Strengthening Oman’s economy from within will make it stronger, say financial experts in the country.
During a webinar organized by Times of Oman, senior professionals who work across various sectors of the Sultanate, said the COVID-19 challenges would provide many opportunities for businesses to grow in the future, but it requires a spirit of cooperation from all sectors.
“Every country right now, going forward after COVID-19, is going to look at its internal economy,” said Shahswar Al Balushi, who’d headed the labor labs organized under Tanfeedh, Oman’s plan for economic diversification.
“It is going to look at making its local businesses grow, and Oman has to do the same. If you build your local business, you are going to be strengthening it, and then you are going to be ready for foreign investments to come in the future.
“For that to happen, you need to look at strengthening the small businesses, whether they are entering into small industrial projects, on the side of tourism, or in logistics, fisheries, agriculture, transport, and the regulations and the incentives,” he added.
“In terms of the ability to do that, you need to remember that we have been inside a box before the coronavirus, and we are now in a different box during corona, and we are going into a different box after corona.
“We need to be ready, we need to be forward thinkers, on how we would like to shape that box,” explained Al Balushi.
“I see a great deal of opportunity, I see it is the time for us to change, I see it is the time for the community to work together create the right environment for building a strong local economy. We are not going to get foreign investors coming in now, because most of them are going to be doing investments in their own country, we should be doing investments in our own country, by the locals and the expatriates that are here. We should build this economy from inside, rather than wait until those outside come in.”
Oman Times
05/05/2020
