Rise up to challenges of job market, Omanis told

Minister says expats hold majority of managerial positions in private sector

Omanis should rise up to challenges of a competitive market and grow in their careers, Oman’s Minister of Manpower Abdullah Al Bakri has said.

He said 77 per cent of managerial jobs in Oman’s private sector are held by expatriates, while Omanis constitute only 23 per cent of such jobs. “This is a challenge. It’s the responsibility of the company owners [to correct this], as well as for Omanis to prove themselves in the competitive market,” Al Bakri said, adding that Omanis should eventually replace expatriates in managerial and leadership positions in the private sector.

This was highlighted during a two-day debate in Oman’s elected legislative body, the Shura Council, that concluded yesterday. Kuwait will be left with serious problems in the health sector if the authorities go ahead with much-anticipated plans to reduce the high number of foreigners working in the country.

“The health ministry simply cannot do away with the expatriates working in the health sector, and that includes doctors, nurses, technicians as well as administrators and accountants and legal experts,” a medical source said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily yesterday.

“The issue will have even more dramatic dimensions with the expansion of health facilities or the construction of new ones. There will be great needs for staff and the numbers of Kuwaitis are not enough to fill in the vacancies.”

According to the source, Kuwaitis represent only six per cent of the 22,000 male and female nurses working in the country.

“There is also a vast difference in the number of Kuwaiti doctors and non-Kuwaiti doctors. Up to 70 per cent of the doctors are not Kuwaitis and it would be very difficult to replace them with Kuwaiti nationals in the near future.”

However, a more balanced proportion exists among dentists with 1,400 Kuwaitis among the 3,500 who are working with the Ministry of Health, the source added.

Last year the Shura Council recommended that 40 per cent of all senior positions in the private sector should be taken by Omanis in the next five years.

In November, Oman introduced a 50 per cent increase in expatriate work permit fees for the private sector, in a move that was expected to fill the state’s coffers with millions of riyals amid the plunge in oil prices, Oman’s main source of revenue.

Economic experts say the move could benefit Omani nationals who will be able to compete for jobs with expatriates, especially in managerial positions.

Oman’s expatriate population has rapidly grown over the past five years, according the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) figures.

Currently, expatriates form around 45.5 per cent of the population, whereas they accounted for 38.9 per cent of the population in 2011 and 29 per cent in 2010.

Al Bakri revealed that there are 228,070 Omanis working in the private sector, constituting only 11.7 per cent of the employees in the sector. The rest are expatriates.

Al Bakri expected that the number of Omanis will increase in the private sector after the ministry recently introduced its development programme.

The minister revealed that 120,000 expatriate employees join the labour market every year, mostly in the construction sector and real estate.

Meanwhile, Al Bakri said the Ministry of Manpower banned more than 5,000 companies in the past two years for violating the labour law.

To attract Omanis in the private sector, Shura members recommended that the government should provide Omani workers in the private sector with a land plot, annual allowance and low-interest loans.