Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: An agreement was signed between Sohar Industrial City and Majis Industrial Services for potable water service. The agreement aims at creating an integrated supply of water services and supply of potable water to the industrial city with a capacity reaching 10,000 cubic metres per day.
This shall be supplied through a network extending from the water production plant for a distance of 15km. It is hoped that this agreement will contribute to enhance potable water service for industrial purposes as well as human consumption, and to ensure uninterrupted supply of water service to subscribers.
This was announced on the sidelines of the seminar as part of Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) series of events organised by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn), on Wednesday highlighting Omanisation in the industrial sector and its challenges and solutions.
The seminar was held under the auspices of Hamad bin Khamis Al Amri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Manpower for Labour Affairs.
An agreement was signed on the sidelines of the seminar between Sohar Industrial City and Majis Industrial Services for potable water service. The agreement aims at creating an integrated supply of water services and supply of potable water to the industrial city with a capacity reaching 10,000 cubic metres per day.
This shall be supplied through a network extending from the water production plant for a distance of 15 km. It is hoped that this agreement will contribute to enhance potable water service for industrial purposes as well as human consumption, and to ensure uninterrupted supply of water service to subscribers.
Speaking at the event, Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, Chief Executive Officer of Madayn, explained that it was important for Madayn to spotlight the topic of Omanisation and the significance of training and qualifying the national cadres in the industrial sector in particular and other sectors in general.
“This shall raise the competence and productivity and create an ideal work environment, which would positively reflect on the Sultanate’s national economy,” Al Hasani said, adding: “One of the major national objectives that Madayn seeks to achieve is providing suitable job opportunities for the national workforce."
"By the end of 2018, Madayn has provided more than 20,000 job opportunities for the nationals in its various industrial cities, of which more than 6,000 opportunities were provided in Sohar Industrial City. We should note here that the overall Omanisation rate achieved by Madayn has touched 35% by the end of 2018," he added.
"The Omanisation rate in Suhar Industrial City alone has reached 34 per cent during the same period. These results would not have been achieved without concerted efforts and coordination with the Ministry of Manpower and the factories and companies,” he said.
Al Hasani pointed out that since 2011 Madayn has adopted training programmes and plans for the workforce who are based in the various industrial cities. Madayn has also provided training opportunities for the national cadres who are working in senior administrative and supervisory positions.
“In line with Madayn’s efforts to achieve comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development based on the capabilities of the Omani youth, Madayn Industrial Academy has been established recently and is currently being prepared through cooperation with a number of partners. The academy shall provide vocational and technical training programmes to train and qualify the Omani cadres and accordingly raise their productivity and readiness for the market as per the requirements of the factories and companies,” he informed.
He added that Madayn has recently signed an agreement with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) with the aim of providing employment opportunities through training for employment, direct hire, redeployment and on-job training.
Al Hasani also noted that Madayn will be signing soon a number of agreements with partners of successful experiences from within and outside the Sultanate in order to ensure the best results and achieve highest levels of professionalism and efficiency of the Omani workforce.
Madayn has also created recently a department specialised in Omanisation matters to follow up the updates in its various industrial cities.
Papers
A number of papers were delivered at the seminar, which elaborated more on Omanisation in the Sultanate’s industrial sector.
Zahra Al Siyabi, director of industrial development department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, explained that a technical team has been formed to follow up employment in the manufacturing sector, and is responsible of listing all the current and prospective job opportunities in the sector. The team also has the task of receiving the Omanisation and employment plans from the industrial units. The team is cooperating with various related bodies to update and unify related data.
Al Siyabi noted that the team has been formed as per the Ministerial Decision no. 55/2019 and comprises representatives of the following bodies: Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Manpower, Implementation Support and Follow-up Unit (ISFU), Madayn, and Oman Manufacturers’ Association.
Jamal Al Jahadhamy, National Objectives and Training Advisor at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), stated that the national objectives of PDO aims at delivering value to the nation by maximizing the employment of skilled Omanis with PDO contractors and across Oman.
He noted that the year 2018 highlights included the graduation of more than 3400 trainees from the National Objectives Programme; 17000 job opportunities were created, and the graduation of the largest vocational training in the history of National Objectives Programme (1077 graduates).
Moreover, Ali Al Hashmi, CEO of Oman Technology Institute, said that the institute was established in 2003 as a commercial and technical institute. It has partnerships with many international accrediting bodies in the UK, USA and Germany, and it is one of the providers of PDO’s National Objective programmes. The institute has received an award for excellence and Omanisation and it has trained over 8,000 Omanis in various courses.
N. Reguraj, Managing Director of Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) in India, gave details on the experience of this foundation which is an educational foundation established in the year 1963 and is a symbol of Indo-Swiss cooperation aimed at promoting purposeful technical education for the youth of India.
The foundation implements its technical training programme through more than 20 training centres located in various states across India. NTTF assists industries, through its special collaborative initiative for producing quality manpower, by establishing training centres in partnership with industry associations.
The last paper was presented by King.D, partner consulting division at ABC company, who elaborated on the validation system of manpower requirement requests from industrial units within Madayn’s cities through Masar Investment Window.
He emphasised on the fact that the assessment of the manpower requirement for a manufacturing industry is complex, and therefore, Madayn is planning to rationalise the entire process covering submission of the manpower requirement, evaluation of the request, and the approval through a unified system.
Discussion session
A discussion session then took place, moderated by Dr Khamis Al Muniri, acting chairman of University of Buraimi. Several topics were discussed during the session, which included training services and incentives offered to the companies and factories based in Madayn’s cities in cooperation with National Training Fund (NTF) and Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
The session also highlighted the quality of the programmes offered to the participants by NTF and the difference between training-for-employment programmes and on-job training.
Moreover, the discussion session underscored the efforts of Madayn to implement academic qualification programme in cooperation with NTF and PDO, which aims at qualifying the graduates to work in industrial units as per the requirements of the factories.
Challenges facing the companies and factories in raising these rates were also discussed and recommended solutions to address these challenges were underlined.
It is noteworthy to mention that this event comes within the Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) series of events for the year 2019, which aim at underlining various subjects related to businessmen, employees and students of higher education institutions in the Sultanate.
OMG events have been initiated by Madayn to bring together local manufacturers and various industries to network and discuss on the recent trends triggered in the industry and promote the development of the manufacturing sector in Oman.
