Thursday 08 / May / 2025
Muscat: The Foreign Minister has said that the country is liberalising its labour policies and boosting cooperation with countries to attract foreign investment from all-around the world.
Speaking at the 16th IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al Busaidi shed light on Oman’s commitments to safeguarding the future of its people, including the scrapping of the by the scrapping of the No Objection Certificate (NOC), increased foreign and local investment, and closer exchanges with countries in the region and around the world.
“There will be significant developments in the labour policy, which, in the next few weeks, will include the abolition of the No Objection Certificate,” he said.
“The electronic transformation that is taking place means we will be cutting back on layers of regulation in order to make doing business in Oman easier than ever before,” he added.
He added: “We also have plans to extend visa-free entry for 30 days to citizens of more than 100 countries. These measures are part of a broader package of economic measures, conceived together with Oman’s Vision 2040 and fiscal policy, which will also involve the introduction of new taxation and an end to some long-standing subsidies.
“But as the government designs and implements these policies, it is also taking particular care to make sure that low income families are properly protected,” the Foreign Minister went on to say. “Security in the Middle East is nothing without the day-to-day security of its people.”
Al Busaidi explained, “Those of us who enjoy prosperity and privilege owe it to our fellow citizens to make the kind of contribution that will guarantee the security of everyone else.”
Oman’s Foreign Minister was one of many key speakers from countries around the world speaking at the Manama Dialogue, a forum set up by the International Institute for Strategic Studies to discuss challenges facing the Middle East.
Other GCC representatives were Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the foreign ministers of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as well as Dr Nayef Al Hajraf, the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Key speakers at the event included Michael Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, Dr Kang Kyung-Wha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea and Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Social security is an essential component for a successful fiscal policy. In other words, a solid social fabric at home is an essential foundation for the stable, open and inclusive economic environment that makes multilateral relations in the region more successful,” Badr Al Busaidi said.
“When we consider long-term and sustained Middle East security in a global context, we must be mindful of the big picture in a strategic vision,” he added.
He went on to say, “We can do this in two ways: first, expand the conversation to make it as inclusive as possible, and second, expand the sense of what security means to those whose daily lives depend on our ability to distribute our collective resources in a manner that is widely perceived by a strong social consensus, as just and fair.”
Al Busaidi hoped the country’s policies “will make some modest contribution to the cultivation of a regional environment in which an inclusive and multilateral approach to regional security can thrive. These developments are, to a very large extent, about how the Sultanate of Oman interacts on a day-to-day basis with our neighbours and our global partners.
“They are about the promotion of free exchange of knowledge and expertise, about opening up the economy in new ways, about cooperation, about trade, investment, tourism, and much else,” he added.
Also involved at the Manama Dialogue were Miguel Berger, the State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Harjit Singh Sajjan, the Minister of National Defence of Canada, and Ayman Safadi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan.
Dr Fouad Hussain, the Foreign Minister of Iraq, Dr Hamdullah Monib, the National Security Advisor of Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, Former Cabinet Secretary and National Security Advisor to the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom, and Jhai Zun, the Special Envoy of the Chinese government for the Middle East, were among those who took part in the Manama Dialogue.
Military officers such as General Sir Nicholas Carter, the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Major General Yousef Al Huneiti, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff of Jordan’s armed forces, and Commander Samuel Paparo of the US Naval Forces Central Command also attended the meeting.
