‘Health insurance in phases’

“We hope to start the health insurance plan in the private sector for nationals and expats working in that sector in phases,” he said.

“The aim of the health insurance plan is to raise the quality and efficiency of the private health sector, which must compete with the public health sector, and this cannot happen unless there is proper financing in the private health sector, which could come from health insurance.”

Health costs

He added: “We must find new ways to finance the health sector. In the Sultanate, spending on health costs about 3 per cent of the national income; however, more spending does not mean better quality. There are countries which have increased spending on healthcare, but have witnessed a drop in quality. We have to make sure we address that in our regulations.”

Al Hooti added: “You have to have a balance. If we put more taxes, if we put more prices on the products and on the private sectors, whenever you put more fees on them, where will the private sector get its money to cover these costs? It will be from the customer.

Inflation

“If the growth is going up and as there is talk of growth of about 2.5 to 3 per cent, and if we have inflation of one per cent, you still have growth of about 2%,” added Al Hooti.

“We need it to be this way, and this will help the economy, and the environment to grow and make the country better.”

Al Hooti was also quick to praise the private sector for their initiatives in providing more than 20,000 Omani jobseekers with employment, under the government’s new employment programme which aimed to provide work for 25,000 Omanis with work by September.

“Actually, our private sector has to take the initiative, and the best initiative taken has been to take in the 25,000 job seekers, which was announced by the government,” said Al Hooti.

“The government was planning to take a number of these 25,000, but today, 20,000 of these employees have been included in the private sector.

“This is a young country, so you cannot do much more than any other country,” he said. “In terms of development, we have free zones in four of five areas, but we still have a lot to do, so it is easy to have growth in Oman.”