Basic information about Oman
Area :	309500 square kilometer
Capital	Muscat
Religion	Islam
Official language	Arabic
Population	2.5 million
Time	+ 4 hours GMT
Population growth	2.8 per cent
Average life expectancy	73 years
National day	23rd of July
Renaissance Day	18th of November
Administrative regions	Four governorates , five regions and 61 wilayats.
Official holidays
Eid al Fitr - End of Holy Month of Ramadhan Eid al Adha - Mecca Pilgrimage  Al Mawlid al Nabawi - Prophet Mohammed's Birthday Israa and Mearaj -  Ascend & Decent of PHPBU Mohammed From Heavans

The Sultanate of Oman is making great headway in the development process under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Since 1970. The Sultanate has implemented a number of development plan including the current seventh five year plan ( 2006-2010) which aims at achieving 3% annual growth rate and improving the standard of living of Omani people.

The plan also aims at maintaining inflation rate at its current low level as well as improving the education output , providing more higher education opportunities , creating considerable job opportunities to Omanis and ensuring sustainable expenditure level by rationalizing public expenditure. The plan also aims at increasing the non oil revenues, investing public resources in sustainable development projects , raising the production of different economic sectors including oil and gas , enhancing the efficiency of the administrative system of the state , improving its performance , providing great care to population issues and human resources development and ensuring women empowerment.

The development plans take into consideration the true values and traditions of the Omani society. The plans also aim at enhancing water resources, maintaining them , ensuring more water supplies , showing great interest in environment preservation and ensuring that the development projects cover the different parts of the Sultanate including the remote area.

The plans also aim at safeguarding the national heritage and culture , boosting ties with different regional and international organizations and setting up a strategy to maximize the benefit from the Sultanate participation at the different committees and organizations .

The current five year plan also focus on the development of the different economic sectors such as tourism , fisheries and industry. Initiatives are taken by the Omani government to encourage export and ensure that Omani products are available at the world market and competitive in terms of rates and quality.
The plans also target improving the infrastructure project including making expansions to the current ports and establishing new ports and airports to facilitate export and passenger activity.

The Sultanate also aims at activating the partnership agreement with the different economic pacts, encouraging local and foreign investors to set up ventures in the Sultanate , expediting the deregulation of certain sector and the privatization programs and utilizing the revenues from the sale of public assets to new lucrative ventures as well as establishing a fund to finance the diversification programs.

The current five year plan also aims at developing SMEs by providing them with the required guidance , support and finance, developing the financial institutions to ensure optimum utilization of savings , improving the status of pension funds by ensuring better management of their resources and showing great interest in research and HRD.

In line with this plan , initiatives are underway to develop and update the current data base for all sectors to assist policy makers take appropriate decisions that ensure sustainable development of the IT sector. The government is also implementing a national strategy to transform the Omani economy form a traditional one into a knowledge-based economy. It should be noted that the Sultanate has made much headway towards the implementation of the e-government.

Top