More sectors could be added to the current six-month visa ban in Oman

 More sectors could be added to the current six-month visa ban if job targets are not reached, while other restrictions could be lifted, a top official at the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) has said.

In an exclusive interview with the Times of Oman, Salim Naseer Al Hadrami, Director General of Development and Planning at MoM, said: “We are now discussing the subject and trying to learn if we need to extend the ban to more jobs or lift the ban on some jobs that we listed in the decision.”

A six-month visa ban on expat workers across 87 sectors was imposed by the MoM from January 25, 2018.

The decision came into effect following a ministerial decree issued by Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower, on January 24, 2018.

Sectors affected by the ban include IT, media, air traffic, engineering, accounting and finance, technicians, insurance, marketing and sales, administration, and HR. The ban will be fully reviewed at the end of the ban period, towards the end of July this year.

Hadrami added: “In the decision, we specified six months for the job ban. During this time we will review the decision and its effect on the market. We will see whether the number of job seekers has decreased or not, if the job market needs to be opened for some jobs on the ban list, if we need to add more jobs or if we need to extend the ban — all that will be clear at the end of the six-month period.”

Previously, Hadrami said these jobs would go to Omanis. “The decision was taken to study the labour market status and to assess and review the decision every six months.”

“As for the ministerial decision to stop some professions from hiring expatriates, the decision was aimed at regulating the labour market and creating job opportunities for graduates from universities and colleges, as we found that job seekers are concentrated in certain specialties such as information systems, finance, accounting, engineering, and management,” Hadrami said.

“In the next stage, if any establishment wishes to recruit expatriates, it has to check the list of Omani job seekers in the same specialty, and if a job seeker is available, he or she should be given priority,” he added.

The MoM announced recently that 84 per cent of the government’s Omanisation target of hiring 25,000 jobseekers has already been achieved, with one month left for the first stage to end, and more than 21,035 Omanis have been employed in the private sector between December 2017 and April 2.

According to MOM statistics in 2017, the percentage of Omanisation across sectors reached 80.4% in insurance and finance, 37.8% in information and communication, 12.7% in marketing and sales, 23.4% in technical and scientific activities, 18.1% in medical professions, 14% in real estate and 7.6% in the construction sector.

Company officials in Oman have reacted to the ban. “It would be great if the ban was lifted, as I am struggling to hire people,” said S Gupta, who runs an IT firm.

However, Mohammed Kamran, who runs a business, said that the ban is providing more jobs to locals. “This is a way of moving forward,” he said.