Muscat: The priorities of Oman Vision 2040 will be to join the group of the world’s developed countries (in top 20 from top 40 in Vision 2030) by seeking to foster economic competitiveness and social well-being, stimulate growth and build confidence in all economic, social and developmental relations nationwide.
The focus will be to improve Oman’s global standings in key socio-economic indicators such as Global Innovation Index, Real GDP per Capita (Growth Rate), Global Competitiveness Index, Real GDP Growth, Environmental Performance Index, FDI Net Inflow percentage of GDP, Non-Oil Share of GDP and Omanis share of jobs created in the private sector.
Vision 2040 has outlined the strategic directions, goals and key policies to translate ambitions into action plans underpinned by clear milestones and timelines and progressing against a set of local and international indicators to measure and evaluate the performance in a transparent manner.
Education
The vision seeks to develop the different levels of the educational system and improving educational outcomes have become necessary to build Omanis’ confidence in their identity and commitment to their social values. This is attainable through increasing the quality of basic and higher education and developing scientific and educational curricula so that graduates are acquainted with competitive qualify cations and employability skills to enter the local and international labour market.
Healthcare
An inclusive and equitable healthcare system should cover all of Oman governorates, with the participation of government, the private sector and civil society. This coverage should include more medical specialties and specialised medical institutes and universities to develop a medical staff of various specialisations. The desired healthcare system should follow international best practices in accreditation, be it in medical services, healthcare centres, medical laboratories, or medical personnel.
Social justice
Social justice will be a prerequisite for cohesive, strong and peaceful societies. It is achieved by providing sustainable quality social well-being services, such as healthcare and education, and providing social safety nets to ensure viable livelihood means for the present and future generations.
Stable leadership
As stable economic leadership and management are key to align the fiscal, monetary, trade, investment, industrial and labour market policies, the national priorities shall constitute a framework for this leadership, building on the Sultanate’s comparative advantages, and its aspiration to build a competitive knowledge-based economy and keep abreast of economic and technical developments.
Diversification
The Omani economy is heading towards a robust base of economic diversification with a focus on technology, knowledge and innovation.
“It also aims at reinforcing upstream and downstream integration among economic sectors to expand the production and export base, diversify trading partners, deepen investment in high value-added sectors, and enhance the contribution of non-oil sectors to the GDP.”
Technology
A future Omani economy that embraces technology, knowledge and innovation will allow for the production of competitive products and services with higher knowledge and technology components. Consequently, this will contribute to developing the economy and enhancing its competitiveness in most sectors and activities such as tourism, education and manufacturing, including oil and gas-based industries.
Achieving a balanced development requires a labour market with a highly efficient legislative system that ensures effectiveness, integrates national capabilities coming from the educational system into the domestic labour market, attracts both technical and skilled labour from abroad and develops specific methods to improve the administrative and organisational framework to manage the labour market, the report said.
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