ICV to empower youth, create jobs
Dr Saleh said that the forum is expected to come out with a roadmap to consolidate the concept of ICV, gaining impetus from the successful experience in oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdulamir Abdulhussein al Ajmi, Director of External Affairs and Value Creation at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), said that as many as 200 small and medium enterprises were registered in 2020, and that the value of associated contracts stood at RO 118 million.
The PDO encourages retention of 34 per cent of ICV of national products and services within the country in 2020, he said.
The forum saw the launch of an initiative named “Tahfeez” (Incentivisation), the first one dealing with goals of developing ICV. Also, seven agreements and memorandums of cooperation were concluded within the context of rolling out a programme of employment-linked training.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Oman Society for Petroleum
Services (Opal) and Seeh al Sarya Engineering, while three more Mous were inked to train graduates of technical specialisations on the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills.
The Mous include training at three ICT companies (from the category of small and medium enterprise) and to provide 12-month employment for ICT graduates in the field of ‘initial engineering designing’.
Two more Mous were signed to enhance the skills of mechanical/electrical executives and to create employment for fresh graduates to replace expatriate manpower operating in mechanical and electrical fields.
Another MOU provides for the refurbishment of drivers’ skills. Towards this end, the PDO and Opal will cooperate to train 100 drivers in different fields, so that they could access higher positions in future in the job scale.
During the forum, the “Products and National Services Directory” was inaugurated. It covered a set of papers, among them one themed “ICV in Small and Medium Enterprise”, and another titled “2040 and Sustainability of ICV Programmes”, among other topics.