SALEH AL SHAIBANY -
saleh_shaibani@yahoo.com -
It is hard keeping young Omanis in their villages with the majority of them leaving for the cities looking for jobs.
It is vital for a healthy economic growth to keep them in their home towns. With young job-seekers leaving by the drove the places of their births, Muscat is shouldering the heaviest responsibility if you take into consideration other cities like Suhar and Salalah. It is going through enormous pressure to create employment for them.
This is stretching the basic infrastructure services, too. Congestion on the roads, accommodation, parking space, basic education and health are putting a strain on the urban areas. The cities will soon reach a saturation point of job creation and they will no longer be able to create enough employment.
It is also causing chaos on demographic balance. When smaller towns do not generate jobs, then the outflow of human emigration will increase every year to leave the rural areas severely fragmented. The government is spending millions in extending communications and transport facilities outside the capital but one wonders if these facilities are mainly used on the weekends and by tourists.
They work in Muscat and commute back to their houses in the rural areas during the weekends. Most of them, if you asked them, they would rather stay at home than make the several hours weekend journey to Muscat that may end up with road fatalities.
In the 1980s, the government tried to spread out the industrial areas by establishing manufacturing units in major towns but the private sector did not take up the call.
We still import almost everything though the heavily subsidised manufacturing businesses have been started three decades ago.
Had these projects gone well, then young people would have no need to seek greener pastures outside the boundaries of the places they were born.
The erosion of the rural areas is universal but economic planners should not make any excuse. If plans were sketchy a few decades ago, economists can have another go this time round. However, there is a bright light beaming down now on Oman with the announcement of 25,000 jobs in December. Thousands of jobs will continue to be generated in the next few years in the same plan to find employment for graduates.
With the right targets, half of the jobs can be created in the rural areas to keep young people born there at home. However, jobs cannot be created when there are no projects. The assumption is that the government will spend on projects that will open up employment. If plans are now firmly erected then it will stop the rural immigration to major cities.
There are enough colleges and universities outside the capital whose graduates do not need to come to Muscat to seek for jobs. When projects like the railway finally take off, both jobs and business opportunities should be reserved to local residents to restore demographic balance and stop rural erosion.
Apart from the railway project, which the government is still keen on implementing, the retail is another sector that would keep villagers in their home areas. Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can work well in small towns if financing is available. Also, strategies on farming and fishery need to be strengthened.
Oman, compared to other GCC states, is much more fertile. The Sultanate has also the longest coastline in the region stretching for 1,700 km. Farmers can create employment and fishermen have the potential to generate enough income to survive on their own.
At the moment, there is very little commitment on both farming and fishery projects to make serious headways into the economy. But that can change with the right attitude.
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