Call to empower youth in agriculture, fisheries

A workshop on ‘Empowering national workforce in agricultural, animal and fish activities’ was held on Wednesday under the auspices of Dr Hamad bin Said al Aufi, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, which was attended by a number of officials in the public and private sectors, besides competent corporates. In his speech, Dr Al Aufi said, “The private sector is the main engine for agricultural, animal and fish development while the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is the regulatory, monitoring, legislative and supportive body for this development. One of the major issues that has attracted public attention is the labour market and employment. Keeping this in view, the 9th Five-Year Plan since its beginning in 2016 has been building national capabilities and providing appropriate job opportunities at all levels for Omanis.” Dr Al Aufi said that a notable outcome of the National Programme for Economic Diversification (Tanfeeth) was the implementation of the ‘labour market and employment’ lab, which has worked since 2017, along with the targeted economic sectors to develop an integrated plan of action to find appropriate remedies to accommodate the national manpower to work in these sectors. “The vision of Oman 2040 did not neglect this aspect either, and therefore one of the most important pillars of the rational government in 2020 and the 10th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) was the focus on the main sectors contributing to economic diversification and increasing their investments and thus expanding their absorption of the national workforce,” he added. The minister said, “The current developments require solidarity and integration with everyone to address the issue of the labour market and employment, and accordingly technical teams have been formed targeting work and integration with the private sector, which is the main incubator of the national workforce in various sectors.” He confirmed that specialised programmes and incentives were launched to build the national capabilities working in various economic activities, the most important of which are the efforts made by the Ministry of Manpower, and the programmes presented by each of the National Training Fund and PDO, indicating that establishment of the National Centre for Employment comes as a first step towards unifying and integrating government efforts to address job-seekers’ issue, with Implementation and Follow-up Support Unit providing all aspects of support necessary to specialised technical teams to fulfil the agreed work plan. A number of papers were presented by officials from MoAF, MoMP, the National Training Fund and Mazoon Dairy Company. The workshop aimed mainly to implement the government’s directions, and urges government agencies to hold meetings with companies operating in different sectors, and to study their role in labour market and employment, by studying the plans of companies in operating the national workforce, reviewing the rates of Omanisation agreed upon, and working to replace some jobs. It also aimed at providing incentives for companies to train and qualify their employees, through specialised courses or on-the-job training.