Efforts on to solve payment challenge in construction sector

Oman Society of Contractors (OSC) has continuously been endeavouring to address the payment challenges that the construction sector in Oman is facing.

“The Society is continuously engaged with the Ministry of Finance to attain sustainable solutions. Also OSC is in talks with the government to expedite the public private partnership (PPP) framework,” said Dr Hamed Hashim al Dhahab, Chairman of OSC at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Sunday at Grand Millennium Hotel Muscat.

He expressed his optimism in more work being done to implement the construction initiative presented and agreed upon during the Tanfeedh labs.

“If we consolidate our efforts, we will be able to achieve great results that will prepare us for the future,” he said.

Addressing the AGM, Shahswar al Balushi, Chief Executive Officer said that OSC has proposed possible solutions to address future cash flow concerns. The Ministry of Finance is reviewing the issues for large ticket payments.

He said that RO 250 million was allocated 2017 budget to fund shortfalls in the sector.

“This helped alleviate some of the cash flow pressure in the sector,” he said. Self-regulation and assessment is a very important step to elevate the sector’s standard.

“In this regard, we have completed companies’ classification system and are now working with business gateway to automate the process and instil verification mechanism. Companies’ classification is also part and parcel of the Construction initiative,” he said.

“In a bid to improve the sector’s image and brand, the organisation is engaged with the media to bring forward true reflection of the sector and demonstrate to the public that we are proactive with solutions and ideas,” he said.

“Even though financially we continue to be self-sustaining, however, we need to continue our effort to increase membership growth and look for alternative funding propositions,” he said.

According to him, the present society’s revenue generation stands at 78 per cent based on membership, 16 per cent on sponsorship and 6 per cent from the society’s magazine.

“Membership growth is not only important for financial sustainability, but also is needed to build the required critical mass that can exert stronger influence,” he said.

“We have worked very hard in 2016 to take these steps forward. We have engaged with members and several government agencies. We identified and prioritised key issues, and studied and proposed solutions. We communicated targeted solutions to the concerned authorities,” he said.

Among the key solutions is the construction initiative. It was successfully presented during Tanfeedh labs and an agreement was reached. The initiative is addressing the challenges of Omanisation and the labour market in the construction sector.

In 2017, OSC plans to continue with its efforts to reduce the challenges facing the industry, explore alternative funding resources, increase members benefit, drive membership growth, strengthen its partnership with government and put into action many of the initiatives started in 2016.

“One of the key milestones that we expect to achieve in 2017 is the regulation of the labour market in the construction sector. With this we will also implement the OSC companies’ classification. The classification will help ring fence the sector as well as grow membership and enhance the OSC’s financial position,” he added. lobbying