HH Sayyid Fahd Bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers, said on Saturday senior government officials have been directed to provide information to the Council of Oman to help both the State Council and Shura Council to carry out their duties.

Fahd said he had appealed to the ministers and through them to senior officials in their units on the importance of maintaining an open-door policy and meeting with Shura Council representatives according to an agreed schedule, as that would reduce the number of issues raised about some of the services that are provided to the citizens and also regarding the facilitation of procedures to personnel visiting these units.

He stressed the importance of continued cooperation and coordination between the two sides as it helps to facilitate the implementation of plans and programmes which benefit the nation and citizen and achieve the ambition of this dear country under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said for further progress and growth.

Fahd stressed on the need to take into consideration preserving the interests of the private sector and companies operating in the country because of the positive impacts on the national economy and support its potentials to meet the requirements of the community, and at the same time stabilise workers in this sector and their access to their rights and privileges, according to legislations and rules.

The Council of Minister issued the following statement about the outcomes of its meetings during May. It said:

“In continuation of the approach adopted by the government, the efforts made to achieve the sustainable development and in a bid to facilitate services and improve people’s living conditions, the Council of Ministers during May reviewed a number of issues and activities. They are as follow:

Within the framework of the Royal attention of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of improving the status of pensioners under the social insurance system and improving their living conditions, the Council of Ministers approved improvements to their benefits from the Public Authority for Social Insurance by increasing their pensions as per the rates that have been recently applied to retirees and pensioners in the Civil Service Employee Pension Fund. It also approved improving the insurance entitlements for the insured through the Public Authority for Social Insurance dispensing end of service bonus for the insured that are eligible to receive such bonus when they reach the legal age and some disability and death cases.

The bonus will be based on the latest salary on which the subscription calculation was made. The bonus will be one month bonus for each year of service subject to a maximum of 10 years. It also approved raising the minimum pension with retrospective effect from April 1, 2011. The government will bear the additional cost resulting on such improvements.

In a bid to enhance the services, finding the appropriate ways to facilitate the transactions of citizens and find possible solutions for them, the Council of Ministers affirmed the importance that government units should adopt decentralisation policy for the administrations and units at all governorates of the Sultanate. The customer services departments should be activated and the electronic linkage among ministries should be enhanced. It affirmed the importance of the visits by officials to the wilayats, their interaction with citizens, answering their queries on services provided by the government and follow up the projects which the government has pledged to implement.

The Council of Ministers approved the setting up of a specialised and integrated office complex that will be dedicated as headquarters for the vocational associations. The complex will be provided with the required facilities. The respective departments were delegated with the task of setting up the terms and conditions that regularise all the uses of this complex.

The Council of Ministers formed a ministerial committee to implement the recommendations of Oman Values and the Role of the Citizen Symposium. The Council delegated its Ministerial Committee for Services with the task of visiting the governorates that may be affected by the adverse weather conditions to identify the damages that may be caused by such weather conditions and coordinate with the respective departments to address these issues accordingly.

The Council of Minister delegated the Sports Affairs Ministry with the task of preparing for the summer sports, expanding their scope of work to include all categories of youths and benefit from their energies and utilise their capabilities in community service.

The Council also approved in providing priority to supplying raw materials to local factories in a bid to enhance the value for Omani products.

It also approved the immediate solutions regarding quarries in a number of governorates, revising the licenses that have been inactive for long periods.

The Council approved the general policy framework for the telecommunications sector for the coming five-years. The Council of Ministers also reviewed the report of the Higher Education Council, as well as the efforts made to develop the education sector linking it with economic and development sectors and matching the students who pass out with the opportunities in the market.

The Council of Ministers directed the respective agencies to prepare measures to regularise the export of bottled water to meet the local growing demand, in addition to studying the possible sites to set up water production plants by using the available resources.

The council affirmed that the respective authorities to allocate enough and suitable areas on the express roads for integrated services centres and rest houses affiliated to the fuel stations. These areas will be offered for investment by the private sector.