Oman's customs chief thanks hard working force

Muscat: Almost 27 years ago, a young man by the name of Khalifa Al Siyabi joined the Royal Oman Police and was immediately posted as a Junior Customs Officer at Port Sultan Qaboos.
Today, Colonel Khalifa Al Siyabi is the Director General of Customs and couldn’t be more grateful as his team marked a day in their honour.
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“I have been lucky that my career has been in Customs, one of the most interesting areas of the Royal Oman Police. I joined the ROP on Police Day in 1989. In those days, life was very different, everything was done by paper and much of the cargo that came was not containerised. The ships were much smaller and there were only a few of us working at the port,” the Colonel recalled.
Barka boy
“It was exciting for me, a Barka boy, to be working in Muscat at the Port where the world came to Oman. Since then, I have worked at land borders and Muscat Airport, so in my career, I have seen people and goods coming to Oman in every possible way,” he added.
Col. Siyabi has seen the change happening, from small coastal vessels and few passenger aircraft to cargo now moving on massive ships that barely fit into Port Sultan Qaboos.
“It has been an exciting career for me and I look forward to taking Oman Customs to the next step as we modernise to provide better customs services for the Sultanate,” Col. Siyabi said.
On Customs Day, Colonel Siyabi would like to say one thing to the Customs Officers keeping our borders safe: “Thank you.”
“Thank you very much for your ceaseless efforts in what are often tiring conditions. Having worked in those conditions, I am more aware than most of the sacrifices they make and just how hard and thankless their jobs can be. We are working hard to make the role of customs officer better, by the introduction of electronic reporting, risk management, new technologies and training arrangements with other customs administrations,” the Colonel added.