18 April 2013
SALALAH -- The International Conference on Business Management (ICBM) 2013 threw light on opportunities and challenges of doing business in Oman and touched upon many fine points of export and import, success and failure of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Islamic Banking, which is one of the most talked about topics in the financial sector in Oman.
The two-day international conference titled 'Omani Economy and globalisation: Emerging modernisation and benchmarking' opened yesterday at Dhofar University under the auspices of Dr Rasheed bin al Safi al Huraibi, Chairman of the Tender Board. Present on the occasion were Sulaiman bin Hamed al Harthy, Group General Manager, Meethaq Islamic Banking; Dr Hassan Kashoob, Vice -Chancellor, Dhofar University; dignitaries and business leaders, and national and international academics.
In his welcome speech Dr Hassan Kashoob expressed happiness over the conference at a time when Oman is emerging as an important player in the business world and it is fast emerging as a land of opportunities both for the nationals as well as for the investors.
"The title of the conference, 'Omani Economy and globalisation: Emerging modernisation and benchmarking', is an important issue to dwell upon, as Oman is a land of opportunities with rich heritage, culture and varied natural resources. With GDP growth rate of 7 per cent Oman is developing as the most potential economy of the Middle East region," he said.
Group General Manager of Meethaq Islamic Banking highlighted Oman's emergence of a strong business player in the Middle East and said: "Oman is seamlessly meeting the challenges of globalisation and it is all prepared to grab the business opportunities of the 21st century."
"With passing years Omani economy has become more resilient to outside challenges with its strong oil sector and focus on non-oil sector expansion," he said.
Conference Chair, Dr Syed Ahsan Jamil, Dean College of Commerce and Business Administration at Dhofar University, said the First ICBM of the University is aimed at involving the intellectuals, industry leaders and policy makers from across the world with Oman and its business community and share their good practices in dealing with the impact of globalisation. "It is also aimed at exploring the associated opportunities and challenges on various sectors of the economy," he said.
The conference topics rolled around Five-Year Plan and development, sectoral development, public policy and new initiatives, emerging modernisation efforts, quality assurance policy, and research and development initiatives.
Topics like Oman's position in the MENA region, and GCC's global issues, Developing countries and global crisis; Structural change in the economy; Human factors in crisis; Poverty and unemployment and issues related of women and weaker sections are also part of the conference debate.
The first day of the conference dealt with topics like 'Empowerment of Omani youths through Sanad Programme (jointly by Dr AC Ayoob and DR S Balakrishnan); 'The relationship between work engagement and job Resources (Zaynab Shukri Nadim); and Banking sector reforms (Dr Tarka Raghvendra and Rao Nanduru).
Dr AC Ayoob talked about status of Small and Medium Enterprises in Oman and said: "Growth in employment opportunities is crucial for Oman and self-employment can be one of the strongest instruments for this. The role of entrepreneurs towards the development of different economies is worthwhile."
He cited surveys conducted recently in 27 European Union countries and said: "During the last 10 years, 85 per cent of the employment in these countries was created by SME and only 15 per cent was created by bigger enterprises."
Oman has already initiated steps to establish entrepreneurial development institutions and 'Sanad' is one among them which contributes a lot to the development of entrepreneurial talents in the Sultanate.
Zaynab Nadim of College of Banking and Financial Studies, Muscat, laid stress on better understanding of the nature of work engagement and job resources and examining the relationship between the work engagement and job resources.
"A pilot study of sixty respondents was conducted to determine the relationship between work engagement and job resources for the academic staff members in College of Banking and Financial Studies. The result of the study shows a positive trend of relationship of work engagement and job resources," she said.
SALALAH -- The International Conference on Business Management (ICBM) 2013 threw light on opportunities and challenges of doing business in Oman and touched upon many fine points of export and import, success and failure of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Islamic Banking, which is one of the most talked about topics in the financial sector in Oman.
The two-day international conference titled 'Omani Economy and globalisation: Emerging modernisation and benchmarking' opened yesterday at Dhofar University under the auspices of Dr Rasheed bin al Safi al Huraibi, Chairman of the Tender Board. Present on the occasion were Sulaiman bin Hamed al Harthy, Group General Manager, Meethaq Islamic Banking; Dr Hassan Kashoob, Vice -Chancellor, Dhofar University; dignitaries and business leaders, and national and international academics.
In his welcome speech Dr Hassan Kashoob expressed happiness over the conference at a time when Oman is emerging as an important player in the business world and it is fast emerging as a land of opportunities both for the nationals as well as for the investors.
"The title of the conference, 'Omani Economy and globalisation: Emerging modernisation and benchmarking', is an important issue to dwell upon, as Oman is a land of opportunities with rich heritage, culture and varied natural resources. With GDP growth rate of 7 per cent Oman is developing as the most potential economy of the Middle East region," he said.
Group General Manager of Meethaq Islamic Banking highlighted Oman's emergence of a strong business player in the Middle East and said: "Oman is seamlessly meeting the challenges of globalisation and it is all prepared to grab the business opportunities of the 21st century."
"With passing years Omani economy has become more resilient to outside challenges with its strong oil sector and focus on non-oil sector expansion," he said.
Conference Chair, Dr Syed Ahsan Jamil, Dean College of Commerce and Business Administration at Dhofar University, said the First ICBM of the University is aimed at involving the intellectuals, industry leaders and policy makers from across the world with Oman and its business community and share their good practices in dealing with the impact of globalisation. "It is also aimed at exploring the associated opportunities and challenges on various sectors of the economy," he said.
The conference topics rolled around Five-Year Plan and development, sectoral development, public policy and new initiatives, emerging modernisation efforts, quality assurance policy, and research and development initiatives.
Topics like Oman's position in the MENA region, and GCC's global issues, Developing countries and global crisis; Structural change in the economy; Human factors in crisis; Poverty and unemployment and issues related of women and weaker sections are also part of the conference debate.
The first day of the conference dealt with topics like 'Empowerment of Omani youths through Sanad Programme (jointly by Dr AC Ayoob and DR S Balakrishnan); 'The relationship between work engagement and job Resources (Zaynab Shukri Nadim); and Banking sector reforms (Dr Tarka Raghvendra and Rao Nanduru).
Dr AC Ayoob talked about status of Small and Medium Enterprises in Oman and said: "Growth in employment opportunities is crucial for Oman and self-employment can be one of the strongest instruments for this. The role of entrepreneurs towards the development of different economies is worthwhile."
He cited surveys conducted recently in 27 European Union countries and said: "During the last 10 years, 85 per cent of the employment in these countries was created by SME and only 15 per cent was created by bigger enterprises."
Oman has already initiated steps to establish entrepreneurial development institutions and 'Sanad' is one among them which contributes a lot to the development of entrepreneurial talents in the Sultanate.
Zaynab Nadim of College of Banking and Financial Studies, Muscat, laid stress on better understanding of the nature of work engagement and job resources and examining the relationship between the work engagement and job resources.
"A pilot study of sixty respondents was conducted to determine the relationship between work engagement and job resources for the academic staff members in College of Banking and Financial Studies. The result of the study shows a positive trend of relationship of work engagement and job resources," she said.
© Oman Daily Observer 2013
