MUSCAT: Oman’s expatriate visa ban is being extended for six months and extra sectors have been introduced, according to a report by the Times of Oman.
Citing the Ministry of Manpower, the daily newspaper said that the additional areas of work being placed on the ban include carpentry, metal, aluminum workshops, brick factories. Professions already in the ban include sales, construction, cleaning and media.
“An update will be issued regarding this decision once the six-month period temporary ban is completed,” an official from the Ministry of Manpower said.
The ban on expatriate workers is based on the ongoing Omanisation drive, part of a government’s push to recruit more Omani to jobs in various sectors. Similar localisation campaigns are underway across the GCC where countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also been trying to increase the number of locals in employment.
Earlier this year Oman imposed a six-month visa ban on hiring expatriates across 87 industries, including media, engineering, marketing and sales, accounting and finance, IT, insurance, technicians, administration and HR.
Arabian Business said that Oman’s decision to extend the ban on hiring expatriates for another six months has prompted concerns about the ability to fill roles in key sectors and quoted an Omani HR expert as saying that the country required help in getting qualified employees in new sectors.
“Expats are important to our country’s growth, especially in newer sectors such as renewable energy where we cannot get qualified employees,” Nasser Al Maqbali, assistant manager for business development at MENA HR Solutions, told the Dubai-based magazine.
“We require help from outside the country; we need to exchange experience.”
The ministry noted that the ban does not extend to the replacement of existing foreign employees in the private sector. More than 30,000 Omanis are employed in the private sector, and as s of May 14.32 % of all Omanis hired were in the construction sector, followed by wholesale and retail trades, accounting for 14.6 %.
