Muscat: The Industrial Innovation Center provides the industrial sector with the establishment of 4 innovative units, training 360 specialists, and supporting 40 factories.
Dr. Abdullah Al Mahrouqi, CEO of the Industrial Innovation Center said: "The Industrial Innovation Center is the compass of the Omani industry and leads it towards growth as it works on qualifying human capital and establishing innovative small and medium companies."
The Industrial Innovation Center celebrates the Omani Industry Day, which falls on the 9th of February of each year, and the center works to develop Omani industries and enhance innovation in them. The center has worked on qualifying 360 young people over the past 3 years with an industrial innovation specialist’s certificate and enabling these young people to acquire intellectual property.
The number of beneficiaries of the innovation support programs provided by the center in the existing factories and companies reached 40 national companies and factories, and they acquired intellectual property, and the center has also established 4 innovative units in the fields of: food and beverages, fish industries, animal and fish feed, and mining.
The center's efforts come within the framework of supplying Omani industries by qualifying human capital, establishing innovative small and medium-sized companies, supporting innovation in existing factories, and developing knowledge-based economy policies to achieve economic diversification through innovation in promising industrial sectors.
On this occasion, Dr. Abdullah bin Muhammad Al Mahrouqi, CEO of the Industrial Innovation Center, said: "The celebration of the Omani Industry Day confirms the relentless pursuit of various professional bodies to develop the industry and raise its contribution to the Sultanate’s GDP as one of the pillars of economic diversification. The Industrial Innovation Center is working to prepare and implement four innovative programs. It specializes in developing human capital and innovation in both start-ups, established companies and industrial sectors."
Dr. Al-Mahrouqi stated that the center is implementing the innovation program in minerals in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, as the program lasts for 5 years and is funded with a budget of approximately 4 million Omani Rials and works under the National Program for Promoting Economic Diversification (previously implemented) currently (the follow-up unit for the implementation of Oman Vision 2040) to maximize the economic value of the Sultanate's mineral resources while creating added value in all economic, social and competitive dimensions.
Al-Mahrouqi explained, "This year the focus has been on the clay and basalt elements, as this is done by standing on the latest findings of the world in investments related to these two elements in addition to the nature of the Sultanate’s resources from them and the Sultanate’s competitiveness in this regard. For example, with regard to mud,we found the possibility of creating 15 investment opportunities and opening Each opportunity has the space for a new economy."
On the implications of the Industrial Innovation Center programs, Dr. Abdullah Al-Mahrouqi said: "The size of investment that was pumped into the center's programs amounted to OMR 1,871,833, creating financial returns at the level of the national economy amounting to OMR 581,500. Through these programs, the center was able to create 56 job opportunities for Omani youth." He emphasized that the center is the compass of the Omani industry towards growth.
He pointed out that the center worked to organize specialized workshops in the fields of fishery industries, marble and food processing, with a total of 536 participants, and in the field of technology transfer and knowledge engagement exceeded the volume of knowledge that was transferred in cooperation with international expertise houses from different countries such as Malaysia, Turkey, Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, India and others, as the volume of knowledge transferred from these countries reached 169 fields and sectors of knowledge, and in the field of training, the Center created 73 on-the-job training opportunities that it provided to graduates of higher education institutions.
