'Over 370,000 work permits in Oman issued online in three years'

Muscat: The Information Technology Authority (ITA) has announced that it has issued 371,353 electronically-approved and paid private work permits since 2015, when the scheme was first launched.
ITA is a governmental authority that is responsible for establishing and running e-services in Oman.
Moreover, about a month ago, the e-service was updated and one no longer needs to upload documents to apply for work permits online at www.manpower.gov.om.
“The private work permit service was launched online in 2015, but it has been a month since the service was updated. Now, you get the permit without uploading any documents for civil service employees and private sector employees. This update is because the ministry is integrated with the Royal Oman Police (ROP) Civil Service Status data and the ministry is working to integrate with other entities to facilitate all other kinds of work permits,” an official ITA statement said.
“This is only for the employees registered in the Civil Service Employees Pension Fund and Public Authority for Social Insurance as the data of these two entities is integrated with the Ministry of Manpower System,” it added.
The ITA said that it was continuing its online marketing campaign with the Arabic hashtag “"#اختصرها_أحسن on its social media channels, in relation to these work permits. The campaign encouraged people to use these e-services.
The ITA is highlighting the Private Work Permit Service by the Ministry of Manpower through the social media accounts of both entities. It involves a promotional video as well.
The e-work permits system was part of a series of e-services provided by the Ministry to keep abreast of the digital transformation project, which contributed to increasing productivity and accuracy in completing transactions and reducing the number of visitors to the Ministry.
There were two ways to use the e-services of the Ministry of Manpower. People could use their ID cards, provided these had digital certification from the ROP Civil Status Centres. They could also use their mobile SIM cards if these had digital certification, which was provided by the telecommunication companies, Omantel and Ooredoo. The Mobile PKI could be authenticated through the website www.oman.om.
Over 100,000 e-work permits in Muscat
The Ministry of Manpower said Muscat led with 113,345 e-work permits, the highest of any governorate, followed by North Al Batinah governorate with 66,420 registrations.
Dakhiliyah governorate saw 32,157 e-work permits. The number for South Al Sharqiyah was 32,310. Dhofar had 29,023 registrations, south Al Batinah had 27,861, North Sharqiyah had 26,849, while Al Dahirah saw 24,167 registrations. Al Buraimi had 11,962, Al Wusta had 4,698 and Musandam had 2,561 registrations.
The digitisation was part of the Manpower Ministry’s larger plan to eliminate files and office visits and make bureaucratic work easier.