Council of Oman's third annual session to open in November

Muscat: In response to the Royal Orders of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the opening of the 3rd annual session of the Council of Oman (the State Council and Majlis Al Shura) will be on November 14, 2017.
Majlis Al Shura regular first sessions will also start on the same day amidst hopes of achieving more progress in the legislative and oversight work by the Council of Oman.
In this regard, Sheikh Ali bin Nasser Al Mahrouqi, Secretary General of Majlis Al Shura said that the 3rd annual session (2017-2018) of the 8th term of Majlis will be buzzing with legislative and oversight activities.
The major activities include the election of the Majlis Al Shura Office members, heads of the standing committees and reviewing the committees’ plans and programmes.
He added that at the beginning of the term, Majlis Al Shura will host the Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs to discuss the draft state budget.
Afterwards and in December 2017, there will be many ministerial statements. Majlis Al Shura is expected to host the Minister of Commerce and Industry to deliver the statement of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
He added that during the past two sessions of the 8th term, there has been a qualitative leap during which Majlis Al Shura interacted with the developments and issues that affect the citizen.
The major issues include the implications of the current economic crisis for which Majlis Al Shura presented a number of recommendations and proposals during discussing the draft budget for the state for 2017 and the 9th five-year plan.
Majlis Al Shura also organised a number of panel discussions that aimed at involving citizens and creating an interactive atmosphere that ensures listening to their views together with the views circulated through the social networks.
He also noted that during the past two terms, Majlis Al Shura approved a number of reports and studies conducted by the permanent committees and the work teams formed for this purpose.
It also reviewed a number of ministerial replies and the tools used by members of Majlis, such as questions, interpellations, request for discussion and others to carry out Majlis Al Shura legislative and oversight role and materialise partnership principle between the government and Majlis.