times of oman - january 20, 2016
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Times of Oman - January 20, 2016TRANSCRIPT
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WEDNESDAY, January 20, 2016 / 10 Rabi Al Thani 1437 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company
On the occasion of Opening of the 2nd Term of the Council of Oman, 2000
FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTYTHE SULTAN
Over the past three decades we have endeavoured to ensure that every step taken by Oman’s Renaissance springs from our deepest reality, that it is inspired by our heritage, religion and values, and that it incorporates those aspects of modern human civilisation that are useful
‘His Majesty’s Wisdom’
‘NOC doesn’t guarantee return to the Sultanate’
FAHAD AL GHADANI REJIMON K [email protected] [email protected]
MUSCAT: “A No Objection Cer-tifi cate (NOC) will not assure that an expatriate can return to Oman after leaving his job.”
That was the message again from senior police offi cials to the Times of Oman, who reiterated that holding a certifi cate from an ex-employer no longer guarantees being able to work in Oman again within two years of exit.
Major Rashid Al Abri con-fi rmed there were new rules tight-ening up procedures for expatri-
ate workers wanting to return, saying, “The fi nal decision is of Royal Oman Police (ROP).”
An exception to the strict rules, he added, was that if both the old and the new sponsor — not a company representative but the sponsor-themselves — came in person to the immigration of-fi ce to sign the NOC for approval from the ROP. There were media reports yesterday that company representatives could process the papers at the immigration offi ce, but the offi cial said this was not fully correct.
“The media misunderstood our version,” the major said.
Even if an employee is able to get both sponsors to attend and complete the paperwork, Major Al Abri said there were still fac-tors that could lead to a denial.
The police, he said, will look into the aspects such as whether the expatriate employee is needed in Oman, whether the applicant’s personal records are clean and also whether any money is in-volved in the transfer process.
He added that this move was taken to stop employees getting around Article 11 in the immigra-tion code stating that an expat who leaves the country and leaves his job should spend two years
abroad before joining another company back in Oman.
“It is to control the market,” Major Al Abri added.
A second, more senior top offi -cial in the ROP, who initially told Times of Oman about the new rules that led to yesterday’s head-lines, said the decision was taken as there were many complaints fi led with the Public Prosecution against the police force itself from previous employers.
“Almost 30 cases were fi led against the ROP for allowing an expat to join another company without the knowledge of the fi rst employer,” he said. >A6
Rules for the return
of expats have been
tightened but there
is an exception when
both the old and
new sponsors come
personally to the offi cee
REJIMON K [email protected]
MUSCAT: Tightening of two-year visa ban rule has put expatriates in limbo who have already left for their home coun-try with a No Objection certifi cate (NOC) in the hope of returning to Oman.
“I left last week only. I have an NOC from the previous employer. Now, I have heard that the new employer is facing hur-dles in getting a fresh job visa for me. First request has been rejected by the immigration offi cials. As I was of returning to Oman, I didn’t vacate my rented house and sold my car. I am confused on what to do,” Rajesh V, an Indian expat, told Times of Oman from India. >A6
Expatriates in limbo
OMANPublic sector remains top choice for Omanis
2More than 50% of the Omani youth working in the private sector are
ready to join public sector, even if the salary there would be lower, according to a survey carried out by the National Centre for Statistics and Information. >A3
MARKETMassive growth plans for Port of Duqm
3Port of Duqm will witness hectic activities in the next three years
for completing the fi nal development work at the port for commencing fully-fl edged operations, according to the CEO of the Port. >B1
OMANOman 4th in Arab region in Logistics Index
1Earning 5.48 points, Oman came fourth on the Arab level and 14th on
the international level in the logistic service indicators for the emerging markets in 2016. The indicator was prepared by Agility of Switzerland. >A2
T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S
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On a mission to create future Omani leaders
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OMAN
GENEVA: Earning 5.48 points, Oman came fourth on the Arab level and 14th on the interna-tional level in the logistic ser-vice indicators for the emerging markets in 2016.
The indicator was prepared by Agility of Switzerland and published on its website.
The indicator is based on two basic criteria namely do-ing business and transportation infrastructure and the connec-tion between them as this will help logistic service providers, customer clearance offi cers, distributors and shipping com-panies to carry out their tasks easily. China topped the list which includes 45 countries. UAE came second followed by India, Malaysia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
The company affi rmed that it uses economic, business data, social indicators and the devel-opment of transportation sector to rank the countries in logistic services markets indicators.
Agility Logistic Services company is a global leader in providing comprehensive lo-gistic solutions. The company has more than 500 premises in more than 100 countries round the world with over $4 billion revenues. -ONA
E M E R G I N G M A R K E T S
Oman 4th in Arab region in Logistics Index 2016
Majlis committees discuss Omani Penal Law, Oman UniversityMUSCAT: Referred by the Coun-cil of Ministers, the Legal and Legislative Committee of Majlis Al Shura reviewed the time pro-gramme for studying the draft Omani Penal Law, according to the Article No. (58) biz (35) of the Ba-sic Law of the State.
Dr. Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Zedjali, head of the committee, pointed out that the draft Omani
Penal Law is one of the most im-portant laws being studied by the panel.
He explained that the current law has been in-force for more than 40 years and it is essential to review the current law to cope with variables of the current stage particularly with the progress of the concept of crime and the phi-losophy of punishment.
The draft law includes about 400 articles. The Committee also studied the amendments proposed to the internal bylaw of the Majlis according to the article (60) of the Majlis bylaw that identifi es pre-rogatives of the Legal and Legisla-tive Committee.
The Legal and Legislative Com-mittee held its 4th regular meeting of the fi rst annual sitting (2015–
2016) of the 8th term (2015–2019).Meanwhile, the Education and
Scientifi c Research Committee of the Majlis Al Shura discussed topics related to educational sec-tor plans in the Sultanate, the challenges and the proposed so-lutions, as well as reviewing a group of incoming messages to the Majlis Offi ce.
Members of the Committee
touched on the proposal of estab-lishing Oman University, which was referred by the Majlis Offi ce for discussion. They also reviewed a decision No. 588/2015 issued on December 31st, 2015 by the Min-ister of Education particularly the article (40) that stipulates that the student or the parent is allowed to view the exam book of the student in case the student or the parent
requests to review his/her exam paper. The Committee took the appropriate decision regarding that article.
The Education and Scientifi c Research Committee at Majlis held its 4th regular meeting of the 1st annual sitting (2015 – 2016) of the 8th term under the chair of Khalid bin Yahya Al Far’ei, Head of the Committee. -ONA
R E V I E W
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
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State jobs remain first choice of Omani youth
ERIK [email protected]
MUSCAT: More than half of the Omani youth working in the pri-vate sector would transfer to the government sector, even if the sal-ary was lower, according to a job market survey carried out by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Men and the lower educated class are more inclined towards fi nding a state job, the NCSI said in the full report, which was pub-lished in Arabic on Thursday.
The NCSI also found that 76 per cent of Omani youth seeking a job preferred a job in the govern-ment sector, even if the salary in a private sector job was 50 per cent higher, compared with the gov-ernment job.
Tonia Gray, general manager at Competence HR, said during the current economic climate, job se-curity is a real concern for many Omani youth, who see the private sector as less stable in this regard.
“Omani youth may also consid-er accepting a lesser salary in the government sector due to the job security off ered.
“In addition, the government sector often undertakes its busi-ness in the Arabic language,
which may be an advantage for some,” she said.
The lower number of working hours and less arduous work are other important factors pulling young Omanis to the government sector, according to Gray.
Male students (69.2 per cent) are more willing to enrol in the private sector than females (37.8 per cent).
52.2 per cent of youth workers in the government sector would switch to the private sector if a higher salary was off ered. The de-sired minimum increase in salary rose from 43 per cent in 2013 to 52 per cent in 2015, indicating higher expectations regarding salary, said the NCSI.
The fi ndings also showed that
these expectations are higher among students enrolled in high-er education than they are among job seekers (OMR880, compared with OMR454 in the private sec-tor, respectively). In general, job seekers expect a higher salary in the public sector (499.7, compared with 454.3).
Gray of Competence HR said she recognizes this increase in salary expectations.
“We have noticed steadily in-creasing demand from graduates in our recent graduate recruit-ment programmes on behalf of private sector clients,” she said.
Most of the youth working in the private sector earn between OMR320 and 900, while in the private sector they earn between
OMR320 and 700, according to the NCSI. The top reasons for not being content with a job include [perceived] low salaries, strenu-ous working conditions and the nature of the work not deemed fi t, the report concluded.
“While young Omanis have obtained an excellent education, quite often the qualifi cations they have do not match the require-ments of the private sector. Fresh graduate Omanis we have hired often left within two years,” Gray noted.
Omani youth have a high ex-pectation of the role of the gov-ernment, as well, the NCSI said. 89 per cent of work seekers think the government should be respon-sible for providing a job for every young Omani, the NCSI found.
However, more Omani youth wanted to start their own busi-nesses. 46 per cent of job seekers and 71.6 per cent of those em-ployed said they would want to, compared with 33 and 53 per cent, respectively, in 2013.
As for competition from the expat workforce, more than 75 per cent of job seekers and 61 per cent of those employed think ex-pats negatively aff ect their own chances of being employed, the report found.
A National Centre for Statistics and
Information survey also found that 52.2 per
cent of youth workers in the government
sector would switch to the private sector if
a higher salary was off ered. Also, men and
the lower educated class are more inclined
towards fi nding a state job
Job market survey results
Graphics
of Omani job seekers prefer a job in the government sector even when the salary in a private sector job would be 50 per cent higher compared to jobs in the government sector.
76%
Salary
Government
Private +50%
69.2% 37.8%Male Female
Source National Centre for Statistics & Information
Who aremore willing to
enroll in theprivate sector?
Majlis panel discusses
taxi drivers’ problems
MUSCAT: Challenges faced by taxi drivers due to some expatri-ates using private cars as taxis, were among the issues discussed by the Majlis Al Shura’s Services and Social Development Commit-tee, at its 7th meeting of the 1st annual sitting (2015/2016) of the 8th term (2015 2019), under the chair of Dr. Hamoud bin Ahmed Al Yahyaie, Head of the Committee.
The Committee also discussed the issue of some hotels and shop-ping malls issuing memberships, in addition to a request to regulate taxis at Sultan Qaboos Port.
The panel decided to prepare a report to study the requests and
off er appropriate solutions. It also discussed the request made by a member of the Council for forma-tion of civil volunteer teams in all governorates to study it and pro-pose a mechanism to form these teams, their powers, and appropri-ate frameworks for putting them into application.
The Committee also discussed an Omani Autism Society report. The report explained that based on a study conducted at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) there are at least (5,000) autism cases in the Sultanate, mostly not diag-nosed yet, with prevalence rate of (1 out of every 156 children). -ONA
MEET ING
Omani youth have a high expectation of the role
of the government, as well, the NCSI said. Nearly
89 per cent of work seekers think the government
should be responsible for providing a job
for every young Omani, the NCSI found
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For detailed coverage log on to www.timesofoman.com
ELHAM [email protected]
MUSCAT: A group of young Om-ani engineers have joined hands to spread love for Science among children visiting the Muscat Festi-val venue at Amerat Park.
In a fi rst-of-its-kind initiative in Oman, a Science Lab, designed and built by Omani experts, has provid-ed a platform to introduce various aspects of science to children in an entertaining way. The Science Lab is a collaboration between the Innova-tion Factory, a research and develop-ment company, and the Innovation Group, an event coordinating com-pany, said Firas Khamis Al Mosafi r, chief executive offi cer (CEO) of the Innovation Factory.
“This is the fi rst time that some-thing like this has been organised in Oman. The most distinguished aspect of the exhibition is that it is fully designed and built by Oma-nis,” Al Mosafi r told the Times of Oman. “Everything you see inside is designed from scratch and pro-grammed by Omani inventors at our company,” he said, adding that a group of specialists, including inventors, programmers and me-chanical engineers are constantly working on similar projects at the Innovation Factory.
Various sectionsAccording to him, the Science Lab has various sections featur-ing some of the most important aspects of science and technology, such as astronomy, geology, virtual reality and robotics.
“We have not covered every top-ic in science, but we have chosen the ones that we think are impor-tant for children to understand,” Al Mosafi r said. He explained that the Science Lab targets school children from the age of 10 to high school students.
Children are taken in batches of six inside the lab along with a guide and are given an audio device through which they can listen to explanations about each segment in Arabic or in English, he added.
The CEO of the Innovation Fac-tory also noted that all sections of the exhibit are ‘interactive’ and the message of each part is deliv-ered to the children in simplifi ed terms and in a nutshell so as not to bore them. Inside the Science Lab, children are treated to a unique ex-perience, where they learn about the Earth, galaxy, asteroids and meteorites, virtual reality, robots, recycling, air pollution and planet conservation through fun and edu-cational methods and devices.
Recycling workshopIn the outdoor section of the Sci-ence Lab, children can participate in recycling workshops and get to watch science shows designed for children, Al Mosafi r said.
He added that a screen would also become available outside the lab for live streaming of the activi-ties taking place inside that will also show some educational vid-eos. According to him, there is also a giveaway for visitors, such as ex-plaining a pot and a message about science written on paper that comes out after water is poured inside it.
Permanent venueAl Mosafi r believes that it would be a good idea to dedicate a perma-nent venue for the Science Lab or similar projects.
Many of the sections in this lab are designed in a way that enables them to be modifi ed for permanent use, he noted. The CEO of Innova-tion Factory said their mission is to inspire children through sci-ence and, in particular, the fact that this Science Lab has been built by Omani nationals.
“We want to spread the love of Science in the hope that the next Science Lab will be built by these children,” Al Mosafi r said.
In a fi rst-of-its-
kind initiative
in the Sultanate,
a Science Lab,
designed and built by
Omani experts, has
provided a platform
to introduce various
aspects of science
to children in an
entertaining way
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ALL OMANI SHOW: The most distinguished aspect of the exhibition is that it is fully designed and created by Omanis. – Talib Al Wahibi
GOING ALL OUT TO SPREAD LOVE FOR SCIENCE IN OMAN
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
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On a mission to create future Omani leaders
TARIQ AL HAREMI [email protected]
MUSCAT: Youth are striving for entrepreneurial changes in the Sultanate and that begins with creating young Omani leaders, who are capable of making posi-tive changes that could contrib-ute to the society, community and economy of Oman.
Today’s #Oman Pride cam-paign features Oman’s fi rst Presi-dent elect for AIESEC Oman, Zubaida Al Nadhairi, who quickly rose through the ranks in only three years to clinch the top posi-tion in the organisation.
AIESEC, which is originally the French acronym for Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Com-merciales (English for Interna-tional Association for Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences), is the largest youth run organisation, which exists in over 126 countries, and aims to devel-op leadership and entrepreneur-ship skills among young students by providing them with relevant experiences in the country or abroad through the organisation’s exchange programme, member-ships or conferences.
AIESEC Oman was established in 2007, but Al Nadhairi joined the organisation only three years
ago in 2013 where she learned and gained skills until she decided she was ready to lead the organisation, which led to her being elected as President for the 2016-2017 term.
“My motivation is to cre-ate leaders in Oman; those who are capable of making a desired change in the country. Every stu-
dent member in the organisation has given me the motivation to apply for the position,” said Al Na-dhairi.
Organisations run by the youth often face challenges in gain-ing support from companies and educational fi rms to enhance the members’ skills and capabilities.
“The main challenge that we are facing is creating partnerships with companies is getting support for our projects,” said Al Nadhairi, adding, “But we are currently en-hancing our products and projects to make sure we are delivering the best to our current partners.”
Al Nadhairi outlined her 2016-2017 plans ahead of starting her term as President, which begins this July, where she is planning to focus on forming partnerships with educational institutions in order to help the organisation develop Omani and non-Omani members’ leadership skills and capabilities, as well as establish strong partnerships with other or-ganisations to “deliver the best ac-tions towards the youth of Oman.”
AmbitionsShe also plans to bring interna-tional trainees from diff erent countries to enhance their organi-sational culture by direct interac-tion between the trainees and em-ployees in the organisation, which adds new values to AIESEC.
Off ering words or encourage-ment for the youth, Al Nadhairi said, “Never stop seeking new ad-ventures or experiences in your life. Make sure you create a stamp in your life and others by volun-teering and helping create an im-pact on society.”
“If you aim high, always believe that you will achieve it. Never give an excuse to yourself or allow the community to judge you or hesi-tate about what you are capable of doing, because we are going to build the future leaders of this country,” she further said.
The main challenge
that we are facing in
creating partnerships
with companies is
getting support for
our projects, says
Zubaida Al Nadhairi
CREATING IMPACT: Zubaida Al Nadhairi, president elect for
AIESEC Oman (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sci-
ences Économiques et Commerciales), plans to focus on forming
partnerships with educational institutions to help the organisa-
tion develop Omani and non-Omani members’ leadership skills
and capabilities. – Supplied photo
Fuel subsidy cut, austerity to boost real estate marketTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Removal of fuel subsi-dies and the government’s auster-ity measures to tighten spending could provide a welcome boost to the public private partnerships in Oman’s real estate market, says Cluttons.
According to the international real-estate consultancy, measures set in place by Oman’s govern-ment, such as plans to remove fuel and utility subsidies, could also lead to a rise in the number of pri-vate public partnerships (PPP) by enticing additional foreign invest-ment into the Sultanate.
“For a country as reliant on hy-drocarbon income as Oman, the continuing slide in crude prices is driving the need for additional income streams,” Faisal Durrani, head of Research at Cluttons.
The property consultancy be-lieves the move could be benefi cial for international investors that want to engage in projects, such as the ambitious Port Sultan Qaboos Waterfront.
“We have already seen the suc-cessful implementation of fuel subsidies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where energy subsidies formed a sizeable pro-portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). Bahrain has also announced similar plans and so it was only a matter of time before other Gulf States, including Oman followed suit by dropping fuel and energy subsidies as they tried to rebalance their economies in this era of cheap oil. Over the past six months, the price of diesel in the UAE has fallen by 30 per cent to 40 per cent, which has a clear upside for the industrial sector, with low-er manufacturing and transport costs likely to be passed on to con-sumers gradually,” Durrani added.
Meanwhile, Philip Paul, head of Cluttons Oman, said the redevel-opment of Port Sultan Qaboos is
an ideal example of a project that would benefi t from international best practices and ‘place-making’ expertise to create a thriving wa-terfront destination in the heart of Muscat that will attract both visi-tors and residents.
“Urban regeneration is some-thing that is only just starting to appear in cities across the Gulf and will provide tremendous op-portunities to create more value from established and desirable parts of central business districts, which often benefi t from well-established communities, trans-port infrastructure and pedestrian footfall; something that developers and investors will fi nd hugely at-tractive, particularly in the case of PSQ,” Paul said.
“There have been limited PPPs in the Sultanate’s real-estate sec-tor as the size of the market is still fairly small, compared with some neighbouring countries. Interna-tional interest in Oman’s real-es-tate development has mainly come from a handful of Gulf developers, however, large scale projects, such as the Port Sultan Qaboos Water-front could open the market for foreign investors to gain a foothold in a highly attractive market that has a good track record,” he added.
In Oman, the property market as a whole has been supported by the relative stability in job creation levels in the Sultanate, as it contin-ues to boost oil production to in-ject confi dence into the economy. Continued infrastructure spend-ing has also boosted business con-fi dence and has contributed to sta-bility in the country’s residential and commercial markets.
Paul concluded that private-public partnerships off ered a good alternative solution to the govern-ment to continue driving major infrastructure projects and boost job opportunities that will support economic growth, particularly when credit availability is low.
C L U T T O N S R E P O R T
Good progress in ‘Crossing of the Empty Quarter’ expedition
Times News Service
MUSCAT: On the 38th day of its challenging journey, “Crossing of the Empty Quarter” expedition team has made signifi cant pro-gress towards Doha.
The team has now covered almost three quarters of the dis-tance to Doha with 252 kilometres (kms) remaining in their journey. Currently walking 30 kms a day, they plan to arrive in Doha on January 28, as long as they are not delayed by unexpected chal-lenges, such as more sandstorms.
An offi cial welcome reception will be held in Qatar to celebrate and honour the arrival of the three intrepid explorers, Mohammed Al Zidjali, Amur Al Wahibi and Mark Evans, who started their expedi-tion from Salalah, Oman to Doha, Qatar last December. The three members of the team have endured harsh and challenging weather conditions during the journey, in-cluding high temperatures in the daytime and low temperatures at night, as well as unexpected sand storms and squalls.
The team’s journey has not been easy: one camel became sick, they have had to coax the other camels across huge sand dunes, have been drenched in unexpect-ed rain storms in areas, which haven’t experienced rain for six years, and they have suff ered the
daily onslaught of walking in high temperatures, their feet blistering and the camels kicking them.
Commenting on the challenges presented by the journey, Mark Evan, expedition team leader said, “We are very pleased with the progress made in our expe-dition so far, and this is down to the good cooperation of the team members and their perseverance to achieve our goal. Every day, we do our best to cover 30 kilometres at least to be ahead our schedule and to arrive in Doha ahead of our original schedule.”
“There have been many high points, particularly meeting so many people on the way. There have been more than 20 social gatherings, large and small, often three generations sitting together sharing an oral history and lo-cal pride.... 28 goats, seven cam-els and three sheep have been slaughtered in our honour. One of the high points for me has been the fact that whilst everything has changed in terms of technology, nothing has changed in terms of the extraordinarily generous and endless hospitality we have been off ered. It has been nice to show the face of the real Middle East that lies behind the headlines.”
“One of the major challenges has been managing the psychol-ogy of a long journey; blisters, complaining camels refusing to
go any further before we were half way across.
“Our worst days were in the mega dunes in Saudi; stifl ingly hot, dripping in sweat that ran down my body to soaked even my boots. There were steep dunes with soft sand and the camels bellowed in protest and collapsed to their knees, unwilling to go any further. The memory of this exciting expe-dition will stay for generations to come and we will recall stories of the journey for our children.”
Evans added, “It is now all downhill as we begin to exit the sands and enter an area of gravel that slowly descends down to the Arabian Sea, and Qatar. Amongst the gravel lies something called sabkha, a hazard well known to desert explorers. After rains, it turns to exceptionally slippery mud, making for diffi cult trek-king, and tricky conditions for the camels. If a camel does the split in such terrain, it can be extremely diffi cult to get it back up.”
Expedition team member, Mo-hammed Al Zidjali, also spoke about his experience in the desert. “We are living the dream to cross the largest desert in the world and are very proud of our achievement so far. We will keep walking un-til we reach our destination and repeat the glory of our ancestors. We are making good progress and things are working as per plan.”
E X P L O R A T I O N
TOUGH TASK: ‘Crossing of the Empty Quarter’ expedition has now covered almost three quarters of
the distance to Doha and is expected to arrive in Doha on January 28. – Supplied photo/John C Smith
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
The rule might have been implemented in a good sense to avoid workers shifting jobs frequently, but it seems it’s going to hurt the workers badly
Mohammed Al Khaldi, board member of General Federation of Oman Trade Union
SAYYID ASA’AD BIDS FAREWELL TO AMBASSADORSOn behalf of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Asa’ad bin Tariq
Al Said received on Tuesday Jabera Bakari, ambassador of Mauritania, and Sukanto, am-
bassador of Indonesia, to bid them farewell at the end of their tenures. The ambassadors
expressed their thanks to His Majesty the Sultan for the support they received during
their stay from His Majesty, the government and the Omani people, which enabled them
to carry out their duties. — ONA
ALAWI MEETS INDONESIAN FOREIGN MINISTERYousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Aff airs, received Retno
Marsudi, Foreign Minister of Indonesia and her accompanying delegation on Tuesday. The
two leaders discussed cooperation between the two countries and the means of enhanc-
ing them, in addition to exchanging views on regional and international issues of common
concern and the latest developments in the region. The meeting was attended by a number
of offi cials at the Foreign Ministry. -ONA
Jacaranda Ensemble to perform in Muscat
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman is all set to wel-come fi ve young musicians of the Jacaranda Ensemble. They will entertain music enthusiasts in the Sultanate on January 31 at the Ministry of Education Auditorium in Wattayah.
According to Arabesque In-ternational, the organisers of the event, the best way of approach-ing the Jacaranda Ensemble and their music is not to expect music or at least music in the usual, tra-ditional sense. Rather one should prepare oneself for a refl ection in sound of one’s own inner reso-nances and moods, immersing oneself in “the sounds of nature becoming music.”
The event will take place under the patronage of Dr Frank Walter Steinmeier, German Federal Min-ister of Foreign Aff airs.
Five young musicians, princi-pals of the Brandenburg Sympho-ny, have put together an unusual ensemble as a result of a desire to experiment with new sounds.
Instrumentation for this band clearly demonstrates the idea that instruments used in the con-cert origins are often thousands of miles apart, which are woven through a mixture of composed
and improvised music into a musi-cal tapestry. Instruments used in the concert are alpenhorn, didgeri-doo, saxophone, and percussion.
Through its music, the Jaca-randa Ensemble builds a bridge between the cultures of the world. The positive response of the public, as well as the international respect has validated the unusual concept of the Jacaranda Ensemble.
Artistic endeavour.Concert tours within Germany and abroad, as well as a positive reaction from the media are the visible results of this artistic en-deavour. Sebastian Pietsch, Rich-ard Mosthaf, Thomas Hoff mann, Thomas Ringleb and Matthias Dressler are the band members.
Jacaranda Ensemble is per-forming at the third concert in the second season of the Muscat Chamber Music series, which is organised by the Arabesque International.
Arabesque International is a performing art promoter and event organiser, with its head of-fi ce being located in Muscat, Sul-
tanate of Oman. Arabesque In-ternational was founded in 2012 by the Egyptian German pianist Ahmed Abouzahra, general man-ager of East West Art Promotion (Germany, Egypt).
In July 2014, Sayyed Mohamed bin Salim Al-Said took over the partnership in Oman.
“Our mission is to promote, or-ganise and produce all genres of performing arts in the Middle East and North Africa region, such as classical music, chamber music, folklore music, choirs, profession-al performing troupes, dance, op-era and ballet,” a spokesman from Arabesque International said.
In 2015, Arabesque Interna-tional was commissioned by the government of the Sultanate of Oman to produce Ibn Battuta, the Winged Traveller musical again at the Royal Opera House Muscat. The show represented the Sultan-ate at the Milan Expo 2015. The show also has a diff erent choreog-raphy and direction from the one that was produced in 2013.
According to the organizers, ad-mission is free for the concert.
The young musicians
will entertain music
enthusiasts on
January 31 at the
Ministry of Education
auditorium in
Wattayah
BRANDENBURG SYMPHONY: The concert will be held under the
patronage of Dr Frank Walter Steinmeier, German Federal Minister
of Foreign Aff airs. -Supplied photo
New French school campus opened at Airport HeightsTimes News Service
MUSCAT: French School of Muscat (Lycee Francais de Mas-cate) offi cially inaugurated its new campus on Tuesday in the presence of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Financial and Administrative Aff airs, Dr. Mustafa Ali Abdulatif Al Lawati and the Ambassador of France to Oman, Roland Duber-trand.
The school, located at Airport Heights near Muscat Hills, on a 10,000 square metre plot gifted by the Government of Oman, is part of a global network of 494 schools in 136 countries across the world. The new campus is a state-of-the-art building, de-signed and constructed to meet the needs of all stakeholders, stu-dents, teachers, staff and parents.
The new school was designed by a local SME fi rm (23 Degrees North) and built by Sam Engi-neering. It has all the facilities to help students have a better experience at school, science laboratories, art rooms, library,
common facilities, a 25-metre long swimming pool, a student’s cafeteria and a multi-sport pitch spread over 1200 square metres.
The French School of Muscat was founded in 1979 as a very small villa, accommodating a few students. Christine Thauvin, principle of the school, thanked everyone who helped build the new campus and explained that through a strong and effi cient educational system, the French School of Muscat has been in-
creasingly attracting students from diff erent nationalities, which makes it a very cosmo-politan school that provides its students with a high exposure to other cultures. Also present were the Secretary General of the Min-istry of Foreign Aff airs, Sayyid Badr Bin Hamad Bin Hamoud Al Busaidi, along with Ambassadors and offi cials from diff erent sec-tors and Jean-Paul Negrel, depu-ty director of the AEFE (Agency for French Education Abroad).
S T A T E - O F - T H E - A R T B U I L D I N G
NEW PREMISES: The new school has all the facilities to help
students have a better experience on the campus.
Oman elected to Prague Club, Berne Club
MUSCAT: The Sultanate, repre-sented by the Export Credit Guar-antee Agency (ECGA), was elected as a member of Prague Club and Berne Club, which operate in ex-port and investment insurance and credit.
The elected task force by Prague Club includes The Export Credit Agency of New Zealand and the Russian Export Credit and Invest-ment Endurance Agency, in addi-tion to the ECGA.
Helsinki meetingActing Director General of ECGA Emad bin Saud Al Harthy will represent Oman at the meet-ing in Helsinki in Finland next Thursday.
It is worth mentioning that Prague Club, which was estab-lished in 1993, aims at support-ing new and developing export credit agencies.
Berne Union aims at facilitating trans-boundary trade by promot-ing international acceptance of the proper principles for export credit and foreign investment. -ONA
E C G A
He added that the cases fi led showed that in many the NOC let-ters were fake.
In addition, the decision aims to stop the selling of NOC letters which started after the activation of the rule introducing the two-year ban, he said.
This move is diff erent from the internal transfers of sponsorship inside Oman, which must be for the same job title, resulting in the old employer losing an expat visa clearance from his quota.
Mohammed Al Khaldi, board member of General Federation of Oman Trade Union (GFOTU), told Times of Oman, “It will force workers to toe the employer line which is out of the purview of the contract. The rule might have been implemented in a good sense to avoid workers shifting jobs fre-quently, but it seems it’s going to hurt the workers badly.”
Tonia Gray, general manager at Competence HR, said that expa-triate employees in Oman may be-come somewhat disgruntled and demotivated feeling that they are being restricted by the rules of the country and as such, their produc-tivity may drop.
The general manager also thinks, that when this new rule be-comes widely known, many expats may well re-consider their move in the fi rst instance to Oman and may focus their search for employment in the other GCC countries where the regulations are less restrictive.
“This may have a negative long term impact on the diversifi ca-tion of national revenue sources if
expat roles cannot be readily fi lled or by having to identify and train nationals to fi ll such roles. Expats are fundamental to the smooth running of many businesses here
and therefore support the Oman economy. Given the even tougher times yet to come, these regulatory changes may cause even more dif-fi culties,” she added.
N O C D I L E M M A
“Today after reading Times of Oman online, I contacted the HR department of the new company. They confi rmed that they are facing some problems in processing my visa. However, they are hope-ful and have assured me that they will try their best,” Rajesh added. A couple of public rela-tion offi cials from diff erent companies confi rmed to TOO on Monday that their request for fresh job visa for expats were rejected even though they had the NOCs.
On Tuesday too, a company offi cial said that two of their requests were rejected by the immigration offi cials.
“We had applied for two visas with NOCs. They are supposed to come on senior positions in the company. However, they got rejected at the fi rst go. We will try again. They are needed in our com-pany,” the offi cial who didn’t wanted to be named, said.
Meanwhile, another Indian manager said that he was surprised to hear the news. “I have worked in Oman for more than three dec-ades. As I got a good off er in another company, I planned to join that company. My old employer provided me an NOC. Now, I am hearing that the new company is facing hurdles. Hope, it gets sorted out soon. My family is staying back in Oman,” the manager told Times from India.
Another expatriate busi-nessman said that he too has an NOC but under the present situation, returning to Oman is doubtful. “I don’t know how to come back. My company offi cials are facing hurdles. However, they have assured me of a solution and if not, will inform me soon. If the visa option doesn’t work, I will go to Dubai and visit Oman on a visit visa for business,” Sreenath Anu, said.
‘Visa processing problems’
< FROM
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REGIONW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Ensure proper disposal of garbage.
Don’t litter a beautiful country like OMAN.Libya gets new
government as divide remains
TUNIS: Libya’s Presidential Council announced a new govern-ment on Tuesday aimed at uniting the country’s warring factions, though two of its nine members rejected it in a sign of continuing divisions over its UN-backed plan for a political transition.
Western powers hope the new government will deliver stability to Libya and tackle a growing threat from IS extrem-ist militants, but critics say the agreement was forced through too quickly and does not evenly represent the country’s groups and factions.
EU foreign policy chief Fed-erica Mogherini called the an-nouncement by the Tunis-based council, tasked with overseeing Libya’s political transition, “an essential step”.
The council had delayed its an-nouncement by 48 hours without giving a reason.
Mogherini said only a unity government would be able “to end political divisions, defeat ter-rorism, and address the numer-
ous security, humanitarian and economic challenges the country faces”.
Libya has become deeply frac-tured since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since the summer of 2014 it has had two rival governments and parliaments, operating from the capital Tripoli and from the east.
Both are supported by loose al-liances of armed brigades of re-bels who once fought Gaddafi .
Late on Monday, one of the council members who did not sign the document naming the new government, Ali Faraj Al Qatrani, announced he was withdrawing from the process, saying eastern Libya was underrepresented and there was not suffi cient support for the armed forces allied to the eastern government.
He claimed there had been “a lack of seriousness and clarity in dealing with our basic demands” during the Presidential Council’s negotiations.
The internationally recognised parliament in eastern Libya now
has 10 days to approve the new government.
There has been no announce-ment on how and when it would be able to establish itself in Libya.
Tripoli is controlled by a faction called Libya Dawn, and the head of the self-declared government that it backs said last week that preparations by the Presidential Council to secure the capital vio-lated military law.
The eastern military forces are led by General Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally who has be-come one of the most divisive fi g-ures among Libya’s rival groups.
In a statement on Tuesday, UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler urged the chamber “uphold the coun-try’s national interest above all other considerations and prompt-ly convene to discuss and endorse the proposed cabinet”.
The new government will be led by Fayez Seraj, a lawmaker from the eastern parliament, known as the House of Representatives.
He also heads the Presidential Council. — Reuters
Critics say the UN-
backed plan for a
political transition
was forced through
too quickly and does
not evenly represent
the country’s groups
and factions
The new government
will be led by Fayez
Seraj, a lawmaker from
the eastern parliament,
known as the House
of Representatives.
He also heads the
Presidential CouncilFayez Seraj
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Scholar’s suicide snowballs into a major political row
HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: The suicide by a dalit student of Hyderabad University on Tues-day snowballed into a major is-sue with BJP’s rivals wading into it and demanding the removal of Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, accus-ing them of being responsible for the death.
As Congress mounted the de-mand for the sacking of the Hu-man Resource Development and Labour Ministers, Rahul Gandhi led the multi-party charge attack-ing them and the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao saying “The VC and the Union Ministers in Delhi have not acted fairly. This youngster was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself.”
Though he did not name Irani, who had just over the week at-tacked Rahul in his constituency Amethi of failing youths there, the reference was obvious to her against the backdrop of min-istry’s action which is blamed for the suicide by Rohith Vemula,
a dalit research scholar, on Sun-day night.
Protests escalated in Hy-derabad and cities across the country including in Delhi, Mum-bai, Pune and Chennai.
Student organisations includ-ing the pro-Left AISA and AAP-backed CYSS and Congress’ NSUI held protests in Jantar Mantar and the HRD ministry in the capital demanding the sack-ing of the ministers and strong action against the vice chancellor.
Various political parties and leaders have blamed Labour Min-ister Dattatreya’s letter of August 17 last year to Irani seeking action against the “anti national activi-ties” of a students union and the alleged assault of an ABVP leader and a series of fi ve communica-tions from the HRD Ministry between September 3 and No-vember 19 demanding follow up action for the suicide.
The HRD ministry, however,
on Tuesday rejected allegations that it had put any pressure on the University relating to either sus-pension of Rohith or keeping him out of the hostel.
The communications, it main-tained, was not aimed at putting pressure but was in compliance with the standard protocol adopt-ed in accordance with the Central Secretariat Manual of Procedure whenever a “VIP Reference” is received.
Fact-fi nding reportMinistry offi cials said the two-member committee of HRD offi -cials have met people concerned in Hyderabad on Tuesday and their fact-fi nding report is ex-pected to be ready after their re-turn on Wednesday.
After the high-profi le visit of Rahul to the campus, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi also went there and asked why Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi was not say-
ing sorry over the incident.“It does not need even 140 char-
acters,” he said in an apparent ref-erence to the Prime Minister’s penchant for tweeting on issues.
He alleged that there has been social discrimination that had led to the suicide.
Rahul fl ew into Hyderabad from Delhi in the morning and drove straight from the airport to the University campus where he addressed the agitating students.
He alleged that the institution instead of operating fairly has used its power to “crush” the free-dom of students to express.
“The vice chancellor and the minister in Delhi have not acted fairly. What is the result. The re-sult is that the youth, who came here to improve the country, to learn and to express himself was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself.
“Certainly he has committed suicide but conditions for his
suicide were created by the vice chancellor, the minister and the institution,” he told the students, one of whom said before his speech that they did not want any politicising of the issue.
‘Strictest punishment’He demanded “strictest punish-ment” for Vice-Chancellor and the minister holding them “re-sponsible” for the death of the re-search scholar. After meeting the students, Rahul upped the ante against Irani and Dattatreya and the Vice Chancellor, by observ-ing in a tweet: The VC and union ministers in Delhi have not acted fairly. This youngster was put in so much pain that he had no op-tion but to kill himself.”
Union Labour Minister Dat-tatreya and Hyderabad Univer-sity Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and three others were on Monday named in an FIR lodged with the Cyberabad police over the alleged suicide of the dalit student.
The Congress Vice President said there is “no question of the Vice Chancellor remaining” on merit and criticised him severely for not even meeting the mother of the deceased.
“There are certain people re-sponsible for it. Vice Chancellor is among them. The minister is among them,” Rahul said insist-ing that whoever is responsible for this outcome has to be pun-ished in strictest terms.
In a series of other tweets, Ra-hul said, “Any student can come to the University- whether he be-longs to any caste or religion. He should feel that I can say what I want to say. The idea of a Univer-sity is that young people can come and share their thoughts.”
“These students were protest-ing against the unjust expulsion and social boycott of Dalit stu-dents on campus. Met students of the Ambedkar Students Associa-tion, Hyderabad University,” he said in the other tweets. - PTI
Union Labour
Minister Dattatreya,
Hyderabad
University Vice
Chancellor Appa
Rao and three others
were named in an
FIR lodged with the
Cyberabad police
over the suicide of
the Dalit student
CONSOLING: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi meets the family members of research scholar
Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on HCU Campus, in Hyderabad on Tuesday. - PTI
Strengthen secularism idea to build harmonious society: Pranab
NEW DELHI: The idea of secular-ism needs to be further strength-ened in the minds of young peo-ple to build a harmonious society, President Pranab Mukherjee said here on Tuesday.
Addressing institutes of higher learning and civil service acade-mies, the president stressed on the need for providing “value-based education” to the youth.
“We must inculcate in them the spirit of democratic behaviour which calls for an appreciation of the rich diversity of our nation, as-similation of ideas, and accommo-dation for divergent or contrarian views. The idea of secularism is deeply ingrained in the conscious-ness of our nation.
“It has to be further strength-ened in the minds of the young ones to build a harmonious soci-ety,” he said.
Gender equalityThe president also spoke about gender equality and said it was important for having an “in-clusive society”.
“The occurrence of some unfor-tunate incidents of atrocity and violence against women in recent years should strengthen our re-solve to wipe out any trace of de-pravity and evil from the minds of individuals.
“Respect for women is sacro-sanct in our society with its roots embedded in our civilisational values, which are refl ected in our Constitution.
“A spirit of reverence towards women must be instilled in our children in our homes and educa-tional institutions. It must guide social conduct of an individual from an early age,” Mukherjee said while addressing them through video conferencing.
He said that “word inclusion” has no meaning until there is a socio-economic equity. - PTI
L E C T U R E
‘Delhi police probe into Sunanda death shoddy’NEW DELHI: The head of All India Institute of Medical Scienc-es (AIIMS) forensic department, Dr Sudhir Gupta, on Tuesday said that Delhi Police investiga-tion into Sunanda Pushkar death case was slipshod and that it had unnecessarily delayed sending of the viscera to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.
“It has been a shoddy investi-gation on the part of the police. There have been many errors in the investigation,” Dr Gupta said, adding that there had been un-necessary delays in the case.
“The delay in sending the vis-cera samples of Sunanda Pushkar to the FBI led to its degradation,” he said.
On January 15, Dr Gupta said that the FBI had found a few radi-oactive substances in the viscera, “but due to degraded viscera, they could not read its intensity”.
This was contrary to what the police had claimed that no radio-active substance had been found in the viscera.
On the police claim over the uncertainty about the exact cause
of death or lack of ‘clarity’ on the poisonous substance that caused Pushkar’s death, Gupta said on Tuesday: “Delhi Police are lying if they are saying so.”
Gupta added: “There have been many attempts to dilute the in-vestigation. The previous govern-ment and the AIIMS administra-tion even tried to remove me from my post so that they could form a new medical board which would give a ‘natural death’ report.
But they did not succeed.I did not compromise with the
principles and ethics of my pro-fession.”
Gupta had earlier alleged that he was asked by AIIMS director M.C. Mishra to prepare a post-mortem examination report of Sunanda, stating her death was ‘natural’.
The AIIMS director had fi led an affi davit with the Delhi High Court last year to remove Gupta from his post.
Sunanda, 52, wife of senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a south Delhi hotel room on January 17, 2014.
Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi earlier said that they had received a report from AIIMS on the FBI’s fi nding on the viscera samples of Sunanda.
The FBI had endorsed the AIIMS report of poisoning as the cause of Sunanda’s death.
Sunanda’s viscera samples were sent to the FBI lab in Wash-ington DC, US, in February last year to determine the poison that may have killed her.
The FBI report was received in October 2015. - IANS
M Y S T E R I O U S D E A T H
Sunanda Pushkar
Call for fresh polls if unwillingto be CM: Omar to MehboobaSRINAGAR: Former Indian-administered-Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked PDP president Mehbooba Mufti to recommend dissolution of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for conduct of fresh elections in the state if she is “unable or un-willing” to assume the responsi-bility as chief minister.
In an open letter to Mehbooba Mufti, the NC leader said “to dil-ly-dally is the biggest disservice you can do” to people of the state as they should not be denied an elected government.
“If you are unable or unwill-ing to assume the responsibili-
ties that are being placed on your shoulders, then you must do your duty to the people, recommend to the Governor to dissolve the As-sembly, and let the people make a fresh decision in an election,” he said. Omar said Mehbooba’s reluctance to step up and take charge meant that in less than a year, the state had to be placed under central rule again.
“No state should be denied an elected government, but I took some consolation from the belief, alas mistaken, that central rule would be a short-lived aff air and you would take over after the four days of mourning,” he said.
The working president of Na-tional Conference said the peo-ple of the state had a number of expectations.
“The fl ood victims expected to see a bigger fl ood relief pack-age; industry expected to see the return of power projects; con-tractors expected to see more money for development; and un-employed youngsters expected to see more jobs.
“Civil society was heartened to read that you were negotiating to ensure that divisive issues like the attack on our fl ag and threat to our special constitutional status would end,” he said. - PTI
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The imperative of tech literacy Gavin Patterson
In many parts of the world, young children grow up surrounded by technology. At their fi ngertips – literally – lies a limitless
amount of entertainment, gaming, learning, and social networking. Their world has always been connected. They learn to scroll before they can walk. And yet, as confi dent as they may be using technology, too many children have no idea how it all works. Nor do they fully appreci-ate how it underpins their lives – or how it will shape their futures.
I think of this as the tech literacy paradox. To-day’s children may be great consumers of tech-nology, but rarely are they truly tech literate. They may look like savvy digital natives, but their knowledge is only screen-deep.
They are passive users, not active creators. And most of them have little real interest in fi nd-ing out how the technology on which they de-pend actually functions.
This has important implications. Economies are undergoing radical shifts in terms of how they produce, distribute, and consume goods and services. Every aspect of life and work is chang-ing. Greater tech literacy will be essential to en-sure that the human implications of the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution are positive.
If young people are to participate fully in our increasingly tech-enabled world, greater num-bers of them will have to be tech literate. If they are to be empowered citizens, not just beguiled consumers, they will need to understand how technology aff ects their lives and prospects.
Not only will there be more tech jobs in the future; increasingly, more jobs will have a tech dimension to them, especially as scientifi c ad-vances play a major role in solving some of soci-ety’s biggest challenges – climate change, health care, poverty, and inequality.
That is why BT has made a long-term com-mitment to use our skills and capabilities to help build a culture of tech literacy. We want young people to know that they will be the creators and builders of our future – in every sense. We want them to get excited about looking beyond the screen, to make and do stuff .
That means learning to code, of course. But it
also means becoming fl uent in computational thinking and problem solving. And, perhaps most important, it means becoming an engaged tech citizen. For example, all young people should understand who has access to their per-sonal data, how it is being used, and why that matters. Accomplishing this will not be easy. It will take more than simply making sure that chil-dren have access to iPads.Any initiative to boost tech literacy must focus on three areas. First, kids must be inspired to learn about the technol-ogy they use every day; they must “connect” with tech concepts and fi nd them exciting. At BT, we are collaborating with tech entrepreneurs and education thinkers to develop fresh and creative ways to engage young people’s innate curiosity.
Second, teachers must be supported, as many do not feel confi dent to teach tech literacy. We can help with that.
Already, we have engaged with thousands of teachers in the United Kingdom; in the last school year, we reached nearly 350,000 primary-school children, and we aim to reach fi ve mil-lion by 2020. We have also collaborated with education innovators at MIT to bring new coding tools into classrooms.
Third, schools must be properly equipped. Making sure students have access to the lat-est technology is a challenge even for advanced countries. In the UK, we are working to ensure that our high-speed fi bre broadband connects the hardest-to-reach schools. And we are us-ing our expertise to help teaching professionals who are eager to make tech an integral part of schools’ everyday life.
A successful tech literacy programme requires a long-term, sustained commitment to all three pillars of this approach. We expect it will take a school generation to realize the cultural shift we believe is necessary. Previous industrial revolu-tions unlocked social progress only when they were accompanied by changes in education – in particular, concerted eff orts to boost literacy and numeracy. If we want everybody to benefi t from the radical upheavals transforming the world’s economies, further changes in education will be needed. Among the most important of these will be those that build a strong culture of tech literacy. - Project Syndicate
Ismaily is a true inspiration for Omani youthsThe news report, Flying for RAFO was an honour, not a job, (Janu-ary 18), was an inspirational reading. It is a fact that in the current global scenario defence personnel perform a job that holds the
highest risk and hazards. It is a privilege to learn the experience of Said Al Ismaily, the former operational pilot of the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO). Ismaily, being one of the members of the fi rst batch of fi ve Omani pilots, fl ew with the RAFO some four decades ago. There has been a huge strategical diff erence in the methodology of technical norms since then and he must be proud of today’s youth to entrust and follow the same. Ismaily’s service for the country comes as a great encouragement for the youth to be involved in defending the nation. — Ramachandran Nair, Ruwi
Drug addiction a social menaceThis refers to the story, ROP in drive to raise awareness on drug addiction dangers, (January 19). Drug addiction among the
youth is a social menace. ROP has to be appreciated for taking initia-tive to enlighten the public about the dangers of drugs among young, especially students. Muscat Festival is a good platform for such awareness campaigns. More than the children, parents have to be educated about the dangers of drugs. — P. A. Jacob, Ruwi
T I M E S O F O M A NW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6A12
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Azizi opens International Art ExhibitionMUSCAT: Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Matar Al Azizi, minister of civil ser-vice, opened the ‘You and Me’ international art exhibition at Radisson SAS Hotel yesterday. The exhibition has been staged by the Omani fi ne Arts Society in cooperation with the Muscat Festival 2000 cultural committee in aid of children with special needs, and has been spon-sored by the Muscat Municipality. The three-day exhibition includes work by fi ve of the renowned artists – Dr Ahmed Anwar from Egypt, representing the African continent, John Cornwell from Australia, Rafael Conajar and Luis Barto Hernades from Spain (representing Europe). Several Omani artists are also represented.
1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term.
1946: France’s Charles DeGaulle hands in his resignation.
1952: British troops occupy Ismalia, Egypt.
1977: President Jimmy Carter is sworn in and then surprises the nation as he walks from the United States Capitol to the White House.
M O S T R E A DTIMESOFOMAN.COM
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The current era of innovation, in which cutting-edge technologies are disrupting entire economic
sectors at a breathtaking rate, has been called the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. It is also the theme of the World Economic Forum’s
annual meeting this week in Davos.bit.ly/4indrevolution
ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO
As a gateway to the project, the region will off er more than 400km
of its land to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that will link Gwadar port to China’s
northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang via a vast network of
highways and railways.bit.ly/gilgitbcpec
SHABBIR MIR
As the global economy changes at an ever-quickening pace, the
labour market in many countries is not merely struggling to keep
up, but seems to have broken down in important ways. High unemployment coexists with
unfi lled jobs. Rising productivity fails to translate into higher wages.
bit.ly/risinglabourforce
JONAS PRISING
F R O M O U R A R C H I V E S
T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y
Guaruja mayor urges residents to stay inside with windows closed after chemical containers catch on fi re in Santos port.
JANUARY 2001Scan this QR code to send letters to the Readers’ Forum, containing not more than 200 words with full name, address and telephone number, may be sent by e-mail ([email protected]).
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1 Exclusive: Two-year expat ban rules now stricter in Oman
bit.ly/expnocrules
2 Oman crime: 265 suspicious transactions recorded by ROPbit.ly/omanropcrime
3 Oman signs $1b loan pact with international banks to plug in budget defi cit
bit.ly/omanloanpactib
4 UK plans to expel migrants who fail English test: Cameron
bit.ly/ukenglangprog
5 Health Ministry team in Oman to develop new alternatives for fi nancing healthcare
bit.ly/healthcarefi n
1 Expat recruits with NOCs already denied, confi rm company offi cials in Oman
bit.ly/exprecnoc
2 Key Iron Age site of eastern Arabia found in Omanbit.ly/ironagesitefound
3 Oman needs more local doctors, says expertbit.ly/omanlocaldoctors
4 Austerity measures to aid Oman real estate market, says Cluttonsbit.ly/austerityboostres
5 Iran off ers huge investment potential as sanctions lifted
bit.ly/iraninvpotential
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SourceNational Centre for Statistics & Information
POPULATION IN MUSCAT
Total
November2015
1,342,723
December2015
1,349,865
From November to December there was an increment of more than seven
thousand residents in Muscat.
Expats+5,533847,667 853,200
Omanis
+1,609495,056 496,665
0
Photo: EDGAR ALLAN ESTEBAN
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Modi kicks off BJP poll campaign in Assam
KOKRAJHAR/GUWAHATI: Launching a scathing attack on the Congress government in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday kicked off the BJP’s cam-paign for the assembly polls, say-ing the state did not develop much despite a prime minister getting elected from it for 10 years.
Modi said Assam has not devel-oped much despite the 10 years of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance rule and that the Con-gress has been in power in the state for about last 15 years.
The state assembly elections are due in April this year.
The prime minister fi rst ad-dressed a public rally organised by the Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) and then a Yuva Shakti Sanmilan at Khanapara area in Guwahati.
He also addressed a large gath-ering of students from diff er-ent education institutions of the northeast at the IIT Guwahati campus before leaving for New Delhi. In Kokrajhar, Modi an-nounced the Karbis of the plains will be granted the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status while the Bodo Kachari community of the hill ar-eas like Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao district will also be granted the ST status soon.
The prime minister, however, cautiously avoided talking about the issue of statehood to Bodoland and the Bodoland Peoples’ Front’s demand for a Rs1,000 crore pack-age for development of the Bodo region. While the BPF has been
demanding a special package of Rs1,000 crore for the four districts of Bodoland Territorial Areas Dis-tricts (BTAD), several other Bodo organisations have demanded that the prime minister make the Centre’s stand clear on the issue of statehood to the Bodo lands.
Modi also announced that the Central Institute of Technology (CIT), Kokrajhar, will be upgrad-ed to a Deemed University within a year and more academic and ad-ministrative autonomy would be granted to the institute.
He assured the people that the defunct Rupsi airport will be made operational for the Indian Air Force and common people as soon as the land clearance is re-ceived from the state government.
He said the Central govern-ment is also working on extending the Kanchanjunga Express to As-sam’s Barak Valley to boost con-nectivity of the region.
Modi targeted the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Cen-tre and the ruling Congress gov-ernment in Assam.
“I was under the impression there is no problem in Assam. As-sam is the state from where the
prime minister was elected for 10 years. The Congress has ruled the state for the last 15 years. But I am shocked to see the problems and issues here,” he said.
“So what has the prime min-ister, who was elected from the state for 10 years, done? They (the Congress) have not been able to do anything in last 15 years and they (the Congress) want me to do everything in 15 months time. You tell me if it is justifi ed?” said Modi.
“You have seen their 15 years of rule and the 15 months of BJP gov-ernment in power. We have been working each minute of these 15 months for the betterment of the country,” the prime minister said.
Taking a dig at recent Congress campaigns against him, Modi said: “Delhi has started asking for accounts of each penny given to the states. I was told when the Centre releases Re1 only 15 paise of it reaches the villages.
“So, where does the money go? The Centre has started asking for the accounts. Thus, many do not like me these days,” he said.
Modi also laid the foundation stone of IIIT at the IIT Guwahati and addressed a large gathering of students. He said India has be-
come one of the fastest growing economies in the world and that the 21st century belongs to India.
“We have 65 per cent of young people in India, those who are be-low 35 years of age group. With so much of young people, India has the talent and potential to change the existing situation,” he said while encouraging the students to go for more innovative work in diff erent fi elds so that the country can have a unique place in the en-tire world.
“In Silicon Valley, the address is of the US but most of the fac-es there are of Indians. It is the young people from India who have occupied more than 50 per-cent of the Silicon Valley. With so much of IITs, IIITs, and other dis-tinguished institutions in India, we must think of innovation, new researches and new technolo-gies in diff erent fi elds, so that we can make our place in the entire world,” he said. - IANS
The prime minister
said that Assam has
not developed much
despite the 10 years
of Congress-led UPA
rule and that the
Congress has been in
power in the state for
about last 15 years
GARNERING SUPPORT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi joins hands with Chief of Bodoland Peoples’
Front’s (BPF) Hagrama Mohilary and ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Jitendra Singh, at a public
meeting in Kokrajhar on Tuesday ahead of the Assam assembly elections. - PTI
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‘Israel should build long-term stakes in Indian economy’OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: With India and Israel expand-ing cooperation to new areas like homeland security innovation and science and technology, Indian External Aff airs Minister Sushma Swaraj has asked Israeli busi-nesses to look beyond trade for building “long-term stakes” in the Indian economy.
Swaraj, in her address at an In-dian community reception here on Monday night, expressed opti-mism for the future in the growth of bilateral ties.
“To quote your (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) ‘sky is the limit’ for ties between India and Israel,” she said, under-lining that India and Israel are ex-panding cooperation to new areas such as homeland security, inno-vation, education and science and technology.
“We should work towards a new vision of our important part-nership, which should refl ect our close friendship and harness fully the potential of our two knowledge economies,” Swaraj said.
Swaraj, who was here on her fi rst visit to the West Asia region, also held talks with the top Israeli lead-ership and discussed a wide-range of bilateral and regional issues.
“The economic relationship is the key to developing our bilateral ties. We should move from a trade-based relationship to one that is based on investment, manufactur-ing and services,” Swaraj said.
“As you know ‘Make in India’ is a priority of our Government. Our fl agship schemes of ‘Clean Ganga’, ‘Smart Cities’ or ‘Digital India’
are all areas of Israeli expertise. We encourage you to look beyond trade to build long term stakes in the Indian economy through in-vestment and joint development of products and services,” she said.
The minister said she had “very good” meetings with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders.
“All of them expressed to me the importance they attach to Israel’s relations with India, as a friend and partner. I wish to assure you that these feelings are reciprocat-ed by the Government and people of India. We attach high prior-ity to India’s relations with Israel,” she said.
Swaraj noted that the bilateral interactions at the political level are also increasing.
In this context, she highlighted Indian President Pranab Mukher-jee’s visit here last year.
“This fi rst ever visit by the Pres-ident of India gave a substantial boost to our bilateral relationship.
Next year will mark the 25th an-niversary of the full establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries,” she said.
“I am very happy to be here in Israel. I served as the Chairman of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group for three years during which I also had the pleas-ure of visiting Israel.
“I am a personal advocate of strong ties between India and Israel; so I am very happy to see that our relations are progressing so well in all fi elds of our engage-ment,” she said. - PTI
B I L A T E R A L T I E S
PARLEYS: Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, right, with India’s
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, during their meeting in Occupied
Jerusalem on Monday. - Reuters
A14
PAKISTANW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
LAHORE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKETPakistani traders wait for customers at a fruit and vegetable market in Lahore on Tuesday. — AFP
10 killed as suicide bomber targets Jamrud checkpost
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police checkpoint in northwestern Paki-stan on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20, offi cials said.
The bomber rammed his mo-torcycle into a police vehicle next to the roadside checkpoint in the Jamrud area on the edge of Pakistan’s volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas, local government offi cial Munir Khan told Reuters.
“He was riding an explosives-laden motorcycle and hit the checkpoint and the vehicle of the line offi cer,” Khan said.
Among the dead were at least
fi ve police offi cers including the line offi cer whose vehicle was tar-geted by the bomber, as well as a child and a local journalist, offi -cials said. TV footage showed the burnt-out remains of cars as res-cue workers rushed to evacuate the wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban sen-ior commander Maqbool Dawar claimed responsibility for the at-
tack. He told Reuters it was re-venge for what he alleged were the recent deaths of arrested Taliban men while in government custody, and said that the journalist was not the target.
A Taliban splinter group also claimed it was behind the bomb.
The attack took place in an area where security forces have stepped up their fi ght against the
Taliban and other militant groups along the border with Afghani-stan, following the massacre of more than 150 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in December 2014.
Attacks have fallen since the government crackdown and the Taliban squeezed into small pockets of territory, but militant groups remain able to launch hit-
and-run and suicide attacks on security forces.
A Hayatabad Medical Complex in offi cial nearby Peshawar, to where the wounded were evacu-ated, said earlier that the hospital had received six bodies, includ-ing that of a child. Last month, a suicide bomber attacked a govern-ment offi ce in the northwest, kill-ing at least 23 people. — Reuters
A Pakistani Taliban
commander claimed
responsibility for
the attack saying
it was revenge for
what he alleged were
the recent deaths
of arrested Taliban
men while in
government custody
SUICIDE ATTACK: Pakistani fi refi ghters extinguish the wreckage of a vehicle after a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on
Tuesday. — AFP
Walled City of Peshawar trampled by urbanisationPESHAWAR: The master plan to conserve the walled city of Peshawar might have been offi -cially approved, but the problem of spatial growth management to regulate the expansion of the inner city remains an unresolved dilemma.
The plan delineates a compre-hensive strategy to document the condition of all buildings of his-torical and cultural signifi cance, to build a complete profi le of each building, and then to prepare a conservation plan.
Master planA master plan has been made to assess the provision of mu-nicipal services, including wa-ter supply; sewerage, sanitation and solid waste management; street lighting; accessibility; and encroachment.
The master plan will also sug-gest measures to resolve parking issues and build sidewalks for better pedestrian movement in the area.
Above all, the plan would analyse the existing legal and institutional framework—in-cluding building bylaws—for the conservation and rehabilitation of buildings of historical and cul-tural signifi cance, and planning permissions.
Kapoor HaveliHowever, a government offi cial involved in the project said al-though the plan was much need-ed, unfulfi lled previous eff orts and a lack of political will neces-sitates a more rigorous approach for the execution.
“There are legal lacunae sur-rounding the entire project,” the offi cial said, while referring to the recent demolition of the Kapoor Haveli in the city.
The police were initially hesi-tant to fi le a fi rst information report when the owner of the building started knocking down portions of the mansion.
“There can be no preservation unless the government releases
funds for implementation,” he added, stressing a majority of her-itage buildings were private prop-erties now.
The old city, as it is referred to, is now a distant dream with the drastic changes it has been forced to go through.
Enhanced by BritishThe old city was enhanced by the British in 1848-49 when the colonial rulers established a planned community called Can-tonment, covering an area of fi ve square miles.
The city in its current state of aff airs remains an urbanised clus-ter with a large and overwhelming number of problems. “Electricity was introduced fi rst here in Janu-ary 1932,” the offi cial said. “But since then, the wires have only grown to form a nest around a city of utter neglect.”
The master plan prepared by the Urban Policy Unit (UPU) seems to address these issues—and more—at length. — Express Tribune
U N R E S O LV E D D I L E M M A
Resolution against VIP culture passed in Sindh AssemblyKARACHI: The Sindh Assembly passed on Tuesday a resolution against the prevalent VIP culture in the province.
“It is VIP anarchy, not culture,” lawmakers said during the session.
The resolution was moved by Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) lawmaker Kamran Akhtar.
Akhtar argued the general pub-lic suff ered immensely because of the closure of main thoroughfares.
Earlier this month, human rights activist Ansar Burney fi led a petition in Sindh High Court (SHC) against the Sindh govern-ment’s administration in regards to the prevalent VIP culture in the province.
Burney, who heads the Ansar Burney Trust International, re-quested the SHC to take notice of “violation of the fundamental hu-man rights of citizens.”
In December last year, a 10-month-old girl died when her family was unable to enter a hos-pital in Karachi due to protocol in place for the arrival of Paki-
stan People’s Party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Bisma, a resident of Gabol Park in Lyari, had been suff ering from measles and had a high fever when her father brought her to the hospital. — Express Tribune
F A L L O U T O F T O D D L E R ’ S D E A T H
Endangered sawfi sh sold for Rs26,000 in Gwadar
KARACHI: A 10-foot-long and 96-kilogramme-heavy rare largetooth sawfi sh was caught by local fi shermen near Sur-bandar, Gwadar, on Sunday. Despite the ban on its catch and trade due to its near extinction, the rare fi sh was later sold to traders for Rs26,000.
According to the records of the World Wide Fund for Na-ture – Pakistan (WWF-P), only three authentic records of their existence have been recorded in Pakistan in the last 10 years.
Abdul Rahim, the site coor-dinator for the WWF-Pakistan, said that a local fi sherman had caught the fi sh and brought it to the market.
Rahim said the fi sh was caught from shallow waters.
Economic importanceHe explained that most of the fi shermen in the area are aware of the economic importance of the sawfi sh.
“They also know it is critically endangered but they don’t res-cue nor release it back into the waters,” he lamented.
He said that the rare saw-fi shes were brought into the local market about 10 to 15 years back.
Take catch to Karachi“But they don’t exist now,” he added. Rahim claimed that the local traders will take the spe-cies to Karachi and will export it from the port city. — Express Tribune
1 0 - F O O T - L O N G
In December last year,
a 10-month-old girl
died when her family
was unable to enter a
hospital in Karachi due
to protocol in place for
the arrival of Pakistan
People’s Party leader
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
A15
WORLDW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Allies corner Merkel on migrants
BERLIN: A group of conservative lawmakers urged Angela Merkel to reverse her open-door refugee policy as a poll showed a slide in support for her bloc on Tuesday, raising the stakes for a German chancellor exposed by deep rifts in her right-left coalition.
With three closely watched re-gional elections looming in March, Merkel is facing the toughest spell of her 10-year chancellorship over her handling of the refugee crisis.
Conservative allies in Bavaria, the entry point for most migrants,
are regularly breaking ranks and criticism is also mounting from her Social Democrat (SPD) coali-tion partners.
Some media have even started to speculate about Merkel’s future.
An INSA poll in Tuesday’s top-
selling Bild newspaper showed support for Merkel’s conservative bloc down 2.5 percentage points at 32.5 per cent, its lowest since the 2013 election.
It also put the right-wing Alter-native for Germany (AfD), which campaigns against refugees, up 1 point at 12.5 percent.
The AfD has gained from wor-ries about migrants, exacerbated by sexual attacks on women in Co-logne and other cities at New Year blamed largely on asylum seekers, and is likely to make big gains in elections in three states in March.
“There’s a clear trend against conservatives in Germany.
Time is short to turn this senti-ment round before the regional votes in March,” INSA chief Her-mann Binkert told Bild.
Merkel’s insistence that Ger-many will cope with the infl ux of 1.1 million migrants last year and more this year, has angered local authorities struggling to house people, many fl eeing war zones in Syria and other Middle East countries.
Pressure is mounting on her to
shut the borders fi ve months after Germany opened its doors to asy-lum seekers from Syria, eff ectively suspending EU rules.
Call to change courseIn a letter to Merkel, 44 con-servatives - many from her own Christian Democrats (CDU) as well as Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) - urged Merkel to change course.
“We are facing excessive de-mands on our country.
We believe a change is urgent-ly needed in current migration practice...
by a return to the strict use of ex-isting law,” states the letter.
One of the initiators of the letter told Reuters a total of about 100 conservative lawmakers backed it.
It comes after Germany’s trans-port minister urged Merkel on Monday to prepare to close Ger-many’s borders to stem the infl ux, a highly unusual move for a cabi-net member.
The letter is just the latest head-ache for Merkel.
The CSU wants a cap on mi-
grants and some members are talking about taking the govern-ment to the Constitutional Court.
The Social Democrats (SPD), at odds with conservatives on planned new rules on migrants, are also stepping up criticism.
“It is not on if Mrs Merkel lets herself be cheered for inviting over one million refugees...
while her CDU bows out of re-sponsibility for long-term integra-tion,” SPD Chairman Sigmar Ga-briel said this week in an unusual dig at his boss.
Conservatives fear Merkel’s attempts to persuade other EU countries to take in quotas of refu-gees, push for reception centres to be built on Europe’s external bor-ders and pay Turkey to keep refu-gees from entering the bloc are not working.
There are signs that Merkel, traditionally known for her prag-matic approach, is hearing at least some of the criticism but she has remained fi rm in resisting a cap.
Last December she reassured her CDU that the number of mi-grants would fall. — Reuters
Conservative
loyalists in Bavaria,
the entry point for
most migrants, are
regularly breaking
ranks and criticism is
also mounting from
her Social Democrat
coalition partners CONTROVERSY: Migrants walk along a road after crossing the
border from Macedonia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia, on
Tuesday. — Reuters
Nepalese charter talks collapse as protests continueKATHMANDU: Talks between the Nepal government and mi-nority groups to resolve a dispute over a new constitution have fall-en apart, opposition leaders said on Tuesday, dashing hopes that protests that have led to crippling fuel shortages will end soon.
More than 50 people have been killed since August in anti-government protests in the Tarai region, a narrow strip of plains that runs along Nepal’s southern border with India.
A resulting slowdown in cross-border truck traffi c has plunged the landlocked nation into a fuel crisis that has hampered aid to survivors of last year’s deadly earthquakes and spawned a lu-crative black market.
After talks fell apart on Mon-day night, dozens of Madhesi ac-tivists burned tyres on the road in the southern business town of Birgunj, police said, in continuing protest against the charter’s carv-ing the lowland region into feder-al states dominated by mountain communities.
BlameNepal blames India, its largest trading partner, for siding with the protesters near its border and invoking an unoffi cial blockade on trucks crossing from India into Nepal, a charge that India has repeatedly denied.
In the eastern border town of Kakarvitta, a long row of motor-cycles and scooters stood in the middle of a bridge marking the border with India, as their own-ers poured smuggled fuel into their tanks.
“It’s been good business,” said a woman named Devi, who came from the Indian border town of Raniganj to sell petrol to Nepa-lese in plastic tubs and bottles.
The United Madhesi Front, which wants state boundaries to be redrawn to give their com-munities more power, said talks with government negotiators that started two weeks ago had become “meaningless”.
Defence Minister Bhim Rawal said the boundary issue would be settled by a political commit-tee in three months, but Madhesi party leaders were not convinced.
“We can’t trust the govern-ment,” Laxman Lal Karna, another Madhesi leader, told Reuters.”We have been betrayed in the past on similar assuranc-es.” — Reuters
S T A N D O F F
The ethnic Madhesi
groups who live in the
Tarai say Nepal’s new
constitution alienates
their members,
granting them low
representation in
parliament and
government bodies
NASHEED EYES COMEBACK Opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed, centre, poses
on a plane as he prepares to leave the Maldives. He
landed in Sri Lanka on Monday and is hopeful of a po-
litical revival once he returns to the country, his party
spokesman said on Tuesday. — AFP/MDP
A16
WORLDW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
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Sporadic outages hit TwitterFRANKFURT: Twitter said on Tuesday its social network was suff ering ongoing outages on computers and phones and it was working to resolve issues which have been widely reported across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America.
Both Twitter’s web and mobile services began suff ering outages
concentrated in northern Europe around 0820 GMT, with smart-phone users receiving the warn-ing: “Tweets aren’t loading right now.” Users from Scandinavia to Saudi Arabia to South Africa re-ported outages. India and Russia also suff ered performance issues, a Twitter technical site reported.
Intermittent breakdowns later
spread to the United States and Canada in the early part of their working day. Sporadic disruptions continued at 1420 GMT, six hours after they fi rst began to spread.
“Some users are currently expe-riencing problems accessing Twit-ter,” a statement on the company’s Twitter status website has read for several hours. — Reuters
W O R L D W I D E D I S R U P T I O N US supreme court takes up Obama immigration plan
WASHINGTON: The US Su-preme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear President Barack Obama’s bid to resurrect his plan to shield more than 4 million illegal immi-grants from deportation, a unilat-eral executive action he took in 2014 to bypass the Republican-led Congress.
Obama’s action was blocked by lower courts after Texas and 25 other Republican-governed states sued to stop it, contending he exceeded his presidential pow-ers under the US Constitution.
The case will be argued be-fore the high court in the coming months, with a ruling due by the end of June.
The case is not the fi rst time Obama has asked the Supreme Court to rescue a major initiative.
Healthcare lawThe court in 2012 and 2015 re-jected conservative challenges to his signature healthcare law.
The White House expressed confi dence the court would now uphold Obama’s immigration ac-
tion as lawful. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republi-can, said courts have long recog-nised the limits to presidential authority.
“The court should affi rm what President Obama said himself on more than 20 occasions: that he cannot unilaterally rewrite con-gressional laws and circumvent the people’s representatives,” Paxton said. The nine justices will review a November ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that up-held a February 2015 decision by US District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, a city along the Texas border with Mexico, to halt Obama’s action.
Obama’s November 2014 ex-ecutive order lifting the threat of deportation against more than 4 million illegal immigrants was directed at people with no crimi-nal record whose children are US
citizens. Those eligible would be able to work legally and receive some federal benefi ts.
States were not required to pro-vide any benefi ts.
The order expanded on a 2012 programme that provided similar relief for people who became ille-gal immigrants as children.
“Like millions of families across this country - immigrants who want to be held account-able, to work on the books, to pay taxes and to contribute to our society openly and honestly - we are pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to review the immigration case,” White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffi ne said.
Obama’s moves were “consist-ent with the actions taken by presidents of both parties, the laws passed by Congress and the decisions of the Supreme Court, Hoffi ne added. — Reuters
The US president’s
action was blocked
by lower courts
after Texas and 25
other Republican-
governed states sued
to stop it, contending
he exceeded his
presidential powersSETBACK: A woman chants as immigrants and community lead-
ers rally in front of the US Supreme Court to mark the one-year
anniversary of President Barack Obama’s executive orders on
immigration in Washington, in this November 20, 2015 fi le
photo. — Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/Files
MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6B
Muscat
4,981.58 + 0.01
+ 0.00%
Dubai
2,765.97+ 88.47
+ 3.30%
Abu Dhabi
3,904.03+ 109.05
+ 2.87%
Saudi Arabia
5,727.45+ 202.33
+ 3.66%
Kuwait
5,084.21+ 29.57
+ 0.59%
Bahrain
1,175.76- 20.51
- 1.71%
Qatar
8,913.37+ 396.55
+ 4.66%
CURRENCY RATES* DRAFT RATES (OMR1)* GOLD PRICES*Forex rates vs OMR1*
US Dollar ................................. 2.58
Euro ............................................ 2.35
Pound ...........................................1.80
Indian Rs ............................. 175.22
Pak Rs ................................... 267.80
Bangla Taka........................201.16* Rates are as of Jan. 19
Source: Bank Muscat
Indian Rs ...................................175.60
Pakistan Rs .............................272.20
Sri Lanka Rs ............................ 371.74
Bangla Taka........................... 203.20
Phil Peso ................................... 123.60
* Rates as of Jan. 19 Source: Oman UAE Exchange
Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......14.00
Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......13.50
Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ............ 131.00
Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) .............124.25
* Rates as of Jan. 19
Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Type ............................Delivery...........Price
Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$25.06
Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$24.56
Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$27.72
Arabian Light ......... (Spot) .........$23.41
N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) .........$30.10
West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$30.06
CRUDE OIL PRICE
DIGEST VIDEO
S CA N T H I S Q R CO D E TO I N STA N T LY L AU N C H T H E V I D EO
Top stories in one minute with our new daily Digest
Port of Duqm plans massive development in next 3 years
MUSCAT: Port of Duqm will witness hectic activities in the next three years for completing the fi nal development work at the port for commencing fully-fl edged operations.
“The years 2016, 2017 and 2018
will be crucial years for the Port of Duqm because the government has started awarding the last con-struction packages for completing the work,” Reggy Vermeulan, chief executive offi cer (CEO) of the Port of Duqm, told the Times of Oman.The port has commenced its ‘early operations’ phase some time back.
It appears that a package for
the customs department, police buildings and main gates has been awarded.
Also, another package for creat-ing utilities for electricity, water and platform buildings are also in the fi nal stage of evaluation. All these construction works will help the port’s fi nal container ter-minal, which will have a capacity
of 3.5 million TEUs (ten equiva-lent units) after completion of all works at the port.
Another major project is to build a mega liquid terminal (which in-cludes dredging work) and is also expected to be awarded this year. Yet another major work is for cre-ating a berth for government agen-cies, including the Royal Oman Police and Navy.
Massive construction phase“We will see a massive construc-tion phase during the next three years,” added Vermeulan.
The Port of Duqm authorities had said earlier that they would start exporting minerals for the fi rst time next month. The port has already set up facilities for an early operation of its break bulk termi-nal for exporting 50,000 tonnes of dolomite as the fi rst shipment from the port.
Vermeulan said the terminal has the capacity to handle fi ve mil-lion tonnes during the fi rst phase, which can be scaled up substan-tially in the future. This will also help in the diversifi cation strategy of the government and reduce the heavy dependence on oil revenue.
He added that the port is current-ly working with Oman Railways to substantially enhance mineral exports by transporting products from far off places and storing it near the port. In fact, a freight cor-ridor is to be developed to connect the Port of Duqm to large regional markets, in a bid to increase the volumes of mineral, container and project cargo shipments.
The Port of Duqm’s chief said Oman has a variety of minerals and some of them can be considered as fi nished products, which can be di-rectly exported without processing. The mining companies, which have
concession areas in Oman, will use the port’s break bulk terminal for exporting their minerals, including limestone, to several countries, es-pecially to India.
The container terminal can handle 200,000 TEUs a year at the moment, which will be enhanced substantially to 3.5 million TEUs per annum.
The port, which is planning a feeder service connectivity with Dubai’s Jebel Ali,also plans to connect with other major Omani ports, including Sohar and Salalah.
The 300-metre dedicated break bulk terminal is the last part of a 2.2 kilometre-long commercial quay, which is equipped to export minerals. The commercial quay is divided into three main are-as—300 metres of cargo terminal, a 1.6-kilometre long container ter-minal and 300 metres for a break bulk terminal.
The years 2016, 2017 and 2018 will be
crucial for the Port of Duqm because the
government has started awarding the last
construction packages for completing the
work, said the CEO of Port of Duqm
Oman Fiber Optic profi t falls
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Fiber Optic said the company’s net profi t for 2015 fell to OMR1.61 million from OMR7.87 million for the previous year. The company’s total revenue also declined to OMR22.56 million from OMR23.31 million, while ex-penses were down at OMR20.68 million from OMR21.70 million, according to a stock market fi ling.
The company has received an in-surance claim of OMR7.38 million in 2014, which helped to achieve a higher net profi t.
The fi nancial results are subject to approval from audit committee, board of directors and sharehold-ers of the company.
P E R F O R M A N C E
‘Oil market will be oversupplied until late 2016’LONDON: Global oil markets could “drown in oversupply,” sending prices even lower as demand growth slows and Iran revives exports with the end of sanctions, according to the Inter-national Energy Agency (IEA).
The International Energy Agency trimmed 2016 estimates for global oil demand as China’s economic expansion weakens and raised forecasts for supplies outside the Organisation of Petro-leum Exporting Countries (Opec). While non-Opec supply is set to drop 600,000 barrels a day in 2016, Iran’s comeback could fi ll that gap by the middle of the year. As a result, world markets may be left with a surplus of 1.5 million barrels a day in the fi rst half.
“While the pace of stock-building eases in the second half of the year as supply from non-Opec producers falls, unless something changes, the oil mar-ket could drown in oversupply,” said the Paris-based adviser to industrialised economies. Prices “could go lower.”
Oil sank to a 12-year low of less than $28 a barrel in London on Monday as the removal of interna-tional sanctions over the weekend freed Iran to revive crude exports, threatening to swell a glut cre-ated by fellow Opec members and US shale drillers. Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil exporter, signalled again on Sunday it won’t relent in its strategy to preserve market share even as prices crash.
Iran growthIran could be the only source of supply growth in Opec this year as a surge in Iraq fi zzles out, the IEA said. International sanc-tions, including those on its oil sector, were lifted on January 16 as Iran met the terms of an agree-ment to curb its nuclear develop-ment program.
300,000 barrelsThe country could add 300,000 barrels a day by the end of the fi rst quarter and 600,000 barrels a day by the middle of the year, the IEA said. While that’s below offi cial ministry plans to add one million a day by mid-year, it could still be enough to pressure prices further, the agency predicted. The country
pumped at a 3 1/2-year high of 2.91 million barrels a day in December, according to the report.
Global oil demand growth slipped to a one-year low in the fourth quarter, from close to a fi ve-year high in the third, amid mild winter temperatures and eco-nomic weakness in commodity producers. Consumption growth will slow this year to 1.2 million barrels a day, or 1.3 percent, from 1.7 million a day in 2015, accord-ing to the report, averaging 95.7 million barrels a day.
While supplies outside Opec proved “resilient” for most of last year, they shrank on an annual basis in December for the fi rst time in three years, according to the IEA. The projected drop of
600,000 barrels a day in non-Opec production this year will be the steepest since 1992.
Production from Opec, whose membership expanded last month with the return of Indonesia, slipped 90,000 barrels a day to 32.28 million a day in December amid slightly lower output from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to the report. That’s still about 600,000 a day more than the av-erage of 31.7 million required in 2016.
With Opec supply potentially expanding and demand growth slowing, global inventories could accumulate by a further 285 mil-lion in 2016 after swelling by one billion barrels last year, the IEA further added.. — Bloomberg News
I E A R E P O R T
Reggy Vermeulan. — Times fi le picture
B2
MARKETW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
China’s economic growth rate slows
BEIJING: China’s economy slowed in December, capping the weakest quarter of growth since the 2009 global recession, as the Communist leadership struggles to manage a transition to consum-er-led expansion.
Industrial production, retail sales and fi xed-asset investment all slowed at the end of the year, while gross domestic product rose 6.8 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
Full-year growth of 6.9 per cent, the least since 1990, was in line with the government’s target of about 7 per cent.
Downward pressure on industry
threatens to spread to consump-tion and services — an unwelcome prospect for policy makers who must weigh the need for further monetary easing with the risk it would spur more weakness in the yuan and additional capital out-fl ows. Another dilemma: cutting excess capacity that’s spurring defl ation and weighing on old in-dustrial drivers without triggering a deeper slump.
“China is undergoing a debt-defl ation led downward business cycle,” said Liu Li-Gang, head of greater China economics at Aus-tralia and New Zealand Banking in Hong Kong.
“Traditional fi scal and monetary policy will only have secondary impact on the economy by mitigat-ing the pace of the slowdown.”
Industrial production posted one of the weakest gains in the past quarter century, increasing 5.9 per cent in December from a year ear-lier. That compared to a 6 per cent median estimate of analysts and
November’s 6.2 per cent.
Retail sales riseRetail sales increased 11.1 per cent from a year earlier, compared to the 11.3 per cent projected by econ-omists. Fixed- asset investment excluding rural areas expanded 10 percent last year, the slowest pace since 2000.
The Australian dollar, which typically fl uctuates in reaction to signs from China, Australia’s big-gest export destination, fell in the 30 minutes after the GDP release, then recaptured lost ground in the afternoon. The Shanghai Compos-ite Index closed 3.2 per cent higher after Tuesday’s data fueled specu-lation of increased stimulus and industrial shares rallied on pros-pects of state-fund buying.
Infl ation slipsBloomberg’s monthly GDP tracker slipped to 6.69 per cent in Decem-ber, from 6.85 per cent a month earlier. A measure of economy-wide infl ation slipped deeper into negative territory, declining 0.5 per cent in 2015, according to an-other gauge.
“Deepening of defl ationary pressures require more decisive
refl ationary policies,” economists Julia Wang and LiJing at HSBC Holdings wrote in a report. “Both monetary and fi scal easing meas-ures are needed to help support demand and anchor expectations.”
HSBC forecast a quarter per-centage point interest-rate cut and 100 basis point reserve ratio re-duction this quarter, plus a wider fi scal defi cit target for the year.
China’s top leadership has sig-naled in recent months it may al-low some additional slowness as they tackle delicate tasks such as reducing excess capacity, but nothing that could threaten Presi-dent Xi Jinping’s goal of at least 6.5 per cent growth through 2020.
The world’s second-largest economy will slow to 6.5 per cent this year and 6.3 per cent next year, according to the median of econo-mist estimates. - Bloomberg News
Economy slowed in December, capping the
weakest quarter of growth since 2009 global
recession, as the nation struggles to manage
a transition to consumer-led expansion
China could seek trade curbs as EU loses WTO case GENEVA: China could demand trade sanctions against the Euro-pean Union (EU) after winning an appeal on Monday in a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over EU tariff s imposed on Chinese imports of screws, nuts and bolts made of iron or steel.
China has never before asked the WTO to impose trade sanc-tions since it joined the organi-sation in 2001, but the end of the seven-year battle leaves the way open to a claim for compensa-tion. “The measures have nega-tive eff ect on exports from China around $1 billion and more than 100,000 jobs from thousands of fastener producers in China,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
“It has resulted in huge eco-nomic losses to the Chinese industry, which has expressed strong dissatisfaction and fi rm opposition to the measures.” The EU must now comply with the ruling and remove its illegal tar-iff s or China would take “further steps”, the statement said.
The value of China’s exports of the products to the EU peaked at over $1 billion in 2008, but aver-aged about $200 million after the EU imposed punitive tariff s on the Chinese exports in 2009, according to an analysis of data from the International Trade Centre, a UN-WTO joint venture.
Under WTO rules, countries are allowed to punish ‘dumping’ — or exports priced at an unfairly cheap level — to stop one country deliberately undermining its for-eign rivals by artifi cially under-cutting their prices.
But the use of anti-dumping tariff s is subject to strict rules
and, in this case, China com-plained that the EU had not ap-plied the rules correctly. WTO arbitrators agreed. The EU ap-pealed and lost, and said it had re-duced the tariff s. But China com-plained that the EU had not done enough to comply with the ruling, and again it won. The EU’s fi nal appeal appears to have backfi red, with the WTO judges reversing points that previously went in the EU’s favour and toughening the ruling against it. An EU trade of-fi cial declined to comment.
Indian proxyA key part of the EU argument was the use of an Indian proxy for Chinese prices, since China is not considered to be a “market economy” under WTO rules and therefore its prices do not need to be taken at face value.
But China says that it will have the right to “market economy status” from December 2016, 15 years after it joined the WTO, which will force the EU to take Chinese export prices at face value, or risk more WTO disputes from China.
Though Beijing says the des-ignation should be automatic, a debate is brewing in the EU over whether to grant it. Fu Donghui, managing partner at Allbright Law Offi ces, told reporters at a briefi ng by Chinese business chambers in Beijing that the rul-ing announced Monday would be a boon for China’s position.
“Actually, this is a decision that overturns the EU’s substitute country system. I think it will be a major boost for Chinese market economy status at the end of the year,” Fu said. - Reuters
T R A D E D I S P U T E
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SLOWDOWN: Industrial production, retail sales and fi xed-asset
investment all slowed at the end of the year. - AFP fi le picture
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World’s leading steel
industry demand falls
SINGAPORE: Steel output in the world’s largest producer post-ed the fi rst annual contraction in a quarter century.
Mills in China, which make half of global supply, churned out less last year for the fi rst time since at least 1991 as local de-mand dropped, prices sank and producers struggled with over-capacity. Crude steel production shrank 2.3 per cent to 803.83 mil-lion metric tonnes, the statistics bureau said Tuesday. December output fell 5.2 per cent to 64.37 million tons from a year earlier.
Demand is weakening as policy makers seek to steer the economy away from investment toward consumption-led growth. The economy expanded 6.9 per cent last year, the slowest full-year pace since 1990, data showed. Steel output will probably drop 2.6 per cent this year, weakening the outlook for iron ore as global miners increase shipments, Citi-group has estimated.
“This marks the start of declin-ing steel output in China as the economy slows,” Xu Huimin, an analyst at Huatai Great Wall Fu-tures in Shanghai, said by phone. “We’re likely to see more output cuts this year, though the magni-tude of declines will be quite sim-ilar to 2015. Supply cuts in a glut are a long- drawn process as mills seek to maintain market share.”
Crude-steel output in China surged more than 12-fold be-tween 1990 and 2014, and the increase is emblematic of the country’s emergence as the world’s second-largest economy. Demand soared as policy makers built out infrastructure, shifted millions of people into cities and promoted consumption of autos and appliances.
Chinese steel demand is also dropping for the fi rst time in a generation, prompting mills to export record amounts of the metal. Shipments jumped 20 per cent last year. - Bloomberg News
D E M A N D F A L L S
B3W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
MARKET
Omantel to upgrade ATMs, branches of Bank Muscat
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Telecommu-nications Company (Omantel), the leading provider of integrated telecommunication services in Oman, and Bank Muscat, the larg-est fi nancial services provider in the country, have joined hands for a comprehensive telecommunica-tions network upgrade for Bank Muscat branches across the Sul-tanate and migration of existing off site automated teller machines (ATMs) to multiple protocol label switching (MPLS) network.
The project entails upgrading the existing telecommunications system for all Bank Muscat loca-tions, including 152 branches as well as nearly 170 off site ATMs located across the country.
Commenting on the benefi ts of the upgrade, Todd Dick, Omantel
VP of Corporate Business, said: “The partnership with Bank Muscat highlights our deep experience in delivering end-to-end solutions for clients in the fi nancial services sec-tor, who require the very highest lev-els of data security, high data trans-fer speeds and network reliability.
“Deploying our technical ex-perience and expertise on this project means that Bank Muscat will be able to conduct instant real-time monitoring and main-tenance for their nationwide branches and ATM networks to ensure uninterrupted services, while branch staff and systems are securely connected via the MPLS network, providing seamless and secure intranet, extranet, and data capabilities,” he added.
The project scope for the Bank
Muscat upgrade calls for a nation-wide upgrade to MPLS across the bank’s branch and ATM network, supported by a 24/7 service level agreement to provide ongoing monitoring of system perfor-mance and maintenance.
First in OmanOmantel is the fi rst telecommu-nications service provider to off er MPLS in Oman, and the experi-ence gained has earned the com-pany an ISO 27001 certifi cation for delivering MPLS services in the Sultanate.
The Omantel MPLS solution delivers an integrated network that simultaneously handles mul-tiple types of network traffi c, in-cluding data and video, providing end-to-end connectivity with high
speed intranet, extranet voice and data services.
“Bank Muscat network upgrade highlights our commitment and focus on delivering and imple-menting the highest global stand-ards and best practices to ensure effi ciency and confi dentiality as well as integrity of data in its se-curity journey. This is particularly important in the banking sector, where timeliness and data secu-rity for fi nancial transactions and customer information are of vital importance,” Todd said.
Said Al Badai, group deputy general manager (Branches), said: “As the fl agship fi nancial services provider in the Sultanate, Bank Muscat is committed to providing world class services. The benefi ts of implementing the MPLS solu-
tion across the Bank Muscat net-work provides 24/7 support and gives us enhanced connectivity and security across our branches and ATM locations. We can de-ploy new customer applications and rapidly enhance our network confi guration with the addition of new branches and ATMs through-out the Sultanate. Omantel has a unique and unrivalled experience in designing and operating com-munications networks in the bank-ing sector, and we are very pleased with the improvements the up-grade has delivered throughout our branch and ATM network.”
Investing in futureOmantel connects even the most remote communities of the Sul-tanate to each other and with the rest of the world. Omantel is the Sultanate’s fi rst and leading inte-grated telecommunications ser-vices provider, enabling the digital society to fl ourish, allowing new ways of doing business and deliv-ering a world of information, news and entertainment. Today, Oman-tel innovates to deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction, the broadest and most reliable na-tionwide network while investing for Oman’s future development. Omantel Business Unit pro-vides innovative communication solutions to meet the individual needs of corporate and public sec-tor clients.
The project
entails upgrading
the existing
telecommunications
system for Bank
Muscat branches
across Oman and
migration of existing
off site ATMs to MPLS
New categories included in Oman projects competition
Times News Service
MUSCAT: New categories of pro-jects have been included this year in the competition for the region’s highest quality awards, instituted by MEED Quality Awards for Pro-jects, in association with Mashreq.
Among the new categories in-clude Upstream Oil and Gas Pro-ject of the Year, Downstream Oil and Gas Project the Year, Airport Project of the Year, Tall Building Project of the Year, Retail Project of the Year, Mixed-Use Project of the Year, Education Project of the Year, Residential Project of the Year, Commercial Project of the Year; Rail, Metro, Tram Project of the Year; and Road, Bridge, Tunnel Project of the Year.
Owners, architects, engineers, contractors and consultants of completed projects in Oman from January 2011 to December 2015 have until January-end to submit their entries.
Oman’s projects market is tradi-tionally dominated by infrastruc-ture schemes. Over the past fi ve years the focus has been the ex-pansion of Muscat International airport, the Batinah Expressway and to a lesser extent, the Oman Convention and Exhibition Cen-tre. For the coming years the focus will shift to rail.
The national railway project is the largest upcoming scheme in Oman. With an expected budget of $15 billion, there are at least eight segments that make up the planned 2,135-kilometre national railway. Other upcoming pro-jects include a liquids terminal at Duqm, and a new hospital.
R E G I O N A L A W A R D S
India seeks to attract Omani businessmen Times News Service
MUSCAT: Omani enterprises, business houses, investments funds and banks will get an op-portunity to get acquainted with various investment opportunities available in India at an ‘Invest in India’ seminar, organised by the Embassy of India on January 20 at the embassy’s auditorium.
The seminar, which will show-case India as an increasingly at-tractive destination for Omani investments, will be inaugurated by Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, minister of commerce and indus-try, who will be the chief guest.
Mohammed Al Barwani, chair-man, MB Group of Oman has agreed to share his experience of doing business in India.
The event will primarily focus on giving a broad overview of In-dia’s economy, in light of the recent initiatives taken by the Govern-ment of India to make India more investor and business friendly, says an embassy communiqué.
Representatives of the Gov-ernment of Oman, relevant or-ganisations from the economic, fi nancial, trade and investment sectors, fi nancial institutions, chambers of commerce, banks, pension funds, chartered ac-countancy fi rms, key business houses to name a few are expect-ed to attend the event.
The Indian embassy in Muscat has accorded a high priority to explore and utilise every avail-
able opportunity to enhance in-teractions with the Omani busi-ness community as well as Indian business community in Oman.
Even though Omani business community is familiar with the investment opportunities in In-dia, it has been felt that there is a need to highlight the new ini-tiatives taken by the present Gov-ernment of India, aimed at mak-ing India an attractive place to do business and make investments..
Joint fundMutual investment between Oman and India has been grow-ing and is estimated at more than $ 7.5 billion. The fi rst tranche of India-Oman Joint Investment Fund of $ 100 million has already been invested and discussions are underway to fi nalise the sec-ond tranche of $ 300 million.
There is a huge untapped po-tential. The fundamentals of In-dia’s economy remain strong and it is poised to grow at a fast pace in future. The fast-growing economy of India off ers immense opportu-nities for foreign direct and port-folio investments from Oman.
There will presentations by representatives of Invest India, which is a joint venture of FICCI and Ministry of Commerce of In-dia, and three key states of India: Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra. There will also be presentations by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India, Deloitte, Earnst & Young and KPMG.
S E M I N A R
Brace for topsy-turvy market ahead, says Dubai’s real estate developerDUBAI: Dubai’s biggest landlord has a message for the city’s devel-opers: get ready to rethink your budgets and building plans repeat-edly this year or be engulfed by a topsy-turvy market.
Companies need to be “more ag-ile to sustain their businesses and survive the tough period ahead,” said Hesham Al Qassim, chief ex-ecutive offi cer of the state’s Wasl Asset Management and vice-chairman of Dubai’s largest lender, Emirates NBD. “Those who are mindful of the reality around them will manage, but those who stretch themselves with billions worth of projects won’t.”
Dubai’s property market was buff eted last year by falling oil prices, rising political tension in the region and slowing economic growth from China to Brazil, all trends that are set to continue in 2016. Real estate developers, whose projects can take two to four years to build, may see their
markets change several times over that period.
Property pricesResidential property prices in Dubai dropped around 15 per cent last year and rents softened as de-mand from European and Russian buyers waned, Phidar Advisory said on January 11.
The dollar-pegged dirham made properties more expensive at a time the decline in the oil price put pressure on government spending. Dubai is part of the United Arab
Emirates along with Abu Dhabi, which relies on oil for 51 per cent of its gross domestic product.”
“I’d be very cautious, whether running an asset-management company or a development com-pany,” Al Qassim said. “I have to be very dynamic in terms of my budget planning. When there is a slowdown, I have to go through my budget and try to adjust it accord-ing to the market.”
Wasl, which collects rent from around 35,000 households and holds offi ces, hotels and golf courses across Dubai, is develop-ing thousands of middle-income homes, a market that’s experienc-ing a severe shortage.
Al Qassim said he reviews the company’s plans often, shelv-ing some and delaying or altering others to better respond to fast-changing demand and market sen-timent. We look “to develop what the company can aff ord to do in the worst-case scenario,” he said.
Chain reactionAl Qassim says greater interest-rate stability shows that the UAE market is adjusting to lower oil prices. However, bankruptcies at some companies in the country could set off a chain reaction that hurts many others, he said.
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, expects earnings to be fl at in 2016 and the bank will freeze hiring to reduce staff through at-trition rather than job cuts, Al Qas-sim said.
Growth will probably return in mid-2017 as a decline in values spurs new demand and momen-tum builds ahead of Dubai hosting of the World Expo 2020.
Wasl, which completed the construction of 1,244 aff ordable homes for leasing this year, is plan-ning to build another 5,000 homes. The asset manager is also building a 260-room Mandarin Oriental hotel to open in 2017 as well as the world’s largest - Bloomberg News
R E A L E S T A T E
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
CONNECTIVITY: The Omantel MPLS solution delivers an integrated network that simultaneously
handles multiple types of network traffi c, including data and video, providing end-to-end connectiv-
ity with high speed intranet, extranet voice and data services. – File picture
B4
MARKETW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET
SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19
REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 200,521 ............ 16,150......................11 ............0.081 ........... 0.081 ...........0.080........... 0.081 .............0.074 ........... 0.007 ............. 9.459 ................0.080..............0.077...................0.081 .................... 4,766,301 ..........0.100
OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 1,865,059 ...... 280,471................... 145 ............0.148 ........... 0.155 ...........0.148 ........... 0.150 ............. 0.144 ........... 0.006 ............. 4.167 ................ 0.151 .............. 0.150................... 0.151 ................... 22,511,250 .........0.100
OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ........... 129,525 .............10,648......................21 ........... 0.082 ........... 0.083 ...........0.081 ........... 0.082 .............0.080 ........... 0.002 .............2.500 ................0.082.............. 0.081...................0.082 ................... 7,380,000 ..........0.100
OM0000004669 ...........SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ................................ 10,978 .............51,502......................18 ........... 4.590 ........... 4.705 ...........4.590........... 4.690 .............4.600 ........... 0.090 ............. 1.957 ................4.695 ............. 4.400...................4.900 ..................45,869,213 .........1.000
OM0000003521 ............GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. .................. 201,380 ............ 11,277..................... 25 ........... 0.056 ........... 0.056 ...........0.056 ........... 0.056 .............0.055 ............0.001 ..............1.818.................0.056 ..............0.056...................0.057................... 16,238,916 .........0.100
OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 1,794,829 ......305,639...................144 ............0.170 ........... 0.176 ...........0.166 ........... 0.170 ............. 0.168............ 0.002 ............. 1.190 ................0.167 .............. 0.166...................0.167 .................. 34,000,000 ........0.100
OM0000001087 ............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 334,888 ............58,961..................... 30 ............0.174 ........... 0.181............0.174 ............0.176 ............. 0.174 ............ 0.002 ............. 1.149.................0.174 .............. 0.170................... 0.176 ...................17,600,000 .........0.100
OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 1,254,345 ...... 507,545......................81 ........... 0.404 ...........0.420 ...........0.394........... 0.404 .............0.400 ........... 0.004 ............. 1.000 ................0.394..............0.394...................0.396..................925,896,329 .......0.100
OM0000001483 ............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 261,200 ............59,352......................21 ........... 0.225 ...........0.230 ...........0.225........... 0.227 .............0.225 ........... 0.002 ............. 0.889 ................0.225..............0.223...................0.225 .................304,341,227 .......0.100
OM0000001749 ............OMAN CEMENT .......................................................... 105,000 ........... 48,350........................3 ........... 0.462 ........... 0.462 ...........0.460........... 0.460 .............0.458 ........... 0.002 ............. 0.437 ................0.460............. 0.000...................0.460 .................152,201,447 ........0.100
OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH .................................................. 4,163 ...............9,887........................3 ............2.375 ........... 2.375 ...........2.370........... 2.375 .............2.370 ........... 0.005 ............. 0.211.................2.370..............2.375...................2.500 .................226,710,838 ........1.000
OM0000001095 ............DHOFAR INSURANCE ......................................................100 .....................21........................ 1 ........... 0.205 ...........0.205 ...........0.205........... 0.205 .............0.205 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.205............. 0.000...................0.204 ..................41,000,000.........0.100
OM0000001145 ............PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ........................ 40,000 ...............4,810........................5 ............0.121 ........... 0.121............0.120 ........... 0.120 .............0.120 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.120 .............. 0.110...................0.120 ...................11,404,800 .........0.100
OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS .............................................................10,000 .............. 2,940........................2 ........... 0.294 ...........0.294 ...........0.294 .......... 0.294 .............0.294 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.294..............0.294...................0.302 ..................14,700,000 .........0.100
OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST ........................................................................2,230 .................. 999........................ 1 ........... 0.448 ........... 0.448 ...........0.448........... 0.448 .............0.448 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.448..............0.420...................0.448 .................247,682,016 ........0.100
OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ..............21,032 ............... 5,475........................9 ........... 0.265 ........... 0.265 ...........0.258........... 0.260 .............0.260 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.258 ..............0.256...................0.258....................5,460,000 ..........0.100
OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE ...................................................... 45,000 ............... 5,175........................5 ............0.116 ........... 0.116 ............ 0.114 ............0.115 ............. 0.115 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................ 0.114 ...............0.113................... 0.115 ................... 35,737,968 .........0.100
OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 369,931 ..........536,339..................... 33 ............1.450 ........... 1.455............1.435 ............1.450 ............. 1.450............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................1.445 ..............1.440...................1.445 ................1,087,500,000 ......0.100
OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 1,071,809 .......138,916..................... 48 ............0.130 ........... 0.132 ...........0.127 ........... 0.130 ............. 0.130............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.127 ..............0.120...................0.129 ..................187,387,200 ........0.100
OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL ...............................................21,966 ............... 1,538........................3 ........... 0.070 ........... 0.070 ...........0.070........... 0.070 .............0.070 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.070..............0.070...................0.071 ...................12,250,000 .........0.100
OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER ................................................ 210,100 ........... 39,079........................8 ............0.186 ........... 0.186 ...........0.185 ........... 0.186 ............. 0.187............-0.001 ........... -0.535 ...............0.185 ............. 0.000...................0.185 ..................125,529,062 ........0.100
OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER .................................................. 200,083 ............ 37,215........................6 ............0.186 ........... 0.186 ...........0.186 ........... 0.186 ............. 0.187............-0.001 ........... -0.535 ...............0.186 .............. 0.170...................0.186 ..................132,879,579 ........0.100
OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ................................................ 191,205 .............65,187..................... 27 ........... 0.342 ...........0.342 ...........0.340 .......... 0.340 .............0.342 ...........-0.002 ........... -0.585 ...............0.342..............0.342...................0.352................... 17,850,000 .........0.100
OM0000001822 ............UNITED POWER ............................................................. 1,000 ...............2,550........................2 ........... 2.550 ........... 2.550 ...........2.550........... 2.550 .............2.585 ...........-0.035 ........... -1.354................2.550 ............. 2.500...................2.550....................2,040,000 ..........1.000
OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ........................................................20,630 .............19,639........................8 ........... 0.952 ........... 0.952 ...........0.948........... 0.952 .............0.972 ...........-0.020 ........... -2.058 ...............0.948..............0.948...................0.952................. 190,400,000 .......0.100
OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 334,900 .........204,901..................... 34 ........... 0.624 ........... 0.624 ...........0.608............0.612 .............0.628 ...........-0.016 ........... -2.548 ...............0.620..............0.620...................0.628..................398,377,869 ........0.100
OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES ..................................... 971,546 ..........118,445..................... 42 ............0.127 ........... 0.127 ........... 0.115 ........... 0.122 ............. 0.126............-0.004 ............-3.175 ................ 0.118 .............. 0.116................... 0.118 ...................35,459,425 .........0.100
OM0000002226 ...........AL JAZEERA SERVICES .......................................... 445,327 ......... 112,252......................15 ........... 0.260 ...........0.260 ...........0.250........... 0.252 .............0.270 ...........-0.018 ........... -6.667 ...............0.250............. 0.000...................0.250 .................. 15,423,477 .........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 10,118,747 ......2,655,262 .............. 751 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......28........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES ..................................................... 128,889 .............. 6,143..................... 22 ........... 0.048 ........... 0.050 ...........0.047........... 0.048 .............0.046 ........... 0.002 ............. 4.348 ................0.047..............0.046...................0.047 ...................6,000,000 ..........0.100
OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 1,835,585 ...... 121,424......................41 ........... 0.066 ........... 0.067 ...........0.065 ........... 0.066 .............0.064 ........... 0.002 ............. 3.125 ................0.065 ..............0.065...................0.066...................99,000,000.........0.100
OM0000005963 ...........PHOENIX POWER ...................................................... 645,875 ........... 84,764...................104 ............0.131 ........... 0.133 ...........0.130 ............0.131 ............. 0.130.............0.001 ............. 0.769 ................0.132 .............. 0.132...................0.133 .................. 191,600,791 ........0.100
OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. ......................6,000 ...................174........................2 ........... 0.029 ........... 0.029 ...........0.029........... 0.029 .............0.029 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.029..............0.028...................0.029 ...................2,465,000 ..........0.100
OM0000004511 ............ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK................................................77,000 .............. 4,824........................8 ........... 0.063 ........... 0.063 ...........0.062........... 0.063 .............0.063 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.062.............. 0.061...................0.062 ..................63,000,000 ........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 2,693,349...... 217,329................... 177 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 5........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
BONDS AND SUKUK MARKET ...................................................................................................................................................................... OM0000004867 ...........BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 ...........................................35,973 ...............3,633........................3 ............0.101 ........... 0.101............0.101 ............0.101 ............. 0.101 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.101 .............. 0.101................... 0.110 ...................32,283,910 .........0.100
OM0000005971 ............B.MUSCAT COMPL. CONVR. B.B.3.5 ..................... 34,591 ...............3,286........................4 ........... 0.095 ........... 0.095 ...........0.095 ........... 0.095 .............0.095 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.095 ..............0.095...................0.099................... 30,795,353 .........0.100
OM0000004628 ...........BANK SOHAR BONDS 4.5 .......................................... 65,712 ................7,163........................ 1 ............0.109 ........... 0.109 ...........0.109 ........... 0.109 ............. 0.110 ............-0.001 ........... -0.909 ...............0.109 ..............0.095................... 0.110 .................... 7,793,500 ..........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 136,276............ 14,082........................8 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 3........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ISIN ......................................SECURITY NAME .................................................................. VOLUME ..... TURNOVER ............TRADES ......OPEN PRICE ......HIGH ............. LOW ........ CLOSE PR. ...PREV. CLOSE...DIFF (RO).........DIFF % ............. LAST PR .....LAST BID .............LAST OFFER ........MARKET CAP .PAR VALUE
O M A N S T O C K S
INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index ........................................ 5,014.41 ...............4,981.58 ................... 4,981.58 ................... 4,981.57 .................... 0.01 ...................0.00Financial Index .....................................5,967.09 ...............5,891.40 ....................5,947.15 ................... 5,891.40 ..................55.75 ................... 0.95Industrial Index ....................................6,501.03 ...............6,487.38 ................... 6,488.37 ...................6,494.63 .................. -6.26 .................. -0.10Services Index ...................................... 2,869.52 .............. 2,848.33 ...................2,848.33 ................... 2,864.71 ................ -16.38 .................. -0.57MSM SHARIAH INDEX....................... 819.90 ..................814.09 .......................814.09 .......................815.99 .................. -1.90 .................. -0.23
Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded12,948,372 ................. 2,886,673 .....................936 ...............15,295,033,269 ................ 14 ........................9 .................... 13 .........................36
Index ends unchanged
MUSCAT: Local selling in a tepid market led to the MSM30 closing unchanged at 4,981.58 points. The MSM Sharia index declined 0.23 per cent to close at 814.09 points. Al Anwar Holding was the most active in terms of volume while Oman Telecom-munications Company led in traded value.
The top gainer was Gulf Invest-ment Services, up 9.46 per cent, while top loser was Al Jazeera Services, down 6.67 per cent.
As many as 936 trades were executed on Tuesday, generating a turnover of OMR2.88 million with 12.9 million shares changing hands during the day.
Out of 36 traded securities, 14 advanced, nine declined and 13 remained unchanged. GCC and Arab investors were net buyers for OMR334,000 while Omani Investors were net sellers for OMR235,000 followed by For-eign Investors for OMR99,000 worth of shares.
Financial Index advanced 0.95 per cent to close at 5,947.15 points. Gulf Investment Servic-es, Al Anwar Holding, Bank Ni-zwa, Al Sharqia Investments and Oman United Insurance gained 9.46 per cent, 4.17 per cent, 3.13 per cent, 2.50 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index retreated 0.10 per cent to close at 6,488.37 points. Oman Fisheries, Galfar Engineering and Oman Cements advanced 4.35 per cent, 1.82 per cent and 0.44 per cent respective-ly. Raysut Cement and Al Maha Ceramics declined 2.06 per cent and 0.58 per cent, respectively.
Services Index ended nega-tively at 2,848.33 points, down 0.57 per cent. Sharqiyah Desali-nation, OIFC, Phoenix Power and Sembcorp Salalah gained 1.96 per cent, 1.19 per cent, 0.77 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively. Al Jazeera Services, Renaissance Services, Ooredoo Oman, United
Power and Al Suwadi Power de-creased 6.67 per cent, 3.17 per cent, 2.55 per cent, 1.35 per cent and 0.53 per cent respectively.
Qatar stocks surgeQatari stocks surged the most in more than a year as investors saw attractive valuations after this week’s selloff , spurring advances across most equity markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Qatar’s benchmark QE Index jumped by 5.5 per cent in its fi rst increase in nearly nine days, and was the best performer among more than 90 gauges tracked by Bloomberg. Dubai’s DFM General Index rose the most in fi ve months as Emaar Proper-ties gained the most since April. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks the region’s biggest and most liquid companies, add-ed the most since August.
“The valuations are so de-pressed it doesn’t make sense to sell, especially now when dividend distribution is close,” according to Nabil Farhat, an Abu Dhabi-based partner at Al Fajr Securities.
The BGCC 200 was trading this week at its biggest discount to emerging-market peers in fi ve years after sanctions that crip-pled Iran’s economy were lifted, paving the way for increased oil exports from the Opec producer amid a global glut. Brent crude, a pricing benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, dipped below $28 a barrel on Monday amid a decline that’s pressured govern-ment fi nances across the six-nation GCC. The region accounts for about 30 per cent of the world’s proven crude reserves.
Saudi Arabia’s share index rose four per cent. Kuwait’s bench-mark measure increased for the fi rst time in 12 days. Abu Dhabi stocks added 2.5 per cent, the most in almost fi ve months. — United Securities/Bloomberg News
The top gainer was Gulf Investment Services,
up 9.46 per cent, while the top loser was Al
Jazeera Services, down 6.67 per cent
Record bank fi nes to put brake on foreign fi nanciers supporting Iranian projects TEHRAN: For Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the lifting of sanctions brings “the opportunity for an economic leap.” Foreign fi -nanciers are going to take some persuading to make that jump.
Certainly, Iran off ers potential following years of exile.
Overseas investors note the country’s stocks look cheap next to those in similar countries.
The benchmark TEDPIX stock index trades at a measly 5.7 times earnings, according to Bloomb-erg News. The MSCI Emerging Market index trades at 10.9 times earnings and the MSCI Frontier Markets Index is valued at 9.44 times earnings.
The Tehran Stock Exchange in-cludes 318 listed companies with a total market capitalisation of around $90 billion, according to its website.
The economy is also expected to outpace its regional peers. The World Bank forecasts growth will rebound from 1.9 per cent in 2015 to 5.8 per cent in this year and 6.7 per cent next year.
Outpace growthThat will outpace growth in the wider Middle East and North Af-rica, which is estimated to reach 3.8 per cent in 2016 and 4.4 per cent in 2017.
Economic diversity is a strength too. Although oil and gas is a key economic driver, investors are eyeing banks, telecommunica-tions and retail as potentially hot industries. Infrastructure bank-ers spy potential fees in massive oil and gas reserves and under-developed infrastructure that re-quire funding.
But turning a quick profi t in the country won’t be easy.
For starters, investors could
fi nd themselves caught in a crush of foreigners trying to get in.
Western sanctionsWhen western sanctions on My-anmar were lifted in 2013, there weren’t enough decent hotel rooms in the country to accom-modate the fl ood of bankers that showed up. That won’t happen in Tehran’s modern urban centre. But a rush of foreign money could push up asset prices quickly.
Most important of all, though there’s the fi ne detail on sanc-tions to work through. Iranian offi cials hailed the lifting of nu-clear sanctions on the weekend. But Western institutions will
be cautious while many of the country’s institutions and indi-viduals are still restricted under terrorism sanctions.
In particular, the banks that grease the wheels of international fi nance will be desperate to avoid the risk of fi nes by US regulators for compliance failings. It’s less than a year since France’s BNP Paribas was fi ned $9 billion for sanctions violations. London-based Standard Chartered has paid almost $1 billion to US au-thorities in recent years over similar allegations. The prospect of more fi nes will surely curtail bankers’ exuberance — and cross-border fl ows of fi nancing will only
move slowly until all the right boxes are checked.
Political riskThere’s political risk too — the recent fl are up between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a warning shot — and the risk that economic growth doesn’t materialised as hoped, especially because of slid-ing oil prices. Brent crude traded near a 12-year low in London on Monday. Still, such are the prob-lems of investing in developing economies. Investors looking at Iran ought to know what they’re getting into — and banks will be especially wary of the dangers. — Bloomberg News
E C O N O M Y
LONDON: Emerging nations will need to invest twice as much in electricity than developed coun-tries over the next two decades in order to power fast-growing econ-omies and meet emission-reduc-tion targets, according to consult-ants Bain.
Brazil, China and India are among countries that will need about $13 trillion through 2040 to meet the demand for fuel supply, generation and networks, Bain said in a report for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzer-land. That compares with about $7 trillion for countries in the Organi-sation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Emerging nations will probably seek about 70 per cent of the fund-ing from private investors, up from about 30 per cent now, as wind and solar power typically requires higher up-front investment than
conventional generation, accord-ing to Bain. Non-OECD countries may struggle to convince global investors to stump up money amid competition from more predict-able, transparent and mature mar-kets, the Boston-based manage-ment consulting fi rm said.
“There’s a huge wave of capital that’s required,” Julian Critchlow, a partner at Bain, said by phone. “Eff ectively, if you put in a wind-farm or a solar plant, you’re buy-ing the electricity for 20 years up front, as opposed to when you put in a more conventional plant, when you are paying 30 per cent up front” and spending the rest on fuel over the life of the equipment.
As an example of how countries can attract investment, Bain said India could install more free-mar-ket pricing consistent across its various states and simplify its land rules. - Bloomberg News
R E S E A R C H R E P O R T
CLOSE WATCH: Tehran Stock Exchange includes 318 listed companies with a total market
capitalisation of around $90 billion, according to its website. - Bloomberg News
VITAL RESOURCE: Brazil, China and India are among countries that
will need about $13 trillion through 2040 to meet the demand for
fuel supply, generation and networks. - Bloomberg fi le picture
Emerging nations need $13 trillion to invest in power
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SPAR Oman opens its largest store in MBD
MUSCAT: SPAR Oman launched its MBD store, its largest outlet yet in the Sultanate occupying over 15,000 sq.ft, in one of the city’s busiest commercial districts.
The outlet was inaugurated in the presence of M. K. Pathmanaathan, ambassador of Democratic Social-ist Republic of Sri Lanka and Qais bin Suleiman Al Kishri, director of Health Administration-Muscat
Municipality. Also present were Kanan Kapadia - director SPAR Oman, M. Sridar – CEO, SPAR Oman, K. Devendra Kumar – Re-tail head - SPAR Oman and Rithesh Rati - Country manager Sharaf DG, says a press release.
Speaking at the inauguration, Sridar said: “SPAR MBD will give its shoppers great value, uncom-promising freshness in produce and a wide assortment of top quali-ty products coupled with excellent customer service. The outlet will be a great convenience to custom-ers from the surrounding MBD
and Wadi Kabir areas, giving them access to top quality retail prod-ucts and services.”
One of the most signifi cant ad-vantage of this large super market, according to Devendra Kumar, will be its value off erings. “Most of our top selling products are at hyper-market prices. So customers will benefi t greatly from a shopping experience that combines the con-venience of a supermarket with hypermarket prices.”
Designed on a multiple-concept retail model, SPAR MBD has a food and fresh produce section
spread over 5,000 sq.ft. that off ers customers the widest assortment of fruit, vegetables, meat, fi sh and poultry. Also included are a bak-ery, rotisserie, laundry and KITSU which is a great food-on-the-go and eat-in concept. The supermar-ket also has 2,500 sq.ft. of space devoted to electronics operated by Sharaf DG, one of the largest elec-tronics vendors in Oman.
The outlet opened amid a mega three-day promotion that featured fabulous off ers, exciting activi-ties for kids and unbeatable value package for shoppers.
Designed on a
multiple-concept
retail model, SPAR
MBD has a food and
fresh produce section
spread over 5,000
sq.ft. that off ers
customers the widest
assortment of fruit,
vegetables, meat, fi sh
and poultry
ELT workshop held at
Indian School Ghubra
MUSCAT: A team of teachers at-tended a special ELT workshop organised by Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG) recently.
The workshop encompassed modules such as speaking, writing and reading skills with phonics and grammar, says a press release.
Prof. Rajeevan Karal who is an accomplished and highly ex-perienced teacher and trainer with over 30 years experience of teaching English at all levels, was the resource person. He has published several books on diff erent aspects of English tar-geted at learners at school and university levels. Currently he is engaged in off ering consultancy
service to publishers and corpo-rate organisations.
Prof. Karal introduced the teachers to innovative training methods which can be imple-mented in classrooms at various levels. He also laid emphasis on the important tools in expressing language with appropriate form and meaning.
Papri Ghosh, Principal, Indian School Al Ghubra, extended a warm welcome to Prof. Karal. She expressed the need for great-er skills in this profession as eve-ryday is a learning experience for a teacher. All in all, it was an edu-cative, enriching and informative session for teachers to enhance their skills.
I N N O V A T I V E T R A I N I N G
Maisarah celebrates 1st anniversary in North Al BatinahMUSCAT: Maisarah Islamic Banking Services recently cel-ebrated the anniversary of the launch of its services in North Al Batinah Governorate.
The event was inaugurated at Sohar Branch under the patron-age of Sheikh Muhanna bin Saif Al Lamki, Governor of North Al Batinah, and was attended by Ab-dul Hakeem Omar Al Ojaili, Bank-Dhofar’s Acting CEO, Sohail Niazi, Maisarah’s Chief Islamic Banking Offi cer, and a number of invited guests, customers and Maisarah staff , says a press release.
During the event, Sohail Niazi said: “It is a great pleasure to wit-ness yet another year of success in off ering quality banking experi-
ence to our customers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Maisarah customers in North Al Batinah Governorate and reaf-fi rm our commitment to continue to enrich our customer banking experience through customised fi nancial products and the best service in the market.”
Highlighting Maisarah’s plans for 2016, Jamsheed Hamza - head of Retail at Maisarah Islamic Banking Services – noted: “We will continue to off er superior cus-tomer service, pursuing further business growth and increasing our market share and sharehold-ers value. Our plan is to expand the retail network by opening more branches across the Sultanate to
increase our customer and market reach. Additionally, new innova-tive products and services will be rolled out to fulfi l customers’ needs and we will soon launch en-hanced internet and mobile bank-ing services in order to enrich our customer experience.”
Showing an impressive growth since the start of its operations in 2013, and demonstrating a high degree of product innovation and best services, Maisarah has been recognised for its commitment to lead the Islamic fi nance market in the Sultanate, earning prestigious awards and titles from leading local and international organisa-tions including: ‘Islamic Bank of the Year – Oman 2015’ award by
The Banker, ‘Best Islamic Bank 2015’ award by the Global Bank-ing and Finance Review magazine, ‘Best Islamic Banking Window - Oman 2015’ award by the Inter-national Finance Magazine (IFM).
Maisarah off ers a wide range of fi nancial solutions, products and services that cater to the needs of its retail and corporate custom-ers nationwide.
As part of its future growth strategic plan, Maisarah plans to distinguish itself by focusing on prominent customer service, developing and launching new products, and investing in tech-nology to provide the best cus-tomer experience in timely and convenient manner.
I S L A M I C B A N K I N G S E R V I C E S
Gujarati Wing organises Kite Festival
MUSCAT: The Muscat Gujarati Samaj (MGS) of Indian Social Club (ISC) recently organised a unique 'Patang Mahotsav', Annual Kite Flying Festival, to coincide with the famous Makar Sankranti celebrations, which marks the transition of the Sun from Sagit-tarius to Capricorn.
The event was held recently at Qurum Intercon Beach and attract-ed a mammoth crowd of over 1,500 enthusiasts who locked horns with each other, trying to outdo their fel-low participants by cutting their kites, says a press release.
Indra Mani Pandey, ambassador of India, along with his wife, Sush-ma Pandey, was also present. The ambassador joined the MGS board members Anil Khimji, Kiran Ash-er and the President of Gujarati Samaj Arvind Toprani in cheering the jubilant crowd and ensuring everyone had a great time.
Neelu Rohra, 2nd Secretary, Com-munity Social Services, Embassy of India, attended the occasion.
The day began with wonderful weather, a clear blue serene sky with a steady, soothing breeze. However, this was not for long as one after the other, the MGS pa-tangbaaz members took their col-ourful kites to the skies and very
soon the entire blue sky was fi lled with vivid kites of various shapes, sizes and colour.
The sky was virtually turned into a spectacular amalgamation of colours and shapes as onlookers of all nationalities took keen inter-est in the proceedings.
Members as well as guests of all age groups from 4-5-year old tod-dlers to 70-72-year old elders par-ticipated actively in the Kite Fes-tival and got so much engrossed in enjoying the event that even the intensifying afternoon heat did not deter their festive spirits.
The wonderful weather and wind conditions too favoured the
fervour of all the kite fl ying en-thusiasts. Every minute saw 4-5 kites taking up to the sky and those already airborne, soaring to even greater heights.
To add to the wonderfully charged festive atmosphere, the Muscat Gujarati Samaj had ar-ranged delicious lip-smacking breakfast followed by a sumptu-ous lunch packed and served in the most hygienic manner at the venue.
At the same time, all partici-pants were advised to be sensi-tive towards the environment and maintain spectacular cleanliness at the beach venue by not leaving any litter behind after the event.
This being the fi rst major event of the year, the presence of such a huge crowd only sets the tone and momentum for the other mega events of Muscat Gujarati Samaj to follow, such as the popular MGS Grand Annual Picnic on February 5 followed by an Antakshari pro-gramme on February 13 and Guja-rati drama on February 25.
Chandrakant V. Chothani, Con-vener of MGS, conveyed their sin-cere appreciation and thanks to all committee members, invitees and the sponsors for their whole hearted support to make the event a grand success.
' P A T A N G M A H O T S A V '
ISC Rajasthani Wing, Salalah celebrates Kite Festival in styleSALALAH: The eagerly await-ed Kite Festival was celebrated in Salalah with the traditional zeal and enthusiasm. The grand occasion was held recently at Dhariz beach, Salalah from 10am onwards, organised by the Ra-jasthani Wing, ISC Salalah, says a press release.
Kite Festival is celebrated throughout North India on Janu-ary 14 every year, to coincide with the festival of Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti.
In Rajasthan, Makar Sankranti is celebrated as the kite-fl ying day, which is an extraordinary day there, unlike at other places.
Apart from the celebration, it marked the coming together of people from extreme backgrounds and communities of India. The festival commenced with chief guest Mala Ram, guest of honour Manpreet Singh, chairman ISC Salalah, accompanied by Sohan-lal, convener and Dr Sandeep Ojha Co-Convener of Rajasthani Wing, ISC Salalah and other esteemed members of the wing.
Ojha offi cially declared the event open with a welcome speech. The later hours witnessed the skies fl ooded with kites accompanied by snacks and music. This was followed by various games for the gathered people, organised by Mamta Goyal and Mahim Bhard-waj. Towards the end prizes were distributed to the winners fol-lowed by Vote of Thanks deliv-ered by Ojha.
Manpreet Singh in his address praised Rajasthani Wing for ar-ranging this function for Salalah Indian Community and Indian Social Club members and its wing members.
Lunch arrangement was made for approx. 3,000 persons in this
kite festival. At the end of the day, the occasion turned out to be a grand success and a matter of great enjoyment for the people.
Makar Sankranti is a festival that heralds a change of season marking the movement of the sun
into the northern hemisphere - a celebration to mark the end of winter. The skies are blue and clear, a cool breeze blows and a feeling of anticipation, joy and jubilation grips all who celebrate the occasion.
F E S T I V A L T I M E
B6 W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
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Lexus launches all-new GS F in Oman
MUSCAT: The all-new 2016 Lex-us GS F was launched in Oman at an exclusive function held at Ho-tel InterContinental. The guest of honour at the function was Yuki-hiko Yaguchi, chief engineer and creator of the all-new GS F. At-tending the occasion were promi-nent personalities from the pub-lic and the private sector, says a press release.
Speaking about Lexus’ passion for creativity in his keynote ad-dress, Nobuyuki Takemura, general manager, Toyota Motor Corpora-tion (TMC), said: “When people think ‘Lexus’ we want them to think creativity which is some-thing we have a lot of right here in the Middle East. The Lexus brand is for people who want only the best. Lexus is amazing in every way: design, driving dynamics, cutting edge technology and eco-friendliness. You can see that in Intersect by Lexus. Our fi rst space
opened in 2013 in Tokyo. “We are repeating its success in
the Dubai International Financial Center. An exceptional car derives from exceptional creativity. Lexus off ers the most amazing brand ex-perience as well. This new brand space is the intersection of design, art, fashion, music and technology. Indulge yourself in the comfort-able lounge and restaurant, gallery and library and display areas and you will understand what I mean. Lexus is not just a car, it is a life-style concept.”
Sharing his views on the all-new 2016 GS F, he said: “The GS F of-fers emotion, inspiration, power, luxury and charisma. With the new off ering, I am confi dent that Lexus will be in the fast lane challeng-ing the way people see the brand. Whether you are young or young at heart, it makes your pulse race. Lexus F models are the pinnacle of performance. ‘Fun to drive’ means complete responsiveness in steer-ing, braking, and acceleration for
complete control. An exciting en-gine sound that resonates in the ears, expressing limitless power and freedom. Lexus inspires. Our new spindle grille sets the tone, distinctiveness, elegance, excite-ment with great performance, all at the same time. And the Lexus F concept is all that and more. “F” is for everyone from novices to professionals. More “fun to drive”. More performance.”
Speaking on the occasion, Yuki-hiko Yaguchi shared his thoughts on the all-new GS F.
He said: “The GS F is a four door sports sedan. With the LFA and RC F and now the GS F the F Pyra-mid has everything! At home on a speedway. And also perfect for city driving or touring. Coupe or sedan, we have something for everyone. F Sport models off er real excitement at the wheel no matter what your level of driving skill.
“Whether you are a pro or a be-ginner, F Sport reinvents driving pleasure without compromises.”
A near perfect blend of distinc-tive luxury with sports car values, the Lexus GS F has a 5.0L V8 En-gine, unique bodywork and a chas-sis tuned for high performance. This luxury sports performance sedan is endowed with superior power and performance to surpass expectations. The GS F has four diff erent driving modes: Normal, Eco, Sport and Sport S+, the latter designed specifi cally for the race-track or your favourite challenging road. At the rear of the car, Lexus’ Torque Vectoring Diff erential (TVD) with two electro-mechan-ical clutch packs, will be part of a long line of standard equipment that’ll make the GS F’s handling stand out from the crowd. The TVD features three operating modes: Standard (default) pro-vides a balance of agility and fi rm-ness; Slalom emphasises nimble steering response and agility; and Track emphasises control during high-speed circuit driving.
Along with all the sporty touch-
es, the GS F retains a luxurious feel, thanks partly to the high-grade Alcantara trim on the doors, on the centre console and above the instrument panel.
“An analog clock adds a touch of class to the already elegant dash-board that features a 12.3” central video monitor controlled by the Remote Touch Interface on the centre console. The GS F will fea-ture an updated suite of standard safety features including Pre-Collision System with automatic braking and pedestrian detection, radar cruise control with full stop from certain speeds, lane keep assist, automatic high beam and blind spot monitor with rear cross traffi c alert.
Luxury experienceEarlier in the evening, an SBG spokesperson speaking on behalf of the chairman, Saud Bahwan Group, said: “At Saud Bahwan Group, it is a matter of great pride that ever since its introduction in
Oman, Lexus has off ered a totally unique experience to luxury au-tomotive customers in the coun-try. It has consistently introduced some of the most reliable and luxu-rious models like the LX, GX, LS and more.
“It is very heartening to see that Lexus continues to be the most sought after brand by customers who desire the fi nest. I take this opportunity to humbly thank our valued customers for their contin-ued patronage. I also take this op-portunity to express my gratitude to Toyota Motor Corporation for their constant support, guidance and encouragement.”
During the event, Lexus enthu-siasts went around viewing the vehicles on display and getting a fi rst-hand experience on what makes these vehicles so special.
Earlier in the day Team Lexus addressed a well-attended press gathering. The all-new Lexus GS F is now on display at the Lexus showrooms.
A near perfect blend
of distinctive luxury
with sports car
values, the Lexus
GS F has a 5.0L
V8 Engine, unique
bodywork and a
chassis tuned for
high performance
Sohar Islamic launches mobile banking appMUSCAT: Responding to an increase in customer demand and with the objective of pro-viding customers with an en-hanced banking experience, Sohar Islamic, Bank Sohar’s Is-lamic Banking Window, recently launched a new mobile banking application. The application will deliver secure bank account ac-cess to Sohar Islamic’s customers who have signed up for its online banking service, in addition to an array of other benefi ts, says a press release.
On downloading the mobile application from Google Play or Apple App Store, bank’s custom-ers can view transactions in their operative account with real-time account balance and informa-tion about operative, deposit and fi nanced accounts. In addition, users will also be able to transfer funds between their own linked Sohar Islamic bank accounts to any other Sohar Islamic account as well as create or track stand-ing instructions, and undertake multi-currency fund transfers.
Commenting on the launch, Salim Khamis Saif Al Maskry, DGM and Head of Sohar Islamic commented: “In this increasingly connected and dynamic world, customers are looking for a ser-vice that allows them to stay con-nected with the Bank 24/7.
“It gives us great pleasure to launch Sohar Islamic’s new mo-bile banking application which features advanced and secure ca-pabilities, a modern and easy nav-igation in addition to a stream-lined look. Our mobile banking application will enable our cus-tomers to access and have control over their fi nances remotely, no matter where they are locally or globally. Through the App, which is available in both English and
Arabic, our customers will have access to a wide range of services at their fi ngertips.”
He also added: “Since our offi -cial launch in 2013, Sohar Islamic has pioneered banking utilising Sharia compliant products and services. It gives us great pride to mention that our customer base has since grown and gained a rep-utation. This new mobile banking application is a valuable addition to the services we off er on e-plat-forms and allows customers to bank with ease from the comfort of their mobile devices.”
Sohar Islamic off ers its cus-tomers the convenience of ac-cessing their accounts 24/7 and benefi t from services such as cash withdrawals, balance inquiries, mini-statement and fund transfer facilities. The new mobile banking application will take the customer banking experience further, by off ering them fl exibility and com-fort. The user-friendly applica-tion will also provide users with all necessary services to eff ective-ly manage their accounts.
Sohar Islamic customers who have registered for Internet and Mobile banking can now down-load the app at Google Play and Apple App store, where it is avail-able both in English and Arabic.
Launched in 2013, Sohar Is-lamic off ers Retail and Corporate products and services that ad-here to the highest level of Sharia compliance. They are specifi cally designed to meet certain key cri-teria including a complete segre-gation of funds; stand alone and independent branches, separate sales staff , a strong Sharia Super-visory Board and Sharia Audit and Compliance unit; committed management; and the application of the world’s best Islamic bank-ing software.
U S E R - F R I E N D L Y
MUSCAT: Menacom Oman, one of the country’s leading adver-tising, PR and media commu-nications groups, hosted a fond farewell to felicitate Rajesh Ra-man, its outgoing Vice President and Agency Head, during a cere-mony held at the Mumtaz Mahal last week.
Menacom comprising Y&R Advertising, Wunderman, Asda’a
Burson Marsteller and MEC opened its operations in Muscat in 2006 under the stewardship of Rajesh Raman, a pioneer in the advertising industry (having pre-viously headed one of the largest local agencies as its CEO). Dur-ing this decade, the agency group quickly grew in reputation by working closely with some leading brands across various disciplines,
says a press release.“It is with pride that I note my
accomplishments over the last decade, of establishing some great WPP brands in Oman including Y&R, Wunderman, Asda’a and MEC. We have built a strong cli-ent portfolio and a qualifi ed team, and I have no doubt that they will carry the torch forward. However, I have been keen to devote more
time and attention to some larger professional goals. On the request of the group, I have also overseen a smooth and seamless transition since last October,” said Raman.
“It is indeed a matter of great satisfaction that I have been part of two great communication stories in Oman, but I do believe the time has come to begin a new chapter in my journey,” he added.
F E L I C I T A T I O N
A’Saff a Foods set to bring new perspective to healthy eating
MUSCAT: The recently an-nounced brand endorsement be-tween A’Saff a Foods and celebrity chef Issa Al Lamki is guaranteed to bring a new perspective to healthy eating and living in the Sultanate and beyond.
Spearheaded by Chef Issa Al Lamki, the dynamic collaboration is set to showcase the brand’s com-mitment to the core corporate phi-losophy of - ‘Core values of Healthy Food, Health and Happiness’, says a press release.
As the brand ambassador Chef Issa Al Lamki will be encouraging consumers to embrace a healthy and nutritious lifestyle across various channels and engagement in Oman and also in the GCC and Mena region. A’Saff a Foods along
with Chef Issa Al Lamki will rein-force the brand’s core ideology of healthy eating and living and the focus will be to emphasise on the brand’s quality ingredients that
allow consumers get out of their normal routine in the kitchen and enjoy cooking simple, healthy yet savoury recipes — all with A’ Saff a Foods products. “Proper nutrition is one of the most important ele-ments to good health and in turn happiness, and I know from years of professional cooking that the healthy choice is not always easy to fi nd, or the one you have time to make,” said Chef Al Lamki.
“A’Saff a Chicken are bred and cared for at A’Saff a’s state-of-the-art production facility under strict biosecurity measures to eliminate the risk of contamination and disease, hence ensuring that the chickens and other value added processed products are nutritious and healthy. That’s why I’m thrilled
to be working with A’Saff a Foods, to educate people on the benefi ts of healthy eating and provide them with 100 per cent naturally-fed, farm-fresh, halal, healthy chicken and other meal options that have compelling fl avours, without skip-ping on nutrition.”
“We are pleased to have Oman’s fi nest Celebrity Chef Issa Al Lamki as brand ambassador, as we believe that he as a trusted industry per-sonality and his association with the brand, will create further syn-ergies and reinforce, strengthen the existing strengths of purity and authenticity of every product that comes out of the A’Saff a Foods brand umbrella,” said Sidhartha Lenka, head of Marketing and Sales, A’Saff a Foods.
N E W C A M P A I G N
Menacom bids farewell to its outgoing agency head
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Bank Muscat awards women entrepreneurs
MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the fl ag-ship fi nancial services provider in the Sultanate, gave a major boost to SME development initiatives by women entrepreneurs as the fi rst Al Wathbah Businesswomen’s Awards were presented at a cere-mony held at the bank’s head offi ce in the presence of dignitaries and senior bank offi cials led by Abdul-Razak Ali Issa, Chief Executive.
The top three winners of Al Wath-bah Businesswomen’s Awards are Shatha Abdullah Al Jabri, owner of Meshan Dates and Sweets; Nadia Maqbool Al Lawati, owner of 23 Degrees North; and Jokha Al Hussaini, owner of Shumookh Engineering Consultancy, says a press release.
The initiative, which comes as part of the bank’s ‘Let’s Do More’ vision and continued support to women empowerment initia-tives, marks a clear progression of the well-defi ned strategy pur-sued by the bank in line with the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said to support the SME sector and strengthen its
role in the economic development of Oman.
AbdulRazak Ali Issa said: “Bank Muscat congratulates the enter-prising women entrepreneurs for making a mark with successful business projects. We appreciate their determination and com-mitment to follow their business dreams and wish them greater success in serving the community as role models for the youth and other entrepreneurs. Comple-menting the government eff orts to develop the SME sector, the support to SMEs and women em-powerment initiatives stem from the bank’s commitment to create self-employment opportunities for youth who constitute more than 50 per cent of the country’s population.”
Al Wathbah Businesswomen’s Award, set to become a major an-nual celebration, is aimed at ap-preciating and recognising Om-ani women entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence in their business benefi ting the commu-nity. Encouraging entrepreneur-ial skills and empowering Omani businesswomen, the award rec-ognises businesswomen for play-ing an important role in contrib-uting to the country’s economy.
Fatima Al Maskiry, AGM –
SME Credit, Marketing and Re-gional Corporates, said: “Bank Muscat is proud to have initi-ated a series of innovative pro-grammes benefi ting SMEs.
“The bank is committed to meeting all the fi nancial and ser-vice requirements of SMEs and we are happy that Al Wathbah Businesswomen’s Award sets a benchmark for business develop-ment initiatives by Omani women entrepreneurs. The award com-plements the series of initiatives launched as part of a comprehen-sive plan to support women en-trepreneurs in Oman.”
Shatha Abdullah Al Jabri, the winner, thanked Bank Muscat for the big support extended to women entrepreneurs in Oman. “I am deeply honoured to win this award which is a major boost for women entrepreneurs to embark on self-employment initiatives.”
In all, six fi nalists were short-listed from the fi elds ranging from engineering, consultancy, health, handicrafts and traditional con-fectionary. The evaluation of the projects for the awards was based on the criteria of sustaina-bility; creativity and innovation; leadership and commitment, fi -nancial strength and corporate social responsibility.
Al Wathbah
Businesswomen’s
Award, set to become
a major annual
celebration, is aimed
at appreciating
and recognising
Omani women
entrepreneurs
NBO Al Kanz monthly draw winner named at Muscat Festival venueMUSCAT: The winner of the Na-tional Bank of Oman’s (NBO) Al Kanz monthly prize draw was an-nounced as part of the Muscat Fes-tival celebrations. One lucky cus-tomer won OMR100,000 during a ceremony at the NBO’s Al Amerat Park installation.
The bank is a proud silver spon-sor of the capital’s annual tourism and cultural celebration, which is being held from January 14 to Feb-ruary 13, 2016, says a press release.
Muscat Festival has evolved to become a hugely popular event for families. As part of its sponsorship, NBO is on location at two Muscat Festival sites. It is promoting its conventional banking off ering in Al Amerat Park and its Muzn Islamic banking window in Naseem Park.
John Chang, general manager and chief retail banking offi cer at NBO, said: “NBO’s presence at one of our nation’s most visited festivals is a great opportunity to meet with existing and potential customers and answer questions about our latest products and ser-vices. We congratulate the winner and look forward to meeting with many more visitors over the re-maining weeks of the festival.”
The Al Kanz account is a fl agship NBO product off ering customers the chance to multiply their sav-ings without risking their capital. Customers who maintain a mini-
mum monthly average balance of OMR100 or above are eligible to participate in the monthly prize draws. Opening an account is easy and the earlier a customer makes a deposit and longer they retain it, the higher the chance they have of winning.
With regards to the future plans
for the Al Kanz account, John Chang said: “In 2016 the Al Kanz prize scheme is going to be greatly improved. We plan to have even more draws and more winners: We believe these enhancements to the Al Kanz scheme will reinforce and promote the saving habits amongst the population in the Sultanate.”
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Nadal, Halep crash out
MELBOURNE: The more famil-iar shock of falling seeds added to the ructions caused by allega-tions of tennis corruption as for-mer champion Rafa Nadal and highly-fancied Simona Halep both departed in the fi rst round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Nadal arrived at Melbourne Park with high hopes of arresting his recent Grand Slam decline only to depart, his optimism crushed, under a barrage of winners from fellow Spaniard Fernando Ver-dasco. Shortly after a dejected Na-dal walked off court having tasted his fi rst opening round loss at the Australian Open, women’s sec-ond seed Halep bid farewell while another high-profi le casualty was seven-time major champion Ve-nus Williams.
Andy Murray, the men’s second seed, and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka both impressed as the on-court action took centre stage after the allegations of matchfi xing in the sport overshadowed Mon-day’s programme. Nadal appeared confused at how he had managed to blow a 2-0 lead in the fi nal set to go down 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 to Verdasco in a four hour 41 minute battle that had echoes of their marathon 2009 semifi nal but with a reversed result.
The fi fth seed, who failed to win a Grand Slam title last year for the fi rst time in a decade, lost the last six games as world number 45 Ver-dasco unleashed a series of explo-sive forehands to take his place in
the second round.“He was playing amazing in the
last set. If you decide everything in one set, the opponent is ready to hit all the balls at hundred percent, then you are in trouble,” the 2009 champion told reporters.
“The real thing is I was not enough aggressive with my fore-hand during the whole match. I didn’t feel it. I tried. I fought. I was ready to do it, and I didn’t. I am sad for that.”
Halep gave similar reasons for her 6-4, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Chinese qualifi er Zhang Shuai, who was ranked 131 places below the Romanian in the rankings go-ing into their contest over on Mar-garet Court Arena.
“I think it wasn’t my good day but I give her a lot of credit as she played without fear and hit every ball,” Halep, who has been strug-gling with an Achilles injury, told reporters.
“She beat me. It’s tough but it’s only one day, only one match and I have many matches ahead of me.”
Tearful ZhangZhang burst into tears after win-ning her fi rst Grand Slam singles match at the 15th attempt, later revealing that she had considered quitting the sport.
“I wanted try one more time, only one more time, yeah,” she said. “If Australia Open not good, maybe I fi nish tennis.”
Like Nadal, veteran Williams had been hoping to carry a resur-gence in form from 2015 into the
New Year but she was similarly disappointed after a 6-4, 6-2 defeat at the hands of British number one Johanna Konta.
The 35-year-old eighth seeded American faces a likely fi ne from organisers after holding a post-match news conference.
Seventh seed Angelique Kerber had to save a match point to stave off a fourth shock, rallying to beat Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3, while third seed Garbine Muguruza beat Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-0, 6-4.
Victoria Azarenka, twice an Australian Open champion, un-derlined her return to form and fi tness, thrashing Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0, 6-0 in the fi nal match of the day.
Murray’s earlier encounter with teenager Alexander Zverev was delayed in the second game when the German suff ered a nosebleed but the former Wimbledon cham-pion’s path to the second round otherwise ran smoothly.
The British four-times runner-up won 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 on Hisense Arena while Wawrinka, his pos-sible semi-fi nal foe and the only man to have broken Novak Djoko-vic’s grip on the Melbourne Park title in the last fi ve years, had an even shorter day, going through when Russian Dmitry Tursunov retired hurt after the second set of their contest.
Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt delighted the Rod Laver Arena crowd by extending his career for at least another two
days with a 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-4 vic-tory over fellow Australian James Duckworth.
Hewitt, who is retiring after his 20th Australian Open, sent his compatriots into a frenzy when he wrapped up the match with a trademark lob to set up a clash with eighth seed David Ferrer.
“This is what I’m going to miss the most, the buzz from the crowd,” he said. - Reuters
Shortly after a
dejected Nadal
walked off court
having tasted his fi rst
opening round loss at
the Australian Open,
women’s second seed
Halep bid farewell
while another
high-profi le casualty
was seven-time
major champion
Venus Williams
DAY OF SHOCKS: Former champion Rafa Nadal reacts after losing
his fi rst round match. Below, Simona Halep is disgusted.– Reuters, AFP
MELBOURNE: Former Australian Open cham-pion Stanislas Wawrinka believes betting compa-nies can help tennis weed out corruption, playing down concerns over the propensity of gambling brands sponsoring major events. His prospective semifi nal opponent in Melbourne Andy Murray, however, accused tennis organisers of hypoc-risy as the fall-out from Monday’s allegations of match-fi xing in the sport continued as a main talk-ing point.
Asked for his thoughts following his fi rst-round win on Tuesday, Waw-rinka said the “bigger picture” could actually be a benefi t for tennis as it tries to stay clean.
“Probably if they sponsor a sport, they are going to try everything to make sure there is no corruption,” the Swiss told reporters. “That can be something good for tennis also. Maybe the gambling companies can come to tennis and make sure there is no corruption, because they lose a lot of money when there is problem.
“For tennis, it’s not good to have corruption. But for the gambling company neither. So I think it can be only positive.” — Reuters
Wawrinka says gambling sponsorships can help protect tennis
Blatter still being paid his salary despite the banMIAMI: FIFA’s Sepp Blatter may have been banned for eight years from the game but he is still receiving his president’s salary from world soccer’s governing body, a spokesman for FIFA’s Au-dit and Compliance Committee told Reuters on Monday.
Blatter was suspended for 90 days by FIFA on October 8 and then banned from the game for eight years last month for ethics violations over a $2 million pay-ment FIFA made to European soccer boss Michel Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011.
But Blatter, a Swiss national who has been president of FIFA since 1998, will continue to be paid until a new president is elected on Feb 26, the spokesman Andreas Bantel said. That would mean Blatter would have been paid for nearly fi ve months dur-ing which time he was unable to carry out his duties, and a period in which FIFA has appointed an acting president, African soccer head Issa Hayatou.
The compensation sub-com-mittee of FIFA’s Audit and Com-pliance Committee recently ruled that it could stop Blatter’s bonuses but not, according to his contract, his salary.
“Until the election of a new president on February 26, Mr Blatter is the elected president and therefore — according to his contract — is entitled to receive his remuneration,” Bantel said.
Blatter’s U.S. lawyer and his Switzerland-based spokes-man could not be immediately reached for comment.
FIFA is facing the worst cor-ruption crisis in it history as a total of 41 individuals and enti-ties, including many former FIFA
offi cials, have been charged with corruption-related off ences in the United States. The U.S. inves-tigation is far from over and FIFA also faces a parallel Swiss probe.
Blatter’s bonuses have been stopped because he was not car-rying out his duties of supervis-ing the organization, including its general secretary. Only last week, FIFA announced that Jerome Valcke was fi red from his posi-tion as general secretary.
Compensation a secret“The duty of supervision is listed explicitly in the target agree-ments for the payment of bonus-es. The compensation committee has therefore decided, at its last meeting, not to make any further bonus payments to Mr Blatter,” said Bantel.
The size of Blatter’s compensa-tion from FIFA has remained se-cret although reforms to be voted on at the organization’s February Congress call for the disclosure of individual compensation for the president and top executives.
It is also unclear what Haya-tou is getting paid to be acting president. FIFA’s fi nances may have taken a blow in the past year because of the costs and distrac-tions of the corruption scandal. According to a report from the UK’s Press Association late last year, the organization suff ered its fi rst loss last year since 2001.
The FIFA Ethics Committee said the payment to Platini, made at a time when Blatter was seek-ing re-election, lacked transpar-ency and presented confl icts of interest, though both men denied any wrongdoing. Platini has also been banned from soccer for eight years. — Reuters
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Now that India have lost the one-day series what do they do? Do
they use the remaining two games to salvage some pride or do they use it to try out some fresh blood? Or will they carry on with the same personnel that have brought them grief since last year? One of the trickiest part of captaincy is how to lift the morale of a team that is losing. It is never easy as the one thing a skipper must try and avoid is the blame game for that will only alienate the team members who are targeted even more. In a team game there will always be some who will not be as successful as the others but it is their overall contribution to the team that needs to be looked at. How have they fi t in with the team ethic, have they maintained the intensity despite personal failures? Are they a positive infl uence in the dressing room? If the answers to the above is in the affi rmative then the team management must continue to make them feel an important part of the team.
India have been let down by their bowlers as the skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni ob-served at the presser. He went
on to say that despite playing so many matches they are still making the same mistakes. It’s not just the bowling but the ordinary fi elding that let’s the
team down at crucial stages, demoralises the others who are trying their hardest and turns the game around. Frankly in the limited overs format if you are not capable in two out of the three aspects of the game, bat-ting, bowling and fi elding, then you should not be playing at the international level. Yes the pitches are fabulous for batting and bowlers will get hammered as has been seen in all three games for both teams but it is the lack of common cricketing sense that is disappointing.
Ravi Ashwin will defi nitely be back for the last two games as he should because these two pitches will help spin more than anywhere else in Australia and if India can go with Axar Patel then they will have three bowlers who can take advantage of the surface. The batting is looking very good indeed but if the curve in the middle overs can be a bit more northwards then the fi nal total will be much more. With the kind of form the batsmen are in there is a case to go in with an extra spinner and leave out a seam bowler. It’s not just a question of horses for courses but picking those who are not lame. - PMG
Lack of common cricketing sense is very disappointing
C O M M E N T A R Y
In a team game there
will always be some
who will not be as
successful as the
others but it is their
overall contribution
to the team that
needs to be looked at
Skipper Dhoni eyes pride in Canberra
CANBERRA: The series already out of their grasp, India will be desperate to salvage some pride by avoiding a whitewash but their spiritless bowlers need to put up a far more inspired show to stop the Australians in the fourth and penultimate cricket ODI in Can-berra on Wednesday.
India’s batsmen have gone about their job effi ciently, post-ing big totals on the board but the bowlers have been ordinary at best, allowing the hosts to chase down those tall scores in each of the fi rst three matches in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne to con-cede a 3-0 lead. It will be the fi rst time that India will take on Aus-tralia at the Manuka Oval. The Men in Blue have played here only once before, losing to Sri Lanka in the 2007-08 CB Tri-series.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma are the only ones to have played a game at this ground.
Two names from that side, Yu-vraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, will be back in the T20 set-up by the end of this week. While it will be in preparation for the fast-ap-proaching World Twenty20 back at home, the prevalent atmos-phere in the ODI squad is one of transformation. Back in 2007-08, Rohit and Ishant were visiting Australia for the fi rst time, and both were expected to hold the keys to the future.
Eight years later, they have grown into their roles further. At the same time, youngsters Man-
ish Pandey, Gurkeerat Mann and Rishi Dhawan have taken their fi rst steps in international cricket.
In the fi rst two matches of this series, India fi elded their fi rst-choice eleven. When that didn’t work out as planned, they threw everything they had at the MCG in terms of team selection, thus bringing in the two debutants.
It was a bit premature to drop Pandey when he had batted only once in two matches, that too in the death overs. But the move was in the team’s best interests. It re-mains to be seen what the team management’s approach will be for this fourth ODI.
As such, from the batting stand-point, there isn’t much room for manoeuvring. It will not come as a surprise if the same combination is played up again, with the only toss-up between Gurkeerat and Pandey.
The latter doesn’t bowl and that could yet again go against him, with a dry-looking pitch to be ex-pected at the Manuka Oval.
It could also bring R. Ashwin back into the frame, with the management keen on giving him a couple of games to fi ne-tune his bowling ahead of the T20 series.
He is a key member of India’s T20 plans, irrespective of con-ditions and thus India could be
looking to play two spinners once again. That could strengthen the case for Gurkeerat. Alternately, the his control in the middle overs at Melbourne, as well his change of pace could put him in pole position.
Barinder Sran looked tired in Melbourne. Umesh Yadav has been playing since the onset of the season in Sri Lanka, while Ishant Sharma has played a bulk of the matches too. Bhuvneshwar Kumar could be given a look-in again if one of the three pacers is aff orded a rare rest.
Meanwhile, the Australian camp seemed pretty relaxed on training day ahead of the fourth ODI here. Even so, Glenn Max-well pointed out immediately af-ter the MCG win that they intend to go for a 5-0 whitewash.
There will be no letting up of in-tensity from the hosts, therefore, and a full-strength squad will be presented to the Indian team.
David Warner is back from pa-ternity leave, and given the nature of the wicket, Nathan Lyon seems a certain inclusion in the playing eleven. In that scenario, it will be interesting to see which bowler is left out.
Perhaps it could be Scott Bo-land who has been a touch expen-sive as compared to John Hast-ings and Kane Richardson. — PTI
India’s batsmen
have gone about
their job effi ciently,
posting big totals
on the board but the
bowlers have been
ordinary at best,
allowing the hosts
to chase down
those tall scores
HOPEFUL: Team India director Ravi Shastri speaks during a press
conference at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. – AFP
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Fatma trains ahead of Glasgow participation
MUSCAT: The Oman Tennis As-sociation (OTA) has arranged a local training camp for Fatma Al Nabhani ahead of their participa-tion in the forthcoming interna-tional tournaments.
The Omani tennis star has been training at the Hotel Shangri La since the beginning of January.
The month-long training will continue till the end of the month when Fatma will start her partici-pation in the international tourna-ments for 2016.
Fatma confi rmed that she will be starting her new season in Scot-land at the beginning of February.
“The training will continue till the end of this month after which I will leave for Scotland to take part in the Glasgow ITF Pro Circuit tournament,” Fatma told Times Sport on Tuesday.
The $10,000 ITF Pro Circuit
tournament, the fi rst of Aegon GB Pro-Series, is scheduled to take place from February 1 to 7, where Fatma (ITF ranking 381) is the third highest ranked player in the acceptance list for the main draw.
The other Aegon GB Pro-Series events are scheduled to take palce in Sunderland and Wirral from second week to the middle of February.
The domestic training camp is being conducted by German coach Patrick. Fatma’s doubles partner Angelina Gabueva is also training at the camp.
Meanwhile, the Oman Tennis Association (OTA) in a statement said: “We have invited (Angelina) Gabueva for the camp to training along with Fatma.”
“Fatma will be taking part in ITF Pro Circuit tournaments with the aim of improving her ranking, to climb to 300 in the ladder,” the OTA statement said.
“That will hopefully help her enter the qualifying rounds of the Grand Slam tournaments and lead her to getting an invitation for the Rio Olympics,” it added.
The Omani star has
been training at Hotel
Shangri La since the
beginning of January.
The training will
continue till the end
of the month when
Fatma will start
her international
participation for
2016 season
LOCAL CAMP: Fatma Al Nabhani, left, and Angelina Gabueva, right, pose for a photo along with OTA of-
fi cial Salman Al Balushi and coach Patrick during their training camp at Hotel Shangri La. – Supplied photo
Assarain outplay OCT Muscat AMUSCAT: Assarain registered a massive 113-run victory over OCT Muscat A in a Muscat Pharmacy and Stores-sponsored Premier Division match at the Ministry of Sports Aff airs ground during the evening session on Sunday.
Batting fi rst, Assarain scored a huge total of 210 for the loss of just two wickets in 20 overs. Naseem Khushi and Zeeshan Maqsood top scored with 118 not out and 69 respectively. In reply, OCT Muscat A were restricted to 97 for seven in 20 overs. Sindo Mical and Ahmed Raza claimed two wickets each for Assarain.
Brief scores: Assarain 210 for 2 in 20 overs (Naseem Khushi 118 n.o., Zee-shan Maqsood 69) bt OCT Muscat A 97 for 7 in 20 overs (Sindo Mical 2/12). Points: Assarain - 3, OCT Muscat A – 0.
sULTAN TO LEAD OMANMeanwhile, Oman Cricket an-nounced the offi cial list of play-ers who will be representing the Sultanate at the forthcoming Asia Cup in Bangladesh and ICC World T20 championship in India.
The Sultanate’s cricket govern-ing body retained Sultan Ahmed as the captain while naming Syed Aamir Kaleem as vice-captain.
The 15-player team includes Mehran Khan, Aaqin Ilyas Sul-ehri, Zeeshan Maqsood, Jatin-der Singh, Vaibhav Sridhar Wa-tegaonkar, Adnan Ilyas, Syed Amir Ali, Ajay Vrajlal Lalcheta, Sufyan Mahmood, Rajeshkumar Jagdishchandra Ranpura, Bilal Khan, Munis Ansari and Zee-
shan Siddiqui. The Oman Cricket has selected Khawar Ali, Sindo Michal, Swapnil Khadye, Mu-hammad Nadeem and Yousuf Ab-dulrahim Al Balushi as reserves.
Team: Sultan Ahmed (captain), Syed Aamir Kaleem (vice-captain), Mehran Khan, Aaqin Ilyas Sulehri, Zeeshan Maqsood, Jatinder Singh, Vaibhav Srid-har Wategaonkar, Adnan Ilyas, Syed Amir Ali, Ajay Vrajlal Lalcheta, Sufyan Mahmood, Rajeshkumar Jagdishchan-dra Ranpura, Bilal Khan, Munis Ansari and Zeeshan Siddiqui.
Reserves: Khawar Ali, Sindo Michal, Swapnil Khadye, Muhammad Nadeem and Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi.
Offi cials: Pankaj Khimji (OC Board of Director), Madhu Jesrani (Chef de Mis-sion), Jameel Zaidi (Manager), Duleep Mendis (coach), Mazhar Saleem Khan (assisstant coach), Jaganathan Prem-nath (physio), Rumesh Ratnayke (pace bowling coach), Sunil Joshi (spin bowl-ing coach), Nandisha (video analyst) and Manjunath Margasahayam (trainer).
O M A N C R I C K E T
STAR PERFORMER: Assarain’s
Naseem Khushi, right, receives
a prize from team offi cial Vinu
Mathew. – Supplied photo
All set for Republic Day of India Hockey Festival
MUSCAT: Team Coorg Muscat and Friends of Naqvi Group are all set to organise the Republic Day of India Hockey Festival at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Bausher on Friday.
The ninth edition of the hockey festival, organised under the pa-tronage of Indian Embassy and in coordination with the Oman Hockey Association (OHA), will start at 3.00 pm and last till 7.00 p.m. The participating teams are Ambassador’s XI, Indian School Al Seeb, Team Coorg Muscat, UTSC and Beatrice XI.
Indian Ambassador Indramani Pandey will be the chief guest while OHA chief Sheikh Mah-foodh Ali Juma Al Juma and Oman Cricket chairman Kanak Khimji will be the guests of hon-our. Former OHA chief Dawood Ahmed Al Raisi, Al Omaniya Financial Services CEO Aftab
Patel, Raha Poly Product CEO Anwar Ahsan, Al Ansari Group of Companies Managing Director Kiran Asher and Indian School Al Seeb Principal Nagesh Kelkar, Oman hockey veteran Moham-med Shambeh Al Raisi and Ab-dulrahman Al Raisi will grace occasion.
During the festival, the organ-isers will be honouring those who have contributed to the game of hockey in the Sultanate and this year there will be a special youth talent award. The event is sup-ported by Khimji Ramdas Group, Al Omaniya Financial Services, UTSC, Beatrice, Amana Mod-ern Medical Centre and Muscat Pharmacy (Pocari).
SAS Naqvi, the chairman of the organising committee, urged all the hockey lovers to turn up in large numbers to make the event a grand success.
H O C K E Y
Indramani Pandey Sheikh Mahfoodh Kanak Khimji
C4
SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Oman to host opening Act of Extreme Sailing Series
MUSCAT: The global sailing cir-cuit, the Extreme Sailing Series (ESS), will start a landmark season this year with the Sultanate con-fi rmed as the host country for the fi rst Act of 2016. Some of the world’s renowned sailors are set to descend on Muscat to be part of a stunning showcase from March 16 to 19.
To celebrate its 10th year, the se-ries will see a complete refresh in format. The introduction of a fl eet of ultra-fast, GC32 hydro-foiling cata-marans and a shake-up in racing, to include open water and match-rac-ing elements, will give skippers and crews some tough new challenges. In previous years, the class used as racing boats was the X40.
The teams will get their fi rst chance to open up the throttle and see what the new boats are made of. The fi rst Act of the year will see the fl eet racing in the historic city of Muttrah before competing along the coast to fi nish the day in front of the Extreme Club. The schedule will then return to three days of spectacular Stadium Rac-ing in front of Almouj Golf.
David Graham, Chief Executive Offi cer of Oman Sail, partners to the Muscat Act, explained: “The world will be watching the fi rst Act of the 2016 as the fl eet fl y on foils
for the fi rst time. We are delighted to host the opening Act and to be able to welcome the international sailors to experience Oman, which is becoming renowned as one of the best sailing venues in the world. It will be a spectacle for the
ever-growing global audience and the sailing fans of Oman.”
Speaking about the promising showcase of action racing, Race Di-rector Phil Lawrence commented: “Stadium Racing remains at the core of what we do, but in 2016 we
will be including a variety of open water race formats to off er the skip-pers variety and new challenges”.
Oman Sail actively works to po-sition Oman as a premier venue and host country for high profi le international sailing events. In
2013, Oman hosted its fi rst world championship with the Laser Worlds taking place at Musannah Sports City. In 2015, the country hosted the Laser Radial Women’s World Championship and the RS:X Windsurfi ng Championship.
The fi rst Act of the
year will see the fl eet
racing in the historic
city of Muttrah before
competing along the
coast to fi nish the
day in front of the
Extreme Club. The
schedule will then
return to three days
of spectacular
Stadium Racing in
front of Almouj Golf
MUSCAT: The world’s best young sailors have started to plot their year campaigns with Musannah Race Week, a regatta that aims to test their skills. After fl ying in to Oman from around the world, 150 young champions representing 20 countries are busy forging life-long bonds before racing gets underway on Wednesday.
The week-long event combines coaching sessions with racing, making it a great platform for the participants to interact and exchange knowl-edge with their counterparts.
In a series of corporate per-sonal development exercises designed to introduce them to the superb sports environment at Musannah Sports City and also to each other, the young sailors are being encouraged to have some physical exercises before the actual competition kicks off . This focus on corpo-rate personal development is an essential part of the Musan-nah Race Week experience, explained Oman Sail’s Salma Al Hashmi, Event and Marketing Director at Oman Sail.
“Since it was launched in 2011, we have seen a big growth in the number of sailors taking part, the number of countries and classes,” said Al Hashmi.
“In past years, we have focussed on Optimists but we are delighted to have added the Laser 4.7 and Laser Radials in 2016 and hope to add more in fu-ture years. Many of these young sailors will go on to be Olympic champions and it is great to think that Mussanah will have played a part in their success”.
In all, there are 104 Optimist
sailors including Jodie Lai from Singapore, the world’s best female sailor who came second in the Optimist World Champion-ships in Poland last September, Norway’s Mathias Berthet who won the bronze medal and Dante Cittadini from Argentina who fi nished fourth in Poland.
They will compete in an Opti-mist fl eet that will be split into gold and silver divisions with three races staged every day, depending on the conditions.
Oman is well represented with 28 Optimist sailors drawn from the Oman Sail Youth Programme, sponsored by Omantel, and their four sailing schools across the Sultanate. They include Al Motasem Al Farsi, who won the Best Under-12 prize last year and talented Mohammed Al Qasmi. In addition, there will be 26 competitors in the Laser 4.7
fl eet, including 13 Omanis and 21 in the Laser Radials, four of them representing Oman.
Watching the champions in action will be a great opportunity to inspire local kids who will also have access to world class coaches including Maurizio Bencic of Slovenia and Javier Figueroa, who coaches the stellar successful Singapore squad. With the sailors, coaches, race management, and other support staff , the Mussanah Race Week family will number around 280, while Oman Sail has planned to develop the event into one of the top youth regattas in the world.
“Our aim is to expand the number of classes and make sure we have the top youth sailors competing in them. The plan is to make Musannah Race Week a very strong youth event and make sure Al Mussanah is recognised as a top international
racing venue,” added Al Hashmi.Before taking to the race
track, the participants will have completed their corporate personal development (CPD) programmes which involve exercises such as colour blind, which requires people to identify diff erent colour shapes while wearing blindfolds, prod-uct assembly, pipe line, energy ball and ice breaker.
“These activities have been designed with a view to having some fun before the serious business of competition begins but they are also designed to add an important and worth-while dimension to this event to make it stand out from other youth regattas,” Khamis Al Anbouri, a recognised sailing athlete who has re-joined Oman Sail to supervise and develop the Corporate Personal Devel-opment programme, said.
Top sailors off to fantastic start at Musannah Race Week
SPECIAL PROGAMME: Corporate Personal Development exercises introduced the participants to
the superb sports environment at Musannah Sports City. – Supplied photo
OFA to holdGeneral Assemblyin March
HCC Winter Cup
in February
Captain Angelo
defends players
MUSCAT: The Oman Football Association (OFA) is preparing to hold the regular General As-sembly on March 19.
According to a press state-ment issued by OFA on Tuesday, the association has sent invita-tions to the member clubs, as per the ‘basic statute that stipulates forwarding invitation to hold the General Assembly 60 days before the date of the meeting’.
During the meeting, the mem-bers will discuss a number of topics concerning the develop-ment of football in the Sultanate.
MUSCAT: Holiday Cricket Club (HCC) will organise the 8th Win-ter Cup cricket tournament at Al Maha Recreation Ground in Bausher from February 19 to 26.
The eight-over-a-side match-es in the 16-team event will be played with tennis ball.
SARCO, General Engineering Service LLC, Shamel Interna-tional and Ramniklal B Koth-ary are the main sponsors of the tournament. For further details contact Akshath (96420350) or Iqbal (94103379).
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews defended the players on Tuesday after re-cording a statement before po-lice in connection with a match-fi xing scandal that has led to the suspension of a bowling coach.
Sri Lanka Cricket handed Anusha Samaranayake a two-month ban on Monday over his relationship with net bowler Gayan Vishwajith, who allegedly approached national team play-ers to under-perform during a Test match against West Indies in October. - Reuters
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LeisureSECTIONC L I F E STY L E W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Think of the thrill in spending your weekends on the tur-quoise waters of the placid Arabian Sea, enjoying your favourite water sports off
uninhabited islands, or soaking in the sun and the surf in a calm at-mosphere devoid of the hustle and bustle of the city … all on your very own personal yacht.
Marinas in Muscat have become the most happening places these days. Yachts of diff erent sizes and capabilities set sail for the sea eve-ryday from Jebel Sifah, Marina Bandar Al Rowdha, and Almouj Muscat.
With the number of individual yacht owners increasing, yacht-ing has already evolved into a life-style activity in the country. It is a natural choice for many in Oman, the land of Sindbad, which has a long coastline and a rich seafaring legacy. The vast ocean lures them, and off ers a perfect venue to spend quality time with friends and fam-ily. Moreover, they can dock their yachts in uninhabited islands, and involve in activities like snorkel-ling and scuba diving.
The Sultanate has recently witnessed a spurt in yacht sales,
thanks to the development of many waterfront properties, evo-lution of the boating industry and emergence of a new middle class, which does not like to travel long distances to unwind. Owning a yacht gives them a sense of pride and a passport to explore the un-chartered waters.
“This increased desire to spend more quality time on water mir-rors regional trends, in which comfort, space, and the capacity to entertain are becoming a pri-ority for existing and prospective owners,” Erwin Bamps, CEO of the UAE-based Gulf Craft said. He feels that the customer response to the leisure marine exhibition at Almouj Muscat last week is an indication of the things to come. The event, which brought together an impressive fl eet of luxury super yachts, sport cruisers, and leisure crafts, received hundreds of poten-tial buyers this time.
“The Sultanate of Oman has al-ways had a strong affi nity with the sea, but what we are witnessing today is evolving aspirations. The country’s devoted sea travellers are looking for more than just a quick fi shing trip along the coast-
OWN A FLOATING PALACEline. They recognise the promise of on-water living, and they want to share that extraordinary experi-ence with others,” the CEO of Gulf Craft, the world’s renowned super yacht manufacturers, said.
A luxurious super yacht with richly decorated interiors can ac-commodate 10 guests in fi ve state-rooms and a crew capacity of nine. Families prefer smaller ones. For them, it is just like buying a new car. Apart from the super yachts, the company off ers mid-sized and intelligently engineered vessels known as Majesty 48. The family yachts off er fresh, contemporary design, social cockpit area, and spacious fl y bridge.
Among the yachts and boats on display at the preview event, was the award-winning super yacht, the Majesty 135, and the stunning Majesty 105. These ‘fl oating palac-es’ combine sophisticated technol-ogy with opulent design for a truly royal cruising experience.
Characterised by its ability to maximise both space and natural light from the inside and out, the Majesty 135 off ers a roomy and be-spoke interior that emanates luxu-ry, from the vanity table tops made from premium quality marble to the lustrous silver leaf ceilings in the main saloon and the owner’s stateroom. The novelty features onboard this super yacht is abun-dant, stretching from the use of state-of-the-art technology and environmentally friendly equip-ment, to advanced entertainment systems and ample lounging areas.
With an elegantly designed main saloon and an extensive din-ing area, the Majesty 105 off ers breathtaking surrounding views through its panoramic windows. Spacious outdoor entertaining and lounging areas, including a large aft deck and a spacious hard-topped sun deck, make the Majesty 105 the perfect super yacht for those who enjoy spending time admiring the coast while island-hopping, or for holidaymakers looking to catch all the action moored alongside the waterfront. And with fi ve en-suites that accommodate up to 10 guests, and two crew cabins, pas-sengers staying on board the Maj-esty 105 are sure to experience a comfortable journey.
The impressive display at the Gulf Craft Oman Exclusive Pre-view also included the innovative
shipyard’s recently launched No-mad Yachts collection, a series of powerfully engineered loft-style yachts built for avid explorers of the sea, as well as its range of Sil-vercraft fi shing boats and family cruisers, and Oryx sport cruisers.
The development of waterfront facilities and many world-class marinas in the Sultanate have changed people’s perception to-wards yachting. Wayne Shepherd has been keenly observing the Om-ani phenomenon for quite a long time. “Yachting used to be an elite leisure activity some time back. But the situation has changed now. Plenty of people are hooked onto yachting these days,” says the Gen-eral Manager of Mourjan Marinas, which runs the Almouj Marina.
According to Shepherd, the ma-rina facilities in Muscat have im-proved a lot. “The award-winning fi ve-star state-of-the-art facilities of Almouj Marina are the perfect showcase for this outstanding pre-mium event, refl ecting and radiat-ing the exclusive luxury lifestyle it epitomises. I know our discern-ing boating community is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to explore the possibilities of this se-lect seafaring portfolio, share their insights into its latest innovations, and assess potential purchases.”
Shepherd feels that people pre-fer to buy yachts, as they fi nd it an ideal way to unwind after a hectic week’s work. He says that avail-ability of charter yachts will boost tourism in the country. “It comes handy for tourists who fl y in to the country. It can attract yacht-ing enthusiasts from all over the world who want to experience the beauty of Oman,” he [email protected]
Yachting has evolved into a lifestyle activity for many in Oman who prefer to go out to sea on a private yacht to unwind or explore the coastal treasures of the Sultanate on weekends
MAJESTY 135This super yacht has a large sun deck, exceptional interi-ors and impressive on-board features, like a folding bal-cony, three decks with fi ve staterooms and accommoda-tion for a nine-member crew.
The vessel possesses an ocean-going range of 2,500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots, running on twin MTU 16V 2,000 series engines.
Story Mohammed Shafeeqe
Phot
os: S
uppl
ied
FIND-IT-ALLC6 W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
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Philippines 24605335
Qatar 24 691 153/2/4
Russia 24602894
Saudi Arabia 24601705
Senegal 24694139
Somalia 24697977
South Africa 24647300
Spain 24691101
Sri Lanka 24697841/2
Sudan 24697875
Switzerland 24603267
Syria 24697904
Tanzania 24601 174
Thailand 24 602684/5
Tunisia 24603486
Turkey 24697050/1/2
UAE 24400000
United Kingdom 24609000
United States 24643400
Yemen 24600815
PHARMACIES
Round the clock
Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24782666
Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542
Salalah 23291635;
Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585
Muscat Region
Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766
Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691
Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740
Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080
Dhofar Region
Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,
Salalah 23291635
HOSPITALS
Al Amal Medical & Health Care
Centre 24485052
Atlas Hospital
Ruwi 24811743/
Ghubra 24504000
Al Musafir Specialised
Medical Clinic 24706453
Hatat Polyclinic LLC,
Ruwi 24563641
Azaiba 24499269
Sohar 2683006
Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2
Al Massaraat Clinic &
Laboratory 24566435
Al Makook Medical
Coordinance Centre 24499434
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24787766, 24787780
Capital Polyclinic 24707549
Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,
Ruwi 24799760/1/2
Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740
Ceregem National Raak 24485633
Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217
Elixir Health Centre 24565802
Emirates Medical Centre 24604540
1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274
Lifeline Hospital Salalah 23212340
International Medical
Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5
Kims Oman Hospital 24760100
24 Hrs Emergency 24760123
Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128
MBD 24799077
Al Khuwair 24478818
Magrabi Eye and
Ear Hospital 24568870
Muscat Private Hospital 24583600
Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment
Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666
Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000
AIRLINE OFFICES
Muscat Airport Flight information
(24 hours) 24519456/24519223
Aeroflot 24704455
Air Arabia 24700828
Air France 24562153
Air India 24799801
Air New Zealand 24700732
Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128
British Airways 24568777
Cathay Pacific 24789818
Egypt Air 24794113
Emirates Air 24404400
Ethiopian Airlines 24660313
Gulf Air 80072424
Indian 24791914
Iran Air 24787423
Japan Airlines 24704455
Jazeera Airways 23294848
Jet Airways 24787248
Kenya Airways 24660300
KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737
Kuwait Airways 24701262
LOT Polish Airlines 24796387
Lufthansa 24796692
Malaysian Airlines 24560796
Middle East Airlines 24796680
Oman Air 24531111
Pakistan International
Airlines 24792471
Qatar Airways 24771900
Qantas 24559941
Royal Jordanian 24796693
Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485
Singapore Airlines 24791233
Shaheen Air 24816565
SriLankan Airlines 24784545
Swiss International
Airlines 24796692
Thai Airways 24705934
LISTINGS
LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE
FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)
15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily
15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily
15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily
06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily
08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily
13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily
16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily
16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily
14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily
08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily
14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily
TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)
06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily
06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily
TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily
10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily
10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily
19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily
SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily
06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily
13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur
13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur
15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily
15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily
TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily
07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily
07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily
TO MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)
05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily
05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily
05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily
07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily
13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily
13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily
17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily
06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily
15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily
14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily
TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)
12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily
12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily
TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily
10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily
10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily
19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily
DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily
07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri
13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri
15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily
15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily
FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily
16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily
16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily
@RUWI @SALALAH
Chalk N Duster (Drama / Social) – PGCast: Shabana Aazmi, Juhi Chawla6.45 PM
@BURAIMI
The 5th Wave (2D) (Sci-F) (PG12) Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson3:30, 5:30, 9:45, 11:45PM
The Hateful Eight (2D) (12+) (Comedy) Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell11:15AM, 6:50 & 11:45PM
BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com
Ride Along 2 (Action / Comedy) Cast: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Tika Sumpter 4.00, 8.00, 10.00, & 11.55 PM CP No: 112 (15+)Suffragette (Drama / History) Cast: Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter 2.00, 4.00, 10.00, & 11.55 PM CP No: 113 (12+)Dragon Nest: Warriors’ Dawn (Animation / Adventure / Family)Voice Overs: Jiao Xu, Guanlin Ji, Ying Huang2.00 & 6.00 PM CP No : 114 (PG12)Echo Effect (Action / Thriller) Cast: Michael Jai White, Max Ryan, Steve Austin8.00 PMCP No: 103 (12+)Daddy’s Home (Comedy)Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini6.00PMCP No: 3061 (12+)
STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776Website: www.isurf.co.om
Charlie ( Mal) ( Drama\Comedy) Cast : Dulquer Salmaan & Parvathy 9:30 PM Cinema Main; 3:45 & 6:45PM Cinema-3 Nannaku Prematho (Telugu) (Act | Rom) Cast: J.r NTR & Rakul Preet Singh 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30PM Cinema - 2 Soggade Chinninayana (Telugu | Comedy)Cast: Nagarjuna, Ramya Krishna and Lavanya Trirati 3:30 & 6:30 PM Cinema Main; 9:45PM Cinema -3 Thaarai Thappayyai (Tamil) (Drama ) Cast : Sasi Kumar & Varalaksmi 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45PM Cinema-4
Next Change : 2 Countries (Mal) Airlift (Hindi) Dictator (Telugu) Rajani Murugan (Tamil) Programmes are subject to change
WEATHER
250
Maximum
170
Minimum
TEMPERATURE
40-70%RELATIVE HUMIDITY
Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 17 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to [email protected]
WITH LOVE
KUNGURUJanuary 20
SHIV D. DAVEJanuary 20, 2010
LIFESTYLEC7W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Have you been able to
capture the beauty of
an off -the-beaten-path
destination in Oman?
Send your pictures
with a caption & geo-
locator to: shafeeqe@
timesofoman.com
Location: 22°33’49.2”N
59°32’20.4”E
Architectural Work of Art in Sur El Nino’s impact on
Japanese ski resorts The ski industry in Japan, already hurt by the country’s demographics that have aged out many from the sport, has been hit with a dose of just what it didn’t need —balmy winter weather, courtesy of El Nino. While a cold snap led to snowfall in many parts of the
country, including in Tokyo, and some ski and snowboarding resorts are doing fi ne bolstered by visits from foreign tour-ists, others have been having one of their worst seasons in years. Lifts at the 80-year-old Oana resort in Minakami, a hot- springs town in Gunma prefecture, had run only two days this season and the number of visitors plunged about 80 per cent from a year ago during the new year’s holidays. “We’re fi nally having snow. It’s really good, as we had no snow until yester-day,” Motoko Hokari, who has worked at the ski resort for about 25 years, said. “Yet the weeks we’ve lost business oppor-tunities won’t come back. I’m wondering how long this snow will continue. If snow continues for some more days, then the slope conditions will probably become stable. -Bloomberg
I N T H E N E W S
LIFESTYLEC8 W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 2 0, 2 0 1 6
Little Green StreetLondon, United Kingdom
Little Green Street, located in the centre of London, is one of only a few surviving streets from Georgian England. Lined with about a dozen 18th century homes, Little Green Street only stretches a city block in length, but has survived the Blitz in World War II and three centuries of construction. As a perfect example of Regency London, it has been fea-tured in poetry, photo shoots, and music videos; but it has been threat-ened by construction activities now.
Many of the world’s wonders and most beautiful destinations are in danger of being destroyed either by environmental or social factors: A warming climate, pollution, strained resources, bulging populations, and booming tourist
traffi c. Here are some popular locations and man-made wonders worth visiting before they vanish from the earth.
Glaciers, Glacier National ParkUnited States and Canada
Glacier National Park contains some of the most beautiful, primi-tive wilderness in the Rocky Moun-tains. There are more than 200 glacier-fed lakes, high peaks, sheer precipices, large forests, waterfalls, and a great variety of wildfl owers. However, temperature fl uctuations have caused glacier growth and de-pletion. Ten thousand years ago, the area of Glacier National Park was covered by ice up to one mile below sea level. The latest warm period has caused the number of glaciers to decrease from 150 in 1850 to 26 today. If current global warming trends continue, there will be no glaciers left in Glacier National Park by 2030.
VeniceItaly
With as many as 40 fl oods per year between March and September, Venice is slowly sinking at an esti-mated rate of 2.5 inches every ten years. Venice was built as a collec-tion of 118 separate islands, rely-ing entirely on a canal system of about 150 canals, mostly very nar-row, crossed by some 400 bridges. A severe fl ood in December 2008 brought renewed attention to Ven-ice’s vulnerable state and imminent fate as an underwater city.—[email protected]
The Dead SeaBorder between the West Bank (W) and Jordan (E)
Known as one of the saltiest water bodies in the world and the lowest dry point on earth, the Dead Sea is fed by the Jordan River and a num-ber of small streams. The Dead Sea loses much water through evapora-tion as it is located in a very hot and dry region, causing its level to fl uc-tuate. However, infl ow to the Dead Sea has been greatly reduced by the increased use of the Jordan River by Palestinians, and Jordanians, who have growing populations and increased agricultural needs, result-ing in falling water levels. Currently, the Dead Sea recedes about three feet each year.
Mexico CityMexico
In the past century, Mexico City has sunk more than 30 feet. The original city was built on the site of a former lake. The Aztecs built the city on a series of aquatic platforms, but when the Spanish conquered the city, they drained the lake, causing it to sink. As the city population bal-looned and the demand for water increased in the 20th century, the government began pumping much of the city’s supply out of the un-derground aquifer that once fed the lake, causing the city to sink further.
Taj MahalAgra, Uttar Pradesh, India
A mausoleum in northern India on the banks of Yamuna River, the Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the fi nest example of the late style of Indian Islamic architecture. The Mughal em-peror Shah Jahan ordered it built after the death of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The build-ing, which was completed between 1632 and 1638, is visited by three to four million tourists each year. The crowd and air pollution have caused irreversible damage to the building’s facade, prompting tour-ism offi cials to consider closing the historic site to the public.
Pyramids of GizaGiza, Egypt
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Pyramids of Giza, located outside modern Cairo, consist of three magnifi cent royal tombs guarded by a Sphinx. The Pyramids have been a heavily traf-fi cked sightseeing area for centu-ries, but the pollution and magni-tude of visitors has taken its toll on the ancient structures.
V I S I T T H E S E W O N D E R S B E F O R E T H E Y D I S A P P E A R
W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION
CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E
D
D4 VACANCY CARGO D7
W E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6
RENT D2
*Tourist visa arranged
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461
FOR RENT
D2 W E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6
DAILY GUIDE
1/2/3 BHK Flats & Showrooms at Mutt rah, near Oman fl our mills,
10 min. from corniche. equipped with split/cassett e unit ACs, internet points, free-
to-air dish connecti on, CCTV monitored, basement parking. Rent RO.250/350/450
(Negoti able) per month.
Contact : 99229263; 93221054; 95215289
NEW Flats & Showrooms for Rent
New fl ats for rent at Darsait near
to ministry of sports, Mumtaz area
the fl ats include 1 living room, 2
Bedroom, kitchen, 3 toilets every
room with split A/C & high Quality
fi nishing, rent per fl at is R.O 340/-.
Interested candidates please
Contact: 00968- 92225523
2 bed rooms fl at with hall, 2
bathrooms in Darsait near Muscat
Municipality. Contact: 92584715/
24700120
1000 sqmtrs industrial land for
rent in Ghala suitable for
warehouse workshop etc.
Contact 24700120 / 92584715
1& 2 BHK fl ats for rent at Hamriya Wadi Adai, Al Khoud,
Mabela & shop at Al Khoud & land
line Contact: 24834644 GSM
93994401/02/03 3 lines
2BHK modern & spacious fl ats
with split AC for rent in Qurum
near PDO Gate No.2.
Contact: 94057023
Flat available in Muttrah Corniche
near Gold Souq (4 rooms, 2 bath-
rooms, 1 kitchen with balcony).
Contact: 24707088 / 91405015
2BHK new bldg for families
Al Khuwair 17/2. Contact: 91403136
3BHK fl at for rent in Ghubra.
Contac: 99328070
1000 sqm industrial land with
compound well & two rooms at
Misfah. #99342733/ 99795241
Store / warehouse for rent 52 sqm
at Maabela Sinaiya.
Contact: 92454170
02 BHK Commercial / Residential
(with split AC) fl at at Honda road.
Contact: 99342733 / 99795241
Flats shops & store for rent in
Ruwi, MBD area & Honda road.
Contact: 92589235/ 94579531
To let rooms in Qurum.
Contact: 99664703
02 BHK residential fl at opposite to
Al Nadha hospital.
Contact : 99342733 /99795241
Flats shops & store for rent in
Ruwi MBD Honda road. Contact:
92433127 / 97293708
2BHK fl ats with split AC available
for rent at Al Khuwair 33.
Contact: 94057023
Flat for rent (Walja) Ruwi 2 rooms,
2 toilets & kitchen for enquiry.
Contact: 95464608 or 95464607
Flats for rent 2BHK, 1 BHK with
AC new building at Wadi Al Kabir
behind Muscat Bakery.
Contact: 92103604
Single bedroom fl at behind
German Embassy near to Al Nah-
dha Hospital and single bedroom
fl at near to Indian School Al Ghub-
rah. Contact: 99203954
2 bedroom centrally air
conditioned fl at in CBD, Central
Bank area. Contact: 24714625 /
99053493
2 BHK near Khamis shoes Honda
road Junction. Contact: 99737562
Flats for rent in Wadi Kabir.
Contact: 99376454
2BHK fl at for rent Darsait near ISM.
Contact: 95158570 / 99102255
2 bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, car
park R.O 220/- & 1 bedroom,
kitchen, toilet R.O 140 in
Al Khuwair. Contact: 95154331
Flats available for rent at Al
Ghubra. Contact 99876576 &
93656672
Brand new Twin Villas in
Mawaleh South 4BR; 2Halls;
External Kitchen and Maids room.
Contact: 99414106
Commercial / residential fl ats in a
new building for rent near Muttrah
Police Station residential 1BHK /
2BHK more details.
Contact: 99364735 / 95729711
2BHK Sitting room, 3 bathrooms,
split AC big balcony 300/- R.O in
Wadi Kabeer. Contact: 99324402
500 square meters workshop space,
ready to use, for vehicle repairs, weld-
ing and other small industrial units
, Misfah Industrial area block 2 near
Baladiyah camp. Contact: 94030814
Villa for rent 4 spacious bath
attached bedroom private swim-
ming pool Gymnasium (common)
with electrical equipment with free
maintenance secured compound at
Madinat Al Ilam. Contact: 98027975
We have 1 BHK, 2BHK fl ats in Mabela
7 new building. Contact: 93782735 /
99208033
Big offi ce for rent in CBD (Ruwi)
road ready to shifting with AC and
partitions. Contact: 92345250
We have Staff accommodation in
Bowshar # 93782735 / 99208033
We have 150 SQM offi ces in Ghubra
main road prime location. Contact:
93782735 / 99208033
We have 1BHK / 2BHK fl at for rent in
Ghubra, Ghala, Azaibah, Bousher &
Darsait. #93782735 / 99208033
In a Luxury Buildingin Al Seeb MarketNear Police station
FLATS FOR RENT
Call: 99888007 - 99473500
2 BHK fl at New Bldg for rent in
Al Amerat.Contact 99353899
Luxury flat for rent in Bareeq Al Shatti buildingSpacious 2 BHK with sea view, split A/Cs, fixed wardrobes,
kitchen appliance. Near Opera Gallery.
Rent RO.900/- negotiable. Contact - 94084335 / 96920789
We 1000 SQM Ware house in Misfa
& 2000 SQM open land for rent in
Misfa near cement factory.
Contact: 93782735 / 99208033
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 D3
ACC. AVAILABLE
ACC. AVAILABLE
MV SALE
Ford focus, 2012 model, expatri-
ate driven and fully company
maintained, in good condition.
Contact: 968 97608174
Tucson Automatic 2007 V – 6, net
R.O 1600/-. Contact: 99384640
Hummer H2 model 2006, 178000
km, Full options Number 1 Army
edition.OMR 7200. Contact
-99466773
Chaverlet Epica 2004 model
RO -700, for sale. Contact 92194205
BMW 318/ 2003 for sale.
Contact 96364990
FOR RENT2BHK,
3 washroom Flat with Split Air Conditioners -
Near Lulu Darsait
CONTACT : 93202733
FOR RENT
WANTED
BUILDINGFOR SALE
MUMTAZ AREA(NEAR RUWI HOTEL)
CONTACT - 99353931
Beauty parlor for sale in good
condition at Ghubra.
Contact: 98178135
Excavation contracts worth RO
2 million + Big Volvo Excavators &
2015 Astra 5 tippers for sale. Con-
tact: 99120532 / 98867530
Master Chef restaurant Al Hail for
sale 8 visas clearance available.
Contact: 91205000
3Ton Forklift, Special made for
Oman market, Japanese Isuze
C240 Engine, Cascade side shifter,
High amount exhaust, 3m lifting
height, Solid tyres, One year war-
ranty. Contact: 98883445
Restaurant & Coff ee Shop for sale
in Ghala area. For details contact
99072003 / 99299712
FOR HIRE
Bobcat available for rent.
Contact 97623299
Low bed Trailer (PDO – SPC)
available monthly / daily for Rent.
Contact: 96633970
IELTS Coaching (academic)
required nearby wadi Kabir area.
Please call on mobile or msg on
Whats up.
Mobile no: 92927880/99012165
Flat in Khoud near Mazoon
Mosque with 3 bedrooms, living
room, 3 toilets, RO 250/- with A/C.
Contact 95328147
Flat for rent in Wadi Al Kabeer
near the Kuwaiti Mosque, for more
information. Contact: 99425958
Apartment for rent in Muscat
Sidab beside road ground fl oor
3 bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms.
Guestroom, Kitchen & hall.
Contact: 99277377
Furnished offi ces in business
center behind Al Burj Hotel Ruwi
with all facilities included.
Contact: 99331181
Fully furnished deluxe villa
behind Khimji Mart Darsait.
Contact: 99331181
1& 2 bedroom apartments avail-
able for rent at Ghubra near Grand
mall, 6 bedroom villas available
for rent Al Mouj (Wave) at Al Hail.
Contact: 99833747
2 BHK Flats for rent Muttrah near
Oman house S/ AC.
Contact: 97007934 / 92629232
Flats for rent in Muscat.
Contact: 99262605.
Profs/ Jack. Contact 93219378
2 Room + hall & kitchen ,3 toilets
in Bareeq Al Shatti 750 RO.
Contact: 99314314
1BHK Mumtaz R.O 250/-.
Contact: 97799175 / 92144045
7 Bedrooms villa in Ghobrah North.
Contact - 96420432
3 BHK fl at near Darsait ID medical.
RO 420/- Contact – 99358589 /
97079146 / 95570288
Flat for Rent 1/2 BHK Flat at
Muttrah, near Oman fl our mills,
10 min. from Corniche.Equipped
with split unit ACs, internet points,
free-to-air dish connection, CCTV
monitored, basement parking.
Rent RO.250/350 per month.
Contact:99229263; 93221054;
95215289
FOR SALE
FOR SALE
New 1BHK fully furnished for
R.O 275/- at Wadi Kabir near
Al Hassan. Contact: 92577929
Family sharing accommodation
for rent Honda road 2 rooms, bath
room, sharing, kitchen Indians
only R.O 130/-. Contact: 97684849
Hail Independent rooms RO 140/-
& 160/-. Contact 95529970
Furnished room at Hilat Al Saad
with TV, AC, fridge near main road.
Contact : 95714202
Couple or bachelor room in
Wadi Kabir. Contact: 91165580 /
95264549
Beauty Salon for urgent sale in
Azaiba prime location behind
Al Fardan building. With sponsor
and 1 staff and 1 ready visa clear-
ance. Call: 95318629 / 95169411
Single bedroom fl at behind
German Embassy, near Al Nahdha
Hospital. Contact 99203954
Flat for rent in
CBD area - Ruwi
Two rooms and a large hall
•Office spaces for rent in Al Hail on
the main road On the same building
of Al Khamis Shoes at Al Hail
•2 bed room flats in Qurum 29 for
rent next to ABA New building
-split AC - Good location
Contact No: 96177505
Single room B/attached Executive
bachelors. Contact: 99336206
Room available Walja. Contact :
95382651 / 95382650
Semi furnished spacious room
with attached washroom separate
entrance near Indian school
Al Ghobrah for non cooking
Executive Indian bachelor.
Contact: 95146361/92657598
Semi furnished separate room for
non-cooking Asian bachelor, be-
hind Shell fi lling station, Ghoubra
round about. Contact: 94263390
Furnished bedrooms for Indian
Executives / couple at Al Ansab.
Contact: 96366282
Spacious semi furnished room
with separate bathroom for execu-
tive bachelor opposite OC centre
Ruwi. Call: 92273779
Disposal of defecti ve Air Conditi oners,
Home Appliances and Old Spare Parts on as is
where is basis.
FOR SALE
Contact : 99853371 / 99895434
600 SQT commercial fl at for rent
opposite Oman fl ourmill Darsait
more details. Contact:91214849/
99364735
One fl ats for rent 2 bedroom
all with bath al Ghobrah north near
Indian school (hot burger restau-
rant) Tel. 9976610
1 bedroom fl at at Ruwi Mumtaz
area. Contact : 95282986
1,2 BHK Ghubra R.O 300/-, 325/- &
350/-. Contact: 97799175
1BHK fl at near Star Cinema 220/-
Contact 99358589 /95570288
Single BHK fl at available
in Honda road Ruwi. Contact:
24833972/ 24833974/ 99367448
A well running coff ee shop for sale
at Wadi Kabir near KFC.
Contact: 92772825
Dental Lab for sale Seeb.
Contact: 99826435
Dialysis Machine(DBO7) - Avail-
able 10 Units for Sale .
Contact : 94306662 or
Email : [email protected]
Furnished room with a/bathroom
in Al Khuwair33 for Indian Execu-
tive. Call: 95234062
Furnished room & bath Darsait
R.O 140/-. Contact: 93289652
Single room for expat Indian
bachelors near Al Aktham restau-
rant Al khuwair for RO 120.
Water and electricity included.
Contact 98803261
Furnished room in new building for
working Muslim lady/
Muslim couple only. Location AINT,
Darsait. Contact - 99008069
Room for rent with furniture.
Al Bustan villeage. # 93687466
DAILY GUIDED4 W E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT
SITUATION WANT-SIT.WANTED
SITUATION WANT-SIT.WANTED
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
ENGINEER/TECH/MECH
ENGINEER/TECH/MECH
CATERING
SKILLED LABOR
MISCELLANEOUS
DRIVER
MEDICAL
MEDICAL
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
IT
SECRETARIAL & OFFICE
SALES / MARKETING
SALES / MARKETING
TOURS/TRAVEL
Required female Accountant postgraduate in commerce
email: [email protected]
fax: 24784202
We are looking for Chief Financial Offi cer, Male 40-
45 years old, Bachelor of Science in
Accountancy with 5 - 15 yrs. of ex-
perience. Contact: +968 24702133
Email: [email protected]
Heavy duty driver with valid
Oman Heavy Duty license, with
4 years experience. PDO License
holder preferred. Call: 99221683
Driver available with release.
Contact: 93885404
Wanted Driver. Contact: 91025698
Reputed Construction Company
require experienced light Vehicle Driver. Contact 95526871
Looking for experienced construction laborers as a subcontractor for a villa
construction in Mawaleh.
Contact: 96203333
Immediate Requirements for ex-perienced Tailors (Designer wears,
casual clothing). Please call for
interview 99471085
Well reputed Marble Company looking for
3 SALESMEN Requires minimum 3 years experience
and valid Omani driving license. Interested candidates please
Fax your CV to 24601724 or Email on [email protected]
Sales Ladies wanted for Ladies Boutique. Age: 20-35 yrs. Al
Khoudh. Call -91159905 Send CV
Urgently required for a reputed
company in Oman (Tyre, Battery
& Lubricant division) Sr. Execu-tives/Executive-5 nos (Sohar, Ni-
zwa & Muscat), Techno Commer-cial Professional-5nos, Driver (Omani)-1no. Required minimum
3-5 yrs experience in the same
fi eld with market exposure hold-
ing valid Omani driving license
or GCC. Kindly fwd your CV’s to
Contact: (+968)93891700
Urgently required a lady to work
in the studio shop and must have
experience. Contact: 95097722
Urgently required a man to work
in the studio shop inside, outdoor
and should know to get business
from outside. Contact: 95097722
Required lady photographer for
studio. Contact: 99020458 Email:
DOMESTIC HELP
Looking for housemaid urgently clearance available good salary
yearly ticket. TEL 24446920 /
99238121, mail: [email protected]
Urgently required building Technician for inquiries.
Contact: 98111363
Urgently Required: Window Aluminum Manager, Window Aluminum Engineer and Window Aluminum Foreman with an expe-
rience in Italian Aluminum Doors
and Windows, MUST have NOC
and immediately join.
Apply, fax 00968–24605955,
emails [email protected],
Crankshaft Grinding Technician, Engine block boring Techni-cian, turner required urgently for
immediate appointment. call or
whatsapp 98898273
Urgently Required: Senior Quantity Surveyor
with an experience in building
construction MUST have NOC
and immediately join. Apply, fax
00968–24605955, emails
Civil Site Supervisor for telecom
tower projects across Oman. Send
CV to [email protected] or
call +968 9946 7227
Required male Omani / Filipino, 24 – 35 yrs as IT Coordinator. Fluent in
English, to handle all Web Designing
aspects, Mail Campaigns manage-
ment, Technical Support / Trouble-
shooting. Contact 91371231
Indian male, 28, Post Graduate, 6
years exp. in Oman in Sales and
Credit Control , with valid Oman D/L
looking for suitable placements.
NOC available. Ph: 9206 6523
Required Salesman for Electronic
& mobile devices (male - 2) -
should have 3 years Oman experi-
ence. Contact: 94441111. Send CV
to email: [email protected]
Sales Executive required in
Muttrah, Muscat Oman experience &
driving license is must.
Contact: 91710453 / 24711695
Email: [email protected]
Marketing Executive required for tyres & batteries.
Contact: 99020458 Email:
Urgently required Sales Execu-tive with experience in printing
press line with driving license.
Contact: 00968 95948142
Email: [email protected]
An excellent grade company requires Sales Executive for their
Aluminium division. Min 3 to 5
years GCC experience in the same
fi eld with D/L may kindly send CV to
Salesman require for building
material with driving license &
10 years working experience.
Fax your C.V 24833043.
(Mustafa Hardware Store)
Travel agency in Ruwi urgently requires experienced ticketing staff preferably with IATA
qualifi cation. Contact 95595830
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
We require licensed General Practitioner, General dentist and male Asst. Pharmacist. Contact
93129219 or CV to
Urgently required Lab Technician with MOH license.
Attractive Salary with Accommoda-
tion. Contact: 97091664.
Email: [email protected]
Wanted Nurse for a Dental centre
in capital area. Interested may
contact 93431024 or send CV to –
Wanted Gynecologist, General Practitioner, Assistant Pharma-cist for immediate appointment.
Contact 97884856/ mail CV to –
A reputed medical complex in Salalah requires to fi ll the follow-
ing positions, Staff Nurse & Dental doctor with MOH license, datafl ow
and NOC. Contact: 92728472
High class Medical Center in Salalah requires good looking Staff Nurses and medical order-lies, excellent English. Interested
candidates please send your CV to
Required experienced Dentist with MOH license to manage
dental clinic in Muscat.
Email: [email protected]
Female marketing for medical
centre in Al Khuwair with driving
license. Contact: 99010755
Email: [email protected]
Wanted female Staff Nurse with
prometric pass/MOH license for a
clinic at Musannah. # 99645150
Urgently required PHARMACIST with MOH license or Prometric
passed. Attractive Salary with Ac-
commodation. Contact: 97091664.
Email: [email protected]
Wanted urgently lady Doctor GP or DGO for immediate appoint-
ment. Contact : 99310590
Email: [email protected]
Required female Nurse with MOH
license dental clinic in Al Khuwair.
Contact: 99010755
Email: [email protected]
Wanted GP Doctor with MOH
license, job location in Muscat with
good salary and benefi ts.
Drop your cv at
SITUATION VACANTREQUIRED
SALES EXECUTIVE for furniture &
building material, minimum experience 5 yrs.
Send CV at Email :
Wanted a Structural Supervisor
having experience in steel fabricati on and erecti on for a well established
fabricati on company in Barka.
Candidates should have experience in Oman & should BE capable to
handle various jobs independently He should have good experience in
fabricati on fi eld with NOC and driving license.
Please send CV [email protected] / 95412589
URGENTLY REQUIRED A LEADING TRADING AND CONTRACTING COMPANY IS
LOOKING FOR AN EFFICIENT FEMALE SECRETARY
WITH MINIMUM 5 YEARS EXPERIENCE. SHE SHOULD BE FLUENT IN SPOKEN AND WRITTEN
ENGLISH. MUST BE FULLY COVERSANT WITH WORD/EXCEL PROGRAMMES AND BE PLEASANT/PRESENTABLE.
SALARY ETC….GOOD PACKAGE WIL BE NEGOTIATED FOR THE RIGHT PERSON.
FAX CV TO 24619102 OR E MAIL; [email protected]
ASSISTANT RETAIL MANAGER • To support GM in developing Muscat based stores • 5 years past Retail store operations experience • Omani or Expatriate (must have NOC if moving jobs) • Omani /GCC Valid Driving License • Team player & good communicator • Written & spoken English
Email: recruitment@afl aggroup.com
ARCHITECT
Female Accountant Indian with
3 years exp in Oman looking for
suitable job. Contact: 98418533/
99338639
Accounting, B.Com, 2 yrs experi-
ence in India Tally ERP 9, Peach tree
accounting quick books, accounting
SMACC busy advanced Excel power
point E-fi ling of statutory return visa
date 24.12.15, visit exp. 23.01.2015.
Contact 90439594
Chief Accountant looking for full /
part time job.
Contact : 95598477/98803439
Indian female 27 MBA Finance
with 4+ years exp in banking, ac-
counts exp in teaching fi eld also
presently on visit visa.
Contact: 94735164 / 96591950
Sudanese National Bachelor of
Accounting 7 years experience
electronic accounting and audit-
ing. Contact: 94872045 Email:
Female Accountant with 10 years
experience. 93726921
Part time accountant, up to fi nali-
zation of accounts, looking for job
after 5PM (Location prefers –n MSQ
to AL Hail) Contact: 95694737
SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, with
13yrs experience, 6 yrs Oman in
manufacturing, trading & contract-
ing Cos, capable of handling all
accounting, fi nance, banking, L/C,
import, export & fi nalization seeks
placement. NOC Available.
Call+968-98932752,
mail:[email protected]
URGENTLY REQUIRE for a reputed Excellent Grade
Catering Company
1. Arabic Cook (having experience in the fi eld of Catering with knowledge in
preparing Oman Cuisines).Interested candidates may
mail their resume to [email protected] or
Sales Executive for Travels & Tourism:Experience not less than 3 years in one of the travels & Tourism, must have a driving license.
Sales Executive for Car Rental:Experience not less than 4 years in one rent a car company, must have a driving license.Notes: - You must determine which position did you applied for it as email subject- Th e company will not see at any demand without subject.
A leading company in travels & tourism, accredited by IATA requires:
Email: [email protected]
Experienced Secretary required for Ruwi offi ce. Must have high
standard of competence in MS
Offi ce suite and excellent Arabic
/ English communication skills.
Send CV and covering Email to
Looking for Sales Executive for
a fi berglass Company in Oman.
Should have 5 yrs experience in
fi ber glass / construction fi eld.
Should have valid driving license.
Email : [email protected],
Contact: 00968 98634898
fax: 26881211
An excellent Grade company requires Foreman / Supervisor for
their false ceiling division. Min 5 to
8 years experience in handling the
projects & execution, kindly send CV
An excellent Grade company requires experience Salesman
for indoor and outdoor with Oman
driving license. Mail your CV to
Tyres company seeking for Sales man, minimum 2-3 years
experience. Send CV to
Candidate must have a minimum 2 to 3 years’ experience in assembly, installation, maintenance and repairs of automotive refrigeration, air-conditioning systems and chiller units. He should be well conversant in repair and troubleshooting of electrical faults and experienced in using computerized diagnostic systems. He should be ITI/DME (Auto) qualifi ed.
Auto Electrician cum A/c Mechanic for Workshop
Interested candidates email cv on [email protected] or contact on 99440518
We have a batch of skilled Omani candidates in Administration, HR, Account & Reception ready to join diff erent companies in a month We will also provide training for Omani candidates as per your need like Cashier, Teller, HR, Admin, Sales, Stores, Customer service etc.,
FOR COMPANIES SEEKING OMANI EMPLOYEES
• Th e Institute will identify the potential candidates, interview them and select the suitable candidates in consultation with your offi cials.• Th e entire cost of training will be borne by the Government. During training the company will not incur any cost like salaries & training.• Th e Institute will train them for a period of 6 to 8 months as per the program. • From the date training starts with us, you are fulfi lling the omanization requirement. Th e candidate will stay at least for a year without leaving the job.
For any queries contact us: 26862210, 93677745 & 93677795 Fax: 26861710 email: [email protected], www.aifas.net
Chinese / Arab/ Grill, cooks. Contact: 95529970
Wanted experienced English
speaking Continental Cook
for reputed house in Qurum.
Contact 99466062
Required Maintenance Techni-cian (male - 1) - should have
knowledge of new devices & 3
years Oman experience.
Contact: 94441111 Send CV to
email: [email protected]
20+ years experience Architect
M.B.A 10 years Muscat experi-
ence (with NOC) looking for job
opportunity. Contact: 91709408 /
92981814
Architect, Indian Female with 04
years of work experience in Qatar,
Oman & India seeking suitable po-
sition. Email: shaazneen.s@gmail.
com, Contact : 96635846
Diploma Architect 3Ds Max
(interior, exterior) AutoCAD seeking
suitable position. Contact 98907341
Email: [email protected]
Architect looking for freelance
work in (design plans and 3dmax).
Contact: 96041201
Architect, Indian Female with 04
years of work experience in Qatar,
Oman & India seeking suitable po-
sition. Email: shaazneen.s@gmail.
com, Contact No: 96635846
Urgent RequirementSALES LADY
For Jewellery Showroom1. Two years experience in sales.2. NOC is must.3. Arabic speaking advantage.
(Send CV with current picture)Email:
Required Sales Executive &
Accounts /Admin Executive
For a FMCG Company based in Muscat.
Head offi ce in Dubai. Omani nationals only with
driving license. Sent C. V. to :
AN URGENT REQUESTA specialized Physiotherapy clinic located in
Madinat Al Sulatan Qaboos, seeking for two (male and female)
PHYSIOTHERAPISTS, With minimum 5 years’ experience and an Omani Ministry
of Health licenses, for a full time work (7 hours a day). Salary starting from 600, Omani Rials.
To apply please send your C.V. by e-mail: [email protected]
For a reputed Ice cream outlet 1. Minimum 3 years experience in same fi eld.2. Good communicati on skills.3. NOC and driving license are must.
URGENT REQUIREMENTSales &
Marketi ng Manager
Send CV with current picture & ref no: 1216/01
Email: [email protected]
REQUIREDFIBER OPTIC
PROJECTS MANAGER,
should have GCC experience 5-10 years
kindly send your CV to [email protected]
Accounts & fi nance Indian male
35 years B.Com M.B.A (F) 7 years
experience valid Oman D/L
family visa N.O.C available.
Contact: 93257426 / 95230114
Email: [email protected]
Financial Accounting Manager having working experience 24
years looking job in construction
or manufacturing companies 8
years working in Muscat expecting
family status with good compensa-
tion. Contact: 95919546.
SENIOR ACCOUNTANT-M. Com
Finance-Indian with 7 years experi-
ence in Finance & Accounts up to
fi nalization. Currently employed
in Oman. Having D/L & NOC. Mob:
94122464, [email protected]
Part time Accountant with 15 yrs
exp. in Accounts Finance, Tax Audit
Management.Contact: 95857199
Indian lady, bachelor degree in
Preparatory Programme (BPP) and
Bachelor of Commerce (BCom),
completed training course in MS
Word, Excel, Power Point and Out-
look from KTI looking for full time /
part time job opportunity in Oman.
Contact 92437568, 96795853,
Email: [email protected]
Part-time accounting, tax report,
auditing & bank loan assistance.
Contact 91720465
28/male/MBA - fi nance/B.Com -
Accountant with 4 years of Dubai/
India experience looking for a
suitable placement.
Contact 90187483
8+ yrs exp in Admin & Accounts
(3 yrs in Oman) MBA, Indian female,
seeks placement. Contact:97243806
Accounts & fi nance: 32 yrsIndian male (B.Com) having 7
years Oman experience Oman D/L
& NOC available, looking for suit-
able placement.Contact: 98093515
/ 97494322 email:
Accounts part time services
available to handle all accounts up
to fi nalization, consulting & audit
works. Contact: 96247295
Indian male, Oman 8yrs exp look-
ing for any suitable vacancy for
Accountant / Asst . Accountant /
Offi ce Admin, local release avail-
able. Contact: 98492752 Email:
atiquehazique@rediff mail.com
Indian male, 27 B.Com, +3 years
experience in Qatar GCC driving li-
cense, interested in Marketing now
on visit visa looking for suitable
job. Contact: 92993512
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 D5
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
ADMIN
CATERING
DESIGNER/DRAUGHTSMAN
DRIVER
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
DOMESTIC HELP
Cooks (Arabic Indian) gulf exp
looking job. Contact: 99531802
HSE & Fire Safety Engineer
4 years experience air port opera-
tional safety, power & chemical
industry. Contact: 94374241
Indian male 31, Mechanical Enggr
with 9+ year’s exp in Quality As-
surance / control presently on
visit visa. Contact: 94735164 /
96591950
Electrical Engineer B.Tech with
4 yrs experience in India available
on visit visa looking for suitable
placement. Contact: 94741401
Email: sobinthomask05@gmail.
com
Indian male electrical engineer
having 3 yrs exp in industrial
electrical machine maintenance &
data center facilities management
looking for suitable placement (NOC
available). Contact :99381733
Email : [email protected]
Architect Engineer with 3 years
experience in Muscat looking for
a suitable job Contact: 91262904,
Email: [email protected]
Indian female, BE in EEE having
3yrs exp in Software & 1 yr Experi-
ence in Marketing & Admin in
Muscat, looking for suitable
placement. Tel:93422434
ELV Sr. Presales Engineer +7
years experience in UAE, Qatar &
Oman having valid Oman D/L &
NOC. Contact : 93384285
Indian male 25 years Mechanical
Engineer (2 years experienced)
seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 93655805
Mechanical Engineer (B.Tech) with
2 and half years experience Indian
male 24 years in visit visa. Contact:
96620482 / + 91 9605423272
Email: [email protected]
B.Tech (IT) Indian Male 2 years
Oman experience in I.T & Network-
ing, holding Oman Driving License,
presently on employment visa,
seeks for a suitable placement.
Ready to join immediately. NOC
available. Contact: 92462578
Electrical & Instrumentation
Engineer, Gulf Experience, 3 Year,
Immediately available.Contact-
95691800
Email: [email protected]
Indian male Electrical Engineer, having 6 years gulf experience in
designing, assembling, commis-
sioning execution etc having valid
GCC license too looking for a suit-
able. Contact: 00968-98052942
Email: [email protected]
Civil Engineer 11 years experience
in construction having driving
license & NOC. Contact: 94194399
Email: [email protected]
Indian male Diploma Civil En-
gineer have 1 yr. experience, on
visit visa looking for suitable job
(certifi cate attested).
Contact: 92667406 / 99210411,
Email : [email protected]
Sudanese Telecom Engineer, 5 years experience, 3 years in
Oman PMP certifi cate.
Contact: 93391008 Email:
Sudanese Structure Civil Engi-
neer 2 years experience resident
Omani license. Contact: 94393880
Bangladeshi male Diploma in Civ-
il Engineer with D/L 5 years exp, 4
years in Oman has exp. in building
construction seeking a suitable
placement. Contact: 96732988
Electrical Engineer Indian (29) ,
7 years exp in Oman, 33KV, 11 KV
projects in MZEC & MEDC having
CEP 1 & NOC with D/L.
Contact: 99822373
Need job for experienced mason,
electrician & welder.
Contact: 93015630
Telecom Engineer and HSE
Advisor with 6 years experience
in Oman with PDO requirement,
fl uent in Arabic and English with
valid driving license searching for
job. Contact: 96355678
16+ yrs of Techno commercial ex-
perience in ELV systems seeking
suitable position in mid manage-
ment level. Local release avail-
able. Contact: 98143907 Email:
Indian male 22 years, B. Tech in
Chemical Engineering, currently
working as a trainee chemist in
India, looking for suitable place-
ment. Contact: 00968 93214375
or 92739839
Mechanical Engineer 4 years ex-
perience (3 years HVAC 10 months
piping stress) knows more than 10
softwares, Indian Muslim (27) job
visa. Contact: 90486758 Email:
M.Tech in Manufacturing Engi-
neering with 2 years of experi-
ence, on visiting visa looking for
a suitable job. Contact: 91417949
Email: [email protected]
Mechanical Engineer (UK) 28
years, male having 5 years experi-
ence in technical sales and ser-
vice Engineer, looking for suitable
placement and having valid Oman
driving license. NOC available
immediate avail slit.
Contact: 968 97612297
Email: [email protected]
BE Mech specialization welding
technology 11 yrs quality cont
Engineer by Steel Cons EPL
Installation desalination plant
(Gulf). Contact: 96603299
Male (23) BE Electrical Engineer
looking for job as Electrical Engi-
neering job experience 6 months
in MEP designing & electrical
designing job. Contact 98209070
Email: [email protected]
Interior designer Indian male
with 4 years experience / 3Ds
Max, AutoCAD .Now on visit visa
seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 94886507
Email: [email protected]
25 years male BA. English , Quali-
fi ed as mast in digital animation
having 5 yrs ex in character
animation specialized Auto Desk
mago and motion building soft-
ware knowledge, seeking suitable
placement. Contact: 97917357
Indian male good experienced in
Accounts, ERP Tally 9 & Admin in
India & Oman, presently on visit
visa, looking for suitable placement.
Contact 94834687
Indian male 25 yrs, Graduate in
commerce, overall 5 yrs exp in ac-
counts/ fi nance fi eld. On visit visa.
Immediately available.
Contact – 92836216 /
DRIVER
Maid from Mumbai looking for
house hold work in Al Khuwair only.
Contact: 95896415
Male 26 in looking for Offi ce boy
/ Receptionist job.
Contact 94640906
Looking full time job.
Contact: 99153378
Experienced Light Duty Driver,
Fluent in English, Arabic Well
knowledge of Oman Areas
Seeking Suitable placement
Contact 97950869
Light driver need job 4 years exp
English & Arabia speaking.
Contact: 94208089
Job for driving. Contact:
98982410
27 years, 1 year experience,
with D/L. Contact: 97369716
Indian young smart driver 5
years Oman exp speaking English
Arabic, Hindi looking for job.
Contact: 94524433
Pakistani male light driver 10 yrs
in UAE & 1 yr in Oman.
Contact: 93709393
Light driver Ruwi. Contact:
95779594
Having Oman D/L seeking
suitable placement of driver.
Contact: 92789805
Light Driver, 4 yrs exp in Oman.
Contact: 94608755
Looking for driver job 3 years
Oman experience. Contact:
98244078 / 93798802
Driver with car available
for part time job.
Contact: 96320385
Driver 2 years job visa Indian
male (31 yrs). Contact: 96525311
Light driver Indian 4 yrs exp in
Oman having own car need job.
NOC available. Contact: 93053917
Light driver looking for job.
Contact: 95219183
Driver (light & heavy duty) valid
gulf /Indian) looking job.
Contact: 95175192
Indian female Graduate over 6
years experience in Admin opera-
tions business support excellent
MS Offi ce skills looking for suitable
job. Contact: 94231020
Indian Female MBA, 3 Year expe-
rience in Admin MIS, Family Visa.
Contact 98234427,
Indian having more than 10
years experience (7 years in UAE)
as project secretary, document
controller, site administrator, site
store keeper on visit seek suitable
placement. Contact 92196001
Indian male seeking offi ce driver
cum admin job having NOC and 5
years experience with valid Oman
driving license. Contact: 97942787
Young Omani male have experi-
ence 12 years as P.R.O, CLERK,
Helper supervisor Admin supervi-
sor, H.R Manager have diploma in
H.S.E, IT and P.D.O license looking
for H.R position or P.R.O license,
looking for H.R position or P.R.O part
time or full time. Contact: 95933288
14 years of Gulf experience in HR/
Admin & logistics fl uent in Arabic
& English with D/L looking for
suitable position, NOC available.
Contact: 95824598
Indian male MBA- UK 18 yrs Gulf
exp in Administration/ HR & Public
relationship. Fluent in Arabic/
English with D/L. Looking for suit-
able position. Contact - 99897280
Filipino male with 13 years HR and
Administration managerial experi-
ence. MBA & CIPD holder. Currently
looking for job in Oman. Interested
employer pls call 97728418.
Indian Female, MBA-HR having
8+ experience in Administration/
HR, Customer Support, Offi ce Coor-
dinator with good Computer skill,
Now on Visit Visa,looking for suit-
able position. Contact: 90196235
Indian female 29 MBA (HR) BSc
Oman & India, 3 years exp in
Admin & HR seeks suitable place-
ment. Contact: 95619537
Indian female 27 yrs with 5 yrs HR
/Admin experience seeking suitable
placement with valid Oman driving
license. Contact: 98236033
Indian female, Masters in HR,
having 4 + years Oman experience
in media management and HR,
looking for openings in HR, Educa-
tion, Admin, Corporate communi-
cations. Contact 98252030
BE Civil Engr - 5-10 yrs Exp
Diploma Civil Engr - 5-7 yrs Exp
Civil Foreman - 10-15 yrs Exp All
must have valid DL send CV to
Mechanic Diesel Engines &
Hydraulic, 25 years Experience in
Multinational Companies.
M Arshad 91685048
Electrical Engineer: Indian male,
30 yrs having 5 yrs of experience
in industrial automation & utility
maintenance in India (MRF tyres),
holding valid Oman D/L.
Contact 92789995, email :
Instrument Engineer B.Tech
Indian male, 24 yrs, 1 yrs experi-
ence in reputed oil & gas compa-
nies, currently on visit visa, seeks
suitable job. Contact: 92007218
Email: [email protected]
7 Yrs Exp. PM in Mech. Engg in
the fi eld of Building Const. Oil &
Gas Seeking Job.94625598
Senior Telecom Engineer 4 years
experience in Oman valid driving
license MBA project management.
Contact: 95688953
Email: [email protected]
Civil Engineer (Diploma) having
11 years experience in building
construction, looking for a suitable
placement , having Oman driving
license. Noc available.
Contact: 95075365
Email: [email protected]
Road and Construction Engineer with 5 years exp in Oman.
Contact: 97667113
Civil Engineer 6 yrs Exp in Oman
with license. Contact: 98975518
Indian female civil engineer B.Tech
having 3 years experience sound
knowledge of software, REVIT STAD
PRO structural detailing currently
on family visa seeks suitable place-
ment. Contact: 95345591
Civil Engineer diploma holder
having 7 years experience of Site
Engineer with valid Omani D/L
looking for suitable placement.
Contact: 93294965 Email:
Indian Accountant professional
with 3 years experience currently
on visit visa looking for suitable job
openings. Contact: 92390604
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 28 MBA & M.Com
fi nance 5 yrs exp in Accounts &
fi nance. NOC available seeks suit-
able placement.
Contact: 93939421
Email: [email protected]
Accountant / account assistant,
BBA, M.Com, Tally, Peach tree on
valid visa in Oman.
Contact : 98269281
Indian male, MBA (fi nance),
1 year experience in Oman having
Oman D/L and NOC on visit visa
looking for a suitable job.
Contact 94109375
Indian Male Accountant 10yrs
Exp. in OMAN Retail & Furni-
ture Co. (Release Available)
GSM.92564955
Indian male MBA fi nance 12
years experience in Oman as
Accounts / Admin manger, seeks
suitable placement on visit visa.
Can join immediately. Contact:
96055815 Email: shaikhus-
Indian male B.Com, MBA with 10
yrs experience (5 yrs in Oman) in
accountant receivable, account
payable, sales collection, credit
control with valid D/L, looking for
suitable placement. NOC available.
Contact: 93240480
ACCA with more than 1year ex-
perience in an audit fi rm looking
for a suitable position in accounts,
audit section in a company, having
Oman driving license.
Contact: 98428098
Presently working as Chief Ac-
countant having 16 years experi-
ence in accounts in Oman having
Oman D/L seeking suitable place-
ment, release available.
Contact: 95060390
Indian with more than 30 years
experience in construction ac-
counts (Financial and Cost) and
administration seek suitable
placement (part/full time) in
Oman or UAE. Contact.98598099
Indian male Accountant looking
for a suitable placement in Sala-
lah. More than 20 years experi-
ence in accounting job (up to the
fi nalization of accounts) 8 years
working experience in Middle
east in Dubai, Muscat & Salalah.
Contact: 91325029
Available Indian Graduate (B.Com) / CA Final (Appeared)
having 3 years practical Audit-
ing & Accounting Experience.
Currently in Oman on Visit Visa.
Contact 91418637
Total 24 yrs exp. 15 years served Oman LLC SAOG, SAOC Con-
tracting, trading manufacturing
company as Finance Commercial
Manager looks after fi nance logis-
tics, procurement, ERP, oracle, tally
focus internal control implemen-
tation B.Com PGDBM, ICWA (Inter).
Contact: 91721545 / 95788723,
Email: manojpanda111@hotmail.
com
Accounting B.Com, 2 years
experience in Indian tally ERP9,
Peachtree, accounting, Quick-
Books accounting SMACC , busy
advanced excel PowerPoint E
fi ling of statutory return visit date
24/12/2015 visit exp 23/1/2015
SPECIALIST AVAILABLE FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN TERM
OF RESTRUCTURING ALL MODULES OF BUSINESS WITH 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, MANUFACTURING,
TRADING, APPLICATIONS, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. CONTACT – 93343251 /
profi toman@ gmail.com
EXPERIENCED TEAM TO PROVIDE TECHNO- COMMERCIAL BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, FEASIBILITY, ERP WITH BI TOOLS, ADVISE ON FINANCIAL, HR,
RISK GENERAL MANAGEMENT, GUIDE STARTUPS RESTRUCTURING,
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. Contact – 96500729
Email: k.profi toman@ gmail.com
General Manager / Operati ons / Commercial / Procurement Manager
Indian male with 18 years of experience in Gulf operati ons,
accounts, purchase, sales, Admin & HR, looking for a
Sr. positi on in a medium size company.
Email: [email protected]
Contact: 99889396
D.M.E, Indian, 12 yrs experience in Oman,
in Project Esti mati on, Executi on, Quality & marketi ng
working as Esti mati on Engineer in acid & water
tanker, semi trailor company, with heavy
driving license & will get NOC, seeks suitable job in Oman.
Contact - 98968495
ACCOUNTANT With 8 years of experience
(working in Oman since Jan 2013) is looking for a change. Experienced in all aspect of
accounting up to fi nalization of accounts. Also experienced in Insurance underwriting and
claim settlement. NOC will be available
Contact: 95503646
EDUCATION
Indian female M.Sc B.Ed Math-
ematics having 2 years experience
in teaching currently on family
visa. Contact: 96007081
Email: [email protected]
Indian female B.ED, BCA & IELTS
certifi ed with 6 months Oman exp
in teaching primary students look-
ing for teacher job.
Contact: 97384206
Email: [email protected]
Male 29 years (BE) MEP Engineer
8.5 years of experience in building
construction. Seeking a suitable
job. Contact -95119765/ Email id
NOC available
Procurement Engineer (27 years
Single Male with Oman Driving Li-
cense) having 7 years experience
(UAE 2, Oman 3) with expertise in
MEP, Water, Electro-mechanical,
Instrumentation seeking suitable
placements. (Contact 95852033,
Transmission Cable Technician / Cable Splicer: Saudi Aramco &
Saudi Electricity Co License Holder.
Experience 5yrs, Age 29yrs, Nation-
ality Pakistani: KSA Valid Driving
License. Immediately Available.
Contact: 92850409
Email: [email protected]
Mechanical Engineer male 26 yrs,
with 4 yrs of experience in manu-
facturing oil & gas retail, brand pro-
moting, marketing, logistics having
valid Omani D/L seeking for
a suitable placement.
Contact: 97098676
Email: [email protected]
Chemical Engineer MBA holder ITC
certifi ed in supply chain manage-
ment, ERP familiar 5 years experi-
ence. Contact: 94690325 Email:
Operating Engineer MBA holder 5
years experience in electroplating
and coating of metals. #94690325
Email: [email protected]
B. Sc Civil Engineer 27 yrs Oman
in Ministry private sector as Project
Manager, Senior Structure Engi-
neer in consulting offi ce looking for
suitable placement, NOC available.
Contact: 99349578
Email: [email protected]
5 years of experience in Business
Analyst & Product Management with
Engineering in ECE on visit visa
Contact: 91374247
Indian male, Mechanical
Engineer having 1year experi-
ence, on visit visa looking for
suitable job. Contact:97416564,
Email:[email protected]
Procurement Engineer (27 years
single male with Oman Driving Li-
cense) having 7 years experience
(UAE 2, Oman 3) with expertise in
MEP, Water, Electromechanical,
Instrumentation seeking suitable
placements. Contact 95852033,
mail: [email protected]
Project Civil Engineer, BSc,
6 years experience in Oman, build-
ing construction Fluent Arabic,
English and good Hindi Release and
NOC Available). Tel: 97858589
Civil Engineer diploma, 4 yrsexp
seeks suitable position ina reputed
company. NOC available.
Contact – 96789711
Civil Engineer 8 years experience
in Oman as a project engineer for
governmental & private projects.
Contact – 90164912
Diploma in Automobile Engg male
26 yrs, working as Service Advi-
sor for 2.5 yrs seeking suitable po-
sition. Contact: 94744933 Email:
Bangladeshi male light driver
exp 14 years need job and visa
transfer, release paper available.
Contact: 99165961
Driver with new car looking for
job.contact: 95873286
Sudanese Mechanical Engineer 8 years experience HVAC, MEP,
MPM in management.
Contact: 97986890
Indian Electrical Engineer Btech,
female 24 seeking job, presently
in oman having 2 year experience
in design and estimation of
Ht &Lt projects.
Contact 968 97436557,
Mail id : [email protected]
Diploma in Electronics, 2 years
exp in telecommunication.
Contact: 94519571 Email:
telecommunicationvishnumadhull
@gmail.com
Civil Engineer (BE) having total
5 years experience in building
construction looking for a suitable
placement. D/L available
Contact# 94450270
Sudanese Architectural Engineer
2 years experience in Oman, Revit,
AutoCAD 3Ds max Archicad look-
ing for suitable job.
Contact: 94722356
Email: [email protected]
Diploma in Mechanical Eng piping system in AutoCAD work,
21+ years experience with Driving
license. Contact: 95267113
Email: [email protected]
Mechanical Engineer M.Tech
2 years experience HVAC design
& site Engg revit MEP Auto CAD.
Contact: 90150913 Email:
Bachelor Civil Engineer 6 Years
in Oman experience Valid Driving
License seeks suitable placement
Phone 97619722
Email – [email protected]
Indian Male 23 years B.Tech
Civil having 2 years experience in
quantity survey and site manage-
ment looking for suitable place-
ment. Contact:- 95042656
Mechanical Engineer with 3 Yrs
experience in international Oil
& Gas company looking for job
Contacts: Tel: 90164236 Email:
Sri Lankan Engineer (27 Years
old) – B.Sc Engineering (Hon)
Mining / Geotechnical Presently
in Muscat, 1.5 years experience.
Contact 91295802 /
Indian female, 31 yrs, 7 yrs expe-
rienced as AutoCAD civil drafts-
man (2 yrs experience in Oman)
currently in Oman seeks suitable.
Contact 96789441
Email: [email protected]
DAILY GUIDED6 W E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
SALES / MARKETING MISCELLANEOUS
Indian male with more than 15
years experience in construc-
tion, agriculture, industrial tools,
air coolers & personal protective
equipments looking for suitable
position in sales & marketing valid
Oman D/L. Contact: 92406527
Indian male 26, with more than
4 years experience in Sales and
Marketing having valid GCC
license on visit visa seeks suitable
position. Contact: 92423161
PG diploma in Strategic Manage-
ment having two years experience
in Marketing and Management
currently on visit visa seeking for
suitable job. Contact : 93406821
Email: [email protected]
Indian male Sales Engineer 18
years experience (pneumatics,
electric, air compressor, garage
equipments etc) including 5 years
Gulf experience currently employed
in Oman with D/L looking for suit-
able position, NOC available.
Contact 94425942
BBA graduate /Valid Omani li-
cense/2 year experience/ Preferred
role Marketing / Sales / Business
development Executive.
Contact-94122944,
Indian male B.Sc Chemistry Grad-
uate 6 years experience in India
seeking suitable placement willing
to work in any fi eld currently on
visiting visa. Contact: 94855667 /
92255983
Pakistani male three years experi-
ence in Oman speaks excellent
English, earlier worked as English
speaking tourist guide.
Contact : 99120956
Indian 16 yrs sales / marketing
all Oman experience, on visit visa
with D/L. Contact: 90205082
B.Tech Electronics Indian male
experience in Technical & market-
ing 2 years Oman driving license.
Contact: 98627362 , email :
Assistant Purchase Manager expe-
rience 9 years at Oman in Construc-
tion Company skills driving license.
Contact: 98894178 Email: amer-
MBA Graduate (Indian) 2 years
experience in Auto sales & market-
ing looking for suitable job in auto-
matic industry. Contact: 94676974
Email: [email protected]
Digital Marketer SEM/SMM SEO.
Contact 93594114
Email: [email protected]
Sales Coordinator, BBA MBA
(pursuing) tally on valid visa in
Oman. Contact : 98269281
Indian male, MBA Marketing
having 2.5 years Sales experience
immediately looking for a suitable
position. Contact: 91415145,
Email: [email protected]
Indian female M.Sc in computer
application, having experience in
Muscat looking for suitable place-
ment available to join immediately.
Contact: 94591608
MBA graduate having 6 years exp
in Sales & Marketing, 4 years with
PEPSI, India, having international
driving license permit seeks suit-
able placement. Cont : 95308167,
Email : [email protected]
Indian male 7 years experience
in procurement with D/L, UAE &
Oman, transfer available.
Contact: 97085435
Indian male 34 Yrs, Dual MBA
Finance and marketing with IT
skills, 7+ yrs of experience, Looking
for suitable placement.
Contact : 94879615, Email-
Indian male 29 yrs having 6 years
Oman experience in hotel industry
& sales looking for a suitable
placement. NOC available having
Oman driving license. #91059015
Email: [email protected]
Marketing Communication Co-
ordinator: Indian, M.Com with 20
years Gulf experience in Market-
ing Communications, ATL& BTL
branding exp. with Oman D/L.
Contact- 93031168
34 yrs, Indian male 7 years sales
& marketing exp have valid D/L.
Contact: 99869456
34 yrs, Indian male 9 yrs experi-
ence in Oman have valid D/L 2
Yrs sales & marketing experience.
Contact: 99858456
MBA (logistics and supply chain)
3.5 years freight forwarding ex-
perience operations & sales, back
offi ce operation Oman, Yemen &
UAE. Contact: 92549913
Email: [email protected]
Sales & Marketing Executive MBA
with 3 years experience in sales
looking for suitable placement.
Contact: 91345727.
Indian female (M.Tech in Power
system) having Gulf experience
seeking suitable placement in
Oman, now in family visa.
Contact: 94306164 / 91001194
B.Com male 2 yrs experience in
sales Computer knowledge,
seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 98371144
email: [email protected]
30 yr old experienced available
with NOC & Oman driving license
6+years experience in chemicals
Industry. Contact: 96675065
5 years experience in Sales
currently looking for a placement.
Contact: 93458869
SKILLED / UNSKILLED
Mason, SH / carpenter, steel fi tter
gulf & Indian exp looking job.
Contact: 95175192
TECHNICIAN /MECH.
Instrumentation & controls Technician with 2-3 years
experience preferably in water
sector and having valid driving
license call Ph:+968 99450811
Send CV to [email protected]
Indian Female, Master of Tech-
nology (M.Tech) in Electronics
& Communication Engineering,
currently in Muscat with Family
Visa,1+ year experience in Teach-
ing seeks suitable placement in
Muscat. Contact 96209509
27,male,ACCA fi nalist, have pro-
fessional experience up to fi nali-
zation of accounts, statutory and
internal audit, expertise in using
tally, focus and oracle software,
have 3.5 years experience in ac-
counts till fi nalization ,seeking for
permanent replacement in senior
position,GSM-91324962,email id :
B.TECH ( IT) . 24 years, 2 Years of
experience in technical support,
software development, network-
ing, troubleshooting and manag-
ing, seeks suitable placement.
Contact GSM- 98184170
Indian Male 4 years experience
Chef. Indian, Chinese Cuisine seek
suitable placement.
Contact 99883019
Chief Accountant , 7 years
experienced (out of 25 years
experience in accounts) worked
in reputed group companies. Cur-
rently procuring MBA fi nance and
having Omani Driving License
seeks suitable openings from
reputed companies.
Contact : 95598477 / 98803439
Indian male having 6 Years of
Experience in Oman Having Valid
Driving License working as a
Purchase offi cer, looking for a
suitable Position, NOC Available.
Contact: 95132564 / 96456071,
E-mail:[email protected]
Indian female 22 years 1 year ex-
perience in Secretary & Account-
ing, Tally, looking for suitable job
on visit visa. Contact: 97084473
Email: [email protected]
Relationship Manager, Indian
male 28 yrs, BBA, MBA 5 year’s
exp, currently working in India
computer skilled. Contact: 0091
974710108 / 95071632
BE Mechanical Engineer / MBA
Indian male 25 yrs, currently
working in Qatar skills MEP de-
signing surveying, Oracle, Auto-
CAD, SAP. Contact: 97474470866
& C/O in Oman 95071632
Indian male 25 yrs, MBA in mar-
keting on visit looking for a job in
Sales and Marketing.
Contact: 91270215 Email:
Bangladeshi Male, University
MA, 5 years experience in IT sales
& marketing working as sales co-
ordinator in Oman; searching bet-
ter job. Phone: 91997605, email:
Indian male with more than
14 yrs of experience in Business
development / marketing Oman
D/L looking for managerial posi-
tion in Business development /
marketing. Contact: 93400177
Logistics All rounder Indian male
23 years experience administra-
tion material management, supply
chain, warehouse, purchase, mar-
keting, inventory, accounting, Oman
D/L. NOC available.
Contact: 95980115
The Business Development Man-
ager, Iraqi, Experience 15 Years
Inside and outside Oman follow-
ing activities: construction(Very
strong and qualifi ed to bringing
business for civil work Or any
type of the construction work for
many million per year with a good
experience in pricing and collect
payment and cash management of
the company & marketing projects
& investments& tenders & real
estate. Contact 92385033 Email:
25 years experienced Supervi-
sor in plumbing & fi refi ghting
available, NOC & driving license.
Contact: 95703680
Indian male, with experience in
operations management, informa-
tion security, purchase & stores
mgmt, hold UAE driving license,
on visit visa, seeks suitable job.
Contact 91904541
Email: [email protected]
The Business Development Manager, Iraqi, Experience 15
Years Inside and outside Oman
following activities: tenders& real
estate& construction & marketing
projects& investments &
transportation & Marine services&
companies management&
develop business.
Contact :- 92385033
Indian male 8 yrs exp in Oman
working as housekeeping
supervisor in star hotel,
seeking for a job NOC available.
Contact – 91753210
MBA (marketing) with 17 years
experience in freight forwarding/
logistics industry in GCC & Oman.
Presently working as branch
manager in Muscat. Looking for a
suitable position. Release and NOC
available. Contact: 99856331
Purchase MGR / Transport in
charge 9 yrs exp in Oman having
D/L & NOC join immediately.
Contact: 90187891 Email:
mohammedshariff [email protected]
MISCELLANEOUS
SITUATION WANTEDSIT.WANTED
LOGISTICS
More than 8 years of gulf experi-
ence & qualifi ed executive in Air
freight & Sea freight, proven work
experience in logistics coordina-
tion, shipment, export and import
Coordination, cross shipments
and client relation etc. Contact:
95149624 / 0097150-3462492
MEDICAL
Nurse (male) Indian available
with 3 years of experience &
cleared prometric 64% & data fl ow.
Contact: 94035637
Male nurse MOH licensed having
NOC completed BLS, ACLS total 6
yrs exp seeking suitable job, join
at anytime . Contact : 91322744
An experienced Sudanese female Dentist with MOH license look-
ing for job. Contact: 96436517
/97396088
MANAGER
MISCELLANEOUS
Indian Female, 24 Years - MSc
Biotechnology. Worked in Inter-
national Crops Research Institute
For The Semi Arid Tropics for pro-
ject work as trainee. Looking for
suitable job. Mobile: 92619048,
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 25, On Visit Visa MBA
(HR & Marketing) experienced in
Sales, Looking for Suitable Position,
Contact 92788018,
Indian female on visit MBA
(International Business- Market-
ing & Logistics), BE (Computers &
Science Engg.) Trained in SAP-BI/
BW with 1 year experience seek-
ing for job Contact: 90228586
Email:[email protected]
Graduate, computer literate, expe-
rienced in sales, credit control, ac-
counts, Omani D/L , seeks suitable
placement. Gsm 98805474
Civil Engineer (B.Tech), Indian
male 24 years with 1+years Indian
experience,(Certifi ed in Staad Pro/
Quantity Survey/ Auto Cad).Look-
ing for a Suitable position. Avail-
able In Sultanate of Oman (Muscat)
on Visit Visa.
Contact: 92835952. E-mail:
HOSPITALITY
Hospitality/Hotel/ Restaurants
Dynamic result oriented hospital-
ity professional with 20 years of
international exp. MBA in Hotel
Management, specializing in
Hotel/Restaurant start ups, con-
cepts & Franchise development
with proven records. Seeking for
Challenging positions in reputed
groups as GM/COO/CEO/Business
Head. (NOC available)
Contact: 96059470
Indian male (29) MCA Post
Graduate 4.6 years experienced
skilled in System and Network
administration seeking job in IT
sector now on visiting visa. Con-
tact: 92805363 Email: anukkut-
Indian male (28) MCA 6 yrs ex-
perienced Oracle 10g, 6I, PL / SQL
forms / reports seeking job in IT
sector now on visit visa.
Contact: 91475059
Email: [email protected]
IT Support- 3Yrs,CCNA,MCSE.
Ph:93594114 [email protected]
Software Engineering Graduate,
2 years IT Sales Experience, D/L +
NOC, Contact: 94464786
Sudanese Network Administra-
tor 1 year experience with (MCSA,
CCNA, CCNP) have valid driving
license. Contact: 92394485
Indian female MCA Graduate,
holding valid driving license seek-
ing suitable placement.
Contact: 99466062
Network Engineer degree Com-
puter Science CCNA, MCSA experi-
ence NOC. Content: 92346191
Dynamics AX 2009 / 2012 R2/
R3 Microsoft certifi ed professional
MCA & BCA Having 15 yrs of total
exp & 6 yrs of relevant exp seeking
for suitable position. NOC is avail-
able. Contact: 93469493 Email:
Indian male 27 yrs Master in
Computer applications currently
in Muscat with Oman driving L/C
seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 93191800
Email: [email protected]
Indian Male, IT System Engineer
having 4 yrs of experience in sys-
tem administration.CCNA,MCSE,
Linux. Looking for suitable job.
Contact :91272867
GCC experience projects & busi-
ness Management professional for
IT & ELV systems seeking suitable
job. Contact: 93522472
B.E (CSE) Indian male 2 years of
experience in System and Network
Admin, presently on visit visa,
seeks for immediate placement.
Contact: 93832694
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 26 years BSC IT with
4 years experience currently on
visit visa looking for IT support
job knowledge of networking,
programming languages, windows
/ Linux environment. Contact:
+968 95369856 / 24781651 Email:
10 years Oman experience ICT
Sector, capable of handling large
accounts, looking for suitable
Senior Executive position.
Contact: 98987654
INDIAN MALE - 29 years - (certi-
fi ed Computer hardware & network
engineer) with six (6) years expe-
rience on VISIT VISA looking for
suitable employment in system
network administration Contact :
Mr. SAJEEV KP, GSM : 94256964
mail ID : [email protected]
B.Tech (IT) Indian Male 2 years
Oman experience in I.T & Network-
ing, holding Oman Driving License,
presently on employment visa,
seeks for a suitable placement.
Ready to join immediately.
NOC available. Contact: 92462578
IT
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
Electrical Engineer with 18 years
exp in UAE. Contact: 98148034
Email: [email protected]
Indian, Keralite seeks cleaning
job part time. Contact: 90169048
Indian Male 28yr age having
7year gulf+ Indian experience in
HR/Admin fi eld, looking for suita-
ble placement. Contact:97914340,
Email: [email protected]
Part- Time Accountant, well ex-
perienced senior accountant ,do-
ing all type of accounting works,
Finalization, Budgeting available.
Contact : 98803439
Indian male Executive Secretary
having vast experience in admin,
logistics & procurement well versed
with computer seeks suitable
placement. Contact : 99514286,
Email : [email protected]
Sri Lankan Male, 23 years old
with 3 years of Sales experience
and basic accounting knowledge
(AAT and Tally) Seeking for a suit-
able position. Contact-94864296
Indian, male, 28, BBM degree
holder. having 2 years experience.
1 year in banking industry & 1 year
in hotel industry. good accounts
knowledge also. seeking a suitable
job. contact# 94678590, email:
Indian male B.Eng. in IT, CCNA,
MCSA, MCSE, 3yrs exp. in IT/ net-
working/ server, valid Omani D/L
seeking suitable placement in IT/
Network/Server support.
Contact 92607532
Indian female, 35 years, Bachelor
of Pharmacy (B. Pharm) with no
experience and BSc & MA seeking
suitable positions in pharmacy,
pharmacy stores, hospital, poly-
clinic & pharmaceutical compa-
nies. Contact 90236481
Indian male, 26 years, With 7 years
of experience in Sales Field in ship-
ping company in “Dubai” , looking
for suitable placement. Experienced
working in safety Marine equip-
ment and well versed with MS
Offi ce. Contact: 90182494
Indian Female Accountant, now
in Oman on Visit Visa, looking for
suitable placement.
Contact 94250871.
Sudanese male 31 years, 3 years
Diploma in electrical engineer , 6
years and 1year in Oman experi-
ence in building construction and
electrical plants, have oman drive
license. Contact No : 94549609
Chief Accountant , 7 years
experienced ( out of 25 years
experience in accounts) worked
in reputed group companies. Cur-
rently procuring MBA fi nance and
having Omani Driving License
seeks suitable openings from
reputed companies.
Indian Male, pursuing ACCA with
knowledge in C++, Java looking for
accounting job. Contact 94743462.
Email: [email protected]
Well-qualifi ed Indian Female with
8 years of experience in Procure-
ment Supply Chain from reputed
Companies in Oman seeks place-
ment. Contact 91374217
Indian Male, 26 years, With
7 years of experience in Sales
Field in shipping company in
“Dubai” , looking for suitable
placement. Experienced working
in safety Marine equipment and
well versed with MS Offi ce.
Contact: 90182494,
Indian female accountant, now
in Oman on visit visa, looking for
suitable placement,
Contact 94250871.
Indian male B.Eng. in IT, CCNA,
MCSA, MCSE, 3 yrs exp. in IT/
networking/ server, valid Omani
D/L seeking suitable placement in
IT/Network/Server support.
Contact 92607532
Indian female 10 years exp as
cook in Oman . South Indian & Gu-
jarati special looking for part-time
job. Contact 96710189
Indian female, 27, food tech-
nologist (MSc Food Technology),
2years experience in Research
and Development -Instant foods,
Snack, Noodles, Oats seasonings,
Soups, Curry powders. Raw Mate-
rial Quality Assurance and Analy-
sis, HACCP. Contact -93987174 ,
email :[email protected]
Indian male Autocad draughts-
man (civil) 8 years experience
seeking for part time job.
Contact : 00968 99070584,
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 32 years dip in hard-
ware net working with 10 years
hands on experience currently
on visit visa seeking immedi-
ate placement in IT Support or
relevant jobs. Good knowledge of
hardware & Networking.
Contact 94169341
Email: [email protected]
Indian female, Diploma in Avia-
tion and Hospitality management
(IATA), Having 4 years experience,
Seeking for a suitable Job,
Contact 99104529.
B.Tech (CSIT) 25 years Indian
male 3 years experience having
excellent communication skills
paired with technical skills, VM
ware networking, hardware on
visit visa looking for suitable posi-
tions. Contact: 97641141 Email:
[email protected] PROCUREMENT OFFICER, Indian-Male 34yrs,M.Com with
14 yrs work Exp.( 8 yrs in Oman )
working in Contg & Trdg Co LLC.
( for ROAD,CIVIL,ELECTRO-ME-
CHANICAL & Others Projects ) and
having valid LT D/L,Looking for
suitable placement- M:94064650,
Email: [email protected]
Part time Accountant available,
well experienced in accounting up
to fi nalization. knowledge in tally
also. contact. 92643875
B.TEC ( IT) . 24 years, 2 Years of
experience in technical support,
software development, networking,
troubleshooting and managing
seek suitable placement. Contact
GSM- 98184170
Chemical Engineer, 26 years old,
indian,2 years of exp in industrial
production, valid oman driving li-
cense, seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 91247222
10 years’ experience in Oman
Lady Secretary / Offi ce Assistant
worked in reputed companies,
seek immediate Employment.
Call: 95244761
MCA (Master of computer ap-
plications) with overall 3+ years
experience in the fi eld of system
administration, networking and
sales, Now in visit visa looking for
suitable job. Contact- 90390184
Indian male MBA, 8yrs Experi-
enced in South Africa & UAE as a
Sales & Purchase Manager, Sup-
porting Manager, Administrative
offi cer in FMCG/consumer goods/
Electrical/Electronics items,
looking for a suitable job. Ready
to join immediately. Contact +91
7034084039, +91 9947636840,
54 years Indian male with
25yrs of experience in Accounts
& Finance up to fi nalisation in
Construction Oil & Gas and also
in Manufacturing industries
seeking suitable placement.
Kindly contact me on 95323316 ,
email:[email protected]
Indian male 25 years (Electri-
cal Engineer) 3 years working
experience in MNC company India,
currently on visit visa seeking
suitable placement.
Contact: 94864680 Email:
ACCA Affi liate, Indian male,
Fresher, looking for full time
employment in Accounting and
Finance, Valid Omani driving
license. # +968 91291520,
AVAILABLE
Party & Wedding equipment rentals.
Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirt-
ing, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery,
Crockery, Glassware, Chafi ng Dishes,
Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound
Systems and spectacular lighting.
Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering
and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound &
Light. ww.tunesoman.com,
E-mail: [email protected]
FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know
more about Islam, please call:
99425598, 99250777, 99353988,
99253818, 99341395, and
99379133. For ladies: 99415818,
99321360, 99730723
Orvisit:www.islamfact.com
Ayurvedic treatment for back-
ache, paralysis, arthritis etc
& massage, All Season (Vaid-
yaratnam). Contact 24475280 /
95371664 / 92504980
www.siddhayur.com
GOOD NEWS
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 D7
TOURS
TOURS
RENT A CAR
Al Sharouq rent a car. Contact:
99222617
Silver car, car rental at good rate.
Contact: 96166155/93530540
25 - 50 seater bus with PDO & BP
specifi cation for monthly rent &
small car with driver. # 99839898
SITUATION WANT-
ED
TOURS
SITUATION WANTEDCARGO
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation.Contact: 99099714
Transportation Al Khuwair.
Contact: 92711421
Transportation. Contact: 91310107
Transportation available Ruwi to
Al Khuwair, Ghubra & Azaiba.
Contact: 91103909
Transportation. Contact 99508282
Transportation. Contact:99664703
Transportation. Contact
96173326
Transportation. Contact
94510847
Transportation Contact:
99077395
Transportation taxi mini bus.
Contact: 93091106
DRIVING
Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with
Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain
Marine Tours contact 98029602,
92808636
We arrange tours & accommoda-
tion at all the beautiful places in
Oman. Contact 99839898
MATRIMONIAL
Christian Orthodox girl 24 yrs,
BSC MLT working in Government
Hospital Thiruvalla, seeking suitable
alliance from Orthodox family.
Contact: 99734325 / 99898130
Sunni Muslim parents invite
alliance for their daughter for Hy-
derabad boys. Contact: 91383229
Email: [email protected]
Menon / Nair boy 30 years, look-
ing for a girl, preferred from
Ottapalam area.
Contact: 99505473
Nair boy 27 years Keralite work-
ing in Canada looking for qualifi ed
girl. Contact: 99361442
NRI
Plot for sale Shadnagar Munici-
pality, Mahboob Nagar District,
walk able distance to existing
colonies, national highway and ba-
sic amenities at reasonable price.
Contact – 0091 8686631669
3 bedroom fl at for sale Kerala,
EKM, Palarivattom. Contact: 00968
95993089/ 0091 9446845999/
0091 4842422700 Jimmy
1100 sqft Property for sale op-
posite to SPFort Hospital, Trivan-
drum. Contact 91254791,
91 8893226226
NRI
Kollam byepass 5-10 cent
for sale. Contact: 96157394
For sale 142 cents prime land
7 kms from kozhikodu Medical
College Hospital in full or plots
bus route and electricity available.
Expected price 2.25 lakhs
per cent negotiable. Contact person
: Dr. Robins 0091- 9447322230
Jayadas 0091- 9446848957
Plot, propeties for sale in
prime location in pune Contact
95272138, (+918390982975)
D8 W E D N E S D AY, J A N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6
DAILY GUIDEEmail: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
SITUATION WANTEDEDUCATION/CLASSES/TRAINING/COMPUTER/WEBSITE
Classes for Spoken EnglishTOEFL / GRE / GMAT / SAT
Excellent Guidance and Coaching Satisfaction Guaranteed
IELTS PREPARATION Target Band 8.0
EAGLES INSTITUTE92325542 | 93657915 | 93657917 | Email: [email protected]
Karate and self defense classes
at Azaiba 18 Nov Street. RO 10 per
month twice a week Monday and
Tuesday 6. 30 TO 7. 30. PM.
CONTACT 98294551
Spoken Arabic class for Non Arabic Speakers & English
class for Malayalam Speakers in Azaiba and Ruwi
• Learn in two months• Satisfaction guaranteed
Tel: 95244310
WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at
rock bottom price. Contact: http//webviewoman
SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES
SITUATION WANT-SERVICES
SERVICESWe Provide Cleaners,
Offi ce boys, Cleaning Contracts, General cleaning etc.
Al Mudakhir Nati onal Est. LLC Contact : 94277020
Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-
Contact 99320217/24788722
We provide loading unloading
helper for contracting.
Contact: 94777137
Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile
polishing, pest control & anti-ter-
mite treatment, general cleaning
painting,Plumbing, Electrical,
shifting. Contact Mundhir
Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. Contact:
24810137, 99450130
Pest Control Treatments. Ocean Center LLC.
Contact: 99344723
MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of
your marble.Contact 24793614/
99314807
House shifting & transporting.
Contact 92490422
GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,
Contact 99314807/24792998
Split & window A/c servicing &
maintenance. Contact: 93769089 /
95323517
Cleaning & Carpet Shampooing, Ocean Center LLC.
Contact: 99344723
Al farzdaq Al Fedi Trad and Cont
Maintenance services electric,
plumbing and A/C.
Contact: 96524904 / 94285064
A/C maintenance & servicing,
fridge, washing machine & dish
washer repairing, painting &
cleaning services, electrical &
plumbing. Contact: 99447257 /
97014234 / 24504281
SITUATION WANT-
ED
BUSINESS
Canadian Consultancy company
(recruitment & immigration) is look-
ing for a partner company in Oman.
For contact 00973 39990830
*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon
for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability
We are providing services like
Accounts, Auditing, Tax Reports,
Feasibility Study, Bank Loan
Assistance & L L C Registration
ASAS AUDIT & CONSULTANCY
Contact at 91720465/94319719
Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet
shampooing, maintenance.
Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217
/24788722