The news is good on the employment front in the Sultanate. According to Manpower Ministry statistics issued a few days ago, the number of citizens employed in the private sector stood at 214,036 at the end of June this year. This figure included 179,773 males and 43,863 females.

Statistics further revealed that from among this number, 22,235 were employed in the specialist category, 16,019 in technical category, 66,121 in the vocational, 40,006 in the skilled and 70,255 in the semi-skilled categories. All this proves that the policies scripted by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, ever since the beginning of the Blessed Renaissance, were being implemented in the right manner.

The special stress on employment for citizens began with His Majesty the Sultan’s exhortation last year to employ 50,000 in the public and private sectors. The results were surprising as more than that number found jobs. Subsequently, this year’s budget revealed plans to employ 30,000 youth.

The latest Manpower Ministry statistics show that this number was surpassed and 30, 647 youth were employed between January and June this year. Another 1,477 youth were appointed as trainees during this period. This is certainly an encouraging trend: with many more months remaining for the close of this year, thousands more will be employed in the public and private sectors.

That thousands of students will enter the job market in the coming years is a reality which cannot be ignored. With education being given top priority and the number of youth graduating from various schools, colleges, universities and technical institutions beyond count, the government is geared up with detailed plans to provide them all with jobs and this involved a high level of industrialisation in all parts of the country.

Sohar and Duqm are cases in point. Yet another salient characteristic of the government’s policy can be witnessed in the encouragement being given to the private sector to provide employment since the public sector alone cannot shoulder this responsibility.

The private sector in turn has realised its responsibilities and is employing citizens by starting to give them salaries and perks on par with the emoluments given by government establishments.

This is all just the beginning of the story that began with the programme of Omanisation initiated on the directives of His Majesty the Sultan some years ago.

The Omanisation policy was the result of His Majesty the Sultan’s conviction that citizens alone could be the bulwark of the country’s progress and they had to be given all-out encouragement to shoulder their sacred responsibilities towards the nation.

As the policy gathered pace, more and more Omani youth were employed. And in the years ahead, thousands more will join the workforce to become the pillars on which the Sultanate’s progress and prosperity will rest.