrome multifunction products (MFPs); bizhub PRESS and PRO production printing systems; magicolor® colour printers; and pagepro® monochrome printers. Konica Minolta also offers advanced software solutions, digital imaging systems and scanning systems for specialised applications. bizhub PRESS C8000 Digital Print Press: A revolutionary breakthrough in color print production Delivering world-class colour that rivals costly offset printing, the bizhub
and the solution is the driver. Decision makers today treat information technology (IT) as their basic need for any business. Recovery cost depends on the customer. The earlier the customer decides to put implement IT solutions, the faster the returns. Spiralling costs can be handled in many ways. And one of them is to optimise on the functions of the gadgets like printers, fax machines, 74
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PRESS C8000 digital print press from Konica Minolta is the print production powerhouse you’ve been waiting for. With superior Print-On-Demand speed, accuracy and consistency, the bizhub PRESS C8000 can significantly boost your return on investment – and deliver spectacular color documents that build valuable repeat business from corporate and commercial print customers alike. The bizhub PRESS C8000 is the first digital print press to have earned the prestigious IDEAlliance® Digital Press Certification for meeting or exceeding established industry tolerances for excellence in Colorimetric Accuracy, Uniformity, Repeatability, Durability, and Registration. After being named “Best of Show” when originally introduced at OnDemand, the C8000 digital print press continues to outpace with the “Color Product of the Year” award by Marketing Research Consultants (MRC) and a 5-Star Rating from the Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories, Inc. (BERTL) among others. bizhub PRESS C7000 Digital Press Printing: Production printing capabilities you want, customised to the way you work The bizhub PRESS C7000 digital press from Konica Minolta creates extraordinary color images that set a new high standard in digital press printing. It offers high-speed 71 ppm output to keep ahead of rising production demands, and the bizhub PRESS C7000 also provides built-in
printers, notebooks and laptops, scanners etc.
Effective communication It has been found that when employers give employees an environment they feel comfortable and good in, they become more productive and satisfied in the workplace. Staying connected is also critical in a company’s ability to respond to a customer’s changing needs, with the
copying and scanning. Combining high-quality digital press printing performance and remarkable color fidelity, trust the bizhub PRESS C7000 to deliver professional grade reproduction with razor sharp precision. Complimenting the range of Konica Minolta MFPs, MHD offers a complete range of integrated solutions from YSoft / Papercut to meet the centralised print and copy management requirements of the customers. MHD also offers Electronic Document Management and Enterprise Content Management solutions from Laserfiche / Solusoft / NEWGEN. Other products include OCE range of wide format Printers and Multifunction’s, Kodak Document & Production scanners, RISO duplicators, LCD & DLP Projectors and Interactive presentation devices. After-sales support: MHD has a wide network of fully equipped and state-of-the-art service centers across Oman. The technical support team is fully trained and certified by the principal partners in the respective products in order to provide fast, efficient and reliable services to the customers at their doorstep. The customer base covers a diverse range from universities to ministries, banks to financial institutions, oil companies to audit bureau, individuals to trading and contracting companies, etc.
latest technology to work around. The Smart Office equipments now come in portable sizes too, so that the user may even cart it along to another part of the continent – and never have to miss out on an important meeting. Researchers who studied teams of software programmers working on a project and huddled in one room for four months revealed that they (software
SPOTLIGHT
SMART OFFICE
developers) spent less than half their time at tasks like programming and coding; the remainder of their day was spent on meetings, problem resolution with team members or clients, product testing, etc. Isolated in cubicles, communication between programmers was impaired; researchers found that the further apart team members were, the less they talked to each other. The net effect of ineffective communication was that projects habitually came in overtime and exceeded their budgets. This research confirmed the positive effect of locating employees in a more flexible, open space. Time-to-market, or cycle time for the software programmes developed by the teams dropped by onethird as compared to a company baseline. Communication and problem resolution were enhanced by close proximity to others on the team. Once upon a time, every employee was housed in a cubicle or individual office. These days, there are fewer permanent addresses; not every employee needs a personal work station in a digital workplace. The average office space used to be 70 per cent cubicles and 30 per cent collaborative or shared space. Today, that equation is 55 per cent cubicles and 45 per cent shared space. In the agile office, a hybrid solution often works best: small private rooms for concentrated work, personal work stations in open office settings for team work, and a variety of formal and informal meeting spaces. Work spaces are simultaneously shrinking: from a standard unit of 8 by 10 feet to one as small as 6 by 6 feet in an open office plan. Work station walls are coming down, to open up views and allow occupants to enjoy natural light.
A friendly ambience Further, as health and safety of employees becomes paramount for companies, most corporate offices are switching to ergonomic and functional furniture. These areas are designed to break the monotony of workplaces and create a healthy working atmosphere where employees feel relaxed. The trend is to create a friendly ambience for both management and employees like a community, where everyone is familiar with another, a place where all needs are met, physical as well as 76
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psychological. Therefore a smart office will strive to create an environment that has a smart, attractive, friendly design and can form an office ambience which is flexible, effective and welcoming for employees, which makes them feel like coming to work, and motivates them to increase productivity. Creating a non- or low-toxic workplace would be a plus point for a smart office. For example: Use lowVOC paints along with 100 per cent virgin wool carpets made without chemicals or dyes (wool carpet lasts much longer than does synthetic carpet, so the carpeting will not need to be replaced as quickly). Natural carpet padding (made of jute fibres encased in recycled paper) when tacked to the floor help avoid the chemical offgassing that would have occurred had they been glued. Several practical steps can help you to create a healthier workplace. The key to a healthier office is prevention – in other words, use healthy and efficient building, lighting, and HVAC design, and use nontoxic building materials, furnishings, and office supplies. The best way to create a green and healthy environment is to begin by carrying out an environmental audit to study the duct system, building and lighting design, and office furnishings and to survey employees. The company can create corporate policies that encourage healthier purchasing decisions and production methods and support employee health.
Investing in design Utilities such as mobile phones, computers or laptops, telephone network, printers, scanners, fax machines and photocopiers use or share computer based data and software applications for higher productivity, saving on time. Creative and insightful planning and refurnishing of work environments are essential to remaining in the race. Design is no longer an expense; it is an investment. This means investing heavily at the front end to ensure productivity and higher staff retention. Innovative design trends are becoming prevalent and attention is being paid to creative and strategic thinking and interactive idea exchanges. Some of the facets of new work environments include: attractive and inviting private and group work spaces; tree-lined interiors and an emphasis on views; creative thinking areas with drawable walls and surfaces; and even whimsical props such as stuffed animals for inspiration. Traditionally conservative firms are moving away from the oldfashioned look and designing in terms of flexibility, technology and service to create smart office environments for their employees. Cardinal zones in different colours, diffuse, luminous lighting, and an atmosphere that feels more like home as well as systems that include retractable drawable surfaces, spatial dividers of wire mesh, luminescent plastic panels for privacy, and trees.
Furniture which Evoke a Sense of Power
AUTOTALK
BUYING INTO A
BENTLEY
BENTLEY MOTORS HOSTED AN EXCLUSIVE CUSTOMER DRIVE EVENT AT THE YAS MARINA FORUMAL ONE CIRCUIT IN ABU DHABI. VISVAS PAUL D KARRA WAS A GUEST ALONG WITH OTHER JOURNALISTS AT THIS EVENT WHERE THE NEW CONTINENTAL GTC, GT, FLYING SPUR AND THE ULTRA LUXURIOUS MULSANNE MODELS WERE PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES
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ts one thing to drive the latest Bentley beauties on a Formula One race track but if you get an opportunity to take a ride in the oldest Bentley – the historic Bentley EXP2 – and that too on a Formula One track, then its a dream come true. This exclusive script was complete when we were flown over the Yas Island by helicopter to get a bird’s eye view of the Formula One race track and were later given a preview of the fastest sailing yacht in this part of the world. This treat of a complete track, sea and air experience at the Bentley drive event is synonymous with the unique lifestyle that the name Bentley evokes. As one of
the world’s key exclusive brands, it takes an appreciation of the finest things in life to be able to fully understand the equal parts of strength and subtlety that are contained within Bentley’s exceptional DNA. It all started back in Europe of the 1920s, when a group of wealthy car enthusiasts known as the Bentley Boys set the motoring world alight with their achievements on one of the world’s most famous racetracks, Le Mans. This select group of men, brought together by their combined love of speed and passion for life, believed in one thing alone: that a Bentley was much more than a means of getting from A to B; It was for living life to the full.
Together, the Bentley Boys helped to position Bentley as much more than just a car company: it was synonymous with a premium lifestyle choice. Fast forward over 90 years, and this brand ethos is brought right up to date and is very much apparent at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. In the world of motorsport, it is hard to beat a Formula 1 racetrack. Here, Bentley united the founding principles of its gentlemen racers of the ‘Twenties’ to offer Middle East customers and VIPs a taste of luxury travel by road, sea and air. And ensuring that the company’s roots are very much remembered, a surprise guest from 1920, the Bentley EXP2
also made an appearance. The EXP2 is the second car that Bentley Motors founder, WO Bentley ever built. The EXP2 chassis was presented at the 1919 British International Motor Show to high acclaim and one year later developed into the Bentley 3-litre Experimental. The original, EXP1 is no longer in existence, making EXP2 the oldest surviving Bentley. Valued at around RO450,471, it is one of the most expensive Bentleys in the world, not because of its luxurious specifications and personalisations but because of its historic value: the first British Sports Car. We were able to take a passenger ride in the iconic EXP2 in an experience of old versus new as it travelled along the Yas Island Circuit. Chris Buxton, the host of this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and regional director for Bentley Motors Middle East, Africa and India, explained: “Our customers do not purely buy a luxury car, they buy into the Bentley brand and everything it stands for. Today’s experience, which is uniquely Bentley, gives an opportunity to taste what we are about, and learn about the lifestyle that comes with owning one of our cars. It isn’t every day that you can step off a luxury yacht or out of a helicopter and then blast
round the track in a car capable of over 300 kilometres per hour!” Fresh from the Dubai Motor Show where it made its Middle East debut, the new Continental GTC was the first opportunity to get a real feel for this latest addition to the Bentley line up. In a beautiful hue of Breeze the convertible was available for VIPs and customers to drive on Yas Circuit. The GTC rockets from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds thanks to a hand-built 567hp powerplant. Boasting 516 lb-ft of torque, and a Quickshift transmission that improves acceleration response times and cuts shift times to an incredible 200 miliseconds. The GTC’s chassis, the stiffest of any convertible in the world, provides a firm foundation for suspension control, minimizing scuttle shake and contributing to the GTC’s refined handling. The GTC interior features luxurious wood and leather craftsmanship, for which Bentley is renowned, alongside classleading technology, such as eight-inch touch-screen infotainment system, and zip-code entry navigation, all supported by a 30-gigabyte hard drive. To complete the full Bentley experience we drove the stunning Continental Flying Spur Speed.
This sumptuous and spacious fourdoor Grand Tourer possesses the heart and soul of the most breathtaking highperformance coupé in the world, while at the same time offering enhanced levels of personalisation, comfort and ride quality. Inspired by Bentley’s legendary ‘Speed’ models that first appeared in 1923, the 600 bhp Continental Flying Spur Speed is the most powerful 4-door car ever produced by the British manufacturer. Offering the pure driving experience and uncompromising performance synonymous with all Bentleys bearing the Speed legend, the Flying Spur Speed returns a range of headline performance figures, including a 0-100 km/h sprint time of 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 322 km/h. With experts on hand to teach us how to get the most from the cars on the Yas Island circuit the next decision was which vehicle to try with the flagship Mulsanne and the GT also available for driving. We got an exclusive opportunity to go for a drive around the Yas Marina circuit in the ultra luxurious Mulsanne, away from the din and roar of the GTs on the race tracks. In one breath, we can say, Mulsanne is luxury personified every inch.
Chevrolet Malibu rolls past 1mn miles
On the cusp of its global introductions, engineers for the all-new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu have rolled past 1 million miles of on-road development testing – accumulated in about 22 months on six continents. The extensive road development and validation process helps ensure that the new Malibu’s overall ride and handling, comfort, quality and durability are exemplary when production begins, and meet the needs of
customers around the world. The new Malibu will be sold in nearly 100 countries on six continents, making it Chevrolet’s first global midsize sedan. “You learn a lot about a car when you spend so much time in it – and that’s exactly the point,” says Mark Moussa, global chief engineer. “In the last year and a half, during every minute of the day, a 2013 Malibu has been driving somewhere around the world – all to make it the best car it can be.”
Mercedes-Benz tailored to Oman Zawawi Trading Company (ZTC) – the authorised general distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Oman – has combined the most popular options chosen by customers in Oman to launch a high specification Mercedes-Benz E 300 Business Edition version of the luxury German automotive company’s executive E-Class saloon. The E-Class Saloon has evolved over the years from ‘high flier’ to ‘success story’, with the latest E-Class model widely regarded as 80
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the best business saloon in the world. The new E 300 Business Edition from ZTC will appeal to drivers in the Sultanate that desire a Mercedes-Benz E-Class with high specifications, whilst retaining a more conservative appearance than that offered by the striking styling of the AMG Sports package version of the luxurious saloon.
Volkswagen encourages to “Think Blue” Volkswagen Middle East has announced “Think Blue”, the car manufacturer’s environmentally conscious campaign, shortly to be launched in the Middle East. “Think Blue” embodies Volkswagen’s goal of creating environmentally friendly products and solutions, encouraging the public to be more ecoconscious and contribute to a sustainable future. “Think Blue” is a concept that encourages being more responsible on the road, and more environmentally conscious in everyday life. Discussing “Think Blue” James Oliver, managing director Volkswagen Oman comments, “I am pleased to announce that Volkswagen
Middle East is introducing the global initiative “Think Blue” to the Middle East and to the Sultanate. “Think Blue” is about more than economic engines and fuel efficiency, it is about consciously changing small habits in one’s lifestyle that will help for example to save energy, save water and recycle goods – small steps really do lead to great changes.
Mazda CX-5 premiers at Dubai Motor Show Towell Auto Centre’s highly awaited prodigy - Mazda CX-5 will be launched in the Sultanate early next year. The stunning car was recently unveiled at the Dubai Motor show, and has garnered rave reviews at the event which marks its debut appearance in the GCC. Due to the magnificent response received by the CX-5 in Dubai, Towell Auto Centre (TAC), sole distributors of the Mazda brand in Oman are anticipating a huge interest in the car in the Sultanate as well. Already a celebrity of sorts, the Mazda CX-5
has been heralded as the first in a long line of Mazda models to incorporate its latest SKYACTIV technology - a futuristic technology that gives higher fuel efficiency without compromising on performance. At the Frankfurt Motor Show, where the model was first unveiled in Europe, critics and consumers alike gave it rapturous reviews.
Hyundai Launches Genesis Prada
Hyundai Motor Company launched the limited edition Genesis Prada in the Middle East. The Genesis Prada, based on the 2012 Genesis sedan and featuring Hyundai‘s award-winning Tau 4.6 MPI engine was unveiled to over 100 VIP guests and company executives at an exclusive event held at the Park Hyatt hotel in Dubai. Genesis Prada is characterised by a special design that combines
Prada‘s sophisticated innovation, attention to detail and uncompromised quality approach with Hyundai‘s advanced technology and expertise in car manufacturing. The collaboration between one of the world’s leading carmakers and Prada, one of the world‘s leading brands in the luxury goods industry, is the result of the Genesis Prada concept which was introduced at the Seoul Motor Show in 2009.
New Five Volvo Models get IIHS Award
Volvo Car Corporation’s leadership in car safety is confirmed in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) 2012 Top Safety Pick award. The US award recognises vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, 81
The new Kia Rio range
Kia’s all-new, fourthgeneration Rio range was unveiled recently in Oman. Gracing the event were the top management of Kia, Min Kun Kim, president Middle East & Africa, Klaus Choi Sang, deputy general manager, Middle East & Africa, Kia Motors Corporation and S.H. Yang, manager, Middle East & Africa. Speaking on the
occasion, Min Kun Kim said, “You have all witnessed the launch of many new and interesting products by Kia Motor Corporation, of which the most recent ones are the New Optima, the New Sportage and the New Picanto. The fact that these models have all done exceedingly well and won accolades across the globe gives me great satisfaction.”
BMW to launch new 3 Series in 2012 BMW Group Middle East has confirmed that the sixth generation of the new BMW 3 Series sedan – the world’s best-selling premium car – will go on sale in the Middle East at the end of February 2012. Having sold 12.5 million cars since its launch in 1975, the BMW 3 Series continues to be BMW Group’s best-selling model series consistently accounting for more than a quarter of the company’s global sales.
The new powerful design elements include a new BMW face, with flat headlights reaching along as far as the BMW kidney grille. This emphasises the elegantly dynamic design of the new BMW 3 Series, which has increased in length (+93mm), width (front +37mm, rear +47mm) and wheelbase (+50mm) compared to the predecessor model, giving the car an elegant and athletic silhouette.
side, rollover, and rear crashes – and no less than five Volvo models – the C30, S60, S80, XC60 and XC90 – earned a Top Safety Pick. Volvo is the only European luxury brand with five awarded models in the new IIHS report. January 2012 81
BankDhofar launches exclusive services for women
BankDhofar has offered an exclusive suite of services for women. Aptly named ‘Hawa Ladies Banking Services’, this special bank account comes with a host of exciting benefits for ladies, making banking a convenient and pleasurable experience. The services include a special prize draw, women’s priority at queues in branches, a lavender scented debit card and a credit card which
offers great deals while shopping at various outlets. ‘Hawa Ladies Banking Services’ was launched at the Al Mar’a Excellence Awards 2011 in which BankDhofar was a strategic partner. The special prize draw which is a part of Hawa Ladies Banking, offers its customers the opportunity to win a special weekly prize of RO5,000. The bank has also included ladies’ savings accounts in its Al Heson prize draw scheme.
Pizza Hut’s ‘Party Box’ campaign Pizza Hut’s latest “Party box” digital promotion campaign held at all its outlets generated tremendous response. Hassan Mohammed Dhahar Mustafa from Muscat became one of the first winners of an IPOD Classic 160 GB. “I have been a regular customer for many years, I like the quality and the service of Pizza Hut
and I feel excited to have won the IPOD from my favourite restaurant,” says Hassan Mohammed. The Party Box promotion on delivery and take-away orders until December 25 included a lot of excitement for the Pizza Hut fans as it enabled them to win Apple iPods and iPads, freebies and many other gifts.
Audi sponsors St Andrews Ball Audi Oman has sponsored the annual St Andrews Ball hosted by the Caledonian Society of Oman recently at the Intercontinental Hotel – helping the event to raise thousands of rials for charitable causes. Marjorie Gardyne, the head of the Caledonian Society Committee, welcomed the support from Audi saying, “The Society is very pleased at the fabulous support
that Audi Oman has given this year’s event and I would like to thank them for their commitment towards us and helping us in our bid to use this event to raise money to support so many worthy causes and charities in Oman.” Omani charities supported by the Caledonian Society include UNICEF Oman, the Rustaq Leprosy Clinic, wheelchairs for the disabled and the Oman Paralympics team.
Starcare to launch ‘Healthy New Year; Happy New Year’ Starcare hospital brings in a new slogan “Healthy New Year; Happy New Year’ aimed at encouraging citizens to include healthcare in their New Year resolutions list. “The simple doctrine behind this is “Invest in your health and discover happiness” and at Starcare, we believe in the importance of preventive medicine to help you stay
in the pink of health,” avers Dr Askar Kukkadi, medical director at Starcare Hospital. “We strongly believe that health screening should be made available for everyone and we bring to you a wide range of privileges and packages to best manage your health this New Year”, adds K Jayan, general manager, Starcare Health Systems.
MSE wins Philips Lighting award Mustafa Sultan Electronics Lighting Unit won the award for “Best Energy Efficiency Initiative – 2011” in the recently held Partnership Programme conducted by Philips Lighting in Dubai. Paolo Cervini, general manager, Philips Lighting Middle East & Turkey presented the award to the MSE team. All the distributors from GCC and 82
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Levant attended the Partnership Programme in Dubai and Philips presented a few of the partners with awards for their outstanding work in 2011. The award given to MSE was in recognition of their outstanding work done in promoting CFL-I (energy savers) in 2011 through various institutions, retail and distribution network.
Mitsubishi rewards top performers
The parts department of Mitsubishi Oman has rewarded its top performing branches and staff at a seminar held to review sales performance and ways to enhance the excellent performance of the department. The company has a comprehensive network of 24 parts branches located across the Sultanate designed to keep Mitsubishi owners happy and on the road. The branches identified as the
best performing ones (Wadi Kabir, Mabellah, Thumrait, Samail and Al Khadra) were congratulated for their excellent work and consistently high levels of customer service. Operational excellence among individuals was also recognised and Safiya Al Shaabi received a special award for her significant contribution in ensuring the increased availability of Mitsubishi parts in the Athaibah branch.
Merge 104.8 bags Gemas Effie Mena Award Merge 104.8 has picked up a top marketing award at the prestigious Gemas Effie Mena Awards 2011, held recently at a glitzy ceremony in Dubai. The highly regarded global marketing awards recognise the effectiveness of campaigns and brands, and aim to reward the marketing communications industry for their creative ability and marketing prowess. Merge 104.8 received the
bronze award for its achievements in the Media category, and given credit for the success of the new radio station, a mere six months old. Eihab Abutaha, CEO-Communications, SABCO Group, says, “In just six months, Merge 104.8 has established a strong community foothold, and is now being recognised for our marketing achievements in the international arena.”
Comes new Samsung 300V5A The Samsung 300V5A, 15.6” Notebook is designed to appeal to a wide range of people from students to social networking enthusiasts, from the home office to the business enterprises. It comes in both i5 & i7 processors. The i5 processor model comes in four colours (black, blue, pink and orange). The Intel Core i5 processor is one of Intel’s recent innovations, which offers smart performance with a speed boost. This processor delivers solid performance for dayto-day applications, not to mention its ability to increase speed as required for the more demanding
tasks. And already, it’s being touted as the mainstream version of Intel Core i7. The system comes equipped with 15.6-inch display, built-in Bluetooth, V3.0 high speed connectivity, WiFI with gigabit ethernet LAN for faster connect to the network and internet.
OAB implements advanced IT services Microsoft Gulf announced that Oman Arab Bank had implemented a diverse array of Microsoft solutions to build an innovative and sophisticated IT infrastructure capable of supporting its retail and corporate customer base and realtime integration with B2B
and B2G e-government systems. This has helped the bank to enhance its operational system, maximise efficiencies and optimise its IT infrastructure to support a dynamic operating environment and various business requirements.
Konica Minolta holds ME conference Konica Minolta, the Japanese printer and copier manufacturer held its their sixth annual Middle East distributors’ conference in Oman recently. The conference was attended by business heads of all the distributors in the region, senior management from Konica Minolta Business Technologies head quarters in Japan and their regional Middle East office. Konica Minolta, which is distributed by Mohsin Haider Darwish (MHD) in Oman, currently has about 30 per cent of the market share of printers
and copiers in the country, said company officials. Konica Minolta is one of the leaders in the colour office range of products and has made successful inroads in the light and production printing targeting professional printers. January 2012 83
FOR THRILLING PHOTOGRAPHIC ENJOYMENT Photocentre has announced the arrival of the new Fujifilm X10 – the little brother to Fujifilm X100 which was created to set new standards in style and quality for digital photography. The new premium compact camera is perfectly designed to add a real sense of style and glamour to the camera and has been created with many specifications that follow in the footsteps of the multi award-winning Fujifilm FinePix X100. It has been created to really give its owners a real sense of photographic excitement and enjoyment regardless if they are professional or beginners. The X10 –the little brother to the x100- features a large 2/3” 12 megapixel EXR-CMOS sensor and a highdefinition F2.0 wide-angle and F2.8 telephoto Fujinon 4x manual zoom lens (28-112mm), characterised by its brightness and superb picture quality right up to the edge of an image.
SIMPLE, YET FASHIONABLE Treat your little ones to an extra ordinary festive gift from Gap that offers hoodies, cardigans and other outstanding pieces designed for sheer comfort and great look. Choose from trendy outerwear for both girls and boys and dress them fabulous this season with essentials such as value graphic tees and leggings. The new collection is a fusion of bright colours and draws inspiration from two key themes: Aviator and Roman Holiday. The styling is simple, yet fashionable offering a blend of textures that lend an interesting touch. Embellished graphic tees and stylish block stripe sweaters are the highlights for girls wear, while the collection for boys takes on the racing inspired theme across graphics and top styles.
VIRTUOSO FEAT OF CRAFTSMANSHIP To truly appreciate the value of each passing instant, one must be able to measure it. True to a tradition of acclaimed technical excellence and aesthetic vision that spans three hundred years, Jaquet Droz presents two exclusive timepieces associating one of its most emblematic models – the Grande Seconde – with the tourbillon complication, a masterpiece of precision watchmaking. Freeing the mechanical watch from the effects of gravity, the tourbillon confers outstanding reliability. Here, it comes enclosed in a white-gold case with a Côtes de Genève dial or a red-gold case with a Grand Feu enameled dial. Once again, Jaquet Droz pushes back the limits of the watchmaker’s art by unveiling a tourbillon carriage crafted from sapphire crystal, an exceptional material, also used for the figure-8 shaped ring applied to the dial. 84
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NEW WAVE SMARTPHONES Samsung’s 4-inch Wave 3 smartphone features the bada 2.0 operating system, a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1.4 GHz processor. The phone has a 9.9mm bushed metal case and is designed to enable access to tens of thousands of localised applications through Samsung Apps. The Wave 3 benefits from the power of the bada 2.0, as well as a newly expanded suite of Samsung applications and services. The Wave 3 also includes ChatON, a cross-platform communication service by Samsung. ChatON is designed to integrate directly with users’ contact information and allows sharing of content in multiple formats, such as images, video, voice, contacts, and calendar to make messaging simpler and faster than ever. ChatON’s Group Chat feature also allows users to communicate with multiple contacts at once. The Wave 3 is powered by an impressive 1.4GHz processor and HSPA 14.4 Mbps connectivity.
FAST HYBRID DRIVE FOR LAPTOPS Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) is now shipping the second generation of Momentus® XT, its groundbreaking solid state hybrid drive for consumer and commercial laptops and the company’s fastest drive ever for personal computers. With a simple drive upgrade, users can boost boot-up speed and overall performance to turbo-charge their laptop PC. Seven original equipment manufacturers are gearing up to ship laptops powered by the Momentus XT drive. Powering the Momentus XT drive are Seagate’s Adaptive Memory™ and FAST Factor™ technologies. Adaptive Memory technology works by identifying data usage patterns, and then moving the most frequently retrieved information to solid state memory for faster access.
FOR ULTRA-SHARP PICTURES BenQ’s GH600 and GH700 bridge-type digital cameras are designed for photography enthusiasts who want to go beyond the features of a normal point-and-shoot camera. Combining the advantages of point-and-shoot cameras with DSLR-like imaging effects, the GH series boasts powerful new features that can deliver ultra-sharp pictures. Possessing a compact and ergonomic body, both cameras offer an affordable solution that will set the benchmark for bridge-type digital cameras in the region. Both camera models feature a 21x super zoom lens, 16-Megapixel CCD sensor, 25mm wide-angle lens, OIS (Optical Image Stabiliser) system, a 3-inch 460K LCD display and a wide selection of shooting modes. The 21x Super Zoom lens is designed to provide a broader focal range, from 25mm wide angle to 525mm telephoto and the OIS system helps to compensate for camera shake and has a high light sensitivity of up to ISO6400.
ENVIRONMENT
LEAVING A GREEN FOOTPRINT Registration has started for the third edition of Oman Green Awards, Oman’s first environmental award to honour outstanding environmental vision, endeavours and achievements of corporates and individuals
E
nvironment conservation continues to dominate all our discourses on holistic development and sustainable growth, as it can no longer be outside the purview of any discussion about the sustenance of human life on the Earth. As the world population increases, the demand for food, energy, and luxuries has increased manifold. The first casualty of catering to the burgeoning demands of the increasing urban populace is the environment. Therefore, creating a green economy has to top the agenda of the corporates, individuals and organisations, and every company needs to contribute its mite to protect and restore what is left of the Earth and environment. Only an enhanced awareness campaign will stir interest and wake up people from general inaction and minimal activism to positive environmental goals. Globally and regionally, environmental awards in governmental, corporate and other sectors have been evolving for several years. Several organisations including corporate houses, institutions, schools etc. are involved in relentless efforts to protect and preserve the environment. But the lack of an umbrella organisation that will bring these players together and facilitate better coordination and exchange of ideas creates an inherent lacuna in the system. It was from such
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outstanding environmental vision, endeavours and achievements of corporate and individuals who matter most as they strive in this environmental cause. The ultimate aim of the awards is to motivate behavioural change and increase awareness in relation to the protection and preservation of our environment. OGA provides green groups a platform to create awareness, bring about concerted action through exchange of ideas, and propel others to come forth and participate in this social cause.
a perceived need that the idea of Oman Green Awards (OGA) was conceived, and over the last three years it has evolved as a significant step to create and increase environmental awareness, as these will also lead towards greater action in the long term, both at a community and decision making levels. OGA has played a significant role in making the corporates, individuals and organisations in the country more serious about building environmental sustainability into their business practices. As the country’s first Environmental Awards, it has been created to awaken the eco-consciousness in every citizen and resident. It is aimed at honouring
The OGA is the ultimate recognition for companies, institutions and individuals in Oman, who demonstrate a commitment towards responsible consumption and sustainable growth. The award honours and celebrates their vision in leading the way to a cleaner, greener tomorrow. The last two editions of the OGA were a resounding success in meeting its stated objectives. The OGA has invited entries for the third edition of the awards which will be announced in June, 2012. It is a unique opportunity to be part of a national platform to honour and appreciate outstanding environmental vision, endeavors, initiatives and achievements in the country. The nomination form must only be completed and submitted online at www.omangreenawards.com. Any other form of nomination swill not be considered.
BEYONDBOARDROOMS
The prosecutor Tim Sebastian, an award winning broadcaster and journalist shares his views on Hardtalk, The Doha Debates and people who have left an imprint. Mayank Singh reports
You have interviewed scores of people worldwide, does anyone stand out amongst them? The people who stand out and the ones whom you remember are not those with big names or the politicians, but people who have found something special amongst themselves, people who were caught up in extraordinary events, heartrending events sometimes, where they were badly injured or lost someone close to them in terrifying circumstances; but one thing that all of them have in common is that they refused to be victims and it is that refusal to be a victim that gives them strength and brings out the best in them. Those are the ones whom I remember. Any thoughts on politicians or celebrities that you may have interviewed? If I had to spend 24 hours in a room
with a politician, I would choose Mikhail Gorbachev – the last leader of the Soviet Union – because he was such an interesting and stimulating man to come out of such a stagnant system. He was a small man who filled a room with his presence. You could really sense his power, authority and a strange kind of warmth. He was a fascinating man and I have never met a politician like him. You have had a strong association with Hardtalk, the iconic interview show on BBC. How do you look back on the programme? Just like so many ideas, it came across as a simple idea of two people sitting opposite each other and talking, but we kept on thinking about doing it differently and we felt that the research, facts and information needed to be the differentiator. We would use robust questioning based on facts to extract
something new from the person. The idea was not to beat people up. A lot of people said I was aggressive while doing Hardtalk, but I feel I was not aggressive but tough and there is a fine line dividing the two. I don’t think that one should confuse bad manners with good journalism and I hope that I never did. The idea was never to intimidate people but to put them on the spot and to get answers to vital questions. I always looked at it as a public service. The Doha Debates is something that is readily recognised in the region and there are a lot of urban legends about how it all started, what is the real story behind the programme? I was invited for a lunch with the Emir of Qatar when I went for a conference in 2004, and he asked whether I have any ideas and I said no, but I promised to think about it what we might do in Qatar. I came back with the idea of town hall debates and it went from there. I never thought that The Doha Debates would happen, never thought it would last this long, that some of the results of the debate would be so controversial and I never thought that the people in the region would open up so much. The idea behind the programme is to let young people ask the questions on behalf of those who cannot do so, to get them to get used to participating in the politics of their country and to realise that it is not a right but a duty. You moderated the Oman Debate and this has been your first fullfledged interaction with an audience here, what are your thoughts on the proceedings? I think people were very critical, people are impatient, they want more reform. You give people reform and they want more, you give people rights and they want more and that is what happens. The Oman Debate showed that people have a clear idea of what they don’t like in society, the obstacles to greater prosperity, they want greater interaction and that the government is listening. I was surprised by how open and frank people were and I enjoyed it enormously. January 2012 87
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