Pandemic challenges discussed in meeting with joint business councils

Muscat: The joint business councils across the country held a meeting with the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss the challenges posed to companies by the COVID-19 pandemic and look at ways to overcome them.

The meeting was chaired by Redha bin Juma’a Al Saleh, the chairman of the OCCI, and attended by the heads of the councils, whose terms run from 2018 to 2022. It was held at the chamber’s headquarters in Muscat.

Among the matters brought to light during the meeting was the need to accelerate the work being done by the councils to work faster in their efforts to help businesses contribute more to the economy.

The heads of the councils discussed the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, which has cast a shadow over various commercial and industrial activities, both locally and internationally. They stressed the needs to study investment trends with those countries that have joint business councils with Oman so that they could unify their efforts with other parties and achieve better results in negating the impact of the novel coronavirus.

“The heads of the joint business councils also indicated the importance of integration between the various parties in the public and private sectors to facilitate investment opportunities, make them attractive and encouraging, and help Oman benefit from its joint trade agreements with other countries,” said the OCCI in a statement.

Key to these efforts is a well-thought-out strategy to provide integrated projects with well-researched economic feasibility across a number of targeted economic sectors and to promote and market the Sultanate as a gateway to trade with the larger world.

“The meeting touched on the importance of holding meetings with officials in government agencies to discuss the most important challenges affecting the improvement of the investment climate in the Sultanate, and to follow up on finding solutions that help attract investment opportunities,” added the OCCI statement. There was also need to work to “facilitate and simplify procedures for registering investment companies.”

The members also discussed the importance of holding council meetings periodically to view work accomplished and motivate council members to participate more effectively to encourage investment and trade exchange between the Sultanate and its partner countries on the joint business councils.