World Cup options on show in Nzaustralia T20 series
Oman Broadband is seeking a qualified partner to finance and build the FTTH network in certain defined areas within a specific delivery timeline
CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand and Australia go into a five-match Twenty20 series in Christchurch on Monday with one eye on winning the series and one on the World Cup in India later this year.
Rival captains Kane Williamson and Aaron Finch said on Sunday the series offered a chance to look at the potential balance of their squads ahead of the championship eight months away.
“The first aim is to win the series but there’s also a bit of information grabbing throughout the series with guys in some different roles, potentially’’, Australia captain Finch said.
Neither captain was prepared to name their lineup for game one although Finch indicated he would join Matthew Wade and the uncapped Josh Philippe at the top of the order with Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis rounding out the top five.
The Black Caps confirmed hard-hitting opener Martin Guptill, who had been under an injury cloud, had passed a fitness test and would open — leaving no room for the uncapped Finn Allen who was the form player in New Zealand’s domestic T20 series.
Guptill had averaged a low 11.5 before being injured in the home series while the 21-year-old Allen blazed away with 512 runs at an impressive 56.88.
“Every series you play is an opportunity to grow as a side and we have the World Twenty20s which are in the back of your mind’’,
Every series you play is an opportunity to grow as a side and we have the World Twenty20s which are in the back of your mind
KANE WILLIAMSON New Zealand captain
Williamson said. “There’s a lot of players around who are playing really, really well.”
Preparation has not been ideal for Australia, who were scheduled to end their 14 days in managed isolation as part of New Zealand’s strict Covid-19 regulations on Sunday — 24 hours ahead of the first match.
But Williamson did not expect Australia to be rusty.
“Whatever Australian team is put out is strong. They do have the majority of their consistent Twenty20 side there, with also the opportunity of bringing in a lot of talented youngsters they do have’’, he said.
Game one takes place on the 10th anniversary of a destructive 6.3-magnitude earthquake that claimed 185 lives in Christchurch. Williamson and Finch will lay a wreath at the anniversary memorial service hours before the cricket starts.
Wholly government-owned Oman Broadband Company has invited private investors to participate in the construction of a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network on a build, finance, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis — the first such project of its kind to be procured under the Public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
Oman Broadband, set up in 2014 as a joint stock company, is playing a key role in the implementation of the nation’s e-government, digitalisation and national broadband strategies — aimed ultimately at stimulating the growth of a knowledge economy in the Sultanate.
For the first time, the stateowned entity is turning to the private sector to help with the implementation of key optic fibre-based broadband infrastructure in select parts of the country on a PPP basis.
Significantly, the PPP model is expected to be an increasingly important route for government and public sector organisations in the Sultanate to procure and deliver public infrastructure and services amid the ongoing constrained fiscal and economic environment.
“Oman Broadband aims to apply a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model for some of the FTTH projects, where Oman Broadband is seeking a qualified partner to finance and build the FTTH network in the defined areas, within a specific delivery timeline,” the company said in an ‘Invitation to Bid’ floated late last week.
“The selected partner will be mainly responsible about financing, design verification and construction of the FTTH network,” it noted. Deployment of the fibre optic network is planned in parts of the wilayats of Barka and Rustaq.
The network will serve thousands of homes in the areas of Barka al Kwairat, Barka al Sahil, Rustaq al Weshail and Rustaq City Centre. Oman Broadband has proposed a revenue sharing model for the Ppp-based project.
“The asset which is constructed by the partner will be owned by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that shall be established by Oman Broadband and the partner for an agreed period and shall be transferred to Oman Broadband after the agreed period,” it stated.
Based on the success of this initiative, Oman Broadband plans to offer other areas for network development on a PPP basis.
March 3 is the final date for the collection of tender documents, with March 23 stipulated as the deadline for submission of technical and commercial bids.
Oman Broadband, part of Oman ICT — a subsidiary of Oman Investment Authority — is currently focused on the rollout of a passive fiber network infrastructure that seeks to provide equal and open access to telecommunication service providers, on a wholesale basis, and owners and operators of private networks, on a retail basis, thereby enabling end users to efficiently leverage high speed fibre in Oman.
As the Msmlisted SAOG companies have all now reported their preliminary unaudited full year 2020 results, we are able to gauge the financial impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the Oman economy.
Overall, the picture is much as expected, as we see almost all the sectors down when compared to the prior year. However, five sectors that are interestingly worthy of special mention are Banking, Construction, Oil and Gas, Telecoms (included within Diversified Services) and Insurance.
In all economies, the Banking sector has exposure to all other sectors, so is the best universal barometer, as they book provisions in advance of expected credit losses (IFRS 9 ECL). This sector alone is down 33 per cent.
Another sector that is central to the Oman economy is Construction, which has not only shown a reduction, it has gone from a profitable RO 3m to a RO 23m loss position. The large construction firms, as we all know, are just the tip of the iceberg, as their activities are felt throughout the economic chain and particularly deep into the private family groups as well as the SME sectors.
Another sector that has been hit hard is Oil and Gas. With lower economic activity, less cars on the roads and the lack of air traffic requiring aviation fuel, this sector, which includes the Shell, Oman Oil and Al Maha petrol stations, saw an 80 per cent reduction in their combined profits.
Telecoms (Omantel and Ooredoo) have surprisingly also suffered with a drop in profitability of 22 per cent. With the increase in working from home and general social usage of the Internet, it would be intuitive to expect this sector to have benefiting from the pandemic.
However, unfortunately their revenue base is largely fixed as they charge per month but their cost base is variable, as they must pay based on usage, which has skyrocketed.
The final sector worthy of special mention is Insurance, which has surprisingly bucked the trend and reported a 37 per cent increase in profitability. If we look at all four quarters, we see a consistent year-on-year 1st quarter before the pandemic effect took hold and annual premiums were collected.
Then in the 2nd quarter, the performance improved considerably as the lockdowns reduced activity, so there were significantly lower claims to be paid.
However, in the 3rd and 4th quarters, a slowdown ensued as new business dried up, with lower economic activity, cost cutting and an exodus of expats impacting adversely on the renewal of motor insurance policies.
We have not mentioned the Tourism sector including Airlines and Hotels, which have seen their revenues evaporate completely, only because few of these are listed on the MSM in Oman.
With the Covid-19 vaccination programme picking up pace, 2021 promises to be a year of growth as the economy and companies within it make up for the lost year of 2020.
Where survival was the word on everyone’s lips in Oman, where GDP is projected to record a contraction of close to -10 per cent. The Government and the wider business community should already be positioning themselves to rise to the challenge and potential that lies ahead.
[Karl Jackson is an Assurance and Advisory Partner at Crowe Oman with close to 30 years of audit, accounting, banking and risk management experience; email: karl.jackson@crowe.om]
In all economies, the Banking sector has exposure to all other sectors, so is the best universal barometer, as they book provisions in advance of expected credit losses (IFRS 9 ECL)
ZURICH: Germany, which is known for strict budgets, has tapped debt markets to prop up its virus-hit economy, while neighbouring Switzerland has consistently curbed borrowing despite calls to change course.
With Swiss firms struggling through another lockdown, the federal government last week finally loosened its purse strings a bit, doubling emergency aid to 10 billion Swiss francs ($11.2 billion) as part of a programme to boost the economy.
But when he presented the package for companies worst hit by the latest Covid restrictions, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer again lamented that Switzerland had to borrow to boost the economy.
Some 10 billion francs in debt will have to be paid off within six years according to a constitutional debt brake rule, Maurer warned.
He promised to present various options to do so as soon as the economic outlook cleared a bit. Despite mounting criticism that the wealthy Alpine nation isn’t doing enough to support companies, Maurer has repeated time and again that the Swiss government has “no money”.
The government is already borrowing “150 million francs a day, or six million per hour, or 100,000 a minute’’, he notes.
In 2020, Switzerland’s federal government spent 15 billion francs ($16.7 billion) to support the economy, and preliminary data shows it ended the year with a deficit of 15.8 billion francs.
Some have called for
Switzerland to put balanced budget dogma aside during the crisis, to protect against potential long-term economic damage.
“Switzerland could be much more generous’’, said Michael Graff, an economics professor at ETH Zurich, a public research university. He believes the country could borrow what it needed to boost business activity without a problem.
A study published by Graff in January argued the nation’s postcrisis finances would remain healthy even if borrowing rose, primarily because the country entered the pandemic with one of the world’s lowest debt ratios.
National debt stood at 25.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2019.
That was less than half the European Union’s widely breached target of 60 per cent. According to Graff, if the Swiss debt ratio rose by 10 percentage points, or even 20, and “if things take a turn much worse than expected” the country would still be at a level that is “extremely low, compared to other nations, once the crisis is overcome”. —
Manga is Japanese comic books or graphic novels, published commonly in newspapers and magazines. Originating in Japan, Manga now has fans across the world. Nouf bint Ahmed al Zadjali, an Omani creative, has been focusing in creating Manga characters giving her an ample opportunity to tell stories through pictures and words...
Most people do not want to be bored no matter how old they are! Children, in particular, always want to do something new and watch something fun. They, generally, indulge in different activities to have fun like playing, drawing, and even fighting with their siblings at home. Above all these activities, children love to watch television, especially cartoons. Sometimes, it becomes even difficult to move them from their seat while they are watching their favourite cartoon show.
Many children like watching cartoons for they are fun to see, so they could watch them all day. As Walt Disney said, “Animation offers a medium of storytelling and visual entertainment, which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world”.
Children’s love of cartoons is growing up; their passion is not just limited to what they watch, but they tend to narrate the incidents and stories to their friends and parents too. They also force their parents to accompany them when watching cartoons.
Children get emotionally and mentally connected to cartoons because it creates a world to which they can relate to. The extraordinary energy and powers of cartoon characters make them a favourite among children. Similarly, the victory of good over bad attracts them to a great extent! The special sound and animation effects and storyline fascinate children too. Children love funny things and cartoons provide them with all of that through different ways and shows.
As they have been obsessed since childhood, many young people get addicted to watching cartoons. The younger the children are, the more they become attracted and spellbound by cartoon characters and shows. If we refer back to the days of childhood, we could recall the old cartoons which children were fond of. Those days were full of passion, imagination and dreams as well as associated with fun that never ends! This could influence their interests and provoke their spirit and creativity.
Among those who got addicted to cartoons is Nouf bint Ahmed al Zadjali, an Omani creative Manga artist. Manga is a diverse and popular art form in which artists tell stories through pictures and words. Manga is Japanese comic books or graphic novels, published commonly in newspapers and magazines. Originating in Japan, Manga now has fans across the world. Manga can tell any kind of story, for any age group of any gender. Both inside and outside Japan, Manga is enjoyed by women and men, and some of the greatest Manga artworks have been created by immensely talented women.
“There is something about Manga that speaks to me more than other arts. Possibly, my fascination with cartoon is the key link of communication to that. Although Manga is a very interesting art, it is very difficult and challenging. Storytelling is the hardest part of being a Manga artist, so an artist has to understand the flow of the story and what makes readers connect with a character.” Nouf al Zadjali expressed.
Nouf was first inspired by cartoons dubbed into Germany, which she was overpoweringly watching since her childhood days. At the age of 15, Nouf could master speaking German. Her fascination with the cartoon was behind her learning the art of Manga. As a graphic design graduate from the Scientific College of Design, her study was too influenced by Manga. Likewise, Nouf helped to organise Oman’s first of its kind Manga exhibition in 2010 at the college.
The journey of drawing Manga started at the age of 10 and fruitfully continued through attending courses and partaking in various events, starting the first one in Japan in 2013. Nouf participated in different art exhibitions in Japan including Oman-japan Student Forum as a cultural exchange event in 2015 and another solo art gallery, organised by Oman-nara Friendship Association in Japan, in 2017. Moreover, Nouf participated in the Comic-con 2017 Exhibition in Dubai.
As a token of appreciation to her creative talent, Nouf received several accolades, acknowledging her creativity in Manga. Receiving Omani Women Excellence Award (2014), named First Place and Second Place in Behance Oman (2014 & 2015) art competitions respectively are just to name a few of her awards. Nouf’s journey with Manga is so rewarding as out of the 20 years of practising this art, she was able to produce her first Manga storybook “Living Dreams”, which was published in 2017.
Out of her passion for Manga and art overall, Nouf is currently working on her own project to bring a one of a kind art studio-café to the Sultanate. The place will promote creativity and mark a perfect destination where one can relax, enjoy a cup of coffee while showing his talent at the same time.