times of oman - march 23, 2016
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Times of Oman - March 23, 2016TRANSCRIPT
Founded 1975 . Volume 41 No. | Pages . Baisas 200 . Subscription OMR63 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company | Chairman/Editor-in-Chief: Mohamed Issa Al Zadjali | Printed & Published by Muscat Media Group
March 23, 2016 14 Jumada Al Thani 1437 AH
WEDNESDAY
26 48
MORNING MINUTE
At the Opening Ceremony of the State Consultative Council at Al Alam Palace in Muscat, 1990
FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTYTHE SULTAN
The role being played by your Council is acquiring growing significance at the present stage and that makes it necessary for the Council, more than at any time before, to participate in shouldering the burdens and responsibilities of the new stage to achieve the progress and growth we cherish for Oman.
‘His Majesty’s Wisdom’
OMANReckless driving
2 There has been rise in reckless driving in Oman, says a new survey. >A4
OMANHigh-speed Internet
3High-speed Internet
service Awasr
officially launched.>A5
OMAN4.3 Richter scale earthquake off Salalah coast
1Earthquake measuring 4.3 on Richter scale occurred in the Arabian Sea near Salalah coast on Tuesday morning, according to official at Sultan Qaboos University Earthquake Monitoring Centre. >A3
T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S
HM sends greetingsMUSCAT His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a ca-ble of congratulations to Presi-dent Dr. Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the occasion of the new Iranian year “Nayrouz Day.” >A6
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Attestation needed for all educational certificatesFAHAD AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: All educational cer-tificates need to be attested by the Ministry of Higher Education before someone joins a job in the private or public sector in Oman, the Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion (MoHE) said on Monday. The rule applies to expatriates work-ing in Oman, as well as Omanis, who have overseas education cer-tificates. Speaking to the Times of Oman, a MoHE official said they were forced to issue a reminder as a large number of companies have tended to flout this rule. >A6
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
MORNING MINUTE
T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S
HM sends greetings
I R A N , P A K I S T A N P R E S I D E N T S
Warning that oil will stay low for two years
A3, 1430 killed in Brussels attacks; Omanis safe
M I N I S T R Y O F H I G H E R E D U C A T I O N
MOBIN MATHEW [email protected]
MUSCAT: A warning that oil prices will stay low for ‘next year or two’ has been issued by the chief economist of a global investment house while in Oman.
With oil prices plummet-ing globally over the past year,
the Sultanate’s finances have taken a hammering, forcing the government to embrace austerity measures such as freezing some employee ben-efits in state-run companies and increasing fuel prices.
Fees for government services have increased, and more increases are likely, while Income Tax for com-
panies based in Oman is to be raised, and the Sultanate is moving towards introduc-ing Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods for sale, along with other Gulf countries, in 2018 or 2019.
Earlier this week, Oman’s Minister of Oil and Gas Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, said he hoped crude
oil prices could recover by the end of this year if a meet-ing of Opec and non-Opec members scheduled to take place in Qatari capital Doha next month decides to freeze output.
However, speaking on the sidelines of the Co-investment Roundtable of Sovereign and Pension
Funds (CROSAPF) Working Committee here in Oman on Tuesday, John Greenwood, chief economist of Invesco, which represents hundreds of clients in 20 countries around the globe, said: “It is very hard to see the oil price picking up in the next year or two; it will take longer than we thought.” >A6
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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Minor quake off the coast of SalalahStaff reporter
MUSCAT: An earthquake measuring 4.3 on Richter scale occurred in the Arabian Sea near Salalah coast on Tues-day morning, according to an official at Sultan Qaboos University Earthquake Moni-toring Centre.
“The epicenter of the earth quake is some 282km off Sala-lah coast of Oman,” said the of-ficial adding that tremors were not felt on the land. It struck at 6:24am, the official added.
4 . 3 O N R I C H T E R S C A L E
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
Omani citizens in Belgium safe: EnvoyTimes News Service
Muscat: All members of the Sultanate’s diplomatic mission, their families and all Omani citizens in Belgium are safe, the Sultanate’s Ambassador to Bel-gium and the European Union, Najim bin Sulaiman Al Abri confirmed on Tuesday.
In a phone call to Al Shabiba he also pointed that no Omani citizen was near the area where Tuesday’s attacks took place.
The embassy is in contact with all Omani citizens present in Brussels who are safe and not affected with the blasts, he fur-ther said. The Belgian capital of Brussels does not host a big Omani community.
B L A S T S I N B R U S S E L S
A4 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
OMANMood of gloom on economy: Survey
TARIQ ZIAD AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: A mood of pessimism seems to have settled upon the ma-jority of high net worth individu-als (HNWI) in Oman, as many say the Sultanate’s economic state is worsening.
About 67 per cent of HNWI in Oman said the economic situation is worsening, while only 25 per cent say it is improving, as only 8 per cent of this group said there has not been any change, according to the GCC Wealth Insight Report published by the Emirates Invest-ment Bank.
It also was reported that the ma-jority of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country HNWIs agree that the global economic situation is worsening, as 53 per cent cited
political instability as one of the major reasons,and 45 per cent blaming the economic woes on the decline of oil prices.
Negative outlookA Muscat-based economist said the mood reflects the negative outlook investors have about eco-nomic growth, in light of declining oil prices.
“Investment is a trade-off be-tween risks and returns. At pre-sent, it would appear natural that the expected returns from the market may not adequately com-pensate the risks in equity invest-ment. But, it should also be borne in mind that economies go through boom and bust cycles,” the econo-mist said.
The economist also added that, at the moment, commodi-
ties are in a downward trend trig-gered by declining prices of most commodities,such as oil, steel, coal and others.
Meanwhile, Anchan CK, an in-vestment advisor, said that HN-
WIs expect to increase the pro-portion of their wealth invested into their own businesses and in real estate, with a belief of seeking greater control in managing their investments.
“In Oman, most HNWIs pre-fer keeping their assets closer to home. The investment world is be-coming increasingly complex with wider choices, whether geographi-cal or selecting asset classes in or-
der to deliver desired returns,” the investment advisor added. Com-menting on the regional economic situation, Khaled Sifri, CEO of Emirates Investment Bank, said, “With the global economy current-ly going through a period of signifi-cant volatility and with depressed oil prices, it comes as no surprise that this year’s report is more som-bre than in previous years.”
Confidence in markets“However, confidence in markets, such as the UAE and Qatar, re-mains very strong and, when tak-ing a longer-term view, HNWI’s say they are optimistic about the Gulf region, as a whole. Consistent with previous years, the majority of GCC HNWI investors prefer to invest in the region over global markets, despite any geopolitical concerns,” Sifri added.
The GCC Wealth Insight Re-port 2016 is based on a survey of HNWIs from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain. Face-to-face interviews were held in each country between Septem-ber and November 2015 among nationals, as well as expatriates. HNWIs are defined as individu-als with US$2 million or more in investable assets.
A Muscat-based economist said the
mood reflects the negative outlook
investors have about economic
growth, in light of oil prices
GraphicsSource: GCC Wealth Insight Report, Emirates Investment Bank
GCC WEALTH SURVEYINVESTORS’ OPINION ON THE GULF ECONOMIC SITUATION (%)
HOW SUPER RICH VIEW ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY (%)
2014 2015 2016
56 5
39
55 9
36
17 36
47
Improving Staying the same Worsening
77%
VIEWS ON ECONOMIC PROSPECTS OVERTHE NEXT FIVE YEARS
are optimistic about the prospects for the global economy
83%are optimistic about the economic
prospects for the Gulf region
3%are very pessimistic about the
prospects for the Gulf economy
UAE Bahrain
Qatar SaudiArabia
Kuwait19
23
5842
50
842
50
8
Oman
67
258
8
4250
23
869
Dust winds lower visibility, advised motorists cautionREJIMON [email protected]
MUSCAT: Royal Oman Police urged motorists to drive safely as heavy dust winds are blowing across northern parts of Oman, posing a serious threat to them.
“The dust winds are a threat to us on the road. Traffic has slowed. Everyone has to be more cautious while driving,” Mohammed Faisal, a taxi driver in Ruwi, said.
Visibility warningThe Oman Meteorology Depart-ment (Met), in its latest advisory, has warned of poor horizontal visi-bility during thundershowers, dust and fog formation on Tuesday. Ac-cording to the Met, current wind speed in Al Saniana of 26 knots could reach 43 knots.
“In Fahud it was 26 knots, Liwa
it was 20 knots and in Sohar it was 19 knots, it could reach 32 knots,” the Met tweeted.
The department has also pre-dicted rain, thundershowers, fresh wind and hail over the governo-rates of Musandam, Al Buraimi, North Al Batinah and Al Dhahira, which may extend gradually to the governorates of Muscat, South Al Batinah, Al Dakhliya, South and North Al Sharqiya and parts of Al Wusta.
Cold frontA cold front was predicted to bring the return of rainfall by Tuesday in a few locations in Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a meteorologist from Accuweather.com. Rain is expected in the range of 25 to 50 millimetre (mm).
While these storms are not ex-
pected to pose as much of a flood-ing threat, compared with previ-ous storms between March 7 and March 10, isolated flash flooding is possible.
The greatest threat for thunder-storms in Muscat will extend from Tuesday night, through Wednes-day and into Wednesday night. It will not rain this entire time; this is when rainfall is most likely.
Flash floodsWhile flooding may not be as se-vere as earlier in the month, any flash floods could be deadly. Water levels in normally dry rivers could quickly rise, even if it is not raining at your location.
As the cold front responsible for producing these thunderstorms moves out of the region later in the week, dry weather is expected to return by Friday.
W E A T H E R
ROHM to host Palestine Youth OrchestraTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) will host the concert by the Palestinian Youth Orchestra during a late afternoon matinée at 4:30pm on Friday.
In 2012, the Palestine Youth Orchestra was invited to play under the name of “The Pales-tinian Strings” at the famous Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. On this occasion, a member of the Orchestra com-mented, “When we perform at Royal Albert Hall, we are first and foremost musicians, but we’re performing as The Pal-estine Strings, so there is an aspect of national identity. We all feel it’s something that Pales-tine should be proud of.”
Suppressed nationThe Palestine Youth Orchestra represents self-esteem, unity and the hope for a better future for a nation that has long been suppressed.
The outstanding global suc-cess of this special Orchestra amply demonstrates that mu-sic can be a force for peace in the world.
Created in 2004 by the Ed-ward Said National Conserva-tory of Music, the Palestine Youth Orchestra can rightly claim that today it is at par with outstanding national youth or-chestras worldwide.
Over the past decade, the Orchestra has performed to ac-claim in Palestine, Germany, Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Leba-non, Greece and Italy.
The Palestinian musicians are joined by young musicians from youth orchestras in the host country.
M A T I N É E O N F R I D A Y
Reckless driving has risen, say drivers in OmanREJIMON [email protected]
MUSCAT: Drivers in Oman have seen infrastructure improve-ments, but are experiencing an increase in reckless driving, a survey conducted by YouGov for Oman Qatar Insurance Company (OQIC Insured) showed .
According to the survey, 68 per cent of motorists experienced an increase in people speed-ing on the roads over the last six months and 75 per cent said they saw more distracted drivers than in the last six months (texting or talking on the phone, reading the newspaper etc.)
The survey also revealed that 78 per cent of drivers agreed that road infrastructure has improved in the last six months and on an average, people don’t feel that daily commutes now take longer than six months ago.
“We are proud to introduce this unique long term perception study in Oman.
“The results reflect the genu-ine apprehensions of Oman’s residents and point towards an urgent need for all stakehold-ers to work together to improve safety standards on Oman roads,” Ewen McRobbie, chief executive officer, Oman Qatar Insurance Company, said.
“We need to create effective road safety campaigns, which can help influence driving behaviour and convince motorists to adopt safe driving practices on a con-sistent basis,” he added.
While 59 per cent of respond-ents noted that they enjoyed driv-ing on Oman’s roads more than six months ago, this compared with 21 per cent, who enjoyed it less, 41 per cent of respondents
reported their commute time had remained unchanged or had be-come faster; with an unlucky 44 per cent reporting a longer drive to work.
Meanwhile, 33 per cent be-lieved that Oman’s roads have become more challenging in the last six months, while only 53 per cent believed they had become less challenging.
According to Frederik Bisb-jerg, executive vice-president, MENA Retail, Qatar Insurance Company, safer roads are a bene-fit for all, including families, busi-nesses, government and insurers.
Mark Pudwell, business development and training manager at Competence HR, said traffic and road surveys are often valuable in gauging public perception of both driver culture and infrastructure.
“The road infrastructure in Oman has dramatically improved over the years and has given us much better roads and associated elements, such as lighting and traffic monitoring systems.
“However, recent events have highlighted that this improve-ment has been undertaken main-ly in larger settlements and the interior road infrastructure is yet to benefit from governmental planners,” Pudwell said.Neelesh Sogani, a road safety ex-pert in Muscat, said the increase in reckless and distracted driv-ing, speeding, and texting or talk-ing on the phone while driving could also be due to young drivers and their hunger for wanting to be on social media.“The improved infrastruc-ture eases driving comfort, al-lows drivers to accelerate and chase speed limits on roads,” Sogani added.
Y O U G O V S U R V E Y
There is a negative effect that comes with improved road infrastructure and that is increased driving speeds
on wide flat roads. Much has been done to regulate speed on our highways, but sadly this is no longer a
deterrent for all drivers. A nominal fine is not enough, especially for those who can easily afford them
Mark Pudwell, Business development and training manager at Competence HR
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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Air India Express announces summer flight scheduleTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Air India Express has announced its summer schedule, with night flights being launched in the Kozhikode-Muscat- Kozhikode sector, a statement from Air India said on Tuesday.
Effective from March 28, Air In-dia Express will introduce a night
flight from Muscat to Kozhikode on daily basis.
Kozhikode-MuscatThe flight will leave Kozhikode at 11.50pm and arrive at Muscat 1.45am and will leave from Muscat at 2.45am and arrive in Kozhikode at 7.45am.
Air India Express operates 19
weekly flights from Muscat to Kerala and Mangalore, daily to Kozhikode. It also operates five flights (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to Kochi, four flights (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to Thiruvananthapuram and three flights (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday) to Mangalore.
Apart from this, Air India Ex-press operates one flight from Salalah to Kozhikode (Friday) and one flight to Kochi and Thiru-vananthapuram (Friday).
Air India Express offers 30 kilo-grams of free baggage allowance to all passengers travelling from Muscat/Salalah to all destina-tions and also offers an additional
10 kilograms baggage at the time of booking at a nominal charge of OMR10.
Call centrePassengers travelling to India can now also take advantage of the “24x7 Air India Express call centre facility,” which can be ac-cessed at this phone number:
+91- 44 – 66921500. National Travel and Tourism is the rep-resentative agent for Air India Express in Oman.
Passengers can contact the Air India Express office located in the CBD Area opposite the Cen-tral Bank of Oman or their travel agents for planning their next visit to India.
A V I A T I O N
High-speed Internet service launched
A. E. [email protected]
MUSCAT: Oman’s first spe-cialised high-speed fibre Inter-net provider, Awasr, officially launched its services in the re-gions of Al Khoud, Al Mawaleh, Al Hail, Maabilah and Shatti Al Qurum in the first phase, with ex-pansion plans to cover the rest of Muscat and other areas through-out the Sultanate.
The announcement was made on Monday evening at an inau-gural ceremony organised by the company at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel in Muscat.
With the official launch of Awasr services, users can now enjoy high-speed fibre-optic In-ternet in both offices and homes, at competitive prices in the re-gions of Al Khoud, Al Mawaleh, Al Hail, Maabilah and Shatti Al Qurum during the first phase.
The company announced that it will soon offer a 1 Gigabit (GB) connection for homes and has previously launched three fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages with 20MB, 50MB and 150MB speeds accordingly.
Also available are three fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) pack-ages with 5MB, 10MB and 30MB Internet speeds for small, medi-um, and large-scale enterprises.
“The broadband fibre optic packages offered by Awasr aim to support the government’s vi-sion of reinforcing the Sultanate’s digital infrastructure and offer-ing high-speed Internet services. Our new 1 GB speed will drive the market to provide the high speeds needed to allow people and enter-prises to become more innova-tive—hence contributing to the prosperity and sustainable devel-opment of the Sultanate,” said His
Highness Sayyid Taimur bin As’ad Al Said, chairman of Awasr.
So far, the company has over 500 customers. “We expect to get a share of 30 to 35 per cent of the fibre broadband market by 2019,” Grame Lowther, strategy advisor at Awasr, told journalists after the inaugural event.
Lowther said Awasr will follow the Oman Broadband Company (OBC) in providing broadband connections to homes in differ-ent areas. OBC has built an opti-cal fibre network in cooperation with Haya Water.
“About 70,000 homes in Muscat have already been covered. By the end of the year, OBC will release (connections to) 120,000 homes. That is a big market,” noted Lowther. OBC is also laying opti-cal fibre cable in other cities, such as Salalah. By the end of the year, 25 to 30 per cent of Muscat will be covered by the fibre optic cable of OBC. “In two years, 90 per cent of Muscat will be covered.”
The services of Awasr are all post-paid. However, the company plans to introduce pre-paid ser-vice at a later stage. The company, which has an Omanisation ratio of almost 100 per cent, is aiming to achieve breakeven status by 2020. Lowther said the pricing of Awasr is better—it is not expen-sive and the customer gets more speed for the same price.
“The business packages in Oman are the most expensive in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region. The cost of communication will come down (eventually). Oman needs inno-vation like the UAE (United Arab Emirates),” he added.
With the official
launch of Awasr
services, users
can now enjoy
high-speed fibre-
optic Internet, at
competitive prices
in the regions of Al
Khoud, Al Mawaleh,
Al Hail, Maabilah
and Shatti Al Qurum
in first phaseMORE SPEED: Pricing of Awasr is better—it is not expensive and the customer gets more speed for the same price. – Supplied
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Government is diversifying its activities to different sectors like tourism, logistics, port operations, etc and government is focusing more on the futureMohammed Al Ardhi, Executive chairman of Investcorp and chairman of the NBO
HM sends greetings
In his cable, His Majesty expressed his sincere congratulations along with best wishes of good health and happiness to President Rouhani and the friendly Ira-nian people further progress and prosperity.
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said has also sent a cable of con-gratulations to President Mam-noon Hussain of the Islamic Re-public of Pakistan on the occasion of his country’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty expressed his sincere congratulations along with best wishes of good health and happiness to President Hus-sain and the friendly Pakistani people further progress and pros-perity. — ONA
I R A N , P A K I S T A N P R E S I D E N T S
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Attestation needed for certificates
“Some companies do not even re-fer to the Ministry before employ-ing any person,” he said.
The reminder comes at a time when the MoHE, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, has discovered 1,250 fake certificates, including 1,117 certifi-cates issued with fake stamps and 133 with fake qualifications.
This action was taken accord-ing to Article 14 of the Attestation Regulations, which state that any certificates issued by Higher Edu-cation Institutes outside Oman are not considered unless they are at-tested by the MoHE.
The Ministry has taken the is-sue of forged certificates very seri-ously and informed the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Civil Services, to take the required ac-tion against those whose certifi-cates were found to be forged.
The Ministry has also filed le-gal cases with the Public Pros-ecution against those having fake certificates. Earlier, the Ministry had found several fake educational certificates and these were osten-sibly issued by several institutions in the Middle East and Asia.
To prevent students from falling victims to such fake certificates racket, the Ministry has also cau-tioned Omani students travelling abroad. Effective April 1, Omani students, who are pursuing their studies in India, have been advised to choose only those colleges and universities, which have been ap-proved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in India.
The UGC is a statutory body set up by the Indian government under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and is charged with coordination, de-termination and maintenance of standards of higher education.
M I N I S T R Y O F H I G H E R E D U C A T I O N
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‘Oil market’s current issue is more supply, weak demand’
“Excess supply and weak de-mand is the current issue faced by the global market,” he added.
He said that there are four methods to cope with the cur-rent issues in the market. “The main thing is to cut the expendi-ture and it will help us to save a lot; it may include some projects as well,” Greenwood said. The second method is to raise the revenues of the government.
“It is not necessary to raise the taxes but the government can increase the rates of electricity, water and gasoline,” Greenwood said. “Other methods to over-come this crisis are to sell assets and borrowing,” he added.
He said that all the Gulf states were moving to adopt many of these methods over the next two years to overcome this crisis period.
The economist presented a topic on the outline of the major economic drivers and risk fac-tors that the investors should be aware of and the investment opportunities.
CROSAPF members are sov-ereign wealth and pension funds
from around the world. It brings together investment profession-als of public funds for presenta-tions and in-depth discussions on global trends and recent is-sues related to investing.
Participants of the two-day conference were welcomed by His Highness Sayyid Kamil bin Fahad Al Said, assistant secre-tary general of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Cabinet.
According to majority of the officials and participants, it is a good platform to get in touch with more than 100 investment specialist from all over the world and to exchange ideas. “It is an opportunity to exchange knowl-edge and introduce the invest-ment opportunities in their re-spective countries to co invest,” a participant said.
Many other participants said the conference helps the Sultanate to showcase and in-vite the global investors to par-ticipate in its upcoming develop-ment projects.
In the meeting, the sovereign and investment funds discussed a range of issues and the factors
that may play a role in making investment decisions, including global trends and socio-econom-ic variables that affect the invest-ments in short- and long-term strategies.
First day of the conference discussed topics like Next Gen-eration Investor, Co invest-ment collaboration platforms, and Venture Capital: inventing in Innovation.
Mohammed Al Ardhi, the ex-ecutive chairman of Investcorp and chairman of the National Bank of Oman, said the Sultan-ate has a lot of opportunities in investment.
“Government is diversifying its activities to different sec-tors like tourism, logistics, port operations, etc and government is focusing more on the future,” Al Ardhi said.
The CROSAPF Working Committee meeting concluded on Tuesday and the delegates will take part in the Oman Eco-nomic Forum, which begins on Wednesday at the Shangri-La Barr al Jissah Resort and Spa in Muscat.
C R U D E S U P P L I E S
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Omani boy feted for saluting police rescue team’s efforts
REJIMON [email protected]
MUSCAT: Do you remember the picture of a young boy saluting a po-lice rescue team for their commend-able job during the rainy days earlier this month? If yes, then the boy is in the news again today. The Pub-
lic Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) has honoured Khalil Al Khalfan, the 10-year-old boy, for his attitude and commit-ment towards recognising the hard work of the police rescue team.
Khalfan was honoured by PAC-DA in the presence of top officials at a ceremony. The PACDA opera-tions centre had received 332 res-cue calls during a low depression in Oman during the first week of March. PACDA data recorded 255 water rescue operations, 37 land rescue operations, 29 fire extin-guishing operations, eight ambu-lance related calls, and four search operations.
As for the calls recorded by the various governorates, Al Batinah North registered the highest num-ber, at 95 rescue operations, fol-lowed by Al Dhakhiliyah, which recorded 67 rescue operations.
Muscat came in third with 51
rescue operations, followed by Al Buraimi, which recorded 43 re-ports. Al Sharqiyah North report-ed 27 such incidents, Al Batinah South 26, Dhahira and 23 while only one rescue operation was car-ried out by PACDA in Al Sharqiyah South. Eight lives were lost during the heavy rainfall that hit Oman earlier this month.
Public Authority
for Civil Defence
and Ambulance
has honoured
Khalil Al Khalfan,
the 10-year-old
boy, for his attitude
and commitment
towards recognising
the hard work of the
police rescue teamWELL DONE: Khalil Al Khalfan, the 10-year-old boy, being felicitated (above), and Khalfan’s picture saluting the team (below). — Supplied pictures
‘If crude oil prices remain low it will affect business’Staff Reporter
MUSCAT: The Ministry of Oil and Gas decision to take bold steps in the coming months, if oil prices remainlow, will have a significant impact onsome of the country’s businesses,said some exhibitors at the Oil and Gas West Asia (OGWA) Exhibition at the Oman International Exhibition Centre, said.
On Monday, Salim bin Nasser al Aufi, Under-Secretary of the Min-istry of Oil and Gas, confirmed that the government might take drastic steps in April if oil prices remains low.
According to Dmitry Maximov, Deputy CEO and Commercial Director of TMK Gulf Interna-tional Pipe Industry LLC, such government decisions will affect their business.
“We are directly involved in the oil and gas industry. If the govern-ment plans to delay any projects, that will negatively affect us,” Maximov told Times of Oman.
“I hope the government plans to reduce oil production, which will help to boost prices and eve-rything will return to normal,” he added.
Also, Joseph Antony from Techs International agreed that the government’s decision will
strongly impact their market.“We are the suppliers of oil
equipment to companies like PDO. If the government plans to reduce or delay projects,it will affect our business badly,” Antony said.
“So far, we have not had any is-sues in the market. I hope this will continue,” he added.
According to Katie Struble of GlassPoint, oil producers are looking to reduce their operating costs, as the production of crude using conventional methods be-comes more costly, and solar en-ergy becomes a suitable methodof producing oil at lower costs.
GlassPoint Solar is a private company that designs and manu-factures solar steam generators that use solar thermal technol-
ogy to generate steam to power enhanced oil recovery (EOR) systems. “For us, the current dip in oil prices is a positive thing, be-cause oil producers are looking to reduce their operating costs, and solar can help,” Struble said.
“More than 60 per cent of a heavy oil field’s operating costs arededicated for its fuel projects. If you replace this with solar en-ergy, you can reduce a lot of pro-duction costs,” she added.
The exhibition will end on Wednesday at the Oman Interna-tional Exhibition Centre,as will the SPE EOR Conference at the Golden Tulip Hotel Seeb.
Exhibitors also expressed their concerns, as organisers were un-able to attract large numbers of visitors to attend the exhibition.
O I L A N D G A S E X P O
MEGA EVENT: Exhibition will end on Wednesday at the Oman International Exhibition Centre. — Times file picture
Teachers Day
MUSCAT: Dr. Yahya bin Mah-foudh Al Manthri, Chairman of the State Council will sponsor on Monday a ceremony organ-ised by Ministry of Education to mark the Teacher’s Day in the presence of Dr Madiha bint Ahmed Al Shibaniyah, Minister of Education, and a number of officials. — ONA
M I N I S T RY O F E D U C AT I O N
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
378 million cubic metres is the annual water deficit of Oman
SQU student project proposes use of water from oil wellsTARIQ ZIAD AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: A student project of the Sultan Qaboos University has shown the way of putting water drawn out during oil pumping op-erations to good use, a professor of the university said.
In view of the high operating cost of desalination plants and the effect they have on the envi-ronment, a student has proposed utilisation of water that has been excavated during oil pumping op-erations, said Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, associate professor at the Depart-ment of Soils, Water and Agricul-tural Engineering at SQU.
“This project was carried out in a laboratory, so we proposed it to be done on a larger scale,” said Ahmed on the sidelines of the Middle East Desalination Re-search Centre’s (MEDRIC) cel-ebration of the annual UN Water: World Water Day awareness cam-
paign. “What we want ultimately is for the water to be utilised in a sustainable, environmental friendly and economic way; be-cause you can create any water, but it doesn’t help if we spend too much money,” he added.
Negative balanceCurrently, the annual water bal-ance of Oman stands at 1.267 million cubic metres, which is a 378 million cubic metre deficit for the 1.645 million cubic me-tre demand. About 86 per cent of the total share of water is used in agriculture.
One solution is to raise water prices to encourage water conser-vation. Recently, the Public Au-thority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) increased the tariff to 3.5 baizas per gallon, a 0.5 baiza in-crease, for government, commer-cial and industrial consumption.
“This has always been proposed by people, who are economically
oriented, but there is a certain amount of water that should be utilised at a low cost otherwise there will be health problems,” said Ahmed.
“As you see, the petrol prices have increased and when it comes to water, we need to pay market value,” he explained, adding that it is needed in order to balance the relatively high price required to produce water through desali-nation plants.
Ahmed said there is an an-nual increase of 10 to 15 per cent in consumption of desalinated water.
“If it goes on for the next 15 years, we’ll have to build more de-salination plants and it won’t be a good thing,” said Ahmed.
Introducing saline soil agri-culture could help in conserving fresh water for domestic use as some plants are able to thrive in salty water, such as tomatoes, barley, sorghum and pearl millet.
W O R L D W A T E R D A Y
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OMANW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Sultanate, China hold trade talks
MUSCAT: Potential of Omani products to enter Chinese mar-kets, as well as the possibility of training the Omani cadres at the Chinese centres and institutes in various administrative field were among the topics discussed at the 8th session of the Omani-Chinese Joint Committee yesterday.
During the session the Omani side was chaired by Eng Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and
Industry whilst it was headed from the Chinese side by Qian Keming, Deputy Minister of Commerce.
The meeting discussed eco-nomic topics of concern to the Sultanate and China in relation to the trade exchange and increas-ing such exchange in terms of the facilities offered by both countries for investment companies, said Eng Al Dheeb. He added that the meeting presented some projects by the Chinese side in fishery,
tourism and medical areas.He added that the meeting dis-
cussed the potential of the Omani products to enter the Chinese markets, as well as the possibility
of training the Omani cadres at the Chinese centres and institutes in various administrative fields. He pointed out that the Chinese side expressed preparedness on this.
The meeting also touched on the Chinese companies currently pre-sent in Oman and developing and exploring other Omani-Chinese partnerships. The Chinese side
viewed two presentations given by the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm (SEZAD) and Omani Integrated Logistic Services on the potentials available at these zones, as well as the major invest-ment opportunities, he said.
The meeting also discussed co-operation in alternative energy and the possibility of benefiting from the Chinese expertise in this field, as well as cooperation in aviation sector through operating direct flights by Oman Air from the Sul-tanate to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, he said. He affirmed that the Chinese side requested ad-ditional quantities of Omani oil.
Omani exports to China in 2014 stood at OMR8.8 billion, a rise of 11.3 % compared to 2013. Omani imports from China stood at OMR540.6 million, up 34.1% from 2013. The number of Chinese companies in the Sultanate stood at 61 whereas the value of their investments as at the end of 2014 stood at OMR6.5 billion.
Meeting discussed economic issues of
concern to the Sultanate and China in relation
to the trade exchange and increasing such
exchange in terms of the facilities offered by
both countries for investment companies
BOOSTING TIES: Meeting also discussed cooperation in alternative energy and the possibility of benefiting from the Chinese expertise in this field, as well as cooperation in aviation sector through operating direct flights by Oman Air from the Sultanate to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. – ONA
‘Saqr Al Jazeera’ joint exercisesAL MUSSANAH: Air Vice-Mar-shall Mattar bin Ali Al Ubaidani, Commander of the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) accompanied by senior RAFO officers yesterday visited Al Mussanah Airbase to
review the joint air exercise (Saqr Al Jazeera Joint Exercise/Heli-copters 2016) carried out by RAFO with participation of the sisterly GCC air forces.
RAFO Commander was briefed
on the exercise, which comes within RAFO annual training plans with the aim of enhancing the efficiency of RAFO profession-als and exchange of experiences with sisterly countries. — ONA
J O I N T A I R E X E R C I S E
Oman, Singapore to boost relationsSINGAPORE: Oman and Singa-pore agreed on continuing to en-courage and support investment opportunities, exchange exper-tise and knowledge in response to requirements of the labour mar-ket and the scientific and techno-logical progress.
The annual session of politi-cal consultations at Singapore was chaired from the Sultanate by Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al Busaidi, Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry whilst it was chaired from the Singaporean side by Albert Chua, Second Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ReviewedThe consultations touched on fields of the bilateral coopera-tion and means of following and enhancing them, as well as pro-moting various opportunities of partnership, developing and di-versifying interests particularly in the economic and trade areas.
The two sides reviewed out-comes of the Joint Committee’s deliberations between the two
countries. The two sides affirmed the importance being accorded by the two countries to developing human resources, skills and in-frastructure, as well as diversify-ing sources of income, education, technical and vocational training.
Free Trade AgreementThe two sides also stressed the importance of maximising the benefit from opportunities pro-vided by the Free Trade Agree-ment (FTA) between the GCC countries and Singapore, which already has come into force after being approved by all countries.
At the political level, both sides reviewed a range of regional and international issues of common concern. They also exchanged viewpoints on these issues with-in the framework of the joint keenness to exert all possible ef-forts in supporting the endeavors targeting to solve issues via dia-logue and understanding, as well as utilising all peaceful means to achieve peace and stability, in ad-dition to enhancing cooperation, growth and peace for all. -ONA
D I P L O M A C Y
ROP takes part in training programme
DOHA: Directorate General of Customs at Royal Oman Police (ROP) participated in the train-ing programme on agreements related to weapons of mass de-struction, held in the Qatar in the presence of representatives of the GCC customs bodies and a number of Arab countries, experts and stakeholders in the field of arms control.
FamiliarisationThe training programme, or-ganised by the National Com-mittee for the Prohibition of Weapons, in cooperation with the Organisation of the Prohi-bition of Chemical Weapons aimed to familiarise the partici-pants with the terms of the Con-vention and awareness of the importance of its contents. -ONA
D O H A
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A9
REGIONW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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Yemen peace talks expected in Kuwait on April 17: Official
CAIRO: Talks aimed at ending Yemen’s war are expected in Ku-wait next month along with a tem-porary ceasefire, a senior Yemeni government official said, raising the possibility of an end to vio-lence that has killed thousands.
There have already been several failed attempts to defuse the con-flict in Yemen, which has drawn in regional countries and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the coun-try. “The talks will be on April 17 in Kuwait, accompanied by a tem-porary ceasefire,” the Yemeni of-ficial said, declining to be named. There were two inconclusive rounds of peace talks in Switzer-land last year.
A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen
a year ago with the aim of pre-venting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking con-trol of the country. There was no
immediate response from the Houthi militia regarding the pros-pect of talks.
The United Nations says more than 6,000 people have been
killed since the start of the mili-tary intervention whose ultimate aim is to restore President Ab-drabbo Mansour Hadi following his ousting by Houthi and pro-
Saleh forces. “It has been a terri-ble year with air strikes, shelling and localized violence. An already very impoverished country has been put at a very sharp end,” Jamie McGoldrick, UN Resi-dent and Humanitarian Coordi-nator in Yemen, told reporters in Geneva.
One in ten Yemenis is displaced, he said, adding that half of those killed and injured were civilians.
He said UN special envoy Is-mail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had been in the capital Sanaa over the past few days for discussions with parties involved and also was in Riyadh.
“What they are hoping for is to put in place a ceasefire of some kind or a cessation of hostilities for a week or so prior to the talks and build confidence,” he said.
The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir have in re-cent days said that any peace talks can take place only between Hadi and the Houthis, and through the UN special envoy.
Houthi officials travelled to Saudi Arabia this month for secret talks on the conflict that led to a pause in fighting on the border, a main battlefront of the war, and a prisoner exchange. — Reuters
The talks will be on
April 17 in Kuwait,
accompanied by a
temporary ceasefire,
said Yemeni official
IS clash with Turkish troops at Iraqi baseANKARA: IS militants attacked the Bashiqa military base in north-ern Iraq on Tuesday and Turkish troops stationed there retaliated, military sources said.
Turkey deployed soldiers to northern Iraq in December, cit-ing heightened security risks near Bashiqa, where its soldiers have been training an Iraqi militia to fight IS militants. Baghdad object-ed to the deployment.
The military sources said the Turkish army hit IS targets from north of the camp after the attack.
The clash with IS comes after a suspected member of the radi-cal militant group blew himself up on Istanbul’s most popular shop-ping street on Saturday, killing four people and wounding dozens more. The government also blames IS for a suicide boming that killed at least 12 German tourists in Istanbul in January. IS has claimed neither Istanbul attack. Turkey, a NATO-member and part of the US-led co-alition against IS, has targeted the militant group’s positions around Bashiqa in the past.
Separately, IS fighters in north-ern Iraq said it had launched a suicide raid on what it said was an “American military base” in Makhmur, according to SITE In-telligence Group, which monitors militant activity online. — Reuters
B A S H I Q A M I L I T A R Y B A S E
Guards look to play bigger role in Iran’s economyDUBAI: A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards urged the government on Tuesday to follow its supreme leader’s vision for a self-reliant economy and said the Guards wanted to play a bigger role to make that happen.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei called for a “resistance economy” on Sunday, saying US policies to restrict busi-ness with Iran had undermined any economic benefits of inter-national sanctions being lifted in January. “The main audience for (Khamenei’s concept of ) the re-sistance economy is the govern-ment,” Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy joint chief of staff of the armed forces was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.
“The armed forces are ready to play a significant role in the resistance economy and imple-menting the supreme leader’s
suggestions,” he said. Jazayeri added that President Hassan Rouhani should see the Guards’ achievements in creating ad-vanced ballistic missiles as an economic blueprint and evidence that Iran did not need foreign in-vestment to succeed.
In a clear reaction to Jazayeri’s comments, Iranian Vice Presi-dent Eshaq Jahangiri said the government was not the audi-ence for Khamenei’s speech.
“All state bodies were the audi-ence... No person, faction or or-ganisation should interpret ‘re-sistance economy’ as they want,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Reiterating his remarks, Rou-hani said on Tuesday that he had been seeking a strong economy since his election in 2013 and “constructive engagement with the world” was the main part of that policy. — Reuters
P O S T K H A M E N E I ’ S C A L L
TAKING POSITION: Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, supporting forces
loyal to Yemen’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, hold a position during clashes with Houthi
rebels west of the city of Taez, on Monday. – AFP
A10
INDIA W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
If she had to surrender herself in this fashion, why were the people of Jammu and Kashmir deprived of an elected government for last three monthsJunaid Muttoo, National Conference spokesman
Government in J&K soon as Modi-Mehbooba hold talks
NEW DELHI: Decks seem to have been cleared for revival of PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir with the regional party chief Mehbooba Mufti meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday in renewed ef-forts for formation of a govern-ment after a prolonged deadlock.
After the 15-minute meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence, 56-year-old Mehbooba told re-porters it was “very positive” and “good” in addressing issues per-taining to the people of the state and that she was “very satisfied”.
The meeting took place a day af-ter Mehbooba arrived here barely three days after she had returned to the Kashmir Valley after her talks with BJP President Amit Shah had hit a road block.
After hardening of her stand fol-lowing her father Mufti Moham-med Sayeed’s demise on January
seven this year, the Peoples Dem-ocratic Party chief is understood to climbed down on her demands for assurances like handing over of power projects to the state, en-hancing relief to flood victims and vacation of land by the army.
She, however, remained non-committal on these issues.
Stalemate“We are seeing a stalemate for last two to three months over govern-ment formation in the state but today I am satisfied. I am very sat-isfied,” she said and announced that the party’s future course of action would be announced at the PDP legislature party meeting this Thursday.
To a question whether the stale-mate has ended, she said, “When you meet the prime minister of the country, naturally the solu-tion to the problems faced by the people of Jammu and Kashmir is more clear”.
Asked about the Modi-Meh-booba meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said at a BJP
briefing it was “constructive and good”.
A BJP source said the alliance government in the state could be in place in the next one week.
Mehbooba will be flying back to Srinagar ton Wednesday where she will brief her party legislators on Thursday.
“I had been authorised by the party MLAs to take a decision. I have convened a meeting on Thurs-day and after that we will announce the future course of action.”
On government formation in the state, she said, “As I said I will talk to my MLAs because that is the forum. This is not the place. There is a particular place to make such announcements. I will go back to Srinagar and take the next step.”
Sources in the PDP said that after the legislative party meet-ing, the two sides would meet for government formation and giving final touches to the cabinet which will be headed by Mehbooba, the first woman chief minister of the state.
Last Thursday, BJP’s chief in-terlocutor Ram Madhav had an-nounced that his party would not be accepting any fresh demands from its erstwhile ally PDP and put the ball in their court while stress-ing that his party would respect the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ document.
Tuesday’s meeting was eyed with suspicion by opposition Na-tional Conference and Congress who asked the PDP leadership to come clean on the deal with BJP.
National Conference spokes-man Junaid Muttoo said the PDP president should come out in a transparent manner and tell the people of the state about her demands and response of the prime minister.
“If she had to surrender herself in this fashion, why were the peo-ple of Jammu and Kashmir de-prived of an elected government for last three months,” he said.
Another spokesperson of the National Conference Sarah Hayat Shah tweeted “so much drama and suddenly Mehbooba says the meeting with the PM was very
positive. What about the CBMs, AFSPA, the power projects?”
State Congress Chief G. A. Mir termed the demand for more Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) by PDP ahead of govern-ment formation as a drama and said Mehbooba owes an explana-tion to the people of the state as to why she was instrumental in im-position of two-and-a-half month Governor’s rule in the state.
“It was all drama enacted by PDP over the issue of CBM as a condition before BJP to be taken ahead of government formation. It was aimed to test waters in Kash-mir Valley where they have lost their ground,” he said.
Mehbooba came to Delhi on Monday after PDP made it clear to BJP that there was some miscom-munication and no fresh demands had been raised by the party for stitching an alliance.
This is her second visit to the national capital in five days after her talks with BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday failed to make any headway triggering specula-tion that the two parties could be making renewed efforts to reach out to each other in a bid to break the prolonged impasse.
The fresh efforts from PDP, which has 27 MLAs in the 87-member state Assembly, come in the backdrop of repeated as-sertions made by BJP that it was committed to implementation of Agenda of Alliance arrived at by late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
The talks with BJP, which has 25 MLAs, had hit a roadblock last week when the party’s interlocu-tor Ram Madhav made it clear that no fresh demands would be entertained from PDP and that they had to decide whether they want to form a government based on the Agenda of Alliance document.
Governor’s rule was imposed in J& K on January 8 after Mehboo-ba decided against taking over the reins after her father’s death. - PTI
Asked about the
Modi-Mehbooba
meeting, Union
Minister Prakash
Javadekar said at a
BJP briefing it was
‘constructive and
good’. A BJP source
said the alliance
government in the
state could be in
place in the
next one week
We are seeing a stalemate for last two to three months over government formation in the state but today I am satisfied. I am very satisfied
Mehbooba MuftiPeoples Democratic Party chief
Judicial inquiry ordered into violence during Jat agitation
CHANDIGARH: Haryana gov-ernment on Tuesday ordered a ju-dicial inquiry to probe the conspir-acy behind the incidents which pushed the state into unprec-edented “turmoil” during the Jat quota agitation that left 30 people dead and damage to property.
Replying on the adjournment motion in the Assembly after about four-hour long discussion, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khat-tar said, “Opposition leader (Ab-hay Singh Chautala) has sought ( judicial inquiry) and we have or-dered judicial inquiry.”
He said judicial enquiry shall be conducted to “completely unearth the entire conspiracy” behind the series of sad and unfortunate in-cidents which continued for 80 hours in the month of February.
“Some political people who wanted to serve their own inter-ests did not want the meeting be-tween government and Jat leaders successful. Names of some Con-gress leaders have appeared (be-hind violence) and Virender (close aide of Hooda) has surrendered and is in police custody.
“We shall try to elicit details from him about conspirators who instigated violence and arsonists. Because Virender cannot alone in-stigate on his own. There is a con-spiracy which will be unearthed soon,” he said.
Strict action is being taken against criminals who, in the name of agitation, indulged in criminal activities. As on March 21, 2016, a total of 2087 criminal cases have been registered in various police stations of the State in connec-tion with the reservation agitation and a total of 444 criminals have been arrested Unwilling to accept “wilful negligence” on the part of the state government, Khattar described allegations of adminis-tration becoming “paralysed” dur-ing the peak of violence in several parts of state as “untrue and base-less”, claiming that “mayhem” was controlled in “short duration”. - PTI
Q U O T A R O W
Five Jet Airways planes from Delhi receive bomb threatsNEW DELHI: Panic gripped passengers at the Indira Gandhi international airport on Tuesday after the Jet Airways call centre received threats about bombs in five of its aircraft from here, hours after blasts ripped through Brus-sels airport killing 35 people.
While three of the planes had already departed by the time the anonymous call about the bomb threats was received, the fourth aircraft, which was bound for Chennai, was diverted to Nagpur, sources said.
Another plane, also bound for Chennai which was preparing for take off, was grounded and is undergoing checks by the secu-rity agencies, a senior police of-ficial said.
“Jet Airways has received a se-curity alert for five flights from Delhi. All flights are on ground and are being checked by secu-rity agencies at the respective air-
ports,” the airline said in a tweet but did not share specific details.
“We regret the inconvenience caused to our guests. The safety and security of our guests and crew is always our main priority,” Jet Airways said.
Sources said the three planes, which received bomb threats, had already flown to their respective destinations — Gorakhpur, Chan-digarh and Dehradun.
The Delhi-Chennai flight 9W829, which was diverted, land-ed under emergency conditions at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur at 4:40pm with 154 passengers on board. All the passengers and their baggage were off loaded, air-port sources said. -PTI
A N O N Y M O U S C A L L
SECURITY ALERT: Jet Airways has received a security alert for five flights from Delhi. All flights are on ground and are being checked by security agencies at the respective air-ports, the airline said. - Reuters file
A11
INDIAW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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Mamata trashes sting, threatens opposition
KOLKATA: Trashing the sting operation in which some of her party leaders are purportedly seen taking bribes, Trinamool Con-gress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said it won’t take her “a second” in getting back at her opponents in a like manner.
On a day when the Calcutta High Court heard litigations concerning the sting operation, Mamata, in an interview on a Ben-gali TV news channel, questioned the motive of the sting by a man who was “arrested for violating the Official Secrets Act”.
Lambasting the opposition BJP, Congress and the CPI-M for harp-ing on the sting operation during their election campaign, she at-tacked a section of the media for giving detailed coverage to the footage. Warning her political op-ponents, she said: “I can also do a similar thing by giving money to someone, but why would I do that?” Taking the names of sever-al prominent opposition leaders,
Mamata warned: “They are talk-ing big...how long will it take me, papers are there... Don’t make me open my mouth. It takes a second to do...,” she said.
Fake videosMamata termed the videos as “fake”. “If the videos are really authentic, then why is the media running a disclaimer about not having verified its authenticity? When the media itself does not trust the videos, then why is it serving such fake news to the peo-ple?” asked Mamata.
She ridiculed the BJP and the Congress which have filed peti-tions seeking a CBI probe into the sting operation.
Carried out by Narada News and uploaded on its website, the sting shows several top-notch Tri-
namool leaders including former central ministers, state ministers and MPs accepting bribe in return for favouring a fictitious company.
“Our party has already said it is a fake video and even in the court we have said that. What I have heard from media reports, the court has asked for details of the company. I heard the company was formed this year. Then how come it did the sting in 2014?
“The man behind the sting, he was arrested and was in jail. He was arrested by the CBI for vio-lating the Official Secrets Act and was granted bail later.
“He failed to appear and for vio-lating bail condition he was again arrested and again got bail later,” Mamata said about sting master-mind Mathew Samuel.
“What can be more damning
than this man violating the Of-ficial Secrets Act?” said Mamata, referring to Mathew’s arrest in 2010 after being accused by the CBI of unlawfully procuring of-ficial documents from a home ministry secret file and using it for a story.
With Samuel affirming he had been conducting the sting since 2014, Mamata questioned his mo-tive of releasing the videos just be-fore the assembly polls.
“Much like accepting bribe, giving bribe too is a crime. Being a journalist why would you ap-proach somebody like that? The entire video is fake, this has been manufactured. Why now at the time of elections, why are you so much afraid of the Trinamool that you have to resort to such tactics,” she asked. - IANS
Lambasting the
opposition BJP,
Congress and the
CPI-M for harping on
the sting operation
during their election
campaign, Mamata
Banerjee attacked
a section of the
media for giving
detailed coverage
to the footage
WOOING VOTERS: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee at
an election campaign rally ahead of Assembly polls in Kolkata on Monday. -PTI
76m Indians have no access to safe water, says reportKOCHI: India has the highest number of people — 76 million —in the world without access to safe water supply, followed by China and Nigeria, a WaterAid report said on Tuesday.
The people end up incurring high costs for access, which is pri-marily due to poor management of water resources, says the report ‘Water: At what cost? The State of the World’s Water’— released by the global agency to mark the World Water Day 2016.
The report placed India on the top of 10 countries in the world with the greatest numbers of peo-ple living without access to safe wa-ter, followed by China and Nigeria. Pakistan figures at the 10th place.
“Nearly 76 million people in In-dia have no access to a safe water supply. Most of those people are living on around £3 a day. If they have the opportunity to buy water from a tanker it can cost 1 rupee (£ 0.01) per litre, sometimes dou-ble if supplies are scarce,” says the report.
WaterAid, an international charity working on improving ac-cess to safe water, hygiene and sanitation, in its report says poor management of water resources was the biggest problem holding India back from reaching all of its population with water supplies.
Aquifers provide 85 per cent of drinking water, but levels are fall-ing in 56 per cent of the country, it warns.
“Hand pumps are exacerbating the crisis in many areas by deplet-ing shallow aquifers. Misappro-priation in planning and execution of water supply projects is another key factor. And projects often use inadequate sources or pipelines do not reach habitations. As a result, millions of people get insufficient or poor quality water,” it says.
The report further says commu-nities depend on a single or distant source for drinking water, often leading to disputes and increased discrimination against the main water fetchers: women and girls.
WaterAid’s analysis shows that in the developed world, a standard water bill is as little as 0.1 per cent of the income of someone earning the minimum wage.
However, in a country like India, a person reliant on a water vendor (tanker) for their water supply would spend as much as 17 per cent of their daily income on water to get just the recommended daily minimum supply. The report says for a poor person in the developing world with no access to safe water at home, buying the recommended 50 litres a day can be a huge drain on their meagre salary. - PTI
W A T E R A I D
WORLD WATER DAY: Children take part in a rally on the occasion of
World Water Day in Karad, Maharashtra on Tuesday. - PTI
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Grasping the squeeze on America’s MillennialsNoah Smith
Did rich countries like the US betray the millennial generation — the people born in the 1980s through the early 2000s?
Some make that claim. For example, a report in the Guardian discusses how high unemployment, sluggish income gains and student-loan debt have hit young people in Western countries hard. While these hardships are real, most of them don’t con-stitute a betrayal. In general, governments don’t try to do things that raise unemployment and lower incomes. Sometimes they inadvertently make mistakes — for example, austerity in some European economies has probably been a big un-forced error — but even then, they are simply be-ing misguided, not malevolent. Even the student-loan debacle was probably a result of government attempts to raise incomes by encouraging kids to educate themselves.
As much as we’d like to believe that govern-ment can control the economy, its power is lim-ited. Productivity gains, which drive much growth, are often due to improvements in technology. The government can spend money on research, tweak patent policies, craft more efficient financial mar-kets and invest in early-stage companies, but it isn’t clear how much these things will really boost growth. Economists have recognised that produc-tivity growth is slowing all over the world and that the chances of any one country’s policies being able to reverse this trend are probably fairly slim.
But that doesn’t mean the US and other de-veloped nations have done right by Millennials. In some important ways, they have betrayed the young generation. Any society faces a basic choice between consumption and investment. Produc-ing the things that raise living standards requires physical capital such as buildings, machines and infrastructure. It also needs technological ideas, which are produced through costly and time-consuming research. If we work hard and create more capital and more ideas today, our children and grandchildren can enjoy a richer life. When the baby boom generation sacrificed time and ma-terials to build the interstate highway system, for example, it ensured that Generation X and the Mil-lennials would have nice roads to drive on.
Unfortunately, the US hasn’t done as much of this sort of investment as it might have. Since the
1980s, private domestic investment net of depre-ciation has been falling steadily as a percentage of gross domestic product: net private domestic investment Because US companies didn’t invest as much as before, Americans haven’t had to work as hard, and have enjoyed higher consumption than they would have otherwise. Because govern-ment also hasn’t invested as much as before, taxes have been lower, and consumers have had more money to spend on health care and other kinds of government-funded consumption. It’s theoreti-cally possible for a country to invest too much, of course — if you build way too much capital, you’ll spend too much time and effort simply repairing it and upgrading it, and will be poorer as a result. But the US is probably well below this threshold.
So it’s a good bet that these choices mean Mil-lennials are poorer now than they otherwise would have been. Our low investment has meant more consumption for Baby Boomers, less for Millen-nials. There are other ways in which the US sac-rificed the consumption of Millennials so their parents could live more comfortable lives. Infla-tion, for example, has been low and stable in recent decades compared with earlier times:
Bursts of unexpected inflation redistribute wealth from lenders to borrowers, because each repaid dollar is worth less than when it was bor-rowed. But in the last few decades, there haven’t been any bursts of unexpected inflation. That means that Gen X and Millennial borrowers haven’t got the same kind of break on borrowing that Boomers got. Young people go into debt to buy houses, cars and to pay for college, so low and sta-ble inflation probably hurts the young and helps the old. Do these policies constitute a “betrayal” of the Millennials by the Boomer generation? It depends on your perspective. On the one hand, you might argue that each generation is free to choose to consume or invest as much as it wants. Enlight-enment philosophers and other moral authorities are silent on the exact percent of GDP that a coun-try should invest or consume.
But it’s certainly true that the US and most other Western countries have invested less in the last 35 years than they did in the previous 35. That means that the Baby Boomers left their kids less, relative to their own consumption, than their own parents did. In a time of slowing productivity, that has been a tough blow to today’s youngsters. - Bloomberg View
Health clinics should abide by ministry guidelines This refers to the report How clean and safe is your health clinic? (March 21). Good observations have been made, as the article has raised some valid points when it comes to clinical safety. However,
the most disappointing fact is that some of the renowned health facilities too often ignore hygiene quality, which worries both the patients and their close relatives. First of all, it is difficult to accept clinics’ failures in complying with health and safety regula-tions. As far as health safety is concerned, there cannot be any compromise in adhering to the prevailing regulations. Complying with all basic health and safety guidelines ideally helps preventing spread of infections, especially when seasonal diseases breakout. Patients being treated with expired medicines and injections are setting wrong precedence and totally go against the principles of medical ethics. Some of the established hospitals do try for health and safety accreditations, by which they are obliged to maintain the minimum standard in keeping the premises, includ-
ing the internal facilities, neat and tidy at all the times. The hospital leadership and management have their responsible roles to abide by the policies and guidelines set by the Ministry of Health. — Ramachandran Nair, Ruwi
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Seminar reviews obstacles faced by insurance sectorMUSCAT: Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, undersecretary for Commerce and Industry, yesterday opened a seminar on obstacles to the insur-ance sector in the Sultanate and effects of the WTO agreement on insurance at the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI). The seminar that was attended by Sheikh Salim bin Hilal Al Khalili, OCCI president, and a number of government and private sector of-ficials and insurance company officials as well as a police delegation from AGCC taking part in the AGCC Traffic Week activities here.
1857: Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, in New York City.
1903: The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.
1920: Great Britain denounces the United States because of its delay in joining the League of Nations.
1942: Japanese occupy the Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean.
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The reality is that the British public debate on sovereignty will not end when the votes are counted. After all, even if the majority says “yes” to the European Union, a share of the population – a substantial one, according to the polls – will remain convinced that Brexit would have
been much better for Britain
JAVIER SOLANA
Possible futures for Ukraine’s Donbas: One could be found under
framework of Minsk peace process, the series of agreements cobbled together to defuse the showdown between Russia and Ukraine. Or
the region could become the site of a “frozen conflict” of the sort found elsewhere in post-Soviet territory
CARL BILDT
When the US embargo is lifted, Cuba – which for much of the
19th and 20th centuries was the Caribbean’s predominant economy
— is likely to take a growing bite out of Puerto Rico’s fortunes, in tourism and services. And that’s
before accounting for Puerto Rico’s existing fiscal straits, which will lead
to shrinking government services
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PAKISTANW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
INTERNATIONAL WORLD WATER DAY Pakistani residents use a communal pump to fill water containers in Quetta on Tuesday. International World Water Day is marked annually on March 22 to focus global attention on the importance of water and advocate for sustainable water resource management. — AFP
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Pink Rickshaw service struggles
LAHORE: Pakistan’s first women-only rickshaw service was meant to provide its staff with a new way of gaining financial independence and its passengers with the chance of a ride without being groped and harassed by male drivers. But, after just a year in business, the “Pink Rickshaw” in the Punjabi city of Lahore, is struggling.
Help has been promised by a Scotland-based charity, run by pop star Annie Lennox, and Pink Rickshaw founder, Zar Aslam, said she hopes to get the money for ten rickshaws by September.
AimedZar, who herself narrowly escaped kidnapping in a rickshaw when she was a student, told Reuters she had aimed to have 25 of the pink-and-white rickshaws on the road by mid-2016 but the manufactur-ers have sent only six, and three are too old to use.
“There are several women wait-ing to get the rickshaws,” said Zar, who also runs the Environment Protection Fund.
The rickshaws cost about $3,000 each, and more if you add tracking and anti-theft systems. “The first few rickshaws we bought were ex-pensive but now we’re looking at cheaper models,” she said.
That would help women who, like Parveen Bibi, want to zip around town making a living and making life easier in a country where sexual crime is rife and of-ten goes without being reported or punished. “Women passengers are happy that they can now travel with a female tri-auto driver and feel comfortable,” she says. — Reuters
Founder of the service, Zar Aslam, hopes to
get money for ten rickshaws by September
LIFELINE Parveen Bibi cleans her Pink Rickshaw as she prepares to drive around looking for passengers in Lahore, Pakistan on Thursday, November 12, 2015. - Reuters
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The only disappointment is to get the funding for more rickshaws because the demand is out there and it is just a matter of getting all the funds togetherZar Aslam, Pink Rickshaw founder
Afghan Taliban breakaway group denies its leader heldISLAMABAD: The leader of a breakaway faction of the Taliban is leading his fighters in Afghani-stan, his deputy said on Tuesday, contradicting three senior mem-bers of the extremist group and denying a newspaper report that he had been detained.
Three senior Taliban told Reu-ters that Mullah Mohammad Ra-sool, who leads a faction that has rejected the authority of the ove-ment’s leader, Mullah Moham-mad Mansour, had been detained two weeks ago in Balochistan province on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper said that Rasool was being held by Pakistani authori-ties. Quoting two unnamed Tali-ban leaders, the newspaper said Rasool was held in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan following heavy fighting in recent months with militants loyal to Mansour.
Rasool’s deputy, Mullah Ab-dul Manan Niazi, dismissed the report as “propaganda of our en-emies” and two Pakistani security officials also denied the report.
“Mullah Rasool is in Afghani-stan and leading his fighters,” Niazi said.
But he added that his group’s survival did not depend on one leader.
“Our resistance will not stop with the arrest or killing of Mul-lah Rasool or any other leader,” Niazi said.
The mixed reports add a fur-ther twist to the opaque nature of the leadership of the Taliban, who control or threaten more Afghan territory than at any time since their hard-line government was toppled in 2001.
Shoring up supportRasool is the biggest rival to Man-sour, who claimed the leader-ship of the Taliban last year after news emerged of founder Mul-lah Omar’s death and who has been shoring up support against rival factions.
One senior member of the fac-tion loyal to Mullah Mansour said
that Rasool had been in hiding in the western Afghan city of Herat but had recently decided to move to Pakistan, where many Taliban leaders are believed to be living.
Two senior Pakistani security officials denied Rasool was in Pa-kistani custody.
“Our last information is that he fled infighting in Afghanistan,” one of the officials said, request-ing anonymity.
Alongside its recent battlefield successes, the movement has been in turmoil since last year when it was forced to admit that Mullah Omar had died two years earlier. — Reuters
M U L L A H R A S O O L
Mullah Rasool’s faction has firmly opposed joining peace talks with the Afghan government and accuses Mullah Mansour of covering up Mullah Omar’s death and being under the control of PakistanMullah Mohammad Rasool
Sharif eyes trade talks as Rouhani to visit this weekISLAMABAD: With Iran Presi-dent Hassan Rouhani expected in Pakistan later this week, Islama-bad and Tehran are likely to review their overall trade relations after the lifting of international sanc-tions on Iran.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his desire to strengthen relations with Iran on Monday during a meeting with envoy Me-hdi Honardoost, who called on him at the Prime Minister’s House.
“The visit will be a great oppor-tunity for us to review the whole range of bilateral relations and fur-ther strengthen our brotherly ties,” an official statement quoted Sharif as saying.
Pakistan, he added, greatly val-ues its fraternal ties with Iran and considers Iran a close friend and a neighbour.
Expeditious resumption“We are pleased to note that in-ternational economic sanctions on Iran have been lifted, paving the way for expeditious resump-tion of commercial and economic ties between our countries,” Sharif said. “I am looking forward to wel-
coming President Rouhani later this week.”
During his visit to Iran in Janu-ary, Sharif had invited the Iranian president to visit Pakistan. Paki-stan has already lifted sanctions on Iran after the United Nations eased curbs on the Islamic Repub-lic. Rouhani is likely to push for the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. The project was to be com-missioned in December 2014 but work was stalled after sanctions were placed on Tehran. Officials say there are hopes the project can be implemented now. — Express Tribune
L I F T I N G O F S A N C T I O N S O N I R A N
Hassan Rouhani
A14
WORLDW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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MAYHEM: People flee from the Brussels airport in this image taken from video, shot by a
bystander in the the immediate aftermath of blasts at the airport near Brussels, Belgium, on Tues-
day. – Reuetrs/Asher Gunsberg/Handout via Reuters TV
30 killed in Brussels airport, metro train attacks claimed by IS group
BRUSSELS: IS militant group claimed responsibility for attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday which killed at least 30 people, a news agency affiliated to the group said.
The Amaq agency said suicide bombers from the group, strapped into explosive belts, had staged both attacks. Belgian media said police were hunting one attacker who had survived.
The coordinated assault trig-gered security alerts across Europe and drew global expres-sions of support, four days after Brussels police had captured the prime surviving suspect in IS’ at-tacks on Paris last November. A witness said he heard shouts and shots shortly before two blasts struck a packed airport departure lounge at Brussels airport.
Belgian media published a se-curity camera picture of three young men pushing laden luggage trolleys through the airport and reported that police suspected them of being the attackers. They said two were suspected of having blown themselves up while police were hunting the third.
Amaq carried the claim of re-sponsibility several hours after the morning attacks. “IS opened fire inside Zaventem Airport, be-fore several of them detonated their explosive belts, as a martyr-dom bomber detonated his explo-sive belt in the Maalbeek metro station,” it said.
Austrian Horst Pilger, who was awaiting a flight with his family when the attackers struck, said his children had thought fireworks were going off, but he instantly knew an assault was underway. “My wife and I both thought ‘bomb’. We looked into each oth-er’s eyes,” he told Reuters. “Five or 10 seconds later there was a major, major, major blast in close vicinity. It was massive.”
Pilger, who works at the Euro-pean Commission, said the whole ceiling collapsed and smoke flood-ed the building.
US President Barack Obama led calls of support to Belgian Prime
Minister Charles Michel after Brussels went into a state of vir-tual lock-down. “We must be to-gether regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” Obama told a news conference in Cuba. “We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.”
Michel spoke at a Brussels news conference of a “black mo-ment” for his country. “What we had feared has come to pass.”
The blasts occurred after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for reprisal but the attacks took place in crowded areas where people and bags are not searched.
All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in Lon-don during 2005 militant attacks there that killed 52. Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are”.
ClosedBrussels airport will remain closed on Wednesday, its chief ex-ecutive Arnaud Feist told report-ers. Public broadcaster VRT said police had found a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the body of an attacker at the airport. Such weapons have become a trade-mark of IS-inspired attacks in Europe, notably in Belgium and France, including on November 13 in Paris. An unused explosive belt was also found in the area, the public broadcaster said. Police were continuing to scour the air-port for any further bombs or at-tackers. Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, told Reuters he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion. “Then the glass ceiling of the air-port collapsed.”
“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.
A witness said the blasts oc-curred at a check-in desk. Video
showed devastation in the hall with ceiling tiles and glass scat-tered across the floor. Some pas-sengers emerged from the ter-minal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still haul-ing their bags. Public broadcaster RTBF said police were searching houses in the Brussels area.
A Crisis Centre spokesman issued provisional figures of 20 killed in the metro and 10 at the airport. Public broadcaster VRT had said earlier 20 were killed in the train and 14 at the airport.
Many of the dead and wounded at the airport were badly injured in the legs, one airport worker told Reuters, suggesting at least one bomb in a bag on the floor.
Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spill-over from conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures. Security was tightened at the Dutch border with Belgium. The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek station, close to European Union institu-tions, heading to the city centre.
VRT carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed and interior mangled and charred.
A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside Maelbeek metro station, on the main Rue de la Loi avenue which connects central Brussels with the EU institutions. Ambu-lances were ferrying the wounded away and sirens rang out across the area. “We are at war and we have been subjected to acts of war in Europe for the last few months,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.
Brussels airport said it had can-celled all flights until at least 6am (0500 GMT) on Wednesday and the complex had been evacuated and trains to the airport had been stopped. Passengers were taken to coaches from the terminal that would remove them to a secure area. All three main long-distance rail stations in Brussels were closed and train services on the cross-channel tunnel from London to Brussels were suspended. Security services have been on a high state of alert across western Europe for fear of militant attacks backed by IS, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attack. — Reuters
The coordinated
assault triggered
security alerts across
Europe and drew
global expressions
of support, four days
after Brussels police
had captured the
prime surviving
suspect in IS’
attacks on Paris
last November
THE RESCUERS: Rescue workers treat victims at the airport, in this image taken from television video,
after a blast in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday. – Reuters/RTL Belgium via Reuters TV
THE SUSPECTS: A picture released on Tuesday by the Belgian Federal Police on demand of the Federal
prosecutor shows a screengrab of the airport CCTV camera showing three suspects of this morning’s at-
tacks at Brussels Airport, in Zaventem. – AFP/ Belgian Federal Police
SECONDS AFTER BLASTS: This image grab made on Tuesday
from a video by RTL TVI shows people lying on the floor after a
blast inside Brussels airport in Zaventem. – AFP/RTL TVI
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WORLDW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Obama urges political liberties
HAVANA: US President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned appeal for political liberties in Cuba, including freedom of ex-pression and religion, as he spoke directly to the Cuban people on Tuesday in a historic speech broadcast throughout the Com-munist-ruled island.
Speaking at Havana’s Grand Theater with Cuban President
Raul Castro in attendance in what White House officials touted as a crowning moment of Obama’s visit, Obama extended a “hand of friendship.”
He declared that he had come to Havana to “bury the last remnant” of the Cold War in the Americas.
But he also pressed for econom-
ic and political reforms, speaking in a one-party state where little dissent is tolerated.
“Voters should be able to chose their governments in free and democratic elections,” he said.
“Not everybody agrees with me on this, not everybody agrees with the American people on this
but I believe those human rights are universal. I believe they’re the rights of the American people, the Cuban people and people around the world,” Obama said.
His address marked the final day of his trip, the first by a US president to Cuba in 88 years. His presence in Havana was the cul-mination of a diplomatic opening that he and Castro announced in December 2014, ending decades of estrangement between Washing-ton and Havana that began soon after Cuba’s 1959 revolution.
Obama drew strong applause from the audience when he reiter-ated his call for an end to the long-standing US economic embargo against Cuba, which only the US Congress can lift.
Isolate CubaObama, who abandoned a long-time US policy of trying to isolate
Cuba, wants to make his shift irre-versible by the time he leaves office in January and secure it as a piece of his foreign policy legacy.
But major obstacles remain to full normalisation of ties, most notably the continuing US embargo and differences over human rights.
The Republican-controlled Congress has so far rejected the Democratic president’s call for a lifting of the embargo, although Obama has used his executive powers to ease some trade and travel restrictions on the island.
The president’s critics at home have called his visit a premature reward to the Castro government. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said on Tuesday the trip legitimis-es what he called Castro’s “tyran-nical dictatorship.”
With his words carried live by Cuba’s state-run media, Obama sought to persuade ordinary Cu-bans that his new policy, includ-ing easing of trade and travel re-strictions, was focused primarily on helping them to improve their lives. — Reuters
Extending a ‘hand
of friendship, US
President Barack
Obama declared
that he had come to
Cuba to ‘bury the last
remnant’ of the Cold
War in the Americas
Violence erupts as Jakarta cabbies protest against ride-hailing appsJAKARTA: Indonesian cabbies clashed with motorbike drivers working for online apps on Tues-day, pulling them off their bikes and assaulting them as thousands of drivers took to the streets of Jakarta calling for a ban on ride-hailing apps like Grab and Uber.
Police were overwhelmed as convoys of blue and white taxis operated by PT Blue Bird and PT Express Transindo Utama blocked thoroughfares. Police said 83 people were detained af-ter skirmishes that saw drivers smash taxi windshields, attack other drivers and burn tyres in parts of the city.
The proliferation of cheap taxis using ride-hailing apps Go-jek, Grab and Uber in gridlocked Jakarta has made the traditional pick-up and drop-off taxi servic-es unprofitable, threatening the business models of the country’s top taxi firms. The online apps currently offer heavily subsidised rates for their rides in an attempt to gain market share.
“Right now there are legal taxis and illegal taxis,” said Mat Ali, 54, an Express taxi driver who marched in front of parliament as others burned tyres.
“We are not allergic to compe-tition with Uber and Grab... but we just want them to meet the government’s requirements.”
Transportation Minister Igna-sius Jonan said companies like Uber were illegal unless they were registered as public trans-port providers and subject to the same rules as regular taxi op-erators. “The point is, it has to be fair,” Jonan told reporters.
Government ministers called for calm and said the tech firms should be subject to the same le-gal and tax requirements as con-
ventional public transportation companies. “Give us time to find the best solution, it can’t be done overnight,” chief security minis-ter Luhut Pandjaitan told a news conference.
A Bluebird official said the company would offer free taxi rides for 24 hours to make up for the disruption in services.
“We don’t agree with or sup-port the anarchic demonstra-tion,” Bluebird commissioner Noni Purnomo told reporters.
But some Jakarta residents re-jected the offer on social media using the hashtag #NoThanks-Bluebird.
David Santoso, a director of Express, also said in a statement the company had urged its driv-ers not to join the protest.
Indonesia’s president has wel-comed the competition provided by the new companies, but the status of their operations in the country was unclear.
Companies like Grab and Go-jek were running as usual on Tuesday despite the protests.
“We’ve advised our drivers and passengers to be careful in the areas where the demonstrations are happening,” said Ekhel Chan-dra Wijaya, of Grab Indonesia.
One Go-jek driver said he wasn’t afraid of the protesters.
“We in the online business are looking for money, we’re not looking for trouble,” said Abdul Rohman, who wore the com-pany’s easily recognisable green jacket. — Reuters
T A K I N G T O T H E S T R E E T S
US President Barack Obama’s presence in Havana was the culmination
of a diplomatic opening that he and Cuban President Raul Castro
announced in December 2014, ending decades of estrangement between
Washington and Havana that began soon after Cuba’s 1959 revolution.
HISTORIC VISIT: Cuban President Raul Castro, right, raises US
President Barack Obama’s hand during a meeting at the Revolution
Palace in Havana on Monday. – AFP
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UP IN ARMS: Indonesian taxi drivers gather to listen to their
union leaders delivering speeches as they protest against Uber
and other ride-hailing services, outside the parliament building
in Jakarta on Tuesday. – AFP
Rousseff vows to never resignBRASILIA/SAO PAULO: Bra-zil’s President Dilma Rousseff said on Tuesday she will not re-sign under any circumstances and equated a bid to impeach her to a “coup d’etat” against democratic rule because she had committed no crime.
Rousseff called on Brazil’s Su-preme Court to remain impar-tial in the political dispute and said the authorised release of a wiretap of a telephone conver-sation of hers was a violation of the country’s constitution and national security.
Meanwhile, Justice Rosa We-ber upheld a decision barring former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking a min-istry post in embattled Dilma’s government.
Last week, Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes blocked Lula from taking office as chief of staff to Rousseff, his successor. — Reuters
B R A Z I L
A16 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
YOUR BIGGEST ROAD HAZARD IS IN YOUR HAND A TIMES OF OMAN
HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE
MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6B
Muscat
5,430.11 + 53.76
+ 1.00%
Dubai
3,353.20- 25.43
- 0.75%
Abu Dhabi
4,388.68+ 33.85
+ 0.78%
Saudi Arabia
6,432.33- 53.78
- 0.83%
Kuwait
5,251.80- 3.74
- 0.07%
Bahrain
1,159.92 - 3.18
- 0.27%
Qatar
10,479.71+ 34.78
+ 0.33%
CURRENCY RATES* DRAFT RATES (OMR1)* GOLD PRICES*Forex rates vs OMR1*
US Dollar .................................2.58
Euro ............................................2.28
Pound ........................................... 1.79
Indian Rs .............................. 172.41
Pakistan Rs .........................267.31
Bangla Taka......................200.76* Rates are as of Mar. 22
Source: Bank Muscat
Indian Rs ....................................173.01
Pakistan Rs ..............................271.75
Sri Lanka Rs ..................................N/A
Bangla Taka........................... 203.50
Phil Peso .................................... 119.95
* Rates as of Mar. 22 Source: Oman UAE Exchange
Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......15.95
Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......15.30
Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ............ 150.75
Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) .............. 141.75
* Rates as of Mar. 22
Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Type ............................Delivery...........Price
Oman Crude ............. (Spot) .........$37.68
Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) .........$37.68
Murban Crude ........ (Spot) ........$40.65
Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$36.68
N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) .........$41.09
West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$40.89
CRUDE OIL PRICE
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OMAN CRUDE RISESOman Crude May delivery price rose 62 cents to $38.41 per barrel, said Dubai Mercantile Exchange. The average price of Oman Crude (April delivery) stabilised at $30.23, a growth of $2.83 per barrel over March delivery 2016. – ONA
Oman to issue development bond
MUSCAT: Oman’s central bank has announced the new issue of government development bonds.
The Central Bank of Oman said that the size of the new issue is fixed at OMR100 million with a maturity period of 7 years and will carry a coupon rate of 5 per cent per annum.
The issue will be open for sub-scription from April 3 to 14, while the auction will be held on April 10,. The issue settlement date will be on April 25.
Interest on the new bonds will be paid semi-annually on October 25 and April 25 every year until maturity date on April 25, 2023.
Investors may apply for these bonds through the competitive bidden process only. Investors may submit bids through commer-cial licensed banks operating in the Sultanate.
OMR1 million and above Investors with applications of OMR1 million and above can, if they so wish submit their bids di-rectly to COO after getting them endorsed from their banks. Pro-spectus and application forms can be obtained from any commercial licensed bank operating in the Sultanate of Oman.
The bonds are direct and un-conditional obligations of the Gov-ernment of Sultanate. The bonds
can be used as collateral to obtain loans from any local commercial licensed bank. The bonds can also be traded at prevailing market rates through the Muscat Securi-ties Market (MSM).
The details of the bonds allot-ted will be recorded in the register maintained by Muscat Clearing and Depositary Company (MCD). Investors must provide the same bank account details registered with MCD. – ONA
The size of the new issue is fixed at OMR100
million with a maturity period of 7 years and
will carry a coupon rate of 5% per annum
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
NEW ISSUE: The Central Bank of Oman said that the interest on the
new bonds will be paid semi-annually on October 25 and April 25
every year until maturity date on April 25, 2023. – Times file picture
B2
MARKETW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Oman Economic Forum to open today
MUSCAT: Fiffth edition of Oman Economic Forum will start on Wednesday at Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa, Muscat un-der the theme ‘Oman: a Bridge be-tween Asia and GCC.’
The opening ceremony of the forum will be held under the pa-tronage of Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, minister of commerce
and industry. The forum is or-ganised by the Ministry of Com-merce and Industry, in conjunc-tion with Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group, the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) and Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CBO).
The forum’s programme will tackle a range of topics including
Oman’s economic outlook, Oman’s role as a bridge between Asia and the GCC, the key investment op-portunities in the Sultanate, the investment prospects in Iran, the main factors attracting invest-ments and the enhancement of en-trepreneurship through small and
medium enterprises.It aims to support the develop-
ment goals of the government and in particular the objective of pro-moting the Sultanate position as a station for international trade and the movement of multimodal trans-port between continents, as well as
a hub for attracting international investments by providing the best environment attractive to them.
Seven working sessionsThe forum will include seven working sessions as the first ses-sion will be on Oman’s Economic Outlook through future vision for Oman’s economy, assessing oil prices trends and adapting to the new reality, major achievements in the economic diversification strat-egy, Elements and objectives of the ninth five-year plan.
The speakers of the first session are Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, minister of commerce and indus-try; Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, minister of transport and communications; Sultan bin Salim
AI Habsi, secretary general of the Supreme Council for Planning; and Yahya bin Said Al Jabri, chair-man of the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm (Sezad).
Keynote speeches will be deliv-ered during this session by Eng. Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Iranian Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade, Qian Keming, Vice Minister of Commerce, Chi-na and Miki Yamada, Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. – ONA
Forum will discuss Oman’s economic outlook,
the country’s role as a bridge between Asia
and the GCC and key investment avenues
Digitalisation vital for Oman’s oil and gas sector growth: SiemensTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Siemens is highlight-ing technology’s ability to reduce production and operations costs within Oman’s oil and gas sector at the Oil & Gas West Asia Exhi-bition and Conference in Muscat.
The company is demonstrating how continued efforts within the Sultanate to embrace advanced technologies in the oil and gas industry will be a contributing factor in weathering the current climate of low oil prices.
“Due to the current industry landscape in Oman, companies are increasingly interested in technology that will optimise pro-duction capacity at lower costs. The Siemens portfolio addresses exactly that — using software, sensors, process automation and data analytics to drive efficiency and increase reliability across
the value chain,” said Markus Strohmeier, chief executive of-ficer of Siemens Oman.
Siemens has been a develop-ment partner to Oman for more than 40 years.
The company’s full portfolio of products and solutions is pre-sent in the Sultanate, from power generation and distribution to
building technology, mobility and healthcare.
Siemens technology has been widely implemented in Oman and the company has contributed to the continued development of the oil and gas industry with highly efficient technology including compressors, power generators and gas and steam turbines.
C O N F E R E N C E
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Gulf states not to scrap currency pegs to US dollar, says Moody’sDUBAI: Gulf Cooperation Coun-cil states are unlikely to abandon their decades-old currency pegs to the United States dollar even as a slump in oil prices puts a $250 billion squeeze on the re-gion’s finances, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
“The GCC’s large foreign-currency reserves provide am-ple room to maintain pegged exchange-rate regimes for several years, even in an adverse oil price scenario,” senior analyst Mathias Angonin said at a press briefing in Dubai. “Changes to the cur-rent exchange-rate regimes are unlikely because the costs asso-ciated with one-off devaluations would outweigh the benefits.”
Hedge funds such as Zach Schreiber’s Point State Capital and Knighthead Capital Manage-ment are among those that have
been using derivatives includ-ing forward contracts to bet that countries such as Saudi Arabia will be forced to abandon their currency pegs and devalue the ri-yal, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. Moody’s put credit ratings of five of the six GCC nations on review for a cut earlier this month, citing the shock of depressed oil prices on these economies.
Funding sourcesGulf states are expected to have a combined fiscal deficit of about $250 billion over the next two years, which is expected to be fi-nanced by a draw-down of curren-cy reserves and less than half in borrowing, according to Angonin.
Saudi Arabia is looking for other sources of funding to plug a budget deficit that is expected
to reach 17.8 per cent of econom-ic output this year, according to Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment. So far, the government has mostly relied on a domestic bond pro-gram and drawing down foreign reserves held by the central bank. It raised 98 billion riyals ($26 billion) from selling bonds to lo-cal institutions last year, and will probably sell about 120 billion ri-yals of debt in 2016, Saudi Fransi Capital said in October.
Saudi Monetary Agency has repeatedly said it will stick with its currency peg. In a bid to curb speculation, the agency in Janu-ary ordered banks in the kingdom to stop offering options con-tracts on riyal forwards to their clients, five people with knowl-edge of the matter said at the time. Currency depegging would raise uncertainty. - Bloomberg News
F O R E X R A T E S
B3W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
MARKETMSM invites entries for competitionTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Muscat Securities Market (MSM) started receiv-ing applications from students of all colleges and universities in Oman, who wish to participate in the Financial Analysis Challenge (FAC) competition.
This competition is aimed at strengthening financial analysis skills of students and give them an opportunity to compete among themselves in the field of finan-cial securities and gain the first hand experience of creating equity reports and financial analysis of listed companies
Only groups of four to five stu-dents can participate in the chal-lenge thus it also promotes team-work and leadership skills among the youth of the Sultanate.
Financial Analysis Challenge competition is divided in two phases: the first phase include a declaration and registration of the participants and in order to give them a specific list of companies listed on the MSM to prepare a re-port that includes financial analy-sis of that particular company that has been selected and then pre-sented to a special jury.
The judges will choose the best five teams that will qualify for the second phase which will be at the closing ceremony, where the final-ist teams will present their report and the results obtained during the analysis in front of an audience and a panel of judges that will then select the top three teams.
The competition is organised by the Muscat Securities Market in collaboration with the Sultan Qaboos University, represented by the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, also the Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), Bank Muscat and the Oman Cables Industry announced its support and sponsorship of this competition.
F I N A N C I A L A N A L Y S I S Omantel’s fibre optic cable set to connect East Africa
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Telecommuni-catiosn Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s leading telecom ser-vice provider, has joined in a con-sortium with several East African telecommunications providers to lay the Gulf to Africa (G2A) un-dersea fibre-optic cable, which is set to revolutionise connectivity from Oman to East Africa, includ-ing Ethiopia and Somalia.
The G2A undersea cable repre-sents the first phase of Omantel’s expansion eastwards into the Af-rican continent, providing cable connectivity to the Middle East, Asia and Europe and transform-ing Oman into a communications hub of the Middle East.
The G2A undersea cable con-sortium includes Omantel, Ethio Telecom from Ethiopia and Golis Telecom and the Telesom Com-pany from Somalia. The state-of-the-art cable system, scheduled for completion by the end of 2016,
will comprise 1,500km Subsea segment and a 1,500km terrestrial segment with a capacity 20Tbits of capacity with the latest 100G technology.
Somalia via SalalahCommenting on the regional and global importance of the G2A pro-ject, the vice-president of Oman-tel Wholesale Sohail Qadir said, “This is the first step in our jour-ney of expansion into Africa. We will connect Oman directly to So-malia via the Salalah cable landing point, and then extend the cable further into Africa to Ethiopia.”
“Somalia and Ethiopia, cur-rently two highly underserved countries, will soon be connected to our international low-latency
network, and in doing so will gain access to all the content hosted in Oman through Omantel and deliver services from Europe and Southeast Asia,” he added.
The G2A undersea cable is central to the Omantel 3.0 trans-formation strategy, which aims to transform Oman into a regional communications hub. Currently under implementation, and aug-menting the 3.0 growth strategy is the BBG cable which is set to be the first undersea cable that will directly connect the Middle East with Singapore.
Similarly, the existing EPEG ca-ble, a terrestrial cable connecting Oman to Germany via Iran, Azer-baijan, Russia and Ukraine will offer services to the region at the lowest
latency and the highest quality.“Oman, powered by Omantel, is
well on the way to becoming a ma-jor communications hub for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Already over half of the 24 international submarine cables
that connect to the Arabian Gulf are connected through Omantel. In the coming years, further ex-tending our reach internationally is a key focus for Omantel, and a central goal of our 3.0 transfor-mation strategy. We are planning to expand our network reach by placing POPs (Point of Presence) in over 20 countries across the globe and locally host major inter-national content through multiple data centres in the near future. Throughout history Oman has al-ways been a gateway to the region, facilitating trade and commerce from East to West and West to East. At Omantel, we aim to con-tinue Oman’s proud tradition, this time facilitating the transfer of in-formation, in this new digital age,” Sohail Qadir added.
Submarine cableIn the international wholesale arena, Omantel is considered one of the most prominent and com-petitive wholesale telecommu-nication providers in the Middle East region. In addition, it is one of the leading companies in the field of submarine cable networks and a key participant in several sub-marine cables, complemented by direct terrestrial links, which link Asia, Europe and America passing through Oman to meet the inter-national capacity requirements of customers locally and inter-nationally, thereby sustaining the vompany’s leading position among its competitors.
Omantel’s wholesale strategy is to be a carrier of carriers and to be the link between the East and the West for the region and beyond.
Gulf to Africa
undersea cable
represents the first
phase of Omantel’s
expansion eastwards
into the African
continent, providing
cable connectivity to
the Middle East, Asia
and Europe
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
COMMUNICATION HUB : The state-of-the-art cable system, sched-
uled for completion by the end of 2016, will comprise 1,500km
subsea segment and a 1,500km terrestrial segment. - Supplied picture
This is the first step
in our journey of
expansion into Africa.
We will connect Oman
directly to Somalia
via the Salalah cable
landing point, and
then extend the
cable further into
Africa to Ethiopia
Sohail Qadir Vice-president, Omantel (Wholesale)
Google speeds up cloud expansion in race with AmazonCALIFORNIA: Google’s new cloud chief Diane Greene had un-settling news for employees at an internal sales meeting this month in the United States: They weren’t tak-ing corporate customers seriously enough and needed to sell harder, be hungrier and less complacent.
That was an unusual message at Google, which typically venerates technology over sales and mar-keting. But it was a necessary one. Google is third in cloud computing, an increasingly popular way for companies to run their IT opera-tions. That’s a $20 billion-a-year business forecast to grow 35 per cent over the next year, according to Gartner.
To climb this ranking, the Al-phabet subsidiary will massively expand its network of data cen-tres, a move that fits with Google’s tendency to rely on technological
solutions to challenges.
New strategyBut Greene is also adopting strat-egies beyond Google’s usual play-book. The company is working on tools that can broaden its corpo-rate user base to include less tech-nically savvy customers, and it’s embarked on a hiring spree aimed at selling and explaining these new products.
“There was a pretty darn good vision in place and now I’m just bringing everybody together so that we all know what we’re doing,” said Greene, who’s also on Alpha-bet’s board. “The cloud is a revolu-tion, I mean it’s rivaling the indus-trial revolution, and it’s pretty fun being this involved.”
After pretty much inventing the cloud for its own use in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Google left
Amazon.com to turn the idea into a service that other companies could rent. That became Amazon Web Services, a division which made almost $8 billion in sales in 2015, making it top cloud dog ahead of Microsoft and Google, which pulled in $500 million last
year, according to Morgan Stanley.In November, Google hired
Greene to change that. She’s a Silicon Valley legend who co-founded VMware in 1998 to bring a technology called virtualisation into the data centres of most large companies. Virtualisation lets a
single computer server do the job of many, a valuable capability that made Amazon Web Services pos-sible. When she was fired in 2008 after falling out with VMware’s board, the company lost almost a quarter of its value in a day.
In coming months Google will open two new cloud regions — Google-speak for data centers stuffed with computers and soft-ware that customers can rent over the Internet — in Oregon and Ja-pan. Another ten are coming over the next 12 to 18 months, either as facilities leased from other provid-ers, or built and operated by Google.
“We know what the recipe is,” said Urs Holzle, Greene’s new tech-nical consigliere who has run Goog-le’s infrastructure for over a decade. “Let’s go apply it everywhere.”
Google has three regions today. By quintupling its digital reach,
the company can serve more busi-nesses faster while conforming to local regulations, many of which demand that certain types of data never leave a country. Amazon operates 12 regions today, with a further five planned.
MarketingGoogle is also spending more on marketing to compete against enterprise-focused rivals like Mi-crosoft. Google’s pioneering, Web-based suite of work apps now trails Microsoft Office365 in revenue, Forrester Research estimates. “We have, like, the best office produc-tivity suite, but people don’t know it,” said Greene, who is hiring a chief marketing officer. Google is splashing out on billboards around San Francisco ahead of a confer-ence this week for cloud customers. - Bloomberg News
C L O U D C O M P U T I N G
Oman’s central bank chief to attend Saudi meet
MUSCAT: Hamoud bin Sangour Al Zedjali, executive president of Central Bank of Oman, will lead the Sultanate’s delegation to the 64th meeting of the Committee of Monetary Institutions and Central Banks Governors, due to be held in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The meeting will discuss several topics related to over-
sighting and auditing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banking system, in addition to payment systems and the legal requirements to link the GCC payment systems.
The meeting will also discuss topics related to statistics and re-search training in relation to the banking fields. - ONA
G C C C O N F E R E N C E
B4
MARKETW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET
SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 22
REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 4,117,179 .... 1,598,752................... 301 ........... 0.368 ........... 0.394 ...........0.368........... 0.388 .............0.368 ........... 0.020 ............. 5.435 ................0.390..............0.388...................0.390 .................933,688,526........0.100
OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 1,276,075 ...... 122,140..................... 59 ........... 0.092 ........... 0.097 ...........0.092........... 0.096 .............0.092 ........... 0.004 ............. 4.348 ................0.097 ..............0.097...................0.098....................5,648,949 ..........0.100
OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ...................... 382,595 ............29,199..................... 43 ........... 0.074 ........... 0.077 ...........0.074 ........... 0.076 .............0.073 ........... 0.003 ............. 4.110 ................0.076 ..............0.076...................0.077....................2,280,000 ..........0.100
OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ........... 129,843 ............13,564......................16 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.106 ...........0.100 ........... 0.104 .............0.100 ........... 0.004 .............4.000 ................0.106 ..............0.106................... 0.110 ....................9,360,000 ..........0.100
OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES ..................................... 952,800 ......... 169,977.....................44 ............0.177 ........... 0.180 ...........0.175 ............0.178 ............. 0.172............ 0.006 ............. 3.488 ................0.178 .............. 0.174...................0.178 ................... 51,735,882 .........0.100
OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 1,868,023 ...... 346,133...................140 ............0.182 ........... 0.187 ...........0.182 ............0.185 ............. 0.179 ............ 0.006 ............. 3.352 ................0.186 .............. 0.186...................0.187 ................... 27,763,875 .........0.100
OM0000003521 ............GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. .................. 3,934,209 ..... 255,019....................115 ........... 0.064 ........... 0.066 ...........0.063........... 0.065 .............0.063 ........... 0.002 ............. 3.175.................0.066 ..............0.065...................0.066................... 18,848,741 .........0.100
OM0000003125 ............GLOBAL FINANCIAL INVESTMENT ................ 353,288 ............49,137......................19 ............0.135 ........... 0.145 ...........0.135 ............0.139 ............. 0.135 ............ 0.004 ............. 2.963 ................0.145 .............. 0.143...................0.147 ...................27,800,000 .........0.100
OM0000001087 ............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 914,415 .......... 225,051..................... 74 ........... 0.244 ...........0.254 ...........0.241 ........... 0.246 .............0.239 ........... 0.007 ............. 2.929 ................0.254..............0.252...................0.254 ..................24,600,000 ........0.100
OM0000002226 ...........AL JAZEERA SERVICES .......................................... 228,473 ........... 68,532........................7 ........... 0.299 ...........0.300 ...........0.299........... 0.300 .............0.292 ........... 0.008 ............. 2.740 ................0.300 .............0.292...................0.300 .................. 18,361,282 .........0.100
OM0000002176 ............AL JAZEERA STEEL PRODUCTS ........................ 338,598 ........... 46,937.....................40 ............0.135 ........... 0.143 ...........0.135 ............0.139 ............. 0.136............ 0.003 .............2.206 ................0.138 .............. 0.137...................0.138 ................... 17,360,816 .........0.100
OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ............ 20,000 ...............1,860........................ 1 ........... 0.093 ........... 0.093 ...........0.093........... 0.093 ............. 0.091............ 0.002 ............. 2.198 ................0.093 ..............0.092...................0.095................... 11,334,375 .........0.100
OM0000001483 ............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 1,150,761 ....... 325,491..................... 52 ........... 0.280 ...........0.284 ...........0.280 .......... 0.283 .............0.277 ........... 0.006 ............. 2.166 ................0.284..............0.283...................0.284 .................379,421,001 ........0.100
OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 1,146,563 ......239,594..................... 35 ........... 0.207 ........... 0.210 ...........0.207........... 0.209 .............0.205 ........... 0.004 ..............1.951.................0.207..............0.207...................0.210 ...................41,800,000 .........0.100
OM0000003281 ............TAAGEER FINANCE ................................................. 110,000............ 14,940........................3 ............0.136 ........... 0.136 ...........0.134 ............0.136 ............. 0.134............ 0.002 ............. 1.493 ................0.136 .............. 0.135...................0.136 ...................34,488,240.........0.100
OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ............ 802,600 ..........256,117..................... 70 ............0.316 ...........0.320 ...........0.316 ........... 0.320 ............. 0.316............ 0.004 ............. 1.266 ................0.320.............. 0.318...................0.320 ...................6,720,000 ..........0.100
OM0000001145 ............PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ....................... 322,966 ............ 59,131..................... 29 ............0.184 ........... 0.185 ...........0.177 ............0.183 ............. 0.181 ............ 0.002 ............. 1.105.................0.177 .............. 0.177...................0.180 ................... 17,392,320 .........0.100
OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 310,708 ..........228,492......................16 ............0.728 ........... 0.740 ...........0.728 ........... 0.736 ............. 0.728............ 0.008 ............. 1.099 ................0.740 .............. 0.736...................0.740 ..................479,094,953 .......0.100
OM0000004248 ...........SMN POWER HOLDING ........................................... 43,044 .............31,853........................4 ............0.740 ........... 0.740 ...........0.740 ........... 0.740 ............. 0.732............ 0.008 ............. 1.093 ................0.740 ..............0.732...................0.740 ..................147,730,344 ........0.100
OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER ................................................ 2,263,481 ......469,246..................... 23 ........... 0.207 ...........0.208 ...........0.207........... 0.207 .............0.205 ........... 0.002 ............. 0.976 ................0.207............. 0.000...................0.210 .................. 139,701,698 ........0.100
OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER .................................................. 2,475,421 ...... 513,009..................... 28 ........... 0.207 ...........0.208 ...........0.207........... 0.207 .............0.205 ........... 0.002 ............. 0.976 ................0.207............. 0.000...................0.210 .................. 147,882,112 ........0.100
OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE ..................................................... 2,550,793 ......380,201..................... 28 ............0.148 ........... 0.151 ............0.148 ........... 0.149 ............. 0.148.............0.001 ............. 0.676 ................0.150 .............. 0.149...................0.150 ...................46,303,976 .........0.100
OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 548,101 ............ 85,292..................... 23 ............0.155 ........... 0.158 ...........0.155 ............0.156 ............. 0.155 .............0.001 ............. 0.645 ................0.158 .............. 0.157...................0.158 ................. 224,864,640 .......0.100
OM0000002549 ...........BANK DHOFAR ............................................................ 681,915 .......... 179,260..................... 23 ........... 0.266 ........... 0.266 ...........0.262........... 0.263 .............0.262 ............0.001 ............. 0.382 ................0.263..............0.264...................0.266 ................ 406,263,608 .......0.100
OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS .............................................................36,980 .............10,962......................11 ........... 0.296 ........... 0.299 ...........0.296........... 0.296 .............0.295 ............0.001 ............. 0.339 ................0.297..............0.297...................0.302 ..................14,800,000 .........0.100
OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 689,290 ...... 1,079,437..................... 77 ............1.565 ........... 1.570 ...........1.525 ............1.565 ............. 1.560............ 0.005 ............. 0.321 ................1.525 .............. 1.525...................1.560 ................ 1,173,750,000 ......0.100
OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ...................................................... 130,000 .........122,200........................5 ........... 0.940 ...........0.940 ...........0.940 .......... 0.940 .............0.940 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.940 ............ 0.940...................1.000................. 188,000,000 .......0.100
OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST .................................................................... 142,204 ............71,102........................9 ........... 0.500 ...........0.500 ...........0.500........... 0.500 .............0.500 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.500..............0.500...................0.502 .................276,430,821 ........0.100
OM0000001822 ............UNITED POWER .............................................................2,320 ............... 7,888........................ 1 ........... 3.400 ...........3.400 ...........3.400........... 3.400 .............3.400 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................3.400..............3.400...................3.500 ...................2,720,000 ..........1.000
OM0000001962 ............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 450,000 ............27,660......................19 ............0.061 ........... 0.062 ...........0.061 ........... 0.061 ............. 0.061............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.062.............. 0.061...................0.062 ..................12,636,234 .........0.100
OM0000002168 ............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES ................................ 50,000 ............ 14,250........................4 ........... 0.285 ........... 0.285 ...........0.285........... 0.285 .............0.285 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.285 ..............0.285...................0.300 ..................84,420,899.........0.100
OM0000002200 ...........AHLI BANK ..................................................................... 30,000 ...............5,250........................ 1 ............0.175 ........... 0.175............0.175 ............0.175 ............. 0.175 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.175 .............. 0.173................... 0.175 ..................249,381,325 ........0.100
OM0000003000 ...........ALMAHA PETROLEUM PRODUCTS MAR. .......65,000 .......... 110,500........................6 ............1.700 ........... 1.700 ...........1.700 ............1.700 ............. 1.700 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................1.700 .............. 1.650...................1.700 ..................117,300,000 ........0.100
OM0000003661 ............VOLTAMP ENERGY ................................................... 222,469 ........... 95,662......................14 ........... 0.430 ........... 0.430 ...........0.430........... 0.430 .............0.430 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.430..............0.430...................0.450...................26,015,000 .........0.100
OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH .............................................. 561,960 .........140,250......................12 ........... 0.249 ...........0.260 ...........0.249........... 0.250 .............0.250 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.260..............0.254...................0.275................. 238,642,988 .......0.100
OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL ............................................. 192,684 ............ 13,531......................12 ............0.071 ........... 0.071 ...........0.070........... 0.070 .............0.070 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.071 ..............0.070...................0.071 ...................12,250,000 .........0.100
OM0000002572 ...........OMAN OIL MARKETING ...........................................77,712 ...........147,563......................15 ............1.920 ........... 1.920 ...........1.850 ........... 1.900 ............. 1.950............-0.050 ........... -2.564 ...............1.850 .............. 1.850...................1.900..................116,422,500 ........0.100
OM0000001707 ............OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY ......................................31,000 ............ 45,055........................4 ............1.450 ........... 1.455............1.450 ............1.455 ............. 1.520............-0.065 ........... -4.276 ...............1.455 .............. 1.455................... 1.475 ..................130,513,500 ........0.100
OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ................................................. 32,922 ............. 11,941..................... 20 ........... 0.360 ...........0.364 ...........0.360........... 0.362 .............0.400 ...........-0.038 ........... -9.500 ...............0.364..............0.364...................0.368...................19,005,000 .........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 29,636,392 .......7,612,178...........1,403 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......39........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000001053 ............OMAN TEXTILE HOLDING .....................................72,799 ............ 24,752..................... 10 ........... 0.340 ...........0.340 ...........0.340 .......... 0.340 .............0.324 ............0.016 ............. 4.938 ................0.340..............0.334...................0.348 ...................2,040,000 ..........1.000
OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING.................................. 480,112 ............ 30,144..................... 38 ........... 0.062 ...........0.064 ...........0.062........... 0.063 ............. 0.061............ 0.002 ............. 3.279 ................0.064..............0.063...................0.064 ................... 4,738,104 ..........0.100
OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES ..................................................... 435,512............ 24,389..................... 22 ........... 0.056 ........... 0.056 ...........0.056 ........... 0.056 .............0.055 ............0.001 ..............1.818.................0.056 ..............0.056...................0.057....................7,000,000 ..........0.100
OM0000004511 ............ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK.............................................. 1,101,090 ........ 63,863..................... 30 ........... 0.058 ........... 0.058 ...........0.058 ........... 0.058 .............0.057 ............0.001 ............. 1.754.................0.058 ..............0.058...................0.059...................58,000,000 ........0.100
OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 1,812,889 ...... 132,532.....................44 ........... 0.073 ........... 0.074 ...........0.072........... 0.073 .............0.072 ............0.001 ............. 1.389 ................0.072 ..............0.072...................0.073..................109,500,000 .......0.100
OM0000001301 ............DHOFAR CATTLE FEED .......................................... 200,000...........45,000........................2 ........... 0.225 ........... 0.225 ...........0.225........... 0.225 .............0.222 ........... 0.003 ..............1.351 .................0.225..............0.225...................0.230 .................. 17,325,000 .........0.100
OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. .................. 100,000 ..............3,300........................4 ........... 0.033 ........... 0.033 ...........0.033 ........... 0.033 .............0.033 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.033 ..............0.032...................0.034 ...................2,805,000 ..........0.100
OM0000001590 ............MUSCAT FINANCE .................................................... 446,969 ............58,106..................... 24 ............0.130 ........... 0.130 ...........0.130 ........... 0.130 ............. 0.130............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.130 ..............0.129...................0.130 ................... 32,710,401 .........0.100
OM0000002333 ...........SALALAH PORT SERVICES ....................................... 2,100 ...............1,342........................2 ........... 0.648 ........... 0.648 ...........0.636 ........... 0.648 .............0.648 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.636 ............. 0.000...................0.636.................. 116,534,635 ........0.100
OM0000005963 ...........PHOENIX POWER ...................................................... 1,433,833 ......209,356..................... 32 ............0.146 ........... 0.147 ...........0.146 ........... 0.146 ............. 0.148............-0.002 ............-1.351 ................0.147 .............. 0.146...................0.147 .................. 213,539,813 ........0.100
OM0000004776 ...........TAKAFUL OMAN INSURANCE ..............................10,000 ............... 1,010........................ 1 ............0.101 ........... 0.101............0.101 ............0.101 ............. 0.103............-0.002 ........... -1.942 ...............0.101 ..............0.100...................0.102 ...................10,100,000 .........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 6,095,304...... 593,794...................209 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ...... 11........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ISIN ......................................SECURITY NAME .................................................................. VOLUME ..... TURNOVER ............TRADES ......OPEN PRICE ......HIGH ............. LOW ........ CLOSE PR. ...PREV. CLOSE...DIFF (RO).........DIFF % ............. LAST PR .....LAST BID .............LAST OFFER ........MARKET CAP .PAR VALUE
O M A N S T O C K S
INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index ....................................... 5,430.27 ...............5,379.86 ....................5,430.11 ................... 5,376.35 ..................53.76 ................... 1.00Financial Index .....................................6,732.08 .............. 6,634.08 ....................6,731.44 ................... 6,624.91 ............... 106.53 ................... 1.61Industrial Index ....................................6,555.69 ...............6,510.85 ................... 6,523.53 ................... 6,577.00 ................-53.47 .................. -0.81Services Index .......................................3,097.03 ...............3,076.55 ................... 3,093.96 ................... 3,076.55 ...................17.41 ................... 0.57MSM SHARIAH INDEX....................... 839.81 .................. 837.21 .......................837.48 .......................838.31 .................. -0.83 .................. -0.10
Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded35,731,696 ..................8,205,972 ..................1,612 ............... 16,410,212,022 ................32 ........................5 .................... 13 .........................50
MSM index ends higher
MUSCAT: A surge in heavy-weight banking stocks drove the MSM 30 index higher by one per cent to close at 5,430.11 points. The MSM Sharia Index ended at 837.48 points, down 0.10 per cent.
Bank Muscat was the most active in terms of volume and turnover. Up 5.43 per cent, Bank Muscat was the top gainer while Al Maha Ceramics was the top loser, down 9.50 per cent.
As many as1,612 trades were executed on Tuesday, generat-ing turnover of OMR8.2 million with 35.7 million shares changing hands. Out of 50 traded securi-ties, 32 advanced, five declined and 13 remained unchanged. Omani investors were net buy-ers for OMR799,000 followed by GCC and Arab investors for OMR335,000 while foreign investors were net sellers for OMR1.13 million worth of shares.
Financial Index increased sharply by 1.61 per cent to end at 6,731.44 points. Bank Muscat, Gulf Investment Services, Al Batinah Development, Al Sharqia Investments and Al Anwar Hold-ing gained by 5.43 per cent, 4.35 per cent, 4.11 per cent, 4 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively. Takaful Oman, down 1.94 per cent, was the only sector loser.
Industrial Index ended nega-tively at 6,523.53 points, down 0.81 per cent. Oman Textiles, Al Hassan Engineering, Galfar En-gineering, Al Jazeera Steel and Oman Fisheries increased by 4.94 per cent, 3.28 per cent, 3.17 per cent, 2.21 per cent and 1.82 per cent, respectively. Al Maha Ceramics and Oman Cables de-clined by 9.50 per cent and 4.28 per cent, respectively.
Services Index advanced 0.57 per cent to close at 3093.96 points. Renaissance Services, Al Jazeera Services, OIFC, Port Ser-vices and Ooredoo Oman gained by 3.49 per cent, 2.74 per cent, 1.95 per cent, 1.10 per cent and
1.10 per cent, respectively. Oman Oil Marketing and Phoenix Pow-er declined by 2.56 per cent and 1.35 per cent, respectively.
Emerging markets dropEmerging-market stocks fell and most currencies weakened as bomb blasts in Belgium spurred demand for havens and analysts weighed prospects for higher United States rates.
Shares in Turkey and South Af-rica led declines, falling from the highest levels in four-and-a-half months while Turkey’s lira and Indonesia’s rupiah led currencies lower. The extra yield investors demand to hold emerging-mar-ket bonds widened for the first time in four days. China’s stocks snapped a seven-day rally, the longest winning streak since May.
Assets in emerging Europe and Africa slid after reports of explo-sions at a Brussels airport depar-ture hall and a downtown sub-way station on Tuesday morning boosted demand for haven assets. In Asia, the rally showed signs of petering out after two Federal Reserve officials floated the pos-sibility of a rate increase as soon as April.
“If we get more of these kinds of signals from the Fed it will have an impact,but it would be a bit strange to see the Fed signal-ling a new path so soon” after last week’s meeting, said Anders Svendsen, an emerging-market analyst at Nordea Bank AB in Co-penhagen. “There will be a lot of ups and downs in this first half of the year with sentiment trying to find its feet and many uncertain-ties out there.”
Svendsen said he expects cur-rencies to strengthen this year as they are “significantly” under-valued. MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 0.2 per cent in London, following a four-day run of gains that saw it rise 4.9 per cent. - United securities/Bloomberg News
Bank Muscat, up by.43 per cent, was the top
gainer while Al Maha Ceramics was the top
loser, down 9.50 per cent on Tuesday
Indonesia's $2.5 billion dollar sukuk issue oversubscribed by three times JAKARTA: Indonesia raised $2.5 billion from its sale of dollar Islamic bonds and got orders for 3.1 times the amount offered, ac-cording to a person familiar with the issuance.
The Southeast Asian nation sold $750 million of five-year sukuk and $1.75 billion of 10-year notes priced at 3.4 per cent and 4.55 per cent, respectively, said the person, who isn’t authorised to speak publicly and declined to be identified. Bids totaled $7.7 bil-lion. Indonesia sold $2 billion of such debt due in 2025 at its previ-ous offering last year at a coupon rate of 4.325 per cent and received orders for $6.8 billion, or 3.4 times the offer.
The Southeast Asian nation’s bonds have attracted more than $3 billion of inflows this quarter as the United States Federal Re-serve said it’s only likely to raise interest rates twice in 2016 in-stead of the four previously envis-aged, helping retain Indonesia’s
yield advantage over US debt. The rupiah is also turning into a regional top performer after a more than 10 per cent slump in 2015 that pushed it beyond 14,000 a dollar for the first time since the Asian financial crisis.
“Indonesia timed its sukuk is-suance to perfection as it comes after the dovish Fed’s statement,”
said Hasif Murad, an investment manager at Kuala Lumpur-based Aberdeen Islamic Asset Manage-ment, whose parent company oversees the equivalent of $2.9 billion.“The fact that Indonesia is the darling of Asia also helps.”
A Bloomberg index of emerging-market dollar bonds has climbed 5.5 percent this quarter, set for the
biggest three-month gain since September 2012. And with Ma-laysia said to be planning another global sukuk, the outlook for Islam-ic note sales worldwide is already looking brighter than last year.
Total offeringsIssuance to date is $10.2 billion, exceeding last quarter’s $9.9 bil-lion, based on compiled data. Total offerings for all of 2015 dropped 29 per cent to $35.4 billion in the poorest showing since 2010.
The yield on Indonesia’s 2025 Islamic bonds issued last year rose one basis point to 4.41 per cent as of in Jakarta, less than the 4.95 per cent they were pay-ing at the end of last year, data shows. There’s no pricing avail-able yet for either of the two new notes. The rupiah has appreciated 4.7 per cent versus the dollar in 2016, second only to a 6.6 per cent gain in Malaysia’s ringgit among Southeast Asia’s most-traded currencies. – Bloomberg News
S H A R I A - C O M P L I A N T
Sensex climbs for third
day; rupee depreciates
MUMBAI: India's benchmark Sensex on Tuesday closed in the positive territory for the third straight day, but the day’s gain was limited to just 45 points after dead-ly terror attacks in Brussels sent markets globally into a tailspin.
The closing was a fresh 11-week high of 25,330. The modest rise came on the back of investors sticking with their buying activ-ity amid sustained foreign inflows. In a trade marked by choppiness, the 30-share barometer opened higher, but quickly slipped into the red zone after profit-booking in re-cent gainers kicked in. A decisively weak trend overseas after the ex-plosions at the Brussels airport and a local metro station dragged the broader index further down.
However, buying towards the fag end wiped off the losses as the gauge settled at 25,330.49 with a moderate gain of 45.12 points, or 0.18 per cent. It had gained 608 points in the previous two sessions on increasing prospects of RBI lowering interest rates and contin-
ued foreign capital inflows.The NSE Nifty-50 slid further as
profit-booking weighed, but man-aged to close above the 7,700 level at 7,714.90, a gain of 10.65 points, or 0.14 per cent.
Rupee extends losses The rupee on Tuesday fell by an-other 18 paise to close at 66.71 per dollar on persistent demand for the American currency from banks and importers on the back of higher greenback overseas despite sustained foreign capital inflows in domestic equities.
The rupee resumed lower at 66.58 per dollar as against the Monday’s closing level of 66.53 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market and dropped further to 66.84 on sustained dollar demand from from banks and importers before ending at 66.71, showing a loss of 18 paise or 0.27 per cent.
The rupee has dropped by 21 paise or 0.32 per cent in the last two sessions. It hovered in a range of 66.52 and 66.84. - PTI
I N D I A N M A R K E T S
B5W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
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Nissan Pathfinder 3.5Lcomes with great offer
MUSCAT: Nissan has a heritage of showcasing some of the most amazing benefits for its customers by introducing unique offers on its prestigious lineup of vehicles.
In an effort to make Nissan ve-hicles affordable and accessible to all, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has taken up this unique initiative. Customers can avail attractive benefits on Nissan Pathfinder 3.5L till April 20, says a press release.
BenefitsAuto enthusiasts can now avail exciting benefits on the Nissan
Pathfinder 3.5L that include guar-anteed cash back of OMR750, free registration, six years’ unlimited mileage extended warranty, easy financing options, a loan term up to eight years with Bank Muscat attractive interest rates and pe-riodic maintenance service only up to 2 years/20,000km which-ever is earlier (offer includes only on the new service intervals of
10,000km). The offer is applicable on private registrations or person-al vehicles only.
Customers can also get unlim-ited access to Nissan’s prestigious vehicle lineup at the comfort of their homes or offices. Simply visit Nissan Oman’s Facebook page i.e http://www.facebook.com/Sban-issanoman or send an SMS to get updated information on any of the
vehicles from the house of Nissan.
Cross-over for the family The Nissan Pathfinder has trans-formed into a much more family-friendly vehicle, with a roomy, modern interior, and handling characteristics and impressive power. The Pathfinder is no longer the choice for those who need to venture off-road only.
With the introduction of the all-new fourth generation, not only does Pathfinder provide ca-pability with spacious seating for seven, and an intuitive 4 Wheel Drive System, but it also resets the standard for the segment with an unprecedented level of premium style, comfort, fuel economy and offer a comfortable experience for families.
Suhail Bahwan Automobiles is largely committed to support-ing Nissan’s growth in the Sul-tanate through major emphasis on customer satisfaction and by providing world-class after-sales services in Oman.
Nissan Pathfinder
3.5L comes with
assured cash back
worth OMR750
Ashgal to take part in Big Show exhibitionMUSCAT: Ashgal, a 100 per cent Omani company based in Muscat and a one stop solution for home maintenance will be participat-ing in the Big Show expo taking place from March 28-31 at the Oman International Exhibition Centre, says a press release.
Ashgal specialises in air-con-ditioning, electrical, plumbing, tank cleaning, repair and instal-lation needs.
Raid Ghassan, CEO of Ashgal, said: “This is the first time we are participating in Big Show and this will give us more exposure and will allow us to meet mass audiences under one roof. Big Show is the biggest building and construction event happening in the region and this will give us the liberty to promote our services to various companies present in the expo as well as individuals who are looking for a professional maintenance services for their properties as well as offices. We have a growing customer base that counts on us to be available whenever they need us.”
Talking in depth about Ashgal,
Raid further commented, “Those who need AC repair and installa-tion, any electrical requirements, plumbing needs, buildings which need tank cleaning services, need not look any further than Ashgal. We handle our customers’ needs in a professional and quick man-ner. Those who choose their ser-vices will enjoy free estimates, quick responses at affordable rates. Ashgal is reliable, trustwor-thy, and fully insured. We have a team of professionals who will ensure that every job is complet-ed with the highest quality work-manship possible. They try their best to keep the waiting time as short as possible so they can provide their customers with the fastest service in the business.”
He added: “We also undertake AMC for commercial and residen-tial buildings thereby making the property owners' life easier and hassle free. We understand that our customers need reliable ser-vice so they can rely on us when something needs to be fixed.”
Clients can find Ashgal in Stand No. 192.
H O M E M A I N T E N A N C E
Rossini to offer Spring-themed special 5-course set menu
MUSCAT: Rossini, the quintes-sential Italian fine dining restau-rant located at The Cave, is offer-ing a Spring theme for all of its patrons. The theme is spread over two days, designed with a special 5-course set menu.
Tuesdays will be ‘Bella Rossini’ which in Italian means beautiful. Along with live music, a spread of 5-course set dinner will be served with three selected beverages, says
a press release.The other day of the Spring
theme will be Saturdays, where a 5-course set lunch will be served along with unlimited beverages from 12pm to 4:30pm.
There will be live music on Thursdays as well at Rossini.
Lawrence D’sa, general manager of Four Seasons Tourism, com-mented: “Bella Rossini and Sat-urday Luncheon have been intro-
duced as part of the Spring theme to let our valued customers expe-rience a tantalising taste of true Italian flavours of our varied and vast menu offerings.”
Come and experience a gastro-nomical journey along with your family and friends. Rossini comes under the flagship of Four Seasons Tourism which also has O Sole Mio (Radisson Blu), Annab (Shatti Al Qurum) Trattoria and Mamasan
I T A L I A N F I N E D I N I N G
BankDhofar takes part in Security of Vital Installations symposium
MUSCAT: Reaffirming its commitment to boost security through implementation of the latest technology and security systems, BankDhofar partici-pated in the fourth symposium on Security of Vital Installations that was organised by Royal Oman Po-lice recently at Shangri La’s Barr Al Jissah Spa and Resort.
The three-day symposium was inaugurated under the auspices of Major General Hamad bin Su-laiman Al Hatmi, assistant inspec-tor general of Police and Customs for Operations, and was attended by security management profes-sionals, specialists in the vital in-stallations security, information security experts, as well as securi-ty solutions and service providers, says a press release.
An exhibition of state-of-the-art technology and security sys-tems also took place during the
symposium and it showcased identification and control sys-tems, safety and security plat-forms, new devices and electronic management systems.
Talib Mohammed Al Hajri, head of Logistics, Premises & Procurement at BankDhofar stressed the importance of joint efforts between different organi-sations against security threats.
“This symposium aimed to de-liver an informational and per-spective emphasis on security and to increase awareness on se-curity challenges and solutions. We at BankDhofar understand the importance of joining hands with public and private sector or-ganisations in order to enhance security levels, reduce risks and increase safety measures.
"The symposium increased awareness of security of public utilities, threat analysis and cri-
ses management,” he said.BankDhofar has been con-
tinuously investing in systems and procedures to adhere to best security standards. It recently achieved the revised ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Information Security Re-Certification for its informa-tion technology division and in-formation security department.
The certification assures BankDhofar customers that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their information are secure in accordance with an internationally recognised standard available from the In-ternational Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
Additionally, the bank has suc-cessfully implemented best-in-class information security man-agement system, which leads to an increased protection of its cus-tomer information.
S E C U R I T Y C H A L L E N G E S A N D S O L U T I O N S
ISC Kerala Wing to host annual memorial lecture on March 25MUSCAT: Indian Social Club (ISC) Kerala Wing is set to organ-ise the annual EMS-AKG memo-rial lecture on the topics ‘Forgot-ten slogan of Jai Kisan’ (Triumph of Farmers), and ‘Implications for India” on Friday, March 25, 6pm at Indian Social Club hall at Darsait.
The seminar will be a tribute to the legendary Kerala leaders who had set milestones in the social reforms and social and economic development of Kerala, says a press release.
E. M. Sankaran Namboothiri-pad (EMS) was the first chief minister of Kerala who was known as one of the brains be-hind the well acclaimed ‘Kerala Model’ development. A. K. Go-palan (fondly known as AKG) was the first opposition leader of India. His affection towards suf-fering people, inside and outside the Indian parliament earned him the title the ‘Crusader of the Downtrodden’.
The Kerala Wing has been organising events to com-memorate the great leaders for the past so many years through
various seminars in the area of social development, neo-liber-alism and education.
Key note address of the pro-gramme will be delivered by Dr Vijoo Krishnan who is presently the Joint Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha-AIKS (All India Peasants’ Union).
The organisers said the rel-evance of the topic at the occa-sion of commemoration has the special connotation as the life hardship of farmers that has multiplied as a result of Indian government policies and neo-liberal nepotism.
Key issuesKey issues addressed during the session will be the loosing edge of agrarian growth, crop pricing, environment and sustainable growth of farming sector of In-dia. Organisers invited all pub-lic to actively participate in the session and interaction with the speaker thereafter. The lecture will be delivered in English with Malayalam transla-tion, organisers added.
T R I B U T E T O L E G E N D A R Y L E A D E R S
MCC to host star-studded gala premiere todayMUSCAT: Today the evening at Muscat City Centre (MCC) opens with Le Puits, followed by Omani film Bent Almashta and will con-clude with a star studded evening with celebrities invited to watch Egyptian film Cairo Time.
Stars expected to attend include: Pussi; Mirvat Ameen; Samir Sabri; Karim Abdul Aziz; Madeleine Tabr; Asmahan Tawfiq; Haifaa
Hussein; Jamaan Al Rouwai; Ja-mal Ghailan; Tariq Abdul Aziz; and Solaf Fawakherji. An award ceremony will take place after the movie Cairo Time to celebrate the lead actors, and will feature a spe-cial recognition to the late Nour Sharif, says a press release.
Husam Al Mandhari, senior mall manager at City Centre Mus-cat, said: “We are delighted to be
part of Muscat International Film Festival which brings a diverse mix of cultures together through the medium of film.
“Majid Al Futtaim plays a signif-icant role in supporting the growth and development of the Sultanate and Muscat International Film Festival gives us yet another plat-form to support the growth of crea-tive industries."
M U S C A T I N T E R N A T I O N A L F I L M F E S T I V A L
B6 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
ROUND-UPFormer Korean minister addresses NBO Chairman’s Speaker Series
MUSCAT: National Bank of Oman (NBO) hosted Dr Joong-Kyung Choi, former minister of Knowl-edge Economy, Korea, as a speaker at the sixth edition of the NBO Chairman’s Speaker Series held at Grand Hyatt, Muscat, recently, under the auspices of Eng. Mohsin
bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Shaikh, chairman of Muscat Municipality.
Choi is well known for his quick policy actions, and has been in-strumental in the speedy recovery of Korea during the Asian financial crisis, in addition to strengthening Korean economic ties with other leading economies.
Choi delivered a keynote ad-dress at the sixth edition of the NBO Chairman’s Speaker Series, which was launched in 2014 as a platform for inspirational leaders from diverse disciplines to share their experiences, knowledge and innovative ideas with a cross-sec-tion of Omani society, particularly students, youth in the early stages of their careers and aspiring entre-preneurs, says a press release.
At the event, Choi talked about his career, and contributions in supporting Korea and other de-veloping countries with neces-sary economic policies that are
sustainable in the longer term. Be-fore an audience of policy makers, dignitaries, entrepreneurs, stu-dents, NBO Corporate and Sadara customers and employees, he also shared perspectives on Oman’s
diversification-led economic ap-proach and the future growth prospects for the Sultanate.
Commenting on the event, Mo-hammed Mahfoodh Al Ardhi, chairman of NBO, said: “We were
pleased to host Dr Joong-Kyung Choi at the sixth edition of the Na-tional Bank of Oman Chairman’s Speaker Series, and the first event of the year. By inviting esteemed speakers such as Dr Joong-Kyung
Choi, the event has emerged as an important platform for busi-ness leaders and policy makers to engage in dialogues and share in-sights about emerging economic issues. Through these events, we also hope to inspire a new genera-tion of entrepreneurs by encour-aging them to play an instrumental role in the social and economic de-velopment of Sultanate.”
Each quarter, a leading influenc-er is invited to share their expertise, knowledge and best practice at an exclusive evening event in Oman. It has previously welcomed guests including Sir Terrence Clarke, for-mer British ambassador to the Sul-tanate of Oman; Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, group chief executive officer and managing director of Mubadala; Dr Anousheh Ansari, space pioneer; Mohamed Alabbar, founder and chairman of Emaar Properties; and Dr Paul Achleitner, chairman of Deutsche Bank.
Dr Joong-Kyung Choi,
former minister of
Knowledge Economy,
Korea is well known
for his quick policy
actions, and has been
instrumental in the
speedy recovery
of Korea during
the Asian financial
crisis, in addition
to strengthening
Korean economic ties
with other leading
economies
BPT showcases security products at ROP expoMUSCAT: Bahwan Projects & Telecoms (BPT), one of the flag-ship companies of Suhail Bahwan Group, showcased security related products at the recently concluded fourth symposium on the Security of Vital Installations in Muscat, inaugurated under the auspices of Maj. General Hamad bin Sulaiman Al Hatmi, assistant inspector-gen-eral of Police and Customs for Op-erations, Royal Oman Police.
An exhibition was held as part of the three-day event in which major suppliers of security re-lated products, services and solu-tions took part. As the exclusive representative in the Sultanate of Oman, BPT showcased the latest, innovative GPS/navigation tech-nology products from Garmin UK, also survey-solutions products from Leica Geosystems, Switzer-land, says a press release.
BPT also showcased latest in-novative solutions for integrated surveillance system from Galaxy Control System and ONSSI, USA. System Galaxy is an enterprise-class access control and security management solution which of-fers a complete selection of in-
demand features that integrate with any standard or emerging technology. On-Net Surveillance System’s (ONSSI) award-winning IP-based surveillance software, OCULARIS, addresses complex multi-server installations as well as single installations.
A large number of senior security services officers, safety and secu-rity experts, researchers and acad-emicians visited the BPT stall.
Yasser Mohammad Kheir, gen-eral manager, Bahwan Projects & Telecoms, received the guests and explained the salient features of various products from Leica and Garmin and their uses in security-related applications.
The products from Garmin on display included Garmin GPS with Camera Garmin Nuvicam, Garmin Nuvi 65, Garmin GPS MAP64S, Garmin Montana 680 and fitness
segment included Garmin Vivoac-tive Fitness Smart Watch, Garmin Fenix 3 Fitness Watches.
The instruments on display from Leica Geosystems included Leica Nova MS60 Multi Station, Leica CS35 Captivate, Leica scan Station P40, Leica Viva GNSS Receivers, Leica Zeno 20 GIS Receivers, Leica Flexline TS06plus Total Station. Leica Geosystems creates com-plete solutions for professionals.
S E C U R I T Y O F V I T A L I N S T A L L A T I O N S
Trattoria, Mamasan
introduce unlimited
buffet for customers
MUSCAT: Trattoria and Ma-masan, located at Al Assalah Towers, Ghubra, have grown to become one of the favourite res-taurants in Oman.
Trattoria, the Italian restaurant and cafe while Mamasan, the Chi-nese restaurant are situated side to side. Both the restaurants have introduced unlimited buffet for all its patrons, says a press release.
The Chinese buffet spread is prepared by their Chinese Chef Jiajun He who hails from Beijing, China. It is served on Fridays. While the Italian buffet spread is
served on Saturdays, every week.Both the buffet menus have
been crafted with passion. It includes a welcome drink and nine dishes are spread for the buffet with the timings from 11am to 4pm.
“We would like to invite all our valued customers to experience the authentic taste of Chinese cuisine from the buffet on Fri-days at Mamasan while the true Italian flavours from the buffet on Saturdays at Trattoria,” said by Lawrence D’sa, general man-ager, Four Seasons Tourism.
A U T H E N T I C T A S T E
KR Infra delivers jetting, vacuum
equipment trucks to Haya Water
MUSCAT: KR Engineering Prod-ucts and Services Division under KR Infra handed over six vacuum and jetting trucks to Haya Water. The project joins several others that KR Infra has implemented as part of a long and rewarding part-nership with Haya Water, says a press release.
“KR has been a key collaborator in delivering relevant and cutting-edge technology across Oman’s industrial sectors. We have been supporting the national directive for timely, reliable and safe infra-structural technology by teaming up with world-renowned experts such as Rivard,” said Hritik Kh-imji, director, KR.
Elaborating further on the part-nership, N. S. Vijaya Kumar, CEO, KR Infra, said: “As a key supplier of mainstream and current tech-nological solutions KR Infra is honoured to have been given the opportunity to work with Haya Water. The jetting and vacuum trucks that were delivered are used to clean and maintain the sewer network line in the Muscat region. These trucks were sourced from Rivard of France that had deputed its senior technical per-sonnel to train the operators and
maintenance team at Haya Water and the service staff of KR Engi-neering Products and Services.”
Hussain Hassan Ali Abdul Hus-sain, CEO of Haya Water, awarded certificates to the Haya Water team that had undergone successful
training in the operation and main-tenance of these high pressure jet-ting and vacuum equipment.
The KR EPSD team received commendation and recognition for their professional execution of the complete project.
P A R T N E R S H I P
alizz supports IFN Oman seminar
MUSCAT: alizz Islamic bank announced its recent participa-tion in Oman Islamic Banking and Finance News 2016 seminar (IFN Oman seminar) as part of its efforts in enhancing and pro-moting its integral role in the Sultanate’s Islamic banking and finance sector.
Held at the Grand Hyatt Muscat Hotel, the groundbreaking event gathered the leading players with an active interest in the local and international Islamic financial markets, says a press release.
IFN Oman seminar focused on the opportunities available today in the Omani market for both capital raising and investment in the Sharia compliant space. The event witnessed a series of key-note addresses, presenta-tions, panel discussions and case-studies that highlighted the ben-efits and opportunities currently available in Oman.
Ehab Hashish, deputy general manager and head of Wholesale Banking at alizz Islamic bank, discussed concepts of Islamic fi-nance in Oman, with an overview of how its landscape will look like in the near future. His conversa-tion included the requirements, from both market players and regulators, to achieve sustainable growth in Oman’s Islamic bank-
ing and capital market sectors. He commented: “This is a very important seminar and tangible results will soon be seen.”
On the other hand, Moosa Al Jadidi, deputy general manager and head of retail banking at alizz Islamic bank, joined some of the most prominent experts, regula-tors and key players in the Islamic banking sector at the IFN Oman Dialogue. The closed-door round-table styled session witnessed the discussion of the future and challenges facing the Sharia compliant financing and invest-ment market today. Moreover, the attendees touched upon the ample investment opportunities in Oman and the development
potential, to eventually meet the targeted future progress.
Hamood Sangour, executive president of the Central Bank of Oman provided the keynote ad-dress at the IFN Oman 2016 sem-inar, in the attendance of Abdul-lah Al Salmi, executive president of the Capital Market Authority of Oman, along with other senior government officials, industry practitioners and international key players.
alizz Islamic bank provides a wide range of innovative Sharia compliant financing solutions that meet customer’s requirements and needs, all of which are approved by the Sharia Supervisory Board.
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QUOTES
A man would do
nothing if he waited
until he could do it so
well that no one could
find fault.
— John Henry Newman
Use what talent you
possess: the woods
would be very silent if
no birds sang except
those that sang best.
— Author unknown
The imperfections of
a man, his frailties,
his faults, are just
as important as his
virtues. You can’t
separate them. They’re
wedded.
— Henry Miller
I don’t care how much
power, brilliance or
energy you have, if you
don’t harness it and
focus it on a specific
target, and hold it there
you’re never going
to accomplish as
much as your ability
warrants.
— Zig Ziglar
The vision must
be followed by the
venture. It is not
enough to stare up the
steps — we must step
up the stairs.
— Vance Havner
Don’t litter a beautiful
country like OMAN.
Ensure proper disposal of garbage.
Toyota Avalon comes with summer surprises
MUSCAT: The Toyota Avalon is an elegant and classy sedan that is positioned to be ‘at the inter-section of style and technology’. Meticulously reimagined, the Av-alon’s exterior exudes a sophis-ticated confidence others only aspire to. Its sculpted lines and curves create a stunning profile. While the redesigned bumper and stylish HID headlamps make it more striking than ever.
Now, the buzz is around the ‘Summer Surprises’ benefits that accompany every Avalon, says a press release.
“Those who purchase a Toyota Avalon till April 30 will be able to get an OMR1,100 cash gift,” says the spokesperson. “This is appli-cable on 2015 YM models of 2015 production and 2016 YM models - for all purchases except those made by government organisations and ministries. Please visit nearest Toy-ota showroom for exact details,” the company spokesperson said.
The offer makes the Avalon even more tempting to own. Indeed, there is a lot to love in the refined masterpiece by Toyota; about whom it is quoted that, “The Av-alon is one of Toyota’s best offer-
ings, with truly attractive styling, a high-quality interior, plenty of room and an immensely enjoyable driving experience.”
Avalon’s exterior lighting com-plements the design lines. The industry-first Quadrabeam head-light cluster utilises a sleek and compact double-eye PES head-light design with two square glass condenser lenses that have been adapted for the low beams and offer outstanding lighting perfor-mance. A stronger, more expres-sive front-fascia design with larger grille opening creates an aggres-sive appearance.
The Avalon’s interior elaborates on the exterior’s elegant, refined theme to create a premium interi-or experience that combines high technology and craftsmanship with an artistic level of sculpted surfaces. The driver is engaged by an Optitron-type combination me-ter, which produces a sharp, high quality display and 3.5-inch Thin-film Transistor colour multi-infor-mation display. Furthermore, the Avalon’s interior surfaces are fin-ished in premium materials such as soft-touch materials for the dash panel, unique smoke chrome trim surrounding the centre panel, and high-quality glossy panel trim around the shifter. All of this atten-tion to detail to touch surfaces and subtle enhancements to texture and visual appeal are aimed at el-evating the overall interior experi-ence for driver and passengers.
In Oman, Toyota’s outstanding product quality is supported by the nationwide parts and service net-work of Saud Bahwan Automotive. No wonder then that today, Toyota is one of the most trusted and well-known brands.
Those who purchase
a Toyota Avalon till
April 30 will be able
to get an OMR1,100
cash gift
Al Hassan takes part in SQU career fairMUSCAT: As part of its commit-ment to provide job opportunities for the future workforce of Oman, Al Hassan Group participated in the career fair held at Sultan Qa-boos University (SQU) recently.
The career fair, which was spread over three days, provided students an opportunity to in-teract directly with the organi-sation’s representatives, says a press release.
The event is organised every year to give access to a large number of candidates in a one-stop environment. The occasion provided an opportunity for po-tential job seekers to meet with the officials and understand job requirements at Al Hassan which has become one of the most pre-
ferred employers in the region. Commenting on Al Hassan’s
participation in the career fair, Shahzad Sadan, GM-Organisa-tional Development, Al Hassan Group said: “SQU career fair, of course, is a good platform to reach, connect and engage with tomorrow’s workforce. As in the past, we are able to raise aware-ness of our organisation in the community and among job seek-ers of the country. Al Hassan Group is committed to provide job opportunities for the Omani youth, in line with the national objectives. We have received ex-cellent response at the career fair as number of fresh Omani gradu-ates showed keen interest to be part of our team.”
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Samsonite has new
business head for
Middle East, Africa
MUSCAT: Samsonite Interna-tional S.A., the world’s largest manufacturer and leading luggage brand for more than 100 years, has announced the appointment of Shaheen Jamil as the business head covering the Middle East, Africa, Commonwealth of Inde-pendent States (CIS) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries, with immediate effect.
In his new role, Shaheen will be responsible for Samsonite’s day-to-day operations and man-aging the company’s business in the countries across various channels, spearheading the re-tail, merchandising, planning, sales and marketing and distri-bution functions.
Shaheen Jamil, business head at Middle East, Africa, CIS and Saarc countries, said: “It is a mat-ter of immense pleasure and ex-citement for me to take on this expanded role at Samsonite, as the company seeks growth op-portunities across the globe, amidst an incredibly dynamic time for the sector. Through this enhanced responsibility, I am confident of strengthening Sam-sonite’s market leadership and
reinforce its aggressive growth plans across geographies through the diverse range of brands that we currently have under the Samsonite umbrella.”
Shaheen takes on this new role with proven credentials of 15 years in Strategy, Distributor Management, Retail, Marketing and Sales of various multina-tional brands across countries. An alumnus of the Aligarh Mus-lim University, he holds a Bach-elor’s Degree in Economics from St.Xaviers College and has done his Post Graduation from the Na-tional Institute of Fashion Tech-nology-New Delhi.
L U G G A G E B R A N D
Meethaq workshop increases awareness on Islamic finance
MUSCAT: Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, as part of its com-mitment to raise awareness on Islamic banking and finance, or-ganised a workshop by Ahmed bin Said Al Kashoob, CEO of Global Trust Investments, and partner of Economic Studies and Research Center and Human Resources and Skills Development Centre.
The workshop held at Bank Muscat head office was attended by dignitaries and a large turnout of public and private sector rep-
resentatives, youth and students, says a press release.
Ahmed Al Kashoob highlighted the role of Islamic finance in the economic development of Oman. “We see a growing interest among retail and corporate clients to take advantage of the new opportuni-ties offered by Islamic finance,” he added.
Sulaiman Al Harthy, deputy chief executive officer – Islamic Banking, said: “Meethaq is proud to facilitate yet another opportuni-ty to raise awareness on important
aspects of Islamic banking and finance. Meethaq has been instru-mental in hosting a series of high profile conferences and awareness programmes on Islamic bank-ing, to familiarise people with the core aspects of Islamic finance. As the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman, Meethaq is committed to offering unique learning oppor-tunities which reaffirm the bank’s focus on Islamic banking develop-ment in Oman.”
Meethaq is the leading Islamic financial services provider in the
Sultanate with many achieve-ments contributing to the growth and development of the Sultan-ate’s economy. Meethaq extends support to all key economic sec-tors in the Sultanate and is focused on developing as a benchmark Islamic financial institution in Oman and the region. Within just three years of operations, Meethaq has attained the leading position in the Islamic banking industry in Oman in terms of financing receiv-ables, branch network, products and services, IT infrastructure and
human resources development. Meethaq not only provides bench-mark Islamic financial solutions to support the country’s develop-ment but also plays a key role in raising awareness and educating people on important aspects of Is-lamic banking and finance.
Meethaq offers a full suite of Is-lamic banking products and servic-es, including savings and current account, home and auto finance, credit card, mobile and internet banking. The bank has invested in staff, systems and controls to en-sure the service is delivered in a fully Sharia compliant manner.
As the pioneer of Islamic bank-ing in Oman, Meethaq has adopted the best practices in Islamic bank-ing and finance worldwide to com-bine a robust model which pro-tects customers and complements the Islamic banking industry. Eve-ry Meethaq product goes through the process of Sharia compliance certification by the Sharia Super-visory Board and is created in line with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Oman.
The workshop on Islamic finance held at
Bank Muscat head office was attended by
dignitaries and a large turnout of public and
private sector representatives, youth
and students
Convene Meeting Package at OCEC
MUSCAT: The Oman Conven-tion & Exhibition Centre (OCEC) is offering organisers of corpo-rate, government and private events and meetings, the chance to impress with the launch of its competitively priced Convene Meeting Package.
This bespoke events solu-tion has been tailored to meet the most sophisticated needs of discerning function planners, catering for gatherings of 25 to 150 people in the iconic venue’s brand new state-of-the-art hos-pitality suites, with additional options for larger conferences of 200 to 500, says a press release.
“The requirements of meet-ing organisers, in both the public and private sectors, are many and varied. With this in mind, the OCEC has prioritised choice and flexibility designing the Convene Meeting Package, ensuring that client’s demands will be fully met in an inspiring business environment and via a hassle-free booking process. Our business development team will be conducting a series of person-al presentations with potential clients,” explained Trevor Mc-Cartney, GM - OCEC.”
C O M P E T I T I V E L Y P R I C E D
Oman LNG to supply critical instruments to Ibra HospitalMUSCAT: Oman LNG signed an agreement to supply critical equip-ment and instruments for the en-doscopy unit in Ibra Hospital.
The agreement, in collabora-tion with the Ministry of Health, further enhances the provisions at the hospital to meet all the needs of patients and is very much aligned with Oman LNG’s robust Corpo-rate Social Responsibility (CSR) to promote health services across the country, says a press release.
The agreement was signed by Darwish bin Saif Al Maharbi, un-dersecretary at the Ministry of
Health for Administrative and Fi-nancial Affairs, and Khalid Al Mas-san, chief executive officer of Oman LNG Development Foundation.
Building on inaugurated projects for the Ibra Hospital last year, this agreement will facilitate the up-grading o fthe equipment for the Knee Arthroscopy Unit at the Ibra Hospital. The two previously inau-gurated projects helped finance the construction of the GI tract Endos-copy Unit and provided provisions for the Knee Arthroscopy Unit.
Oman LNG’s ambitious social investment programmes have be-
come a familiar name associated with a myriad of sustainable ini-tiatives, all of which are intended to enhance services provided for citizens across the Sultanate.
“We are committed to the com-munity and all the projects we sup-port. Our aim is to sustain, through these projects and others like these, strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Health to comple-ment the country’s healthcare services infrastructure with cut-ting-edge equipment and supple-menting it with aid for enhanced training,” said Khalid Al Massan.
A G R E E M E N T
Nabil Biscuits launches Scratch & Win promotionMUSCAT: National Biscuit In-dustries Ltd, the makers of the brand ‘Nabil’ range of biscuits and snacks, launched its grand ‘Scratch & Win’ promotion on its selected biscuits range from March 15 to May 15.
In addition to the ‘Scratch & Win’ promotion a mega raf-fle draw has also been launched where the consumers of Oman will get an opportunity to win and own a brand new Nissan Altima car, says a press release.
The promotion is on multipacks of Nabil Glucose, Nabil Cookies,
Nabil Crackers & Sweet n Salt Biscuits, Nabil Cream biscuits and the newly launched Nabil Sugar-free Digestive Biscuits. Consum-ers will find a scratch card in the multipacks of the scheme SKUs with a unique Nabil Code and have to quickly register on www.Nabil-Biscuits.com, which will qualify them for the final raffle draw.
Only successful and valid en-tries registered till May 15 will qualify for the raffle draw. Con-sumers can register more than once with every unique code, and increase their chances of winning
the mega raffle of Nissan Altima.To further delight its pa-
trons, up to 10 lucky winners can scratch the coupon and win an instant Apple iPhone 6. Winners can claim their gifts till May 31.
Unnit Mankodi, head of Sales and Marketing at National Bis-cuits said, “Nabil is delighted to give back the love and patronage by giving not just the iPhone 6, but a bumper prize as big as a Nissan Altima car. We urge the consum-ers to rush to their nearest outlet and buy the multipacks of the listed products.”
R A F F L E D R A W
‘OAB Rewards’ receives overwhelming response
MUSCAT: Following its intro-duction on Oman’s 45th National Day, Oman Arab Bank’s (OAB) in-novative credit card online loyalty programme ‘OAB Rewards’ has re-ceived an overwhelming response from customers.
OAB Rewards entitles all OAB credit card holders who are sub-scribed online to earn points as they spend on their credit cards. Earned points can be redeemed from a wide range of options through the bank’s dedicated on-line portal (www.oabrewards.com), says a press release.
OAB Rewards’ designated plat-form is designed to serve as an online travel reservations engine that allows customers to select and book directly with over 900 air-lines, 200,000 hotels and car rent-als in over 150 countries across the
globe by simply redeeming their points. Customers can also shop online directly through the portal with partnering retailers or in fact, exchange their points for cash-back to the card account.
Fahd Amjad, general manager - Retail Banking at Oman Arab Bank said, “Our creatively conceptual-ised customer loyalty programme has been extremely well received in such a short time.
“We have seen over 15 per cent of our credit card customers sub-scribe to the loyalty programme
within three months of launch. “Our monthly credit card sales
have also doubled as many of our customers find unmatched ben-efits with OAB Rewards. OAB Rewards has been designed to enhance the banking experience, strengthen our comprehensive credit card offering and most im-portantly, to say thank you to our customers for being part of the OAB family.”
Oman Arab Bank credit cards provide an array of benefits to customers including interest free
payment period, flexible monthly minimum payment option, free travel insurance and purchase protection, zero lost card liability and online shopping security via Verified by Visa to name but a few. The card is also equipped with an advanced chip feature to protect customers’ confidential informa-tion. While travelling, OAB credit card holders can enjoy a relax-ing lounge experience at over 500 international airports including Muscat and Salalah.
Additionally, card holders enjoy exclusive ‘buy one get one free’ and hotel stay offers locally and in the United Arab Emirates.
Customers can choose from a wide variety of card categories including Visa Infinite, Platinum, and Gold, Internet shopping as well as Classic credit cards.
L O Y A L T Y P R O G R A M M E
McDonald’s supports special training day for children
MUSCAT: McDonald’s Oman (Al Daud Restaurants) painted smiles on children’s faces as they held their ‘special training day’ for three consecutive weekends.
Over 100 children comprising kids with special needs, orphans and kids from private schools have recently undergone training ses-sions on soft skills together with an aim of further developing their communication and interpersonal
skills, says a press release. The special training for chil-
dren was organised by the Omani Women’s Association in collabo-ration with McDonald’s Oman.
“The special training day is aimed to bring the children to-gether so they can learn to interact with one another through various fun-filled activities. On behalf of the Omani Women’s Association (OWA), we are grateful to McDon-
ald’s for its unrelenting support to our activities,” said Wafa Ali Al Amriya, chairman of OWA.
McDonald’s Oman prides itself on being a local member of the community and has been com-mitted to being a responsible corporate citizen by providing support to various community activities aimed at enhancing the development of less fortunate members of society.
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India look to close in on semis berthBENGALURU: Galvanised by the triumph over arch-rivals Pakistan, a confident India will look for another colossal victory and inch closer to the semifinals when they square off against an embattled Bangladesh in the ICC World Twenty20 here on Wednesday.
Under tremendous pressure after the opening loss to New Zealand, inaugural champi-ons India roared back by beat-ing Pakistan in a high-voltage clash at the Eden Gardens to put their campaign back on track in the tournament. A victory in Wednesday’s Super 10 Group 2 match would take the hosts a step closer to the coveted semifinal berth and the team would look to ensure that it wins big to improve its Net Run Rate, which took a hit owing to the New Zealand loss.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, are on the verge of being knocked out of the event and a win on Wednesday would go a long way in giving them a mathematical chance of making the last-four stage. However, a close look at the current form of the two teams would make India outright favourites for the match even though Bangladesh have built a reputation of upstaging big teams in big events.
India’s formidable batting line-up, led by the peerless Virat Kohli, gives them a clear edge and should be more than a handful for the Bangladeshi bowlers, who would find it an enormous task to either contain or dismiss the hosts. The only batting worry for India is the form of opener Shikhar Dha-wan, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, all three of whom have looked distinctly uncomfortable in the two outings so far.
However, playing in home con-ditions, the trio is expected to strike form sooner than later and make up for its failures against the Kiwis and Pakistan.
But Kohli will be the cynosure of all eyes once again after belting a classy unbeaten 55 against Pa-kistan. The swashbuckling right-hander is currently a cut above the rest as far as ease of scoring is con-cerned. And captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be hoping that Kohli once again anchors the In-dian innings albeit with good sup-port from the rest of the line-up.
The think-tank might consider giving a chance to Ajinkya Ra-hane, who has been warming the
bench in the tournament, espe-cially due to the continued failure of Sharma, Dhawan and Raina.
Yuvraj Singh, who made a cru-cial 24 and added 61 runs with Kohli in the match against Pa-kistan, would love to continue the good work in Wednesday’s match. On the bowling front, the attack looks settled but it would be interesting to see if Dhoni de-cides on bringing in senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh given that the pitches so far have been supportive of slower bowlers.
In contrast, Bangladesh, who have lost both their matches, are looking for answers as to what has gone wrong for them after a fine build-up. The team, which created a flutter by reaching the Asia Cup finals, has been in sham-bles ever since making the main draw of the World Twenty20.
Their prospects were further dented by the suspension of pac-er Taskin Ahmed and left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny, both of whom were found guilty of bowl-ing with illegal actions.
Given the situation, Bangla-desh Captain Mashrafe Mor-taza will bank on the all-round abilities of Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah, who put up a good show in the last match against Australia.
The think tank would contem-plate bringing back Tamim Iqbal, who is in a good nick with scores of 103 not out, 47 and 83 not out in the qualifiers and 25 against Pakistan. The side will also hope that his opening partner Soumya Sarkar strikes form to give the team a good start.
The biggest headache for Bangladesh is to get a suitable re-placement for Taskin and Sunny.
Such has been the impact of their suspension that Mortaza broke down during a press con-ference when quizzed about the duo, insisting that the suspension has been harsh.
Mortaza’s breakdown was per-haps indicative of the low morale in the Bangladeshi dressing room even though the team did put up a creditable show during the loss to Australia.
On the brighter side, pacer Mustafizur Rahman made a fine comeback from injury to bag two wickets last night. He had missed missing the qualifiers and the Super 10 opener against Paki-stan due to a side-strain injury incurred in the Asia Cup T20. - PTI
W O R L D T 2 0 P R E V I E W
India won’t take Bangladesh lightly: Nehra
BENGALURU: Ahead of their crucial Group 2 game against Bangladesh in the World Twen-ty20, veteran Indian pacer Ash-ish Nehra on Tuesday stressed that his team won’t take their opposition lightly considering the good show from Bangladesh recently against top teams.
“Bangladesh have been play-ing good cricket for the last 2-3 years. The way they have im-proved is quite amazing. We will not take Bangladesh lightly. We have to play to our potential if we have to beat them,” Nehra said at a press conference here.
“Our mood is good. The kind of cricket we are playing in the last 2-3 months, we are all happy and satisfied. Hopefully, we would like to take it forward even further; the kind of fire power we have, if put to use, we will definitely win the game.”
Being the senior most mem-ber of the team’s bowling line-up, the 36-year-old said that he loves sharing tips and his expe-rience with other seamers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
“My job is very important; to pass my experience which I gathered in the last 16-17 years to Bumrah, Shami and Bhu-vneshwar,” he said.
The left-armer also praised Bangladesh’s young bowling sen-sation Mustafizur Rahman. - IANS
C O N F I D E N T
Black Caps in semis
MOHALI: New Zealand became the first team to book a spot in the World Twenty20 semifinals after opener Martin Guptill smashed his 10th 50 in the game’s short-est format to set up a 22-run win against Pakistan in their Super 10 stage match on Tuesday.
The right-handed Guptill hit 10 fours and three sixes in his 48-ball 80, sharing an opening stand of 62 with captain Kane Williamson, after an unchanged New Zealand won the toss on a green-tinged sur-face at Mohali to post 180 for five.
Sharjeel Khan (47) gave his team a brisk start in their chase with New Zealand either bowling too short or too full on his pads as Pakistan raced to 61 for no loss in five overs.
However, the rest of Pakistan’s batsmen found it extremely dif-ficult to find the boundaries after paceman Adam Milne dismissed the left-handed opener, who hit nine fours and a six in his 25- ball knock.
Kiwi left-arm spinner Mitch-ell Santner, who was taken for 15 runs in the first over of the innings, came back superbly to finish with figures of two for 29 in his four
overs and, along with leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, applied the brakes on Pakistan’s scoring.
Milne also kept the batsmen on a tight leash with figures of two for 26 as Pakistan could only manage 158 for five in their 20 overs.
It was New Zealand’s third straight win in Group Two after victories over hosts India and trans-tasman rivals Australia.
Earlier, Guptill also combined with Corey Anderson (21) for a third-wicket stand of 52 that set the platform for Ross Taylor (36 not out) to finish with a flourish.
Mohammed Amir gave away
16 runs in the final over with Tay-lor hitting him for six and four to ensure that Pakistan would have to score over nine runs an over in their chase.
Mohammed Sami and captain Shahid Afridi picked up two wick-ets apiece for Pakistan, who made two changes to the team that lost to arch-rivals India on Saturday.
Mohammed Hafeez failed to recover from a knee injury while paceman Wahab Riaz was hit in the head by a ball during practice and they were replaced by batsman Khalid Latif and spin-bowling all-rounder Imad Wasim. - Reuters
Martin Guptill
smashed his 10th 50
in the game’s shortest
format to set up a
22-run win against
Pakistan in their
Super 10 stage match
GOOD GOING: New Zealand players celebrate win over Pakistan in the ICC World T20 match in Mohali. – PTI
NEW ZEALANDM. Guptill b Sami 80K. Williamson c Afridi b Irfan 17C. Munro c Latif b Afridi 7C. Anderson c Malik b Afridi 21R. Taylor not out 36L. Ronchi c Malik b Sami 11G. Elliott not out 1Extras (lb-4, w-3) 7Total (5 wickets; 20 overs) 180Did not bat: M. Santner, A. Milne, M. Mc-Clenaghan, I. Sodhi
Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-75, 3-127, 4-132, 5-164Bowling: Mohammed Amir 4-0-41-0; Mo-hammed Irfan 4-0-46-1; Mohammed Sami 4-0-23-2; Imad Wasim 4-0-26-0; Shahid Afridi 4-0-40-2PAKISTANS. Khan c Guptill b Milne 47A. Shehzad c Guptill b Santner 30K. Latif c Elliott b Santner 3U. Akmal c Guptill b Milne 24S. Afridi c Anderson b Sodhi 19
S. Malik not out 15S. Ahmed not out 11Extras (lb-5, w-4) 9Total (5 wickets; 20 overs) 158Did not bat: Imad Wasim, Mohammed Amir, Mohammed Sami, Mohammed IrfanFall of wickets: 1-65, 2-79, 3-96, 4-123, 5-140Bowling: M. Santner 4-0-29-2; C. Anderson 2-0-14-0; A. Milne 4-0-26-2; M. McClena-ghan 4-0-43-0; G. Elliott 2-0-16-0; I. Sodhi 4-0-25-1Man of the match: Martin Guptill
S C O R E B O A R D
MAN OF THE MATCH: Martin
Guptill. – AFP
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India and England have picked themselves up quite brilliantly after their losses
in their first game and have given themselves the chance to get through to the semifinals.
Of course with two more matches to be played it is not a given that they will qualify and they will need to play at the top of their game once again.
England play Afghanistan and though the Afghanistan team is a competitive one they may not have the ammunition to beat England.
Yes flair can sometimes overcome lack of experience at this level and the Afghans have certainly displayed great flair so far but they have fallen short when it matters. That is more due to the inexperience of playing against the big teams for when it has come to the tipping point they have lost the
grip on the game. England’s batting has been tremendous but its the bowling on Indian pitches where they have had a bit of a problem and have conceded loads of runs in both their matches so far.
Maybe going in with an extra spinner may do the trick for them and if there is one game in which they can try that it is the one against the qualifiers.
India which is usually set in its batting will want their top order to fire more than it has so far.
T20 is not only about aerial shots as Virat Kohli has so ably
demonstrated. Those shots come a lot easier after one has had a measure of the pitch. With the pitches helping the spinners it is never easy to go for the big shots as it is on pitches with true bounce like at the Wankhede Stadium.
India are loath to make a change unless there is an injury to one of its players so even if the game is against the qualifiers there shouldn’t be any surprises in the playing squad.
India are way behind in the net run rate at the moment and so they would want to improve on that but as they know from recent experience Bangladesh are not the pushovers they were earlier and are far more competitive. The priority therefore is to get into a win-ning position and then think about the run rate. - PMG
Twenty20 is not only just about aerial shotsC O M M E N T A R YEngland eyeing
to fix grey areas
NEW DELHI: Their campaign back on track with a stunning win over South Africa, a resurgent Eng-land would be looking to plug their bowling loopholes when they take on an ever-improving Afghanistan in a Super 10 Group 1 match of the ICC World Twenty20.
After being bruised and battered by Chris Gayle in the six-wicket defeat to West Indies in their tour-nament-opener, England, facing a must-win situation, rode on Joe Root’s class act to register a close two-wicket win against South Af-rica in a high-scoring encounter to keep their hopes alive. Chasing a mammoth 230-run target, Root single-handedly got England over the line with a thundering 83 off 44 balls. If not for Root’s heroics, England would have been virtually out of the tournament after their
bowling department leaked runs for a second consecutive match.
And even though they start as favourites against Afghanistan, England would be aware that their bowlers would have to put up an improved performance. The 2010 champions’ under-fire bowlers and fielders will be up against a po-tent if not marauding Afghanistan batting line-up that gave Australia a scare in their last match.
The performance of England’s opening pace duo of David Willey and Reece Topley can be termed horrendous against South Africa the other day as they sprayed the ball on both sides of the wicket to concede huge runs. The likes of Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes too were very expensive.
The spin duo of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid looked good even
though they too went for runs and the key for England would be how effectively this pair performs.
If England want to alter their pace combination they have Liam Plunkett, a late replacement for the injured Steve Finn, to call upon.England’s batting has been satisfactory so far in the tourna-ment with Root leading from the front. However, they need a collec-tive batting effort from the likes of Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Stokes, Jos Buttler and skipper Eoin Morgan to make themselves a potent force in the tournament.
With a win and a loss under their belt, England are currently lying fourth in the five-team group and a win will definitely propel Morgan’s men up in the standings. Min-nows Afghanistan, on the other hand, have lost both their matches against Sri Lanka (by six wickets) and South Africa (by 37 runs).
But despite the defeats, the Af-ghans, who advanced to the Super 10 stage for the first time, showed great character in those two matches. They might be virtually out of the semi-final race following two defeats, but the Afghans would be aiming to spoil the party for oth-ers and show the world their might in the remaining matches of the tournament. — PTI
Even though they start as favourites
against Afghanistan, England would be
aware that their bowlers would have
to put up an improved performance
Al Hail CT to host T20 tournamentMUSCAT: Al Hail Cricket Team, under the auspices of Oman Cricket (OC), will organise a Twenty20 tournament from April 8 at their own green ground in Ma-bellah, according to a statement received from the organisers.
After the resounding success of the four editions of its T10 Cricket Tournaments and based on the encouraging feedback re-ceived from various participating teams, Al Hail CT have decided to conduct their first ever Twenty20 Cricket Tournament to encour-age lower division league teams and young talented players.
The tournament will be played on knockout basis and a maxi-mum of 24 entries will be accept-ed on first-cum-first basis. Inter-ested teams may register their entries on or before March 31.
This tournament is open for participation to players of all di-visions of OC League except Pre-mier, A, B, and C divisions. Any player registered with any team in these divisions will not be al-lowed to participate.
All other league players can participate in this tournament as the OC has kindly given their per-mission for this tournament.
The tournament will run for a total duration of nine days start-ing from April 8 and continuing on April 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 and May 6 and will be conduct-ed according to ICC rules and regulations.
For further details as well as for registration, contact organ-isers (Ph: 99623536, 9599 8056 & 92828786) or email at [email protected]
C R I C K E T
OC to host knockout tourney from April 15
Injured Duminy
ruled out of
Windies game
MUSCAT: Oman Cricket will organise the Khimji Ramdas-sponsored Knockout tourney for A to J divisions from April 15.
According to a press state-ment issued by Oman Cricket on Tuesday, teams that had par-ticipated in the league tourna-ments during 2015-16 season are eligible to take part in the tournament.
However, in the event of a team deciding not to take part, the players from that team will allowed to play in the same group or in a higher group, but not lower group.
Interetested teams may reg-ister their entries before 6.00 p.m. on April 4. The entry fee is OMR. 50. The draw ceremony and the captains/managers meeting will take place on April 6 at 7.00 p.m. at Al Mirani Hall of Al Falaj Hotel.
For further details, contact Iqbal Ariwala or Ajith D’Costa at Oman Cricket office (Ph: 24787085 or 24787087).
MUMBAI: South Africa will play Friday’s vital World Twen-ty20 Group 1 match against West Indies without all-rounder JP Duminy who has been ruled out with a hamstring strain.
Duminy picked up the injury while fielding in Sunday’s 37-run victory over Afghanistan and will be a loss for the side with bat and ball.
“The scans which were done yesterday (Monday) confirmed our clinical suspicion of a ham-string strain which means that he will be ruled out of Friday’s game against the West Indies in Nagpur,” team manager Mo-hammed Moosajee said in a Cricket South Africa statement on Tuesday. “The plan is to try and get him ready for our last round-robin match against Sri Lanka in Delhi on Sunday.”
Duminy has scored 83 runs in the competition without being dismissed and took 1-31 in three overs in the two-wicket defeat by England in South Africa’s opening game. - Reuters
C R I C K E T
W O R L D T 2 0
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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Al Hail’s cricket infrastructure ready for grand official opening
T.K. [email protected]
MUSCAT: Over the past one year Oman’s impressive show on world stage has lured many in the Sultan-ate to take up cricket, while Oman Cricket too is making attempts to take the game to far flung areas of the nation.
There’s something concrete happening on the developmental front in places like Sohar, Nizwa as well as Salalah, all under the umbrella of the country’s cricket governing body.
However, there is also one indi-vidual who is doing his bit for the game and richly deserves all the applause for single handedly devel-oping a state-to-art cricket infra-structure, which is set for a grand official inauguration next month.
Known for his dedication and commitment to cricket, Moula Bakhsh Al Balushi, who formed his Al Hail Cricket Team to promote the game among locals, had the idea of developing a good infrastructure.
A dream then, his commitment with blessings from all quarters saw his vision turning true and now he is proud to have created the infrastructure and practice facili-ties so that children are attracted
to play cricket all round the year.“Very soon we will have the pitch-
es done,” said Moula Baksh, adding that even seating arrangements and pavilion will take shape soon.
Currently, Moula Baksh has decided to lay an astro-turf pitch to begin action and the recently organised corporate cricket and Al Hail CT organised T10 tourna-ment proved to be a grand success.
“We have organised some tour-naments already, but are look-ing forward to host bigger events, starting from a T20 tournament in April,” said Moula Baksh while speaking to Times Sport.
Bright futureOman’s excellent performance in the World T20 tournament, which evoked rave reviews from around the globe, has also instilled curious interest among nationals in the Sultanate as well.
“With cricket in Oman flourish-ing, I am sure many are being lured to the game. The interest shown to-wards our Al Hail School of Cricket has grown in recent times and I visualise a bright future,” Moula Baksh, who also hailed the achieve-ments of the national cricket team and Oman Cricket, said.
With an initiative to develop cricket at the highest level in the Sultanate, Al Hail CT has come a long way since its inception in 2010.
According to Moula Baksh, Al Hail Cricket Team was started
with the aim of giving opportuni-ties to local talent who were play-ing earlier with other teams but with limited exposure.
“Net practice facilities were earlier based only in Darsait and Wadi Kabir which is quite far for the people based in other far flung parts of Muscat. Thus, the club management thought of creat-ing their own ground and practice facilities for players who cannot travel such long distances,” de-tailed Moula Baksh, the founder of Al Hail School of Cricket.
“Today, the club is well known and respected at every cricketing level in Oman, firmly establishing
its footprint by emerging as cham-pion in different divisions since 2010 in the Oman Cricket League,” he added.
“About a year ago in May 2013, the Ministry of Sports Affairs had held an exhibition on Sports in Oman where the Al Hail Cricket Team had put up a stall and show-cased the various activities and developmental programmes that the Al Hail Cricket Club has taken up for the betterment of the Omani players. The stall was visited by the Minister of Sports Affairs him-self and he was very generous with his praise for our efforts,” he said.
Moula Baksh explained that his
outfit with its enriching vision of developing cricket in the Sultan-ate, started with mere 15 members.
“The club has gone from strength to strength and now boasts of nearly 150 members including young as well as expe-rienced Omani players. These players are fully supported by ex-perienced expatriate players who assist in training them in the nets. With a firm eye on the ongoing development of the team and the young Omani players, the school has roped in some highly talented and experienced, professional ex-patriate players who have been en-trusted a dual role of teaching the young Omani players the practical nuances of the game through live match situations,” he explained.
Al Hail CT launched its cricket academy (School of Cricket) in Au-gust 2014, whereby it had invited and continues to invite participa-tion from kids of age 5 and above.
“With state-of-the-art facilities and professional coaches, the acad-emy has also put its own team in Oman junior cricket league in 2015. The academy has already seen an increase in the number of members with most parents in Al Hail, Seeb, Al Khoud, Mawallah, Mabellah, Fanja, Barka and Bidiya adjacent areas sending their kids to train at the facility,” said Moula Baksh.
“We were able to build our own facilities in Mabellah thanks to the support from the Government
and Ministry of Sports Affairs. The facility, which attracted fulsome praise from the inspection team consisting of ICC Global Devel-opment Manager Tim Anderson, Chairman ICC Associate & Affiliate Members Neil Speight, ICC Direc-tor Imran Khawja, Development officer Mohammed Iqbal Sikander and Chairman of Oman Cricket Kanak Khimji, Oman Cricket Gen-eral Secretary Madhu Jesrani and other OC board members.
Omani youth“Their visit happened on March 10, 2014, when the ground level-ling was in progress and was a barren brown, but since then vast improvements have been made and what you see now is lush green outfield,” he detailed.
“The main ground is equipped with state-of-the-art floodlights for night matches and the main pitch has been laid out with astro-turf. The practice nets boast of high quality white neon lights for com-fortable night practice,” he said. “The School has recently acquired a bowling machine to aid in batting practice for all teams that would like to utilise these facilities.”
Moula Baksh also highlighted the need for honing the skills of Omani youth.
“We have entered into tie-ups with some specific organisa-tions that come and conduct pro-grammes for our young members to develop their interpersonal skills thereby helping them be-come better individuals. With cricket in mind, the school is also tying up with Omani schools where we can develop cricket at the grassroots level, nurturing budding talents and thus creat-ing awareness about cricket and also creating a much larger pool of players for the future,” he said.
Moula Baksh added to say: “The school has plans to develop the fa-cility to meet global standards in the near future. The net facilities are open to all teams and corpo-rates in Oman. Fielding practice sessions are also offered with the net practice facility which many teams desperately require and de-mand in Oman. Interested teams can also visit us at the venue or mail us on [email protected] to find out more.”
“The facilities will also be availa-ble for tournaments,” he signed off.
Known for his
dedication and
commitment for
the game of cricket
Moula Bakhsh Al
Balushi, who formed
Al Hail Cricket Team
to promote the game
among locals, has
finally realised his
dream of developing
a good cricket
infrastructure
BRAND NEW FACILITY: A view of Al Hail School of Cricket’s lush-green ground with the net facilities in the background.
COMMITTED: A file photo shows ICC Regional Development Officer
Mohammed Iqbal Sikander, right, speaking to Moula Baksh during
a visit to Al Hail School of Cricket ground.
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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
YOUR BIGGEST ROAD HAZARD IS IN YOUR HAND A TIMES OF OMAN
HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE
Muscat Grassroots team finish second
MUSCAT: Muscat Grassroots team settled for second place behind Kuwait Club at the Volk-swagen Junior Masters regional football tournament organised at the Etisalat Academy Dubai on March 18 and 19.
Champions Kuwait Club won the right to represent the Middle East at the world championships in Paris later this year. Muscat Grassroots also returned home with the best player trophy won by Qusai Salim Al Jaradi.
Mobarak Aladwani of Kuwait Club was adjudged the best goal-keeper while Go Pro Sports team’s Martin Edwards Prado took home ‘Goal Challenge Winner’.
A toal of 10 qualifying teams from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman,
Kuwait and Qatar competed for the top prize.
The Volkswagen Junior World Masters Tournament will take place in Clairefontaine-en-Yve-lines, France from May 13 to 16.
Thomas Milz, Managing Direc-tor of Volkswagen Middle East, said: “We launched the Junior Masters programme in the Mid-dle East in 2011. To date over 4,000 aspiring footballers have participated and almost 50 young athletes have reached the interna-tional bi-annual final in Europe.
“It is inspiring to see football fans from across the region come together through the Volkswagen Junior World Masters champi-onships. This has been another incredibly successful year for the regional heats, with almost 1,000 under-13s participating from across the Middle East.”
“I would like to congratulate the Muscat Grassroots Team on putting up such a stellar perfor-mance in Dubai and especially
Qusai Salim Al Jaradi on being nominated as the best player. They have truly done the country proud. I would also like to con-gratulate the regional champions Kuwait Club on their success – we wish them the best of luck at the World Masters final in France!” added Andrew Squires, General Manager, Wattayah Motors.
The Volkswagen Junior Masters competition began in Germany over a decade ago, as part of Volk-swagen’s commitment to support youth and sports around the world. This year, the teams participating from the Middle East included Al Jazira (Abu Dhabi), United Sports Academy (Abu Dhabi), FCBESCO-LA (Dubai), Spanish Soccer School (Dubai), Go Pro Sports (Dubai), Kuwait Club (Kuwait), Al Jah-raa Club (Kuwait), Muscat Grass Roots (Oman), SEK School (Qatar) and Dutch School (Qatar).
Volkswagen Junior Masters Middle East was sponsored by Adidas and GAAST.
Muscat Grassroots
team also returned
home from at the
Volkswagen Junior
Masters with the
best player trophy
won by Qusai
Salim Al Jaradi
FIFA opens proceedings over 2006 German World Cup bidZURICH: FIFA’s ethics watch-dog has started formal proceed-ings against six individuals, in-cluding Franz Beckenbauer, over the awarding of hosting rights to Germany for the 2006 World Cup, world soccer’s governing body said on Tuesday.
The others involved are former German Football Association (DFB) chief Wolfgang Niersbach, who resigned over the affair last year, his predecessor Theo Zwan-ziger, Helmut Sandrock, Horst Schmidt and Stefan Hans.
“In the cases of Mr Becken-bauer, Dr Zwanziger, Mr Schmidt and Mr Hans, the investigatory chamber will investigate possible undue payments and contracts to gain an advantage in the 2006 FIFA World Cup host selection and the associated funding,” the investigatory chamber of Zurich-based FIFA’s ethics committee said in a statement.
Niersbach resigned from the DFB presidency after failing to provide explanations for a 6.7 million euro ($7.52 million) pay-
ment from organisers of the 2006 World Cup at which he was a Vice-President to FIFA.
He still sits on the FIFA Execu-tive Committee.
A DFB-commissioned report revealed this month that while there was no evidence of Ger-many paying FIFA members in return for their votes, payments were made to at least one former FIFA official through a web of accounts involving several other firms or individuals, including Beckenbauer. - Reuters
FOOTBALL
10 km
BiladSayt
JebelShams
Nizwa
Tanuf
Al Hamra
BahlaIzki
BirkatAl Mouz
Muscat
JebelAkhdar
Fanja
Bidbid
Samail191km
AL SAHWAR/A
MISFAT AL ABREYEEN
Anyvehicle
There are places on Earth where modern civilisation’s impatient ruthless hand has not
touched. This does not mean that people continue to live there in the Stone Age — in the homes they have all amenities, but part of their heritage, they carefully preserve and allow us to look at least one eye in her past.
Such places are there in Oman: Far and high in the Al Hajar Moun-tains is a historically significant village Misfat Al Abreyeen. The 4,500-year-old beehive tombs of Bat are nearby to the northwest, and standing guard just above the village is a ruined fort from the Old Persian Empire. Misfat Al Abreyeen is quite a mountain village with an old irrigation sys-tem on the terraces, with the set-tled measured way, with donkeys on narrow paths, with the ener-getic boys diving into the stone basins with cool water from the falaj, however, almost in front of each entrance there are modern Toyotas, BMWs, VWs and many more. The village can be reached without SUV.
There’s no town gate. There’s no ticket booth. There are no signs. You just park your car at the dead-end road in front of the village, and walk through one of the ancient rock arches to time-travel back to the 12th Century. This is an an-cient land that predates history and script.
It is said that Misfah has only opened up to the outside world in this current generation, and there was absolutely no commercial activity and seemingly no desire to welcome any form of ‘modern tourism’. This adorable village is perched above two large ravines.
The opulence of the palm strikes to the aridity of the mountain. The credit goes to the countless gullies that wind through the orchards, pass under the rock, spanning a small gorge. The ancient houses
have unique designs with arched passageways and the rooms are spread out in two or three levels. Beyond the village, the road leads to a pool of water created by the overflow of the falaj. Children swim in the three-metre deep pool, diving from the roof of an adjacent house. The falaj goes around the village up to the point where the date palms stand.
You hear the joyous laughter of water from terrace to terrace through the falaj by the walk way. On the way you see small block-ades in the canal with raised flat stone which deviate the flow of water — old style. Lemons, pome-granates, mangoes, papayas, ba-nana plantains, onion, grass ... eve-rything grows effortlessly in this garden. Here one has never expe-rienced drought and falaj has not changed since generations. With its lush gardens, tall grasses and abundant fruit trees it looked al-most like a rainforest region, aside from the sturdy mud brick houses and occasional donkey. Go down the walkway and that will lead you to the cliff of a great gorge.
The village is characterised by its alleys, traditional high mud and stone buildings, and agricul-tural terraces that wrap around the mountain, along with the old buildings. Misfat Al Abreyeen rises a thousand metres above sea level. The homes of its inhabitants are at the top of the mountain and their farms are on the slope. It is said that the first house in Misfat Al Abreyeen village was built two hundred years ago. These geo-graphical features of this hamlet have played a major role in deter-mining their refusal to opt for a different lifestyle and cling more on their rich traditional past. Here life is a classic hand-over legacy practised by many generations.
You can see the mountain vil-lage set amidst stunning landscape has hardly changed over the years except for some developmental
works like roads, electricity and telecommunication networks.
The lifestyle of the farming com-munity has hardly changed despite modern development reaching the village which has succeeded in combining modernity and tradi-tion. The municipality has built a park at the entrance of the village for visitors to relax. Those visiting the area must, however, be care-
ful while exploring the village and must seek permission before tak-ing pictures of the villagers, espe-cially women.
Since the end of 2010 it is possible for you to stay overnight in a tradi-tional, lovingly restored mud brick house, in the middle of the cool gar-den. The rooms are simple but nice, and decorated with historical every-day objects. Spending a night in the Oman House will give you a unique perspective on the former way of life in the village. Ahmed Al Abri, who runs the old house, has decorated the 11 rooms with utensils and objects which were used in former times. The pleasant, comfortable atmosphere of the ancient house, nestled among the date palms, with the centuries-old ca-nals flowing by is world out of the bor-ing normal star hotel rooms. Meals can be taken on the rooftop terrace, where you have a panoramic view of the palms and oasis. The meals are prepared by an Omani family, your next door [email protected]
WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM
LeisureSECTIONC L I F E S T Y L E W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Story Mohammed Shafeeqe
An Ancient Escape
HOW TO GET THERE: On the Nizwa-Bahla interior road turn right at the junction after Tanuf. Proceed nearly 20km on the road to reach Al Hamra. Near Al Hamra souq, turn right and the road goes up the mountain for three kilometres and leads to Misfat Al Abreyeen.Location: 23°08’26.4”N 57°18’36.8”E
WHERE TO STAY:Misfat Al Abreyeen Old House+968 9934 [email protected] starts from OMR30 for single room with dinner and breakfast.
Explore an ancient land
that predates history and
script for a weekend trip
back in time
The lifestyle of the farming community has hardly changed despite modern development reaching the village which has succeeded in combining modernity and tradition
Phot
ogra
phy:
Sup
plie
d
FIND-IT-ALLC6 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Dhuhr 12.18pmAsr 3.45pmMaghrib 6.24pmIsha 7.34pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.53am
PRAYER TIMINGS
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Round the clock
Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334
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Muscat Region
Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766
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Lufthansa 24796692
Malaysian Airlines 24560796
Middle East Airlines 24796680
Oman Air 24531111
Pakistan International
Airlines 24792471
Qatar Airways 24771900
Qantas 24559941
Royal Jordanian 24796693
Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485
Singapore Airlines 24791233
Shaheen Air 24816565
SriLankan Airlines 24784545
Swiss International
Airlines 24796692
Thai Airways 24705934
LISTINGS
LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE
FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)
15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily
15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily
15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily
06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily
08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily
13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily
16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily
16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily
14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily
08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily
14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily
TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)
06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily
06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily
TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily
10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily
10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily
19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily
SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily
06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily
13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur
13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur
15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily
15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily
TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily
07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily
07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily
TO MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)
05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily
05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily
05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily
07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily
13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily
13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily
17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily
06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily
15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily
14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily
TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)
12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily
12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily
TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily
10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily
10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily
19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily
DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily
07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri
13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri
15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily
15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily
FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily
16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily
16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily
WEATHER
300
Maximum
230
Minimum
TEMPERATURE
80-35%RELATIVE HUMIDITY
Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 17 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to [email protected]
WITH LOVE
ANN MARIYA JOHNYMarch 23, 2007
S. SHRIVARDHANMarch 23, 2006
CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68 www.citycinemaoman.netfacebook.com/citycinemaoman
SHATTIKung Fu Panda 3 – 3D (Animation) PG3:30, 5:30 & 7:15PMThe Wave (Action | Drama | Thriller) PG12Cast: Kristoffer Joner, Thomas Bo Larsen 9:45PMThe Witch (Horror | Mystery) 15+Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson11:45PMSolace (Crime | Drama | Mystery) 12+2:45,6:45,11:30PMEye In The Sky (Drama| Thriller | War) PG12Cast: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman5:30PM The Divergent Series: Allegiant (Action| Adcenture| Sci-Fi) PG12Cast: Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz7:30PM Triple 9 (Action | Crime | Drama) 15+Cast: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor3:15, 9:15 PM London Has Fallen (Action| Crime) PG12Cast: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman4:45PMBatman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice (Action | Adventure |Fantasy) PG128:45, 11:45PM
MUSCAT GRAND MALLBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice – 3D (PG12) Action, Adventure, FantasyCast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams9:00, 11:50 PMGold Class – 11:00 PMKung Fu Panda 3 – 3D (PG) Animation 12:45, 5:15, 7:05 PMGold Class – 6:15 PMKapoor and Sons – 2D (PG12) Hindi | Drama9:00 PMSolace – 2D (12+) Crime | Drama | Mystery11:45 PMGold Class – 3:30, 8:15 PMThe Dressmaker – 2D (15+) Drama
4:30 PMZootropolis – 3D (PG12) Animation | 12:15, 2:15 PMThe Divergent Series: Allegiant – 2D (PG12) Action| Adventure| Sci-Fi3:00 PMTriple 9 – 2D (15+) Action | Crime | Drama6:45 PM
PANORAMA MALLBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice-3D (Action, Adventure) (PG12)Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams9:00, 11:45 PMBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice-3D (Action, Adventure) (PG12)-VIP LOUNGE8:45, 11:15 PMLondon Has Fallen (2D) (Action) (PG12)5:00,7:00PMTriple 9 (2D) (Action, Crime)(15+)9:15, 11:30 PMTriple 9 (2D) (Action, Crime)(15+)-VIP LOUNGE3:30 PMThe Divergent Series: Allegiant (2D) (Action, Adventure)(PG12) 2:45, 7:00PMKung Fu Panda 3 (A)(MX4D)(PG)4:30, 6:30, 8:30 PMKung Fu Panda 3 (3D) (Animation)(PG)
5:00, 7:00 PMKung Fu Panda 3 (3D) (Animation, Action)(PG)-VIP LOUNGE6:15PMSolace (2D) (Crime, Drama)(12+)3:00, 5:00, 11:45PMSolace (2D) (Crime, Drama)(12+)-VIP LOUNGECast : Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Colin Farrell5:15 PMKapoor and Sons (2D) (Drama)(PG12)9:00 PMEye In The Sky (2D) (Drama, Thriller)(PG12)2:45PM
AZAIBA Batman vs Superman:Dawn of Justice (2D) (Action |Adventure | Fantasy) (PG12) Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams8:45 PMBatman vs Superman:Dawn of Justice (3D) (Action |Adventure | Fantasy) (PG12) 11:30 PMTriple 9 (2D) (Action |Crime) (15+) Cast: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel EjioforTiming: 4:50, 11:45 PMKung Fu Panda 3 (3D) (Animation) (PG) 3:00, 5:00, 7:00 PMThe Divergent Series-Allegiant (2D) (Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi) (PG12)
2:45PMJai Gangaajal (2D) (Hindi) (Action) (PG12) 3:30 PMKapoor and Sons (2D) (Hindi) (PG12) 2:30, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15, 11:30 PMMaheshinte Prathikaaram (2D) (Mal) (Drama | Comedy) (PG12) 6:50, 9:15 PMPugazh (2D) (Tamil) (Action ) (PG) 6:50, 9:15 PM
RUWIScreen 1Kapoor & Sons (Drama / Family) –PG123.30, 6.30, 9.30 PMCast : Sidharth Malhotra, Alia BhattScreen 2Kung Fu Panda 3 (2D) (Animation) –PG3.30, 5.30, 7.30 PMBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Action/Adventure) –PG129.45 PMScreen 3Neerja (Action / Biography) –PG123.45, 9.45 PMMaheshinte Prathikaaram -(2D) Mal(Comedy / Family) –PG126.45 PM
SURBatman Vs Superman 3D (Action | Adventure | Fantasy) (PG12) Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams11:45 PMThe Wave ( Action | PG12) 8:15 PMTriple 9 ( Action |Crime | Drama ) (15+) 6:15 PMEye in the Sky ( Drama ) (PG12) Cast: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman4:15 PMMaheshinte Parthikaaram (Mal) (PG12) Cast: Fahad Faasil, Soubin Shahir10:35 PMKung Fu Panda 3 (3D) (Animation) (PG) 4:30, 6:15 PMEmeli (Thriller) ( 12+)Cast : Sarah Bolger, Carly Adams, Carl Bailey10:15 PMKapoor And Sons ( Drama ) ( PG12) 8:00 PM
SOHARLondon Has Fallen – 2D (Action) (PG12)Cast: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman3:30PMSolace – 2D (Crime | Drama | Mystery) (12+)Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Xander Berkeley2:30, 9:45PMBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice– 3D (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) (PG12)Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams11:45PMThe Wave – 2D (Action | Drama ) (PG12)Cast: Kristoffer Joner, Thomas Bo Larsen5:00, 9:15PMKung Fu Panda 3 – 2D (Animation) (PG)4:45PMKung Fu Panda 3 – 3D (Animation) (PG)2:45, 6:45PMEmilie– 2D (Thriller) (12+)5:00, 11:45PMEye in the Sky -2D (Drama| Thriller ) (PG12)7:15, 11:30PMBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice– 3D (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) (PG12)Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams9:00PMPugazh – 2D (Action| Thriller) (PG)7:15PMMaheshinte Prathikaaram– 2D (Drama) 8:45PM (PG12)
BURAIMIThe Witch (Horror | Mystery) (15+)
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson11.45PMThe Wave (Action | Drama ( PG-12) 9.30PMMaheshinte Prathikaaram(Mal) ( PG12 ) Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Soubin Shahir7.15PMKung Fu Panda 3 (Action|) (PG) Voice Overs: Jack Black, Bryan Cranston5.00, 7.00PMTriple 9 (Action | Crime | Drama) (15+) Cast : Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor4.45, 11.30PMKapoor & Sons (Hindi | Drama) (PG 12)Cast : Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, Fawad Khan9.00PMFrankenstein (Horror | Thriller) 18+ 5.00PMEye in the Sky (Dramar) PG12 7.00PMBatman VS Superman 3D (Action) PG 12 9.00, 11.45PM
SALALAHBatman Vs Superman (3D) (PG12) (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams9:00, 11:30PMKung Fu Panda 3 (3D) (PG) (Animation) 12:15, 3:00, 4:55PMThe Wave (2D) (PG12) (Action | Thriller) Cast: Kristopher Jonner, Thomas Bo Larsen2:45PMFrankenstein (2D) (18+) (Horror | Thriller) Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Xavier Samuel4:45PMLondon Has Fallen (2D) (PG12) (Action) 1:30PMTriple 9 (2D) (15+) (Action | Crime | Drama)12:45, 5:30PMThe Witch (2D) (15+) (Horror | Mystery)Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson10:05PMSolace (2D) (12+) (Crime | Drama | Mystery) 3:30, 6:45, 11:45PMEye in the Sky (2D) (TBC) (Drama) 11:55PMKapoor and Sons (2D) (PG12) (Hindi) 8:45PMMaheshinte Prathikaaram (2D) (PG12) (Mal) (Comedy / Drama)7:45PM Pugazh (2D) (PG12) (Action| Thriller) 6:30PM
CINEMA SCHEDULE CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW
@MGM @BURAIMI
Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice– 3D (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) (PG12)Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams9:00, 11:50 PMGold Class – 11:00 PM
The Witch (Horror | Mystery) (15+)Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson11.45PM
BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking
24540855
Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.comBatman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (Action / Adventure / Fantacy) (PG12)Cast: Ben Afleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams7.15 & 11.45 pmThe Wave (Action / Drama / Thriller)Cast: Kristoffer Joner, Thomas Bo Larsen3.45 & 11.55 PM CP No: 371 (PG12)Frankenstein (Horror / Thriller)Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Xavier Samuel2.00,5.45, & 10.00 PM CP No: 372 (18+)The Witch (Horror / Mystery)Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie1.00 & 10.00 PM. CP No: 373 (15+)Kapoor & Sons (Hindi / Comedy / Drama)Cast: Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt3.00 & 7.30 PM CP No: 374 (PG12)`London Has Fallen (Action / Crime / Thriller)Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart 5.30 PM CP No: 351 (PG12)
STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776
Website: www.isurf.co.om
Maheshinte Prathikaram (Mal) (Comedy ) 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30 PM Cinema Main Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Soubin Shahir, Aparna Pugazh (Tamil) (Com) 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30 PM Cinema-2Cast : Jai, Surabhi & R . J. BalajiAction Hero Biju (Mal) (Act\ Comedy) Cast: Nivin Pauly & Anu Emmanuel 3:45 & 9:45 PM Cinema -3Puthiya Niyamam ( Mal) ( Thriller) Cast : Mammotty & Nayantara 6:45 PM Cinema- 3 Kapoor & Sons ( Hindi) (Drama\Rom) 3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 PM Cinema -4Cast: Alia Bhatt, Rishi Kapoor, Fawad Khan
Next Change: Rocky Handsome (Hindi);
Thozha (Tamil); Oopri (Telugu)
Programmes are subject to change
@SALALAH
Frankenstein (Horror / Thriller) (18+)Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Xavier Samuel, Tony Todd4:45PM
LIFESTYLEC7W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Walk in the Clouds
Have you been able to capture the beauty of an off-the-beaten-path destination in Oman? Send your pictures with a caption & geo-locator to: [email protected]
Location: 23°08’24.6”N 57°43’46.1”E
Holiday demand falls as concerns rise
British holiday company Thomas Cook said customers were delaying booking holi-days, uncertain of making plans as they see previously popular destinations such as Turkey as less safe.
Thomas Cook said bookings for the summer period, when it makes all its profit, were five per cent lower than last year as customers organised their trips later, continuing a pattern it highlighted in February.
An attack on tourists in Is-tanbul in January have caused demand for trips to Turkey to plunge, while last year there were also attacks in Paris, Egypt and Tunisia, making some of the tourists to be wary of previ-ously popular destinations.
More customers were opting to have their holiday in main-land Spain and the Canary and Balearic Islands, as well as the United States and Cuba. Fewer wanted to go to Turkey, the company said.
But the company stuck to its forecast for profit to grow, as long as bookings recover. -Reuters
B R I E F
I N T H E N E W S
Fun foodie festival rolls into RAK this weekendBrand new concepts for foodies and families are further boosting the appeal of the interactive Al Hamra Market series, run by Ras Al Khaimah-headquartered Al Hamra Real Estate Development.
Taking place from 5-10pm on March 24 and 25 at Al Hamra Ma-rina, at the heart of the popular Al Hamra Village development, the market is transforming its Gourmet Corner into an exclusive des-tination for gastronomes with top vendors offering newly-created epicurean delights that will be available during the two-day event.
Among those contributing their creative cooking skills are Ga-taby House of Cookies, which will be launching an Al Hamra Arabic Coffee Cookie with saffron, ginger and cardamom; Voltage Burger, with its spicy and highly-stacked Jebel Jais Burger; RAK Pancake will be doing live baking of their Al Hamra savoury banana and chocolate mini pancake sandwiches; Camy’s Canadian Pizza will unveil a pizza shawarma in the colour of the UAE flag titled “UAE Pizza”; and Nando’s with its traditional Ketaki Shah served in an authentic copper dish. “Since its launch in October 2015, the mar-ket has quickly gained a reputation as a burgeoning culinary des-tination that showcases an exciting array of speciality foods from home and abroad,” Benoy Kurien, GM, Al Hamra Real Estate Devel-opment said. For more details call +971 7243 2724.
LIFESTYLEC8 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Emirates Airline made
headlines earlier
this year when it
announced it would
operate the longest
nonstop flight in the
world — a staggering
17-and-a-half hour
expedition from Dubai
to Panama City. There
are some flights that
seem so interminable
— like, an-entire-day-
of-your-life long — that
even the most frequent
of flyers want to know
how many more reruns
they’ve gotta endure.
We have compiled
a list of the 10 most
excruciating cross-
continental journeys
currently available.
THELONGEST
NONSTOP FLIGHTS IN THE
WORLD
Dubai, UAE — Panama City, PanamaEmirates, Flight # pending approvalAircraft: Boeing 777Duration: 17 hours, 35 minutesDistance: 8,580 miles
Delhi - San Francisco Air IndiaAir India (AI 173) 16 hours55 minutesAircraft: Boeing 777-200
3. Johannesburg, South Africa – Atlanta, GADelta 201Aircraft: Boeing 777-200Duration: 16 hours, 35 minutesDistance: 8,449 miles
Dubai, UAE — Houston, TXEmirates 211Aircraft: A380-800Duration: 16 hours, 19 minutesDistance: 8,164 miles
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX — Sydney, AustraliaQantas Flight 8Aircraft: A380-800Duration: 16 HoursDistance: 8,589 miles
Newark, NJ — Hong Kong, ChinaUnited 179Aircraft: Boeing 777-200Duration: 15 hours, 38 minutesDistance: 8,062 miles
Dubai, UAE — San Francisco, CAEmirates 225Aircraft: A380-800Duration: 15 hours, 37 minutesDistance: 8,099 miles
Dubai, UAE — Dallas-Ft. Worth, TXEmirates 221Aircraft: A380-800Duration: 15 hours, 17 minutesDistance: 8,036 miles
Abu Dhabi, UAE — San Francisco, CAEtihad 183Aircraft: Boeing 777-300Duration: 15 hours, 13 minutesDistance: 8,154 miles
Doha, Qatar — Houston, TXQatar 713Aircraft: Boeing 777-200Duration: 15 hours, 47 minutesDistance: 8,045 miles
1
2
3
10
9
8
7
4
5
6
W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION
CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E
D
D4 VACANCY CARGO D7
W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
RENT D2
QUALITY OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT
FF
*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.
* Subject to space availability
WELL FURNISHED OFFICE SPACE & CAMP ACCOMODATION
AVAILABLE FOR RENT IN GHALA INDUSTRIAL AREA
Ideal for workers, staff members
Catering facility option available
&4WDs/Pick up’s/Heavy Vehicles
are available for sale on as is
where is basis.
The vehicles can be inspected at
our premises at Ghala.
Contact: 94057473/94369381
*Tourist visa arranged
Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461
FOR RENT
D2 W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
DAILY GUIDE
Flat in Al Khuwair opp grand mall
4 room 3 toilet + hall kitchen in 3
floor 400. Contact 99420346
4 bedroom new villa Al Mawaleh
2 km to city center mall luxury
high end fit outs, split A/C, full
kitchen fitting all room with pri-
vate toilet. Contact: 99349990
2 bed rooms flat with Hall, 2bath-
rooms in Darsait, near Muscat
Municipality. Contact: 24700120 /
92584715
1000 sq mtrs industrial land in
Ghala suitable for warehouse
workshop etc. Contact :24700120 /
92584715
For rent 1BHK at Al-Hamriya,
B-2397, Way-5935 near Muscat
Pharmacy. # 9922478 / 99332297
2 studio flat for rent in Al Am-
erat, opp. ROP police station rent
150/- and 130/- each. Contact:
99350946
2 BR, 2 bath, a kitchen, a yard
, with AC, separate enterance,
AlKhuwair near ibis hotel. PDC. RO
250 .. Call 97056443
Commercial/ residential flat for
rent in a new building. A ware-
house also available, location
Muttrah. For more details contact
– 99364735 / 95729711
Readymade office space for rent
(240sm) in Bank Melli Iran Build-
ing, MBD area, Ruwi, opposite
Center point. Contact: 99011352
Big room with bath attach & hall
near ISM. Contact: 99419830
House for rent, 2 bedrooms, 1 toilet
& kitchen. Contact: 96968104
Staff & employees accommo-
dation new building 3 floor Al
Wadi Al Kabir - Muscat 15 rooms,
Kitchen & dining hall AC, Satellite
TV. Contact: 97166111 / 97252028
Flat of 3 BHK in Al Ghobra South
opposite Royal Hospital. RO 380/-.
Contact – 91776665
Luxury flat of 3 BHK in Al
Watayah. RO 500/- Contact –
91776665
Amazing flat of 2 BHK in Remal
Building. RO 550/- Contact –
91776665
Clean flat of 2 BHK in Al Khuwair
33. RO 330/- Contact – 91776665
Shops / flats available in Honda
Road, Ruwi & Mabellah Indus-
trial area. Contact 24833972/
24833974/ 99367448
House for rent in Mawallah near
City Center, 2 bedroom, (2) toilets,
hall & kitchen. Contact : 96968104
Brand new deluxe flats located near
Seeb flyover or the right hand side
of the main road coming from the
Seeb palace roundabout, 2 bedrooms,
family hall, kitchen, 3 toilets, balcony
with split unit A/cs. #: 97755586
5 floor building for rent in Al Khu-
wair near Muscat Dunes hotel each
floor, 3 flats each flat with 2 BHK.
Contact : 93223324
3 BHK, 1BHK flats for rent new
building with A/C, behind Muscat
Bakery at Wadi Al Kabir. Contact :
92103604 / 99338133
3500 & 2700 sq mtrs industrial
land + accommodation & store for
sale in Wadi Kabir. #99792181
1,2,3 BHK flat in Al Khuwair.
Contact 99792181
Open land & labour camp in Ghala
& Rusayl. Contact 99792181
2,200 sq mtr factory area & 800
sq mtr store with 8 accommoda-
tion rooms and 10 office cabins
available for rent in Barka indus-
trial area. Contact 91398381 / 80 /
78, email - [email protected]
Flats in Al Khuwair, Al Ghobrah,
Al Hail & Seeb. Contact: 92125648
/ 95250300 / 24182000
Villa in Seeb near the beach and
Dreams Resort. Contact: 92125648
/ 95250300
Flats in Wadi Kabeer, MBD, Dar-
sait, Hamriya & Sidab. Contact:
92125648 / 95250300/ 24182000
Villa in Al Khuwair. Contact:
92125648 / 95250300
Flat for rent in South AlGhubrah
3 rooms, hall and 3 toilets, kitchen
rent 450/-. Contact: 99335580
Flats, shops and basement in
MBD area and Honda road.
Contact: 92433127/96291778/
92589235/97293708
1 & 2 BHK Flat in Al.Khuwair.
Contact - 99792181
2 BHK flat in Ghobrah.#99792181
2 BHK flat in Ruwi.
Contact - 99792181
Office Space Available in Al Khu-
wair & CBD.Contact – 99792181
Store in Misfah. Contact 99792181
Double bed room flat CBD area.
Contact: 97608564
2 Bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, car
park R.O 200/- & 1 bedroom,
kitchen, toilet R.O 130 in Al Khu-
wair. Contact: 95154331
2 BHK flats /office & shops valu-
able in a new building at Honda
road .Contact: 91165807
Water tank for rent Quantity
5000 Gallon with driver. Contact:
96449233
1BHK near medical Darsait R.O 180/-
Muttrah house. Contact : 95076261
Commercial land in Ghala 2500sqm
for rent #93506187 / 97684266
For rent flats and shops behind
Al jmlah in Al Amerat. Contact :
91231380
Room for rent available in a flat
for Executive bachelor at Azaiba,
behind Al Meera Hypermarket with
attached bath with cot & AC , rent
inclusive of Water & Electricity.
Contact 96404166 / 97433992
Villa in Al-Khuwair 33. Quality
Finishing. Consist 5 Bedrooms, 1
Living room, 3 Lounges, All with
A/C, Kitchen and storage . Contact:
90665135
For rent 4 flats each flat consists
of 3 BRS, 1 STR, 2 Toilets, Kitchen,
Monthly rent for each flat R.O
250/- location Al Inashel, Muttrah.
Contact: Abdullah 99445880
Flats for rent in Al Mabela (7) near
Industrial roundabout close to the
Al Wafa Mosque area 142 (m2)
2 rooms and a large hall, 1 Kitchen
and 3 toilets, for inquires please
contact : 94359353
Flats and Labor accommodation
for rent in South Al Mabela. Con-
tact : 95230355 / 95331177
2 BHK & 1 BHK Flats for rent
Muttrah near Oman house S/ AC.
Contact: 97007934 / 92629232
New flats for rent at Darsait near
to Ministry of Sports, Mumtaz area
the flats includes, 1 living room, 2
bedroom, kitchen, 3 toilets, every
rooms with split A/C high quality
finishing rent per flat is R.O 340/- .
Interested candidates please Con-
tact : 00968 92225523
2 & 3 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair. Con-
tact 99792181
Staff Accommodation for Rent in
Al hail. Contact 99792181
3000 Sqr mtrs Store in Misfah.
Contact 99792181
Open land + workshop + labour
camp in Ghala & Rusayl. #99792181
Flat, 1 bedroom, kitchen, toilet in
AL Khuwair family bachelors
R.O 150/-. Contact: 95154331
1 Bed room, sharing K& T, R.O 100,
2 bedrooms , sharing K& T R.O
200/- in AL Khuwair. #95154331
Flat for rent 2 BHK 2 split A/C, 2
toilets, Wadi Kabir near Kuwaiti
Masjid. #97007934 / 92609232
Two bedrooms flat in Al Ghobrah
near Oman Oil of 18 November Street.
OMR 330 Monthly. #99333479 or
95215360 or 97509955.
2 BR flats with 2Baths Kitchen
Al Amerat Aster Hospital .#99366142
2BHK split A/C 200/- Monthly
& 1BHK spilt A/C 150/- monthly
new building good location Barka
Market. Contact: 99342661
2 B/R Luxury Fully Furnished @
Al Khuwair 33 1 B/R Luxury Fully
Furnished @ Al Khuwair
5 B/R Fully Furnished villa @ Ma-
dinat Al Ilam 5 B/R Fully Furnished
villa @ Madinat Al Ilam. For Daily,
Weekly, monthly or Yearly contract.
Please Contact: Atlas Real Estate
& Rent a Car LLC 99249069 /
994617563/92888376 / 24834888E
mail: [email protected]
02 BHK residential flat opposite
to Al Nahdha hospital.
Contact: 99342733 /99795241
Rooms for rent in Al Khuwair near
Muscat Holiday Hotel. contact
95724975
3 Rooms, 2 Toilets Flat for Rent. 18
November Street. Near Mars Hyper-
market and The Chedi. Ghobrah -Good
for Commercial or Residential use.
OMR 295/- month. Call 94477222
Conditioned room with toilets in Al
Khuwair. #92620858 /92605500
2B/R with 3 toilets directly from
owner, near Dolphin Complex
Bausher. Contact 92158031
We have staff accommodation in
Bousher 30 to 40 people can stay.
Contact 93782735 / 99208033
We have 7BHK commercial villa
in Al Khuwair 33 for rent. Lift also
Available. #93782735 / 99208033
We have 1BHK / 2BHK flats for rent
in Mabela7. #93782735 / 99208033
We have 2BHK flats for rent in
Ghubra, Ghala, Azaiba. Contact:
93782735 / 99208033
We have 5BHK villa in Qurum near
Mars Hypermarket for rent. Contact:
93782735 / 99208033
We have office for rent in Ghubra
150 sqm. prime location main road.
Contact: 93782735 / 99208033
Flats for rent in Ghubra at good loca-
tion. 93782735 / 99208033
2 BHK flat in Azaiba, near Sultan
Centre, 2 rooms, sitting hall, kitchen
& 3 bathrooms. Contact: 93782735 /
99208033
2 BHK fully furnished flat at Ruwi
MBD area. #93211557 / 24814853
OFFICES FOR RENT AT AZAIBA
Prime location on service road (previously
occupied by A'Saffa Foods) near Al Turky
and Mazda showroom.
- 2 BHK flat available directly from the
owner, at Azaiba.
Contact: 99229263, 93221054, 95215289
OFFICE SPACES
FOR RENT230 SQ. Mtr each
Ready to move in two
offi ces for rent near Man
Truck Showroom, Ghala
Contact -
99269841 / 92429917
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 D3
FOR RENT FOR SALE
FOR SALE2 BHK Flat in Wataya. #99792181
Four bedroom two floors luxurious
and spacious residential villa in
Al Hail North, near to the sea and
Oman oil. Each room has its own
bathroom. It has splits A/C’s and
shaded car park. OMR 750 month-
ly. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 or
97509955
Warehouse at Wadikabir - total
area 3500 sqm - covered ware-
house (500sqm), office,
accommodation (1000sqm), open
area (2000sqm) please
contact: 99273774 - 99202278
Flat with two rooms with window
A/C, with toilets & car parking way
No: 1670 north Al Hail near Dosteen
restaurant 1KM Inside. #99238334
2 BHK Apartment for rent near
MSQ area. Contact 92888063
3BHK in Qurum P.D.O high 350/-
Monthly. Contact: 99342661
Commercial flats of 3 & 2 BHK
in Al Ghobra North 18 Nov street
RO.650/- & 450/- #91776665
2 BHK – modern & spacious flats
with split ac for rent in Qurum near
PDO gate no. 2. #94057023
2 BHK flats with split Ac available for
rent at Al Khuwair 33. #94057023
2 BHK, 3 toilet with split A/c
at Darsait near School. Contact
99024039 / 99061408
Offices & flat in CBD, Ruwi. Con-
tact 95345909 / 92820734
2 BHK fully furnished flat for rent
in Wadi Kabir.#92233322
Store with cold store in Wadi
kabir. Contact: 99374977
Furnished office for rent No. 503
at Business Center – Al Khuwair.
Contact: 24488833
For rent and investment Land
industrial shops in Rusayl.
Contact: 99323957 / 95490842
1B/R apartment executive fully
furnished at AL Khuwair 33 & 5 B/R
villa unfurnished at Madinat
Al Ilam & 5 B/R villa furnished at
Madinat Al Ilam. Contact: Atlas Real
Estate & rent a car LLC -24834888/
99249069/92888376/94617563
Email: [email protected]
Luxury villa of 5 BHK in Al Khu-
wair 33 RO.650/- contact 91776665
600 M2 showroom or office in
Bousher in front of Dolphin complex.
RO.3.5 per m2. Contact 91776665
CHANGE OF NAME
Shop for sale at Ruwi center. Con-
tact: 98787853
Approx. 300 SQM Super market
available for sale. Complete with
furniture & fixtures, security cam-
era and internet connection. With
2 entrances. #for appointment /
viewing at – 93518390 / 99082534
Restaurant for sale (Indian,
chinese, Arabic food ). Contact :
91181765 / 95411354
Warehouse at Ghala Indus-
trial area for rent with 16 acs &
heavy duty shelves/ warehouse
is in 2340 sqm land. contact
92400008
600 sq mtrs residential land in
Maabela Phase 4 Block 4 OMR
65 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or
95215360 or 97509955
600 sq mtrs residential land in
Maabela Phase 4 Block 3 OMR 65
Thousand.#99333479 or 95215360
Approx. 300 sqm, supermarket
available for sale. complete with
furniture & fixtures, security Cam-
era & internet connection with
2 entrances.# for appointment/
viewing at 93518390 / 99082534.
Excavators 3 nos (Hitachi
240/350, 2008/2013 model),
Tipper 1 no. (Astra 2011 model).
All are in good condition, sell on
the maximum offer.#98999503 /
99782930 / 98981112
2 storey villa, 5 rooms with at-
tached bath,1 hall & kitchen at
Madinat Sultan Qaboos under
finishing. Contact 99778773
Good conditioned 5 ton forklift for
sale. #99885638 / 94052713
Wholesale Iranian best carpets
quality TOP per sqm 17.5 RO quality
normal per sqm 13.5 RO for Masjid
per sqm 13.5RO in Oman and all
Gulf country’s delivery in Muscat
and Iranian Souvenirs paintings
and gifts. #91213269 / 99234905
Zanzibari coffee shop for rent or
sale in Barka Souq road, at Prime
location. Contact: 99814411
Steel Scrap materials for immedi-
ate sale#99273774/ 99202278
FOR RENTStore space in Al
Wattayah.
Contact 99382489 / 99263443
Almost new beach/ garden lounge
chairs /bar stools/ counter. Photos
can be sent 95865457
400 sq mtrs Commercial/Residen-
tial land in Mabela Phase 5 Block 2.
OMR 165 Thousand. #99333479 or
95215360 or 97509955
A well running pharmacy for
sale at prime location. Contact-
99627621, 93240949
Space for printing press available
at wadikabir with or without
machinery. Contact 99328430
Shop for sale near Oman House,
Muttrah. Contact 99024362.
Urgent sale of steel scrap only
serious buyers kindly contact +968
96725423 for viewing the items.
Single colorful Bed and Sofa
for Sale at Al Khuwair.CON-
TACT 92881849 /What`s up No
97290565
HD Scaffoldings, Shuttering
Jacks, Wooden Planks, Shuttering
wood assorted, Tower hoist (lift),
Concrete Mixer, Bending Machine,
Steel Fabrication Machinery
(Searing/Cutting, lathe & Welding)
including tools for immediate sale:
Contact 99273774/ 99202278
Brand new 4 BHK villa in Al Fai
compound Al Khoud. RO.475/-
Contact – 91776665
Villa of 3 BHK and sitting area in
Al Ghobra North. RO.525/-
Contact – 91776665
Luxury and brand new semi
furnished 2 BHK flat in Remal-
bowsher. RO.550/- #91776665
Spacious 1 BHK flat in Al Wattaya
with all split A/C’s and parking.
RO.300/-Contact – 91776665
ACC. AVAILABLE
ACC. AVAILABLE
Room available for Executive
bachelor at Al Hail. CONTACT
96234708
Furnished apartment for rent,
two rooms, hall, kitchen. Near Car-
refour. Contact 99336776
Fully furnished room with fully
equipped kitchen and sharing
bathroom immediately available
for Executive bachelor in N.Gubrah
opp. Maha Hotel. #95450250
Fully furnished 1BHK at Wadi-
kabir near Al Hassan RO275/
month available for 4 months
from 01/04/2016 to 31/07/16.
#92577929
1 BHK apartment for rent in Al
Khoud Shabiya near Mazoon
Mosque for rent. #93913224
Single room near Al Falaj Hotel.
Contact 99643845
Room with attached bathroom for
a family in Wadi Kabir. #97167857
Room with kitchen available at
Ruwi.# 91214897 / 98049288
Room with toilet for working lady.
Contact: 91450718
Room for rent with furniture.
Al Bustan village.CONTACT
93687466
Furnished room attached bath for
Indian bachelor, Al-Falaj Ruwi &
lady Wadi Kabir near Mars hyper-
market. #96202458/96761960
Furnish bedroom with attach
bathroom for executive bachelor.
Contact: 97704794
Room with attached bathroom and
sharing kitchen available for
Executive bachelor or small family
at wadikabir Contact 93049849
Room available in Mumtaz area
1 room, 1 Bathroom, Kitchen & 1
room, common bathroom. Interest-
ed please c#92680041 Mr. Altaf
BUYING
BUYING
Buying cars for cash. CONTACT
90202090
Bobcat available for rent. CONTACT
97623299
LOST
Mahinu Zaman has lost Bangladeshi
passport No BA 0262753. Finder please
handover to ROP.
Federico Coletta has lost Italian
Passport No. YA 7891689. Finder please
handover to ROP
Abdul Malek Omar Chan has lost
Bangladeshi Passport No. AG 7433717.
Finder please handover to ROP
Muhammad Bozlu Mea has lost
Bangladeshi Passport No. G 1703331.
Finder please handover to ROP
Mariam Mohammed Bumma has
lost Tanzanian Passport No. AB 683742.
Finder please handover to ROP
Mohammad Shah has lost Bangla-
deshi Passport No. E 451855. Finder
please handover to ROP
I Chaitanya Pandey holder of Passport
No. Z3129792 son of Mr. Yogesh Pandey
having permanent residence in Room
264, Hostel 8, IIT Bombay , Powai,
Mumbai - 400076 and presently resid-
ing in Special Oilfield Service Co. LLC ,
Building 4095, Way 1753, Madinat Qa-
boos PO Box 880, PC112, Ruwi, Muscat,
Oman intend to change my name from Chaitanya Pandey to Chetan Pandey for all practical purposes. Any objec-
tions towards my name change may
please be communicated to Embassy of
India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al
Khuwair, PO Box 1727, Postal Code 112,
Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.
Scraps / Material for sale
1. Steel / G.I./ Aluminum2. Copper / P.V.C.
3. Cables / Wire.
Contact
Drake & Scull International LCC
# 97486716
DAILY GUIDED4 W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT
SITUATION WANT-SIT.WANTED
SITUATION WANT-SIT. WANTED
SITUATION WANT-SIT. WANTED
Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
DRIVER
MEDICAL
MEDICAL
SKILLED LABOUR
ADMIN
ADMIN
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
Urgently required Omani recep-
tionist for a trading company in
Muscat. Kindly send CV to email:
Required urgently a Legal Consultant/ Lawyer for reputed
law firm in Sohar, Muscat. Can-
didates should have 5-7 years
experience as a Legal Consultant/
Lawyer with good knowledge of
Computer & should be fluent in
English both written & spoken.
Email C V to shejaanil66@gmail.
com or Contact 99153620
between 8am to 1pm & 2pm to
5.30 pm on Sunday to Thursday
Indian male good experienced in
Accounts, ERP Tally 9 & Admin in
India & Oman, presently on visit
visa, looking for suitable placement.
Contact 94834687
Indian male 25 yrs, Graduate in com-
merce, overall 5 yrs exp in accounts/
finance field. On visit visa. Immedi-
ately available. CONTACT 92836216 /
DOMESTIC HELP
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
Wanted Accountant 6 years
minimum experience. Send CV to:
Required Accounts Officer- en-
sure accurate processing of
revenue data into ERP systems
and invoicing module. Posting of
invoices to customer SAP portal
and delivery to customer offices
and interface with country man-
ager/ reporting to regional CEO.
Qualifications: BSc accounting.
Relevant experience & knowledge
on online accounting systems
especially the customer
SAP system. Submit CV to:
Accountant with gulf experience
in construction field preferred with
Oman driving license. Interested
candidates send CV to:
Email: [email protected]
Gsm: 95892831/95197615
Urgently required Kerala house
maid. Visa available. Contact:
94146486
Housemaid required for full-time
for Indian family, Hindi/English
speaking CBD area Ruwi.
Contact: 96183093
Looking for a part-time cook-cum-housemaid in Azaiba.
Call 92450197.
MISCELLANEOUS
Required candidates for following
posts: Accountant, Storekeeper, Foreman Building Maintenance, Van-salesman (water), Helpers. Candidates with Omani driv-
ing license preferred. Contact
99273774/99202278
Looking for driver with motorbike
licenses for resturant delivery , con-
tact 95048797
A woman Driver required from Mut-
trah to Darsait. Contact : 98090977
Part or full time Driver Required call
us 91120552
Urgently required female Gy-
necologist for a clinic at Samail.
Send CV: [email protected],
95498105
Wanted Nurse for a dental centre
in capital area. Interested may
contact – 93431024 or send CV to
Wanted Staff Nurse for
a dermatology clinic in Muscat .
Must have MOH license and NOC.
Attractive salary offered. Email:
Required gynecologist GEN: practitioner lady lab Technician and pharmacologist immediately
for a clinic in Suwaiq. #95081010
Email: [email protected]
SALES / MARKETING
TECHNICIAN
We, the storm shield in the talented candidates for the below
positions (Indian only): Maintenance Technician (male -1) should have knowledge of new
mobile devices & 3 years Oman
experience Contact: 94441111
Send CV to
email: [email protected]
Electrician cum Plumber, Maintenance Supervisor with
D/L, Building Material Salesman,
C.C.T.V Technician. #9938304. E
mail: [email protected]
28/male/MBA - finance/B.Com -
Accountant with 4 years of Dubai/
India experience looking for a
suitable placement. CONTACT
90187483
Dynamic Indian Male Account-
ant with 9 Years Experience seeks
suitable placement. NOC available.
Contact: 96902860
An experienced Chartered Account-
ant with over 25 years in varied
industries, presently working with a
reputed group in Muscat, looking out
for a suitable change. #96491030
25 yrs, MBA (finance) 1.2 years
experience seeking for Accounts
job. Contact : 94819575
10 yrs of Oman experience capable
of handling large accounts, looking
for suitable placement in senior
sales / business development posi-
tion. Contact : 98987654
Accountant available with NOC, 7
years experience in Oman. Ready
to join immediately. Contact :
98263394
Indian male 24 yrs B. Com, Tally
ERP with one year exp seeking for
suitable placement. Now on visit
visa. Contact: 94469269
Indian male 7 yrs Oman exp, Tally
ERP 9, Accounting, inventory con-
troller / asset supervisor & IT sup-
port, marketing seeking suitable
job. NOC available B.Com ,PGDCA ,
location Sohar having Oman D/L.
Contact 98317698, Email: sukua-
MBA, Finance, 1 yr experi-
ence in Accounting now on
visit visa, looking for suitable job.
#92901121, Email : lijojoy456@
gmail.com
Indian male, rich working experi-
ence in oman as “ Personal Assis-
tant / Office Manager (Executive
Office) / senior administrator /
business development asst.” hold-
ing Omani driving license. Local
release available – 99168054 -
10 yrs experienced Omani PRO
looking for suitable position. Good
knowledge in HR Admin ROP, all
Ministries related affairs. Contact:
99588154 / 93387833
MBA professional with 5 yrs exp
in the field of HR , Administration,
Sales (Business Development)
and accounts, holding valid UAE
driving license on visit visa until
end of March. Contact: 91731542/
Indian male 26 yrs MCA, 2 yrs ex-
perienced in System Admin & data
base controller. Contact: 92835125
Female MBA – HR professional, 5
yrs experience in teaching & admin-
istration, have flair in areas of man-
agement, on visit visa. #95905163,
Email : [email protected]
Indian Male – MBA (HR) & En-
gineering graduation with total 9
years of experience in HR & Admin
( 3 yrs of Oman Exp.) along with
hands on experience in technical
bid submission for all Govern-
ment & PDO tenders ready to join
immediately with NOC. Contact
@ 91240251/Email; kvaradhan@
hotmail.com
Indian female BA, 2 yrs exp look-
ing for suitable position in HR &
Administration. #94656009
Indian Female, MBA-HR having 8+
experience in Administration/HR,
Urgently required a Marketing Executive with 2 years experience
and driving license (GCC) for a re-
puted building material & electri-
cal showroom in Al Khoud. Please
send CV to – startradingmuscat@
gmail.com. Contact -
94320909
Required urgently for a pastry
shop in Muscat Sales lady and
Pastry Chef. Filipino National
only. Contact : 96962297
We are a professional visa
consultant in Oman, looking for a
STUDENT COUNSELOR AND IM-
MIGRATION COUNSELOR for our
company. Interested candidates
can email their CV at consultancy-
Looking for a country Sales Ex-
ecutive with valid driving license
and good communication skills.
Interested candidates please send
in the CV’s to salesjobinoman@
gmail.com
Required Sales staff 2 NOS Having
experience in Cosmetics Sales.
Send your updated CV to
GSM 92683688
Urgently Required Steel Fabri-cated Products Salesman with
an experience in steel fabrica-
tion, MUST have Oman driving
license, and immediately
join. Apply,
fax 00968–24605955, emails
Sr. Accountant: 37 Male, Indian,
13yrs Oman Exp. Finalisation/
Audit/Tax compliance/MIS/
Cash Flow/Budget/Payroll/AR –
99679247
Indian Male 30 yrs (M.Com) hav-
ing 9 yrs (5 yrs in Oman & 4 Yrs in
India) accountant exp looking for
suitable placement local release
available Contact 96425976
MBA Indian National 26 years old
Having (06) years experience in
FSM Industry Catering and Res-
taurant, As An Accountant and
finalization of all accounts related
works, Available to join immedi-
ately kindly contact on
98315449.
Male Accountant M.Com Accounts
& finance, 3 yrs exp in accounts
looking for suitable job on visit visa.
Contact: 94648575
Indian female MBA in financ
currently on visit visa seeking
suitable placement in Accounts /
HR/Admin Contact: 92896110. E
mail: [email protected]
Indian male, M. Com with
3 yr Oman Exp in Accounts
with valid oman D/L, on
visit Visa, seeking suit-
able placement. GSM:94744575.
Email:[email protected]
Indian CA finalist, 7 yrs exp
having driving license with visa
looking for finance / accounts
position Email: rameesnm@gmail.
com, 98097009
B.Com Graduate, Indian male 24
yrs, 3 yrs exp in Oman looking for
Accounting, Sales, suitable jobs.
NOC Available. Contact:90615814.
Mail : [email protected]
Fresher 24, ACCA Affiliate, Ad-
vanced diploma in Accounting
and Business seeking suitable
placement in Accounts, Finance or
Audit with Oman driving license.
Contact - 92430152
Email - [email protected]
ACCA member with 6 yrs of
experience in Oman looking for
a suitable job in finance. Contact
99284193
Indian female MBA in finance
currently on family visa seeking
suitable placement. #96471025
Female seeking suitable place-
ment in reputed Company, 5 yrs
experience in Oman. Skills : Tally,
EKP9, Sage ACC, PAC, ITIL, MS
Office. Contact 95483804,
Indian male B.Com Graduate, 6
yrs exp in auditing, accounts and
marketing 3 yrs exp in Oman with
DL looking for suitable placement.
Contact :96146287, mubarakamk@
gmail.com
Indian male, 32 yrs, B.Com having
8 yrs Accounts experience in Oman,
looking for suitable placement (local
release + Oman D/L available). Con-
tact 97494322 / 98093515
Indian male 28 yrs MBA finance/
marketing and graduate in com-
puter experience 3 yrs seeking
suitable job, now family visit visa.
Contact: 93195378
Email: [email protected]
Indian Male Accountant 10yrs
Exp. in OMAN Retail & Furniture Co.
(Release Available)#92564955
A leading regional co. in Muscat & Barka
specializing in heavy steel industries, Earthmoving
Equipments Spare Parts and material handling
solutions for Quarries, Crushers, Cement Plants and
Mining industry is looking for:
Qualified candidates, kindly send your CV's to [email protected]
A School in Oman is looking to recruit
teachers to teach Maths and Science for Grade 1
to Grade 5. Candidates must have a Degree in
Maths or Science with a B.Ed and minimum of
two years’ experience in teaching.
Interested candidates are requested to email a
copy of their CV with relevant teaching experience
certificates and qualification certificates to
A reputed multinational Trading & Services Co. in Oman requires
Service Sales ENGINEERThe candidate should be a Mechanical Engineer / Sr. Technician
With min. 3 years experience in related fields :
Sales of predictive maintenance tools and condition monitoring
technologies
Hands on experience in:
* Vibration Analysis of rotating machineries
* Machinery Balancing & Alignment
* Thermography
* Troubleshooting of machinery malfunctions
Submit CV to : [email protected]
An Art Gallery located in Qurum Area is looking for an Art
Gallery Manager to temporary run the place during the entire
month of June of this year.
Requirements for the jobs:- Omani female.
- Respectable, punctual, hard-working and good
communications skills.
- Fluent in speaking, reading and writing English.
- To have some experience in the field of Sales
- Have basic knowledge in using a computer.
- Having a degree in Fine Arts or History of Arts is an
advantage.
- Able to provide own transport
CVs are to be sent to the following e-mail account: [email protected]
For further information, please call 24566130
Wanted A Sales person
with valid GCC D/L,
experienced in project
selling of Ceramic tiles &
sanitary ware. Contact
with contractors &
consultants would be an
added advantage.
Email CV to – [email protected]
ENGINEER/MECHANIC.
A well reputed building mate-
rial & contracting Company in
Oman is looking for staff: Project
Manager (more than 10 yrs
experience), Engineer (more than
5 years of experience), Purchase
Manager (more than 10 yrs of
experience). Contact: 99808868
Email: [email protected]
A Leading construction company
in Muscat urgently requires expe-
rienced Civil Engineer to work as
Project Manager / Advisor ( Omani
Nationals only) for full time or part
time. Send C.V to hr.azatllc@gmail.
com Whatsapp 98437450
Decoration Company looking for
Interior Design Engineer with
experience in 3D and Supervision.
Send your CV with the design
which you have done and after the
implementation. Email: alrih16@
hotmail.com
A construction company requires
Civil Engineer (degree holder) is
having minimum 7 yrs exp who
can independently handle the
site. Oman experience will be
plus point. Apply with bio data to
fax no: 24489096 or email: tec_
[email protected]. #99339661
Civil Engineer with minimum 5/8
years experience with valid Oman
driving license. Contact Interested
candidates send CV to:
Email: [email protected]
Gsm: 95892831/95197615
Required female Nurse, with MOH
license for private dental clinic in
Bowshar area, Muscat.#92189807
GP doctor needed for reputed clin-
ic. Preferably with MOH license or
with Dataflow & Paramatics pass
Contact: 95388934
MANAGER
A well reputed building material
& contracting Company in Oman is
looking for staff: Project Manager
(more than 10 yrs experience), En-
gineer (more than 5 years of expe-
rience), Purchase Manager (more
than 10 yrs of experience). Contact:
99808868 Email: amtcbarka@
gmail.com
SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, with
13yrs experience, 6 yrs Oman in
manufacturing, trading & con-
tracting Cos, capable of handling
all accounting, finance, banking,
L/C, import, export & finalization
seeks placement. NOC Available.
Call+968-98932752,
mail:[email protected]
SENIOR ACCOUNTANT-M. Com Fi-
nance-Indian with 7 years experience
in Finance & Accounts up to finaliza-
tion. Currently employed in Oman.
Having D/L & NOC. #94122464,
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 34 Yrs, Dual MBA
Finance and marketing with IT
skills, 7+ yrs of experience,
Looking for suitable placement.
Contact : 94879615,Email-
Chief Accountant 25 years experi-
enced looking for part/full time ac-
countant job. Contact: 95598477/
98803439
Indian male 25 B.Com (graduate)
2 years experience as accountant
in country club India with ERP
oracle r12, tally knowledge. On
visit visa immediately available.
Email: [email protected]
Contact- 9042-1161
Indian female 25 yrs, MBA HR &
Marketing, with one and half years
experience as accountant and
6 months experience in teaching,
now on a visit visa, seeking suit-
able position. Contact: 99624044,
mail: [email protected].
MISCELLANEOUS
B.Com Graduate with 4 year expe-
rience as an Accountant in Oman.
Also have Oman Driving License.
Best fluency in English, Arabic,
Hindi& Malayalam. Looking for
Job. Currently in Oman. Cont: +968
93943448, [email protected]
Physiotherapist on visit visa
searching for a job. CONTACT
99767528 / 91317863
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 D5
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
DRIVER
DRIVER
ADMIN
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERIndian male 30 years, having 5 years
of experience in industrial automation and utility
maintenance in India (MRF Tyres), holding valid Oman D/L.
Contact - 92789995Email: [email protected]
IT
ITIndian History graduate with diploma in Safety with
valid Oman Driving licence seeks suitable placement.
Contact-93361624, [email protected]
B.Tech electronics & Comm.Engg
with CCNA certified with 2yrs exp.
Contact-99490930.
email; [email protected]
An Iraqi civil with more than 30
years experience in (Iraq and G.C.C)
looking for a job, (N.O.C) available.
Contact: 96561306
Email: [email protected]
Civil Engineer 11 yrs exp in con-
struction field having Oman driving
license & NOC. Contact – 94194399 /
Engineer has 10 years local &
international experience in ready
mix concrete also in Oil & Gas field
also in marketing & sales field , has
Omani driving license. #92534098
Indian male, Mechanical
Engineer having 1year experi-
ence, on visit visa looking for
suitable job. Contact:97416564,
Email:[email protected]
Civil Engineer diploma, 4 yrsexp
seeks suitable position ina reputed
company. NOC available. #96789711
Civil Engineer 8 years experience
in Oman as a project engineer for
governmental & private projects.
Contact – 90164912
Civil Engineer 8 years experience
Structural buildings marine. Availa-
ble NOC release. Contact: 92451323.
Email: [email protected]
Civil Engineer (B.Tech), Indian
male 24 years with 1+years Indian
experience,(Certified in Staad
Pro/ Quantity Survey/ Auto Cad).
Looking for a Suitable position.
Available In Sultanate of Oman
(Muscat) on Visit Visa.
Contact: 92835952. E-mail:
Indian male Electrical Engineer, having 6 years gulf experience in
designing, assembling, commis-
sioning execution etc having valid
GCC license too looking for a suit-
able. Contact: 00968-98052942
Email: [email protected]
HSE Engineer (B.E Mech+Diploma
Safety+NEBOSH+OSHA) over
10yrs. Exp, (Visa Release Letter
(NOC) available), seeking suit-
able placement, Mob:97061817,
Email:[email protected]
MANAGER
MEDICAL
Electrical Engineer, 7 years exp,
NOC, GCC driving license looking
for suitable jobs in MEP services,
O & M of high voltage systems,
FMS. Contact: 96137008
B.Tech Mechanical Engineer, on
visit visa looking for job, who has
done certification courses in quality
control, basic pipeline engineering,
ASNT NDT level II, also good knowl-
edge in HVAC.Contact:94743373
email:[email protected]
Engineer with 5 years technical
sales experience among leading
brands in Oman construction mar-
ket D/L. Contact : 93985140 Male QC Inspector Mechanical,
NDT 20 years experience valid
Oman D/L, NOC available. Contact:
91001104
Pakistani male, 2.5 yrs experience
in AutoCAD Electrical design, esti-
mation, installation commissioning,
operation maintenance of switch-
gear panels MV, LT, MCC, HVAC,
Gen Set, fire alarm panels, available
on visit visa before 2nd April 2016
looking for suitable placement.
Contact 92012760, Email : ahmed.
B.E Electronics & Instrumentation
Engg, certification in Industrial
Automation having 2 yrs G.C.C exp
in power plant (termination & com-
missioning) having Omani driving
license. Contact: 95862110 Email:
Civil Engineer with 9 years experi-
ence seeks suitable placement,
NOC available. Contact : 91195257
Email: [email protected]
Indian Engineer 2 years experi-
ence B.Tech (IT) CCNA & MCP certi-
fied visit visa seeks challenging
positions. Contact: 968 93184847,
Email : [email protected]
Indian Merchandise, 7 years
experience Dubai seeks chal-
lenging positions D/L in Dubai.
Contact : 90390323 Email: nvsha-
B.E Mechanical Engineer, 24, one
year experience as Production
Shift Engineer, Trained on HVAC
Engineering design and has good
hands on software like AutoCAD
and HAP. On a visit visa, looking
for a suitable placement.Con-
tact:95065955 Email: mjs.jazeb@
gmail.com
Indian male, 25 yrs, fire & safety di-
ploma holder cum electrician look-
ing for a suitable job, presently on
visit visa. #94745056 / 98976252
DESIGNER/DRAUGHTSMAN
CATERING
Cooks (Arabic Indian) gulf exp
looking job. Contact: 99531802
Indian male 26 yrs, Diploma in
Electrical Engg residing in Oman
seeking job in supervisor. Contact
: 92182283 / 95767146, Email :
Indian Civil Engineer (BE) with
16 years of industry experience in
design, quantity surveying, looking
for suitable job. #90302823 Email:
Diploma in Civil Engineer having
8 years experience in Oman with
driving license. Release available
seek replacement urgently. Con-
tact: 95387537 / 97232020
HSE OFFICER - 7yrs GCC experi-
ence, (Indian, 29 yrs) transferable
VISA, Diploma, NEBOSH IGC, OSHA,
IIRSM. Mob :96647486
Indian male 23 Mechanical Engi-
neer (B.E) residing in Oman looking
for suitable job. Contact: 98530806
/ 99362006
BE (Mechatronic & Robotics Engg)
CNC Operations, basic computer
knowledge, multilingual skills, 23
yrs looking for suitable placement.
Contact 92552789
B.Sc in Civil Engineer having 10
yrs experience in structural designer
in RCC structure & steel structure in
Dubai having Municipality approval
& Dubai driving license looking
for suitable position. Email : engr.
BE Mechanical & Diploma with 4
yrs experience in India looking for
suitable job. Contact 90542737
Indian male, 27 yrs, Electronics
Engineer (B.Tech) & MBA, Project
Management with 5 years experi-
ence in electronic security system,
optical fiber, project planning instal-
lation. Contact 94819139,
Sudanese Civil Engineer 4 years
experience –98093544
Indian female 30 years Microbi-
ologist having 3 years experience
in Hospital having HACCP Level 3
, certificate seeking suitable job.
Contact: 92302719 / 92490501
Indian male 29 years Radiologists
MD having 3 years experience in
Hospital seeking suitable job. Con-
tact: 923027199 / 92490501
Indian Bsc Female Nurse with
6.5 years exp, 4 years in KSA.
Passed Oman Pro Metric with 69%,
completed data flow. Presently in
Muscat in visit visa looking for a
suitable placement.
Contact 94744900, 94742834,
Male GP Doctor with NOC 6 yrs
experience in Oman for perm/locum
job. Contact : 97746074
An experienced Sudanese female Dentist with MOH license looking
for job. #96436517 /97396088
Light duty driver, 3 years driving
experience of Oman, staying in
Oman from last 8 years. Contact:
96731603
Light car driving. Contact:
99578213
Looking for light driving job 2
years exp. Contact: 91625977
Pakistani looking for driver job,
6 years experience with own car.
Contact : 95365879
Driver. Contact : 94087276
Pakistani male light Vehicle Driver
with car looking for job. Contact:
99630504
2 years exp driver seeks place-
ment. Contact: 92055093
Operations & Accounts Manager
Indian 18 years experience in
Oman finance, purchase, sales, HR,
Admin looking for Senior position.
Contact : 99044724
The Business Development Manager, Iraqi, Experience 15
Years Inside and outside Oman
following activities: tenders& real
estate& construction & marketing
projects& investments & trans-
portation & Marine services&
companies management& develop
business. Contact: :- 92385033
General Manager MEP also man-
age civil, MBA, BE Electrical, 10
yrs exp in Oman valid D/L, release
available. Contact – 92447102
Indian male, with experience in
operations management, informa-
tion security, purchase & stores
mgmt, hold UAE driving license,
on visit visa, seeks suitable job.
#91904541
Email: [email protected]
Production Manager 9 years
experience in Oman manufacture
and development factories .GRB.
GRC. GRG rubber molds and false
ceilings, fiberglass and executive
at site emadadly2000@yahoo.
com96149081
Indian male, MCA
(Post Graduate) fresher seeking
suitable placement
anywhere in Oman, now on
visit visa.
Contact 92319677, Email :
Indian Mechanical Engineer with
28 years of industry experience
in Sales & Marketing, Materials
Management seeks suitable open-
ing. Presently working with Indian
conglomerate in Oman. Possess
valid driving license and SUV.
CONTACT:+968 95901425
Male Dip.Civil Engineer, having 20
yrs exp (building & road) looking for
suitable job. Contact: 94720782
B Tech Mech, certificate attested,
exp in steel fabri. and autocad draft-
ing , salary -250 OMR. #96108187
B.Sc Civil Engineer 27 yrs Oman
exp as project manager, struc-
tural engineer looking for suitable
placement. NOC/local transfer
available. Contact: 99349578.
Email:[email protected]
BE Mechanical Engineer 6 yrs
exp, 1.5 yrs in Oman in piping and
structure construction work. Release
available. Contact: 96115463. Email:
Indian male 35yrs BE - Engg 15 yrs
exp in UAE Site Manager looking for
job. Email : [email protected]
Pakistani male Diploma Civil En-
gineer 4yrs exp in Oman bulling &
mega projects, valid license Oman.
contact:98921022
Procurement Engineer (27 years
single male with Oman Driving Li-
cense) having 7 years experience
(UAE 2, Oman 3) with expertise in
MEP, Water, Electromechanical,
Instrumentation seeking suitable
placements. Contact 95852033,
mail: [email protected]
Male, NDT, QA/QC Supervision
Mechanical 10 yrs experience
seeks suitable placement.
Contact 96954202, Email :
Civil Engineers exp 4 yrs of Paki-
stan in building work.#95135608
Sr. Electrical Engineer with17+ yrs
of exceptional exp in spear head-
ing strategic planning and project
management initiatives & execut-
ing various high rise residential
& commercial building as well as
roads and highway project with
proficiency in installation, seeking
a challenging position in a dynamic
organization. contact 96570891
Indian male,24 yrs, Electronics
& Telecom, Graduate, Mumbai
University (2015 batch) looking
for entry level job in Engg.com
having good knowledge at telecom,
networking ,fiber optic, Oraclellg-
SQL, PLSQL, now in Muscat on
3 months visit visa. Contact :
91868936 / 93101922. Email: sid-
Electrical Design Engineer (MEP)
Indian male having 1.8 years of
experience in India. Available
on visit visa looking for suitable
placements. Contact: 92658569,
Email:[email protected]
Diploma in Mechanical Eng pip-
ing system in AutoCAD work, 21+
years experience with Driving
license. Contact: 95267113
Email: [email protected]
Indian Mechanical Engineer having 8.5 years of experience in
mechanical maintenance of steel
plant sintering division looking for
a suitable job Oman. Knowledge
of maintenance in belt convey-
ors, mixers, circle cooler, ID fans,
vibratory screen, two and four roll
crushers, weigh feeders, ESP, rotary
valves, apron feeder,dragconveyor
and vibrofeeder. Please #0091-
8805022155
Indian female Project Engineer
15 yrs experience Project Manage-
ment quality data base management
data analytics marketing business
development having Omani driving
licenses seeks suitable placement
presently on family visa, having Om-
ani experience. contact 95783792
Network Engineer CCNA-MCSA
exp computer science with NOC.
Contact : 92346191
Structural Engineer, 8 yrs expe-
rienced in flat slab, post tensioned
& slab-beam multi story building
design & supervision with driving
license. Contact: 98256860
Sales & Marketing specialist
with 16 yrs experience in Oman in
MNC retails telecom lubes
construction related industry
handled various projects, holding
valid Oman driving license,
release available.
Contact 96960991
DOMESTIC HELP
ARCHITECTURE
Housemaid (overseas) Indian fam-
ily looking for job. #99531802
Syrian Architect with 3 years of
experience in Design and Supervi-
sor in Oman. Contact : 97915193
Female Architecture with 3 years
experience seeking for a job knows
(AutoCAD2D, Photoshop, 3D Max
sketch up modeling). Contact:
95582641 / 99632745
3D & Multimedia Designer look-
ing for job, currently using family
visa. Contact : 95844940 Email:
Senior CAD Designer Indian male
with 10 years of experience (8
years of experience in GCC) good
knowledge of architectural, civil
using AutoCAD, MS Office seeking
suitable position. Contact: 90518123
Email: [email protected]
AutoCAD Draughtsman seeking
job. Contact: 95516807
Indian Female, Bsc Fashion De-
signer with Oman driving Lisence,
looking for any good job.
Contact 98757582
Interior Designer Seeking suit-
able job. On visit visa in Oman.
Contact - 92166130
Interior designer 3 years experi-
ence 1 year in Oman and 2 years
in Egypt, experience in interior
design, 3D max, AutoCAD,
Photoshop. Contact - 94762876
AutoCAD draftsman experience 2
years. Contact: 93738335 /95809393
Email: [email protected]
Indian Male, IT System Engineer
having 4 yrs of experience in sys-
tem administration.CCNA,MCSE,
Linux. Looking for suitable job.
Contact :91272867
Indian male, 3 yrs experience in
IT as Linux Administrator & 1 yr
experience in Amazon EC2 Cloud
at Wipro Technologies Bangalore
looking for a suitable placement.
Contact 92889678, Email :
Male, 31 years, M.I.T, CCNA, 9
years exp in Qatar as assistant IT
manager, network administrator,
server management and knowl-
edge of developing website. Qatar
D/L and available in Oman on visit
visa. Contact:00968-98179462.
0097477237607, Email:
Customer Support, Office Coordina-
tor with good Computer skill, Now
on Visit Visa,looking for suitable
position. Contact: 90196235
Indian male MBA 33yrs having 10
yrs of exp seeking full time suit-
able placement in Administration/
HR/ Operations/ Coordination/
Logistics. Holding valid D/L.
Contact 99054786
Indian male MBA- UK 18 yrs Gulf
exp in Administration/ HR & Public
relationship. Fluent in Arabic/
English with D/L. Looking for suit-
able position. Contact - 99897280
Young Omani male have experi-
ence 12 years as P.R.O, CLERK
Helper Supervisor Admin Supervi-
sor, H.R Manager have diploma in
H.S.E, IT and P.D.O license, looking
for H.R position or P.R.O part time
or full time. Contact: 95933288
Filipino male with 13 years HR and
Administration managerial experi-
ence. MBA & CIPD holder. Currently
looking for job in Oman. Interested
employer Contact - 97728418.
Indian, 26 yrs , female , 5 yrs exp
in HR/ Admin with valid Oman
D/L seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 98236033
Indian female, Masters in HR,
having 4 + years Oman experience
in media management and HR,
looking for openings in HR, Educa-
tion, Admin, Corporate communi-
cations. Contact 98252030
Omani male, 37 yrs, with 18 yrs
experience in heavy & medium
vehicles driving looking for driver
job for reputed higher officials
(PDO light vehicle license &
heavy vehicle license). Contact
99808035
Pakistani, 3 yrs experience in
Oman seeks driver job. Knows
Hindi, Urdu, English & Arabic.
Contact 92142648
Pakistani male light vehicle driver
looking for job. Contact: 99521033
Bangladeshi male light driver look-
ing for job 3 yrs. experience. Contact:
94077119
Light driver looking for job Oman
exp. Contact :95292621
2 Years exp in driving, seeking
any job .Contact: 97460056
Indian light driver cum house
cleaner. Contact: 96255558
/99415443
EDUCATION/TRAINING
Female B. Ed English teacher, 7 yrs
exp seeking suitable placement. Con-
tact : 99739415 / 92091528
Indian Female, MSc Maths from
a Central University, B.ED quali-
fied with over 6 yrs into teaching.
Distinction holder and passion for
teaching, currently on family Visa.
Contact: 91360147. iffi_ftm@yahoo.
co.in.
Indian Civil Engineer in UAE
seeking suitable placement in
Muscat-Contact 00968 99142171
Electrical Engineer with 18 years
exp in UAE. Contact: 98148034
Email: [email protected]
Project Engineer B.Sc Civil, 7.5 yrs
in Oman, need suitable placement,
NOC release available.#91129192
Sudanese Electrical Engineer, granted with distinction, hard-work-
ing and can adapt to different work
conditions. Contact: 98133281
Electrical & Electronics Engineer with 3 years GCC exp in sales, GCC
driving license. Seeking suitable
placement. Contact - 90301410
Civil Engineer 6 yrs Exp in Oman
with license. Contact: 98975518
Sri Lankan Engineer (27 Years
old) – B.Sc Engineering (Hon)
Mining / Geotechnical Presently
in Muscat, 1.5 years experience.
Contact 91295802
Mechanical Engineer M.Tech
2 years experience HVAC design
& site Engg revit MEP Auto CAD.
Contact: 90150913 Email:
Sudanese Telecom Engineer, 5 years experience, 3 years in Oman
PMP certificate. contact 93391008
Email: momen.awadallam@gmail.
com
Indian female civil engineer
B.Tech having 3 years experience
sound knowledge of software,
REVIT STAD PRO structural detail-
ing currently on family visa seeks
suitable placement #95345591
Civil Engineer (BE) having total
5 years experience in build-
ing construction looking for a
suitable placement. D/L avail-
able#94450270
Bachelor Civil Engineer 6 Years
in Oman experience Valid Driving
License seeks suitable placement
Phone 97619722
Email – [email protected]
Road and Construction Engineer with 5 years exp in Oman.
Contact: 97667113
7 Yrs Exp. PM in Mech. Engg in
the field of Building Const. Oil &
Gas Seeking Job.94625598
Mechanical Engineer with 3 Yrs
experience in international Oil &
Gas company looking for job Con-
tacts: Tel: 90164236 Email:
Indian female, 31 yrs, 7 yrs expe-
rienced as AutoCAD civil drafts-
man (2 yrs experience in Oman)
currently in Oman seeks suitable.
Contact 96789441
Email: [email protected]
Indian Electrical Engineer Btech,
female 24 seeking job, presently
in oman having 2 year experience
in design and estimation of Ht &Lt
projects. Contact 968 97436557,
Mail id : [email protected]
Indian Male 23 years B.Tech
Civil having 2 years experience in
quantity survey and site manage-
ment looking for suitable place-
ment. Contact:- 95042656
Indian male 27 yrs master in
computer applications currently in
Muscat with Oman driving license
seeking suitable placement. Con-
tact: 93191800 Email: vijilraj60@
gmail.com
5 yrs experienced Network
Administrator seeks suitable
job,1 year Gulf experience, Indian
Nationality, Indian (Keralite), male,
fluent in English, Hindi. Contact 91
9747520792 (India), 94022497
/ 98078068 (Oman), email :
Indian female B.Tech IT having 2
years experience in Oman in Ad-
min Insurance & IT support look-
ing for suitable position. Contact:
98679397
Indian female completed M.C.A
seeking for suitable jobs. Contact:
91409481 / 97308719
ASP.NET WEB DEVELOPER ,
3 YR EXP, PH : 97947921
INDIAN male, pursued bach-
elor’s of computer science having
experience in desktop Engineer,
looking for IT job, on visit visa,
seeking suitable placement.
#98784174 ,email : abdulmoy-
Indian female, B.Tech gradu-
ate, with one and half years
experience as ‘web developer’
interested in web development
and has experience working in
HTML,CSS,Bootstrap, JavaScript
and Photoshop. contact 9592 7075
e-mail id: mariarosejacob90@
gmail.com
Indian female, B.Tech graduate,
with one and half years experience
as ‘web developer’ interested in web
development and has experience
working in HTML, CSS, Bootstrap,
JavaScript and Photoshop.
Contact : 9592 7075, e-mail id:
SKILLED / UNSKILLED
Mason, SH / carpenter, steel fitter
gulf & Indian exp looking job.
Contact: 95175192
DAILY GUIDED6 W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
TRANSPORTATION
Transport services Muscat –
Kasab. Contact: 93163157
Office and private transport
available in Muscat area. contact
94297820
Transportation. contact
91703829
Ruwi, Muttrah, Al Khuwair,
Muscat, Qurum, seek transporta-
tion. Contact: 91132238
Transportation. Contact
99508282 /93113534
Transportation. Contact
99508282
Transportation. contact
92015894
Transportation available Ruwi to
Al Khuwair, Ghubra & Azaiba.
Contact: 91103909
SITUATION WANTEDEDUCATION/CLASSES/COMPUTER/WEBSITE
Karate and self defense classes
at Azaiba 18 Nov Street. RO 10 per
month twice a week Monday and
Tuesday 6. 30 TO 7. 30. PM.
CONTACT 98294551
Spoken Arabic class for Non
Arabic Speakers & English
class for Malayalam Speakers
in Azaiba and Ruwi earn in two months
tion guaranteed
Tel: 95244310
Any time available transporta-
tion solution for house office
shifting, TV fixing, carpenter all
type of maintenance. Contact
Indian person : 95194801 /
96594592 Whatsapp
WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-
gence (BI) creation and man-
agement at rock bottom price.
Contact: http//webviewoman
SITUATION WANT-SIT. WANTED
MISCELLANEOUS
MATRIMONIAL
Nair boy 31 /175 cms working in
Muscat Pooram star wants suitable
bride. Contact : 95501263
Ezhava Divorcee, 37 yrs,
5.3”, Pharmacist in Muscat.
Email :suryakv2010@gmail.
com,+919961176066
Keralite, Kollam Marthoma male
(27) yrs diploma in Civil (Muscat)
seeking alliances form suitable
families. Contact: 95253640
Christian RC boy 30/160 cm fair,
working as an Accountant in a com-
pany Muscat, suitable proposals
solicited. Contact: 98788464
Ezhava girl 25yrs B. Tech working in
MNC Shudajathakam from Palakkad
looking suitable alliance Contact
99323085 / 99001726.
Malankara Catholic Male Nurse (28) from Thiruvalla working in
Nizwa Private Co. Alliance invites
parents/nurses working in Oman.
#968 98267338, 0091 9287215726
Indian male Roman Catholic 40yrs divorcee working in Muscat.
Seeks suitable alliance from widow/
divorcee/ single. #96059801.
MISCELLANEOUS
Indian Female on a visit visa hav-
ing master degree seeking suitable
placement in any field, 1 ,5 year
experience in HR .Contact :
+968 91467576.
Sudanese male, 5 years experi-
ence in warehouse management
and logistics services CONTAC
90644186
SALES / MARKETING
SALES / MARKETING
SECRETARIAL & OFFICE
Executive Secretary/ assistant Indian female 9 years experience in
Oman, Diploma in Business
management. Valid D/L.
Contact: 96684705
Lady Secretary / Sales Co-coordi-
nator 12 years experience in Oman
in reputed companies, seek imme-
diate Employment. Call: 95244761
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
NRI
1650 Sq ft plot with gate for sale
Erettai Vaikkal, Vayalur Road, Trichy
95366777
Housing in a well developed area
for sale in Mangalore 100 meters
from Main road at: Malaraya
Temple Road, Chilimbi Near Urva
stores, Mangalore -Karnataka,
India Land: 181.60 Sq.mts, House
built in the year 1986 consisting
of ground floor and first floor. Total
build up area around 2000 Sq.ft
with car parking. Separate water
and electricity connections. Con-
tact: Anil Kumar: +91 97418 85128
(between 12 noon till 10 pm).
5 cent land location Trissur town
Paravattani National Highway
Road side, opposite Skyland flat
building, best location for shops &
villa. #968 95890957 / 99038328
Flats villas land for sale in Pune
Contact: 95272138/918139098275
Indian MBA Graduate having
4 years in Sales & Marketing
in Oman having Oman driving
license. NOC also available seeks
suitable placement. Contact :
94193313 Email: nvshameem123@
gmail.com
Sr Material controller, having
13 years experience in material
controlling in reputed companies.
Presently working in Muscat (NOC
Available). #00968-92944026,
Email [email protected]
Indian/male (25)/ MBA/2 years
experience in channel sales and
distribution management. on visit
visa. available for immediate join-
ing. Contact: 96914068, E mail:
Indian, BE Mechanical Engi-
neering with 1 yr exp as service
Engineer, looking for suitable posi-
tions. Contact-90637918, E mail:
Senior Accountant, 5 yrs Oman,
10 yrs UAE experience in manu-
facturing & construction valid
D/L immediately available. Email:
call: 95389018
32year Indian Male MSC,MBA-HR
having 8yrs Exp(HR / Payroll /
Admin) with Oman valid DL. Seek-
ing suitable opening in Human Re-
source, Payroll & Admin/ backend
jobs. Contact:00968-99322978
Indian Male ,MBA Finance &
Marketing 28 yrs,6+ Exp, with
oman D/L & NOC, Hospital ,Pharma
,Herbal ,FMCG, F&B Markeing ,con-
struction A/c & sales , 93379044
HSE Engineer, Indian male, 4
plus years experience in oil & gas,
working in shclumberger Nebosh,
ISOH & NDT certified, M. Tech in
HSE. contact-krish.569@gmail.
com mobile- +91 9867016808
BE Mechanical Engineering with
one year experience now on visit
visa, looking for suitable positions.
#90637918 / 99335742,email:
Indian/male (25)/ MBA /2 years
experience in channel sales and
distribution management. on
visit visa. available for immediate
joining. Contact: 96914068, email:
Indian male, 8.5 yrs experience,
B.Com Graduate with GCC exp &
valid driving license looking for
better job opening in Muscat. Con-
tact: 92609935 / 94771365
Indian male with 1 yr exp looking
for job in I.T as Web developer,
presently in Muscat on visit visa.
Contact: 92312978
Indian male network cabling tech-
nician (19 years Gulf experience),
seeking for suitable placement.
Contact : 0091-8089909265 (India),
Email: [email protected]
Indian male, Kerala B.Com & B.PE,
looking for suitable Job in Sales,
Accounts, Admin etc. #93301023
email:- [email protected]
ACC WANTED
looking for a villa in Amirat area
Contact : 95405033
DRIVING
MISCELLANEOUS
12 yrs exp with store incharge
purchasing having valid Omani
driving license. #99004638
Wanted job as an office boy or cus-
tomer service. Contact: 94640906
Indian male 37 yrs X-Ray welder
7 yrs exp (ARC, TIG, ARGON,
Welding) seeking suitable job.
Contact: 91360190/98223683
Graduate, computer literate, experi-
enced in sales, credit control,
accounts, Omani D/L , seeks suit-
able placement. Gsm 98805474
A lady entrepreneur with BF Tech
1st Class (Fashion Technology)
since 2006 in Kerala like to make
change for better. Specialized in
designing, Production Management,
Fashion Art, Grading, Surface orna-
mentation, Garment Construction.
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +919539397097.
Indian female on visit MBA
(International Business- Market-
ing & Logistics), BE (Computers &
Science Engg.) Trained in SAP-BI/
BW with 1 year experience
seeking for job Contact: 90228586
Email:[email protected]
Bangladeshi male, University
M.Com, Working as an Accountant
& Administrator in Oman; search-
ing better job. Phone: 94864966
Email: [email protected]
HOSPITALITY
Hospitality/Hotel/ Restaurants
Dynamic result oriented hospital-
ity professional with 20 years of
international exp. MBA in Hotel
Management, specializing in
Hotel/Restaurant start ups, con-
cepts & Franchise development
with proven records. Seeking for
Challenging positions in reputed
groups as GM/COO/CEO/Business
Head. (NOC available) #96059470
Indian , presently on visit visa
Graduate and IATA certified seek-
ing a job in travel and tourism.
Contact: 97066058
Indian female BA IATA, 7 yrs exp
in travel industry knows SABRE
AMADEUS GALILEO on family
visa seeks opportunity in Oman.
Contact 93531170. E mail: claudia-
Filipinas lady having exp in
ticketing and preservation, call
center, secretarial and real estate
is now looking for job please
call.94054080
TOURS & TRAVEL
MANAGER
The Business Development Man-
ager, Iraqi, Experience 15 Years
Inside and outside Oman follow-
ing activities: construction(Very
strong and qualified to bringing
business for civil work Or any
type of the construction work for
many million per year with a good
experience in pricing and collect
payment and cash management of
the company & marketing projects
& investments& tenders & real
estate. Contact 92385033
10 yrs exp in procurement, ten-
ders, importing, marketing and
sales, organizing events. Have car
NOC available. Contact:
94123939
Indian male 23 yeas BBM & Diplo-
ma in logistic. Looking for Indore/
Outdoor sales & marketing suitable
placement, currently in one month
visit visa. Contact: 93180270/
Indian male Graduated in Busi-
ness Management having 4 yrs
exp in marketing & trading, dealt
with international companies and
product also having good knowl-
edge in logistic & Admin looking
forward to join immediately, hav-
ing GCC driving license and car
NOC available. Contact : 93639385
Email: [email protected]
Indian male Graduated in busi-
ness management having 4 yrs
exp in marketing & trading dealt
with international companies
and product, also having good
knowledge in logistic and admin,
looking forward to join immedi-
ately. having GCC driving license
and car, NOC available. Contact :
93639385 email; faizenqidwai@
gmail.com
Pakistani male, fresh Graduate
& Diploma in hotel management
& tourism, computer literate,
interested in Sales & Marketing,
Accounts, available on permanent
visa, seeks placement with visa.
NOC available. Contact 91439870,
Email : [email protected]
Warehouse Manager of 4 years
experience in South Africa (retail,
sales & marketing) and teaching in
Maldives, on visiting visa looking
for suitable placement in Muscat.
Contact : 94745292 Email: sabuso-
Computer Sales and Service man
(Indian) with Diploma in Electron-
ics and Communication with more
than 2 years experience available
in Oman. Contact : 97017866 /
95141354
Indian male MBA having 12 years
of Sales experience in Oman
seeking suitable position, good in
Arabic and having valid D/L. NOC
can be obtained (as per new rule).
Contact : 98908634
MBA, Executive Post, Omani Driv-
ing License, 14 years experience
in Multinational Groups in Sales &
Marketing. M.Z. 91685048
MBA Marketing sales & business
development, digital marketing
10 years experience telemarket-
ing online marketing. Contact:
98613324
Manager with 12 years experience
in sales & property management,
MBA in sales & marketing with
Omani D/L looking for a suitable
position NOC Available. Contact:
98125226
Indian male having 10 years of
exp in sales & customer service
also worked as IT Technician
CCNA Certified. Graduate seeks
suitable placement. contact
92490127
NDT candidate QC job visit visa.
Contact: 93857977 /
96085401 Email: sibinkjacob@
gmail.com
23 yrs, Indian male, B.Com, Gradu-
ate looking for suitable positions
as Assistant Accountant, Market-
ing Executive, Sales Executive or
in Administration, currently on
free visa with valid Oman driving
license. Contact 98093949
Indian male 26 years of experi-
ence of sales & marketing in
surgical and laboratory equipment,
looking for good placement. Con-
tact - 95774854
Indian M/39 confident Keralite,
Dubai Bank experience with
Oman driving license & NOC seeks
suitable placement in sales &
marketing / coordinator. contact
94742666
Indian male, B.Com worked in
Bahrain (4 years) and currently
working in Oman from last 4 years
in accounts and sales looking for
suitable placement. Valid Oman
license and NOC available. Contact
number : 9954 8543.
An experienced sales & market-
ing person having several years
experience in GCC with valid D/L.
Looking for a suitable position.
Contact – 92124669
Indian male with 6 yrs of GCC
exp in sales and service & 1 year
of exp in gym fitness instructor.
Seeking job presently in Mus-
cat in family visit visa. Con-
tact: 90694335/ 99438360 or
email:[email protected]
MBA graduate having 6 years exp
in Sales & Marketing, 4 years with
PEPSI, India, having international
driving license permit seeks suit-
able placement. #: 95308167,
Email : [email protected]
Indian Male 28 MBA Marketing
with 4 years of experience in sales
with good communication skills
now available in Muscat on visit
visa. GSM 95840153 /
Mail [email protected]
Sudanese B.Sc in business admin-
istration, exp 8yrs in sales, mar-
keting & accounting. #96112453
Indian sales marketing profes-
sional highly experienced in busi-
ness development in ME India and
Africa seeks suitable placement.
Contact: 97897611
B.Com male 2 yrs experience in
sales Computer knowledge,
seeking suitable placement.
Contact: 98371144
email: [email protected]
Indian male, MBA Marketing
having 2.5 years Sales experience
immediately looking for a suitable
position. Contact: 91415145,
Email: [email protected]
Male 38 yrs Graduate 07 years
experience indoor / outdoor
electronic field with D/License &
NOC available (as per new rule).
Contact: 92453375
FOR HIRE
Grader GD 705-5, Showel WA 430-
5, Roller BW 211D-40 JCB. Contact:
99292668
Grader, roller, bobcat, JCB 3CX, JCB 4CX with breaker & water
tanker for rent. CONTACT 93218705
/ 24478450
AVAILABLE
Party & Wedding equipment rentals.
Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirt-
ing, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery,
Crockery, Glassware, Chafing Dishes,
Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound
Systems and spectacular lighting.
Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering
and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound &
Light. ww.tunesoman.com,
E-mail: [email protected]
DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 D7
TOURS
TOURS
RENT A CAR
25 - 50 seater bus with PDO &
BP specification for monthly rent
& small car with driver. Contact
99839898
SITUATION WANTEDCARGO
Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with
Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain
Marine Tours contact 98029602,
92808636
We arrange tours & accommoda-
tion at all the beautiful places in
Oman. Contact 99839898
Electrical Contracting Company
with DCRP- D Grade license, Mus-
cat started in 2013, having running
projects available for sale or part-
nership. #00968 9604 5659
SITUATION WANT-ED
BUSINESSSITUATION WANT-
EDBUSINESS
ONE STOP SHOP
BUSINESS SERVICES
Contact Saleh: 96723485
Public relation services (PRO), Formation new
companies, LLC companies, investor visa, business setup,
prepare business & companies accounts, legal
services, representing you and your company. Hyundai Electra saloon car 2010
with experience driver for com-
pany and other for all Muscat 24
hours available new car with expe-
rience driver.#97376342
Driver available with car.#96728056GOOD NEWS
Ayurvedic treatment for joint
pain, backache, paralysis, mas-
sage, steambath, obesity, spondy-
litis. Ideal Care Ayurvedic Clinic,
18 November Street, Azaiba.
Contact: 99639695 / 97397320
FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know
more about Islam, please call:
99425598, 99250777, 99353988,
99253818, 99341395, and
99379133. For ladies: 99415818,
99321360, 99730723
Orvisit:www.islamfact.com
Ayurvedic treatment for backache,
paralysis, arthritis etc & mas-
sage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam).
Contact:24475280 / 95371664 /
92504980 www.siddhayur.com
RENT A CARBest Rates for Saloon
Contact: 97869042 / 95730550
Looking for experienced person to
run a fully arranged Coffee shop in
Khuwair (behind Rawasco) with 7
visa available 99441122
ACC.WANTED
Required single room for an
executive lady (non cooking) in
Darsait, Ruwi, Wadi Kabir.
Contact - 98591132
Accommodation required with
food for 1 month, bachelor for
March month. Preferably Al Ghob-
rah area. Contact: 99335742
WANTED
IELTS Coaching (academic) required
nearby wadi Kabir area. Please call
on mobile or msg on Whats up. Mo-
bile no: 92927880/99012165
D8 W E D N E S D AY, M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
DAILY GUIDE Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES
SITUATION WANT-SERVICES
SERVICESWe Provide Cleaners,
Window & split unit A.C servicing &
repairing. Contact: 99557080
Split & window unit A.C servicing &
maintenance. Contact: 96236476
Split & widow unit A.C servicing &
maintenance. CONTACT 93769089 /
95323517
Split & window A/c servicing & main-
tenance. #93769089 / 95323517
GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,
Contact 99314807/24792998
A/C maintenance & servicing,
fridge, washing machine & dish
washer repairing, painting & clean-
ing services, electrical & plumbing.
#99447257 / 97014234 / 24504281
A/C Technician, cold store,
freezer, chiller all kinds of A/C &
refrigeration installation & service.
Contact: 92279370 / 92459357
Water proofing ABUQABAS-
Contact 99320217/24788722
House shifting & transporting.
Contact 92490422
Pest control treatments, Ocean center LLC #99344723
MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your
marble. #24793614/ 99314807
House shifting packing.
Contact: 99657644 / 98518013
House shifting. Contact: 99708138
Marble crystallization & grinding, cleaning & carpet shampooing.
Ocean center LLC.#99344723
Split A/C servicing R.O 10 only.
Contact: 94217681 / 99210141
Building maintenance. CONTACT
96173326
Al farzdaq Al Fedi Trad and Cont
Maintenance services electric,
plumbing and A/C. Contact:
96524904 /94285064
Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile
polishing, pest control & anti-ter-
mite treatment, general cleaning
painting,Plumbing, Electrical,
shifting. Contact Mundhir
Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.
Contact: 24810137, 99450130
B
MY
MANPOWER
MV SALE
GMC Acadia No 1 SLT June 2014
Blue Metallic Color 95366777
Toyota Corolla, 1.6 Ltr, 2009
Model, Automatic, 110,000Kms -
RO.3,200/-. Contact:
92769735
Toyota Echo model 2005, 142,500
kms, in good condition. CONTACT
99412902
Doctor used Nissan Sunny 2012
new model for sale Indians pre-
ferred. Contact : 95991809
Toyota Yaris 2008 model, white,
color, automatic transmission,
expat driven km 140500. CONTACT
99104124
Toyota Rav 4 2012 RO 5500. Con-
tact: 93835318
Nissan path finder model 2012
R.O 5500. Contact :
97692959
Nissan Qashqai 2013 low mileage
30.000kms comprehensive insur-
ance UAE Oman valid till 2016 .
Contact: 96995430
Villa cleaning, shifting, marble
crystallization, tiles polishing,
shampooing sofa & carpet. Modern
Eastern Arms. 92145560
Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles
polishing, carpet shampooing,
maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS-
99320217 /24788722
Marble crystallization & grind-ing, Ocean center LLC .CONTACT
99344723
W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6T I M E S O F O M A N S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T
PAKISTANNATIONAL DAY 2016
PAGE 2 > PAGE 8 >PAGE 4 > PAGE 6 >
The irresistiblePakistani fruits
Economy on the road to recovery
Why investin Pakistan!
Coastal attractionsof Balochistan
I N S I D E P A G E S
PresidentMamnoon Hussain
Poet of the EastAllama Dr Muhammed Iqbal
Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Prime Minister Muhammed Nawaz Sharif
On the auspicious oc-casion of 76th Paki-stan Day I have the privilege to extend heartiest felicita-
tions to all Pakistanis residing in the Sultanate of Oman.
The Pakistan Day is celebrated every year on 23rd March to com-memorate the most outstanding achievement of the Muslims of South Asia who passed the his-toric “Pakistan Resolution” on this day at Lahore in 1940. This Resolution gave an ideal to the Muslims and united them for the attainment of a shared objective. The Resolution demanded the establishment of a separate state based on the higher ideals of Is-lamic social justice and human compassion.
Though Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal, poet-philosopher, gave an idea for the establishment of a separate homeland in 1930, there was still a need for a visionary leader to translate this concept into reality. The architect of Pa-kistan Quaid-e-Azam Moham-mad Ali Jinnah led Muslims of the sub-continent out of the darkness of political bondage and frustra-
tion into the dawn of freedom, and gave direction to their quest for liberty and self-determination.
The emergence of Pakistan as a sovereign state after seven years was the result of a long and ardu-ous struggle under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. His motto, “Unity, Faith and Discipline” inspired the Muslims of Sub-continent and greatly helped in achieving Inde-pendence. Renowned American historian Stanley Wolpert paid a glowing and befi tting tribute to his leadership in the following words, “Few individuals signifi cantly al-ter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mu-hammad Ali Jinnah did all three.”
Pakistan was achieved through a democratic strug-gle. The leadership of Pakistan movement stood for the rule of law, for freedom, social justice and representative rule where people would be the master of their destiny. They envisaged Pakistan as a welfare state. Therefore, whichever political party we may belong to, it is our
collective responsibility to pre-serve and protect the democrat-ic order in the country and make every eff ort to achieve the above mentioned goals. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “We want to make this great State
of Pakistan happy and prosper-ous; we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor.”
Pakistan and Sultanate of Oman continue to maintain their
traditionally close and mutu-ally benefi cial relations which are based on mutual respect and trust. The strength of Pakistan-Oman relationship lies in diver-sifi ed engagement in many fi elds such as trade, defense, culture and education. I am happy that our relations with Oman are growing in all fi elds. I am looking forward to further promoting and expanding fraternal ties between the two countries. May Allah bless and guide the leadership of both the countries to continue with their endeavors to achieve further progress and prosperity for both the countries.
On this happy occasion I wish to convey our sincere greetings to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said and pray for the health and long life of His Majesty and for the continued progress and prosperity of the brotherly people of Oman under his benevolent rule.
I avail this opportunity to acknowledge the positive role played by the Pakistani commu-nity in upholding the soft image of Pakistan through their hard work and dedication. The Paki-
stani community is contributing to the development of the Sul-tanate and therefore, remains a great source of strength for us. I urge them to continue to perform with dedication and achieve new heights in serving the Sultan-ate of Oman. I also convey my gratitude to the Pakistan com-munity for their unwavering and continuous support for the successful accomplishment of many welfare projects which were otherwise very diffi cult to complete. On behalf of the Em-bassy of Pakistan I express my appreciation and thanks to the valued sponsors supporting the issuance of special supplements in three newspapers.
Let us pray that Allah Al-mighty grants us wisdom, cour-age and resolve to take our country on the path of glory and bless our eff orts to prove our-selves worthy of the heritage be-queathed to us by our founding fathers. I pray to Allah Almighty to enable us to protect Pakistan and put it on the rails of progress and prosperity.
Long live Pakistan-Oman friendship. — Naheed Naveed Atif
Pakistan and Oman continue to maintain their traditionally close and mutually beneficial relations
which are based on mutual respect and trust.
Naheed Naveed AtifCharge d’Affaires
Strength of Pakistan-Oman ties lies in ‘diversifi ed engagement’
Message of Charge d’Aff aires
2 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
P akistan is one of the few countries in the world where fruits grown in cool temper-ate climate (apples,
plums, pears, cherries), warm tem-perate (apricots, grapes, pomegran-ates and melon), and subtropical cli-mate (citrus, mango, banana, dates and guava) are available. Country annually produces about 12 million tons of fruits that fetch over $102.7 million in exports. Citrus fruit is leading in terms of production fol-lowed by mango, dates and guava.
Sweet Citrus Fruits (manda-rins, clementine and oranges)With 2.29 million tons, Pakistan is the 10th largest producer of Citrus in the world. Citrus is cultivated on an area of 193,212 hectares and it is increasing at compound an-
nual growth rate of 5 percent an-nually. Pakistan is also the largest producer of ‚Citrus Reticula‘ vari-ety (mandarins). This unique va-riety of citrus is indigenous to this part of the world. According to an estimate, approximately 95 per-cent of the total mandarins pro-duced all over the world is grown in Pakistan. Punjab is the centre of production and supplies citrus fruits of high quality and grade. The soil and climatic conditions in Pakistan have given mandarin a unique fl avor which distinguishes it from other comparable varieties grown in the World.
Magical mangoesPakistan, world’s third largest pro-ducer of mango, keeps the credit to produce some of the fi nest qualities of this fruit for their unique taste
and sweetness. It is home to more than 150 varieties of mangoes of which ‘Sindhri’, also known as the king of mangoes, remains the most popular. Other major varieties in-clude Chaunsa, Anwar Ratol, Lan-gra, Malda, Fajri, Bagan Pali, Dush-eri, Kala Pahar, Neelam, Summer Bahist and Totapari. These man-goes remain in high demand in international markets as some of them like Chaunsa and Sindhri are not found anywhere else. The European Union, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the Gulf and USA are the major importers of Paki-stani mangoes.
Irresistible appleApples have been grown as com-mercial fruit plants in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since long. The production of deciduous
The irresistible
T I M E S O F O M A N S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T 3
PAKISTAN NATIONAL DAY 2016
apple in Balochistan has a special signifi cance among other fruit growing areas. This is because the environmental conditions are relatively far more suitable for the production of this fruit. Ap-ple is grown in highlands of Balo-chistan with a production of 0.224 million tones. The Tur-Kulu (red delicious) and Shin-Kulu (golden delicious) are the famous varieties for their very attractive color and taste throughout Pakistan.
Delicious datesPakistan is one of the main growers of dates. It follows Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE in the list of top date producing countries with about 10 percent share of global production.
Balochistan is the largest date producing province followed by Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakh-
tunkhwa. Out of the 300 varieties of dates produced in Pakistan, Begam-Jangi of Balochistan, Aseel of Sindh and Dhakki of Dera Ismail Khan are the most popular varieties across the world due to their exotic taste.
Pakistan earns around $29 mil-lion from export of dates each year. India remains one of the major importers of Pakistani dried dates whereas major importers of fresh dates include the US, Turkey, UAE, Qatar and Malaysia.
Export of fruit in Pakistan has shown an appreciable increase in recent years. Latest post-harvest techniques such as hydro cooling, refrigeration and freezing, modifi ed atmosphere (MA) packaging, stor-age, control atmosphere storage, skin coating, hypobaric are being employed to preserve and protect the quality of the product.
Pakistani fruits
HIGHLIGHTSPakistan produces
12 million tonnes of
fruit every year
Fruits worth $102.7million are exported
annually
Pakistan is 10thlargest producer of
Citrus in the world
95 percent of
mandarins produced
in the world is
grown in Pakistan
Pakistan is thirdlargest producer
of mangoes
Pakistan grows about
10 percent of global
dates‘ production
Latest post-harvesttechniques are used
to protect quality
of its fruits
4 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
W ith democracy fi nding its feet in Pakistan, the country is now well on its
way to strengthening its institu-tions and delivering in more areas of economy than ever before. With the country‘s economy growing steadily, Pakistan now off ers ideal atmosphere for global investors to do business there.
Pakistan is home to the sixth largest population in the world at more than 180 million people and is also the 26th largest econ-omy by purchasing power parity and 44th largest economy by real gross domestic product. By 2050, Pakistan is tipped to become the 18th largest economy. The country is a federal parliamen-tary democracy, comprising four provinces and federal territories, based on separation of powers principle and an efficient regu-latory system that oversees the economy. There are a number of
very good reasons why Pakistan is an attractive destination for for-eign investment:
1 Demographic dividendPakistan has the fastest grow-
ing middle class in South Asia with a wide consumer base. According to the Asian Development Bank since 1990 Pakistan has experi-enced a growth in the middle class at an astonishing 36.5 percent. Pa-kistan is the sixth largest market in the world with a population of 180 million of which more than 65 million constitute the middle class. Global FMCG giants see Pakistan as a lucrative market for their products. It may be added here that consumer spending in Pakistan has increased by an average of 26% in three years, according to a Bloomb-erg report published on November 21, 2012 – a strong sign that people are consuming more goods than ever before. This rise in consumer demand has spurred the growth of supermarkets across major ur-
With the nation
experiencing
steady economic
growth and stability,
Pakistan off ers
global investors
a plethora of
incentives to make
the most of their
investments in
the country
Why investin Pakistan!
T I M E S O F O M A N S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T 5
PAKISTAN NATIONAL DAY 2016
ban centres, which include, but are no longer limited to, Karachi, Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Fais-alabad and Islamabad. Such super-stores are getting larger and asking manufacturers for broader brand portfolios in order to serve their customers better. They have larger shelves, enabling them to have more sophisticated and developed categories in which they can stock more products than ever before.
2 Evolving investorfriendly policy
Pakistan accords equal treatment to local and foreign investors. All economic sectors are open to FDI except a few specifi ed industries like arms and ammunition, ex-plosives, radioactive substances, security printing, currency and mint. Foreign equity up to 100% is allowed, apart from a host of other incentives including remittances of royalty, technical and franchise fee, dividends, capital and profi ts and import of raw material for export
manufacturing zero-rated. Foreign Investment is fully pro-
tected by following Acts:i. Foreign Private Investment
[Promotion & Protection] Act, 1976.ii. Protection of Economic Re-
forms Act,1992.Pakistan‘s investment policy has
been formulated to create an inves-tor-friendly environment with a fo-cus on further opening up the econ-omy and marketing the potential for direct foreign investment. Various incentives have been off ered to at-tract foreign investment including full repatriation of capital, capital gains, dividends and profi ts. Fur-thermore, according to various eco-nomic commentators, Pakistan has the most liberal investment policy regimes and public-private partner-ship frameworks in the entire South Asian region. The changed scenario of globalization has shackled the economies of the developing coun-tries and has forced them to adopt liberalized policies for attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In the backdrop of international competition, these countries have created effi cient and competitive in-dustrial clusters / economic zones. These zones have reduced the cost of doing business and thereby in-creased their exports share globally.
To meet global competitiveness eff ectively and effi ciently, creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Pakistan has become an acute ne-cessity. The SEZ Act, promulgated in 2012 provides SEZs to be set up by the federal or provincial govern-ments themselves or under diff er-ent modes of public-private part-nership or exclusively through the private sector.
The provincial SEZ authorities,
set up under the law, are required to move the applications received from developers to the Federal Board of Investment for seeking approval of Board of Approvals/ Approvals committee. The main objective of this SEZ is to give assurance to the investors that the incentives once given cannot be withdrawn to the disadvantage to the investors. The features/incentives for the SEZs are as under:
- Exemption of levies on import of capital equipment for zone develop-ers and investors
- Corporate Income tax holiday of 10 years for investors and for zone developers
- Captive power generation would be allowed to zone developers
- Maximum land that each SEZ can allocate for commercial use and other non-productive activities such as for setting up retail shops, other recreational areas, hospitals etc should be limited to 30% of total land area.
- Minimum area for a SEZ should be 50 acres.
- Investors must begin construc-tion within 6 months and produc-tion within 24 months of project approval. The land titled will not be transferred to the investor until after it has been in production for 6 months.
- Each SEZ must have rules re-garding investment destiny and coverage ratio in place that will have to be approved by the Board of Ap-provals (BoA).
- Any Existing Zone at its desire may apply to the SEZ Authority in which they are located to become eligible for SEZ but can avail only one set of incentives.
Continue to Page 7 >
Pakistan is home to 6th largest population in the world
26th largest economy by purchasing power parity
44th largest economy by real gross domestic product
Tipped to become 18th largest economy in the world by 2050
Fastest growing middle class in South Asia
Consumer spending increasing annually by an average of 26%
Corporate income tax holiday of 10 years for investors
Pakistan has the 10th largest labour force in the world
HIGHLIGHTS
6 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6
Blessed with a coastline of 800 kilometres, Ba-lochistan, the largest province of Pakistan area wise, is known to
have breathtaking natural beauty and historical places along the way. A trip to Balochistan will take you through to an unforgettable jour-ney full of chill, thrill and adven-ture of a lifetime.
Gwadar PortGwadar is famous for three things: fi shing village, 5-star hotel on the hammerhead, and the famous Gwa-dar Port, which was opened in 2007 by then President General Pervez Musharraf. Gwadar port was built with the assistance of China. It is situated on three very important cross-roads: oil rich Middle East, Central Asian countries and Paki-stan. The plan for this port was to facilitate trade and accessibility to Central Asian countries via Afghan-istan. A good vantage point to view this port is from the Pearl Continen-tal Hotel which is situated on top of the hammerhead. PC can arrange a tour of the port if one wants to go and see it.
Hammerhead in Gwadar
Hammerhead is a projection pro-truding out on the ocean, and looks like front of a hammerhead shark. This rocky mass was created by an-cient mud volcanoes which covered this region. Majority of the moun-tains carved on the coastal highways are results of mud volcanoes. The hammerhead on its southern side gives a beautiful view of the Arabian Sea, and on its north end the Gwa-dar City. Gwadar’s prime residen-tial block, Sanghar Housing scheme, is built on top of this hammerhead. Also on the hammerhead is an army and a navy base.
OrmaraOrmara is approx 240 km from Karachi. This city is also at a mid-point between Karachi and Gwa-dar. The city belongs to Pakistan Navy as several of their vessels are stationed here. A large hammer-head formation protects Ormara from the sea. It is also a small fi sh-ing village, and a pit stop for fuel and nourishment. The beach at Ormara is beautiful, sandy, clear and untouched. A small airport also serves the local population.
Ormara is also an ancient city and Alexander the Great’s route is linked with it. The city got its name from
one of Alexander’s General Ormuz, who died here.
The SphinxFrom a distance it looked like the replica of the Sphinx in Egypt. A naturally carved object on top of a range, the formation resembles the famous man-made structure. This is situated well before Princess of Hope. The formation is within the Buzzi Pass. One cannot miss it.
Buzzi PassBuzzi pass is the most spectacular scenery one can imagine. Starting from Kund Malir where the MCH starts to climb and going all the way till you reach Ormara (approx. 100 km from Kund Malir), one is treated to an unimaginable scen-ery and views.
Overlooking the Hingol National Park, the scenery defi nitely resem-bles a mini-Grand Canyon. The road climbs to approx 1500 feet only, and on both sides there is something to see. On various spots small streams are fl owing, or small crater type lakes are visible.
Various rock carvings that can be seen inside the Buzzi pass re-mind one of diff erent architecture (Sphinx, Pyramids, Greek Pan-
theon, etc) around the world. Who knows travelers through this region may have got the idea of building similar architecture.
MCH is the same route Alexan-der the Great took on his way back after sightseeing the Indian Sub-continent and it was the treach-erous Buzzi pass where he lost many of his legions. The landscape on the MCH is really spaced out. The dry-diverse landscape, built by ages of erosion and eruptions, has made this drive on the coastal highway once (or twice) in a life-time trip. Some of the sceneries, especially in driving through the Buzzi pass, are breathtaking.
DesertRight after you pass Hingol Riv-er bridge, the scenery suddenly changes. On your right are moun-tains, and on your left a desert. Be-yond the desert is the ocean. If you have a 4x4 car, you can enjoy a short desert safari sunning up and down the sand dunes.
Nani MandirHinglaj is an important Hindu com-munity’s pilgrimage site. Situated almost 250 km from Karachi on the Makran Coastal Highway, one can
easily traverse this journey in ap-prox 3-4 hours.
From the coastal highway at Ag-hore, a dirt track leads towards Nani Mandir, a Hindu temple carved in-side the mountain, and is situated approx. 10-15 km inside the Hingol mountain ranges. At one time one could take their own car till the tem-ple, but neglect has caused the road to deteriorate, and one now needs a 4x4 to reach this site, as you may have to cross the Hingol river.
Mythology states that to calm de-ity Shiva down when he was in his trance performing Tandava/dance, deity Vishnu carved Sati (fi rst con-sort) into several pieces, and spread it around the sub-continent. The head landed at Hinglaj.
Ex-Indian foreign minister of BJP, Jaswant Singh, made a pil-grimage to this Mandir in 2006. Devotees part of pilgrimage is to visit the Mud Volcano fi rst, Baba Chandrakup, and then travel to Nani Mandir, which is revered both by Hindu and Muslim followers.
Mud volcano
The geographical terrain of Hingol National Park was created millions of years ago by various mud volca-noes which existed in this area. Very
few (some say 18) active volcanoes are left, and one of them is called Baba Chandrakup (apprx 200-300 feet high). It is also claimed that this is the largest mud volcano in the world. The mud it spews out is not hot, but cold.
On the Makran Coastal Highway there is huge sign directing one towards the mud volcano, but one needs a 4x4 vehicle to reach this vol-cano or walk 7 kms towards it.
The mud volcano is part of Hindu mythology, where devotees on their pilgrimage camped overnight at the base and off ered “Roti” (bread) in the morning, and confessed their sins. Those who do not confess are separated from the pilgrimage and asked to go back. After the comple-tion of their rites, the pilgrims pro-ceeded towards Nani Mandir, ap-prox 27 km from here.
Hingol National ParkHingol National Park is the largest national park in Pakistan. Declared national park in 1997 owing to its ecological and biodiversity impor-tance, it stretches over 600,000 hectares, including both terrestrial and marine species, the fi rst and only protected area of such kind in south Asia.
Coastal attractions of Balochistan
T I M E S O F O M A N S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T 7
PAKISTAN NATIONAL DAY 2016
Why invest in Pakistan!
Ensure proper disposal of garbage.
Don’t litter a beautiful country like OMAN.
3 Large workforcePakistan is the 10th largest
country in the world according to the size of the labour force. The latest statistics show that the to-tal labour force has increased from 50 million in 2005-06 to 59.7 mil-lion in 2012-13. It shows that more than 9 million people joined the labour force during this period. On the other side, the number of em-ployed labour force increased from 46.95 million to 56.0 million during this period. This means that all the increase in labour force could not be adjusted in employment sector and therefore unemployed people increased from 3.10 million to 3.73 million during the same period.
4 Availability of skilled manpower
Pakistan has more than 200 insti-tutions of Higher Education rec-ognized by the Higher Education Commission. The country produces close to half a million graduates and about 20,000 graduates in Com-puter Science and about as many in engineering faculties annually. This translates into huge potential vis a
vis skilled manpower in the country.
5 English speakingwork force
Pakistan has one of the largest Eng-lish speaking work forces outside the English speaking world. Eng-lish language is compulsory in all educational institutions in Pakistan and secondary, higher secondary, graduate and post graduate level ed-ucation is largely conducted in the English language. Euromonitor In-ternational estimated in 2009 that 49 percent of Pakistani population has working knowledge of the Eng-lish language which translates into about 92 million Pakistanis.
6 Infrastructureimprovement
The emphasis in recent years has been on infrastructure improve-ment, both technologically and physically. A series of new motor-ways has been planned and new highways and expressways have been completed to link various cit-ies in the country. The government is implementing Bus Rapid Transit systems in major cities. Plans to link
various cities through bullet trains are afoot. A brand new airport, the Gandhara International Airport, is nearing completion in Islamabad and will be equipped with the latest facilities. On technology front, Paki-stan has auctioned off 3G and 4G li-censes and now 3G cellular services are operational all around the coun-try. The government is also making eff orts towards improving internet connectivity and penetration even in the remotest parts of the country.
7China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
China and Pakistan have entered into a comprehensive plan of “eco-nomic corridor” between the two nations. It will serve as driver for connectivity between South Asia and East Asia. High level infrastruc-ture development will link Urumqi in Western China to Pakistani centers of Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and ultimately the Gwadar Port. It forms part of the “String of Pearls” strategic maritime planning by the Chinese. The Chinese Economic Corridor which will link Western China to Middle East and Africa has immense
economic potential in services espe-cially transportation and banking.
8 Geographic location Pakistan is located at a stra-
tegic hub, close to the markets of South East Asia, Middle East and also Europe. Pakistan‘s neighbour to the east is India which is a ris-ing economy in its own right and with which Pakistan is attempt-ing to cultivate long term peace-ful relations. To Pakistan‘s south west is the oil rich Middle East. Towards Pakistan‘s North West is the energy rich Central Asia and in Pakistan‘s north is China. Paki-stan‘s airports can serve as trans-portation hubs. Karachi‘s Jinnah International Airport is more or less equidistant to Dubai, Doha, Delhi, Mumbai, Muscat, Lahore and Islamabad.
9 Natural resourcesPakistan is rich in natural re-
sources. The potential for oil, gas and minerals exploration in the west of the country is enormous. The east, historic Indus Valley, is ex-tremely rich in agriculture.
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8 W E D N E S DAY, M A R C H 2 3, 2 0 1 6 T I M E S O F O M A N S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T
PAKISTAN NATIONAL DAY 2016
W hatever fair or unfair criticism that may be leveled against the govern-
ment, Pakistan’s economy is mov-ing towards a stable recovery after a turbulent period of fi ve years. The country is slowly winning the con-fi dence of the foreign investors and countries like South Korea, Japan, China, UK, Gulf and UAE are com-ing forward with full vigor to invest here, especially in the energy sector.
Highly encouraged by robust manufacturing and service sector, GDP growth is projected to achieve four percent this year. From a weak fi nancial position, the government is taking all sorts of positive meas-ures to meet its fi scal defi cit target. No doubt the imports, FDI fl ows and private investment and circular debt in the energy sector still remain per-turbing. The current account defi cit remains normal, about one percent of GDP, being supported by strong remittances and export sturdiness. The external position is cautiously improving since monetary and ex-change rate policies moved towards ameliorating reserves last Novem-ber. The fi scal defi cit is at around six percent of GDP, with restriction on current and development ex-penditure. Growth continues to be motivated by private consumption. However, private domestic invest-ment recovery is mild.
The surge in growth of large-scale manufacturing came from strong performances of agro-based indus-
tries, iron and steel, construction and external demand-driven cot-ton yarn and fabrics-based textiles while the agriculture performance was slightly below the target due to un-favorable weather conditions.
The government has tried to rec-tify its loose fi nancial stance. On the expenditure side, energy-related subsidies have been reduced with tariff adjustments. Nevertheless circular debt is again becoming visible. External fi nancing avail-able to the government is scarce, but expected to improve. Uncer-tainty in the political environment still weakens investor’s confi dence and lessens economic activity. The worrisome domestic energy sec-tor continues to sustain a long-due complex inheritance on its circular debt. According to the Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF), Pa-kistan economy is showing signs of
improvement and that its reform program remains broadly on track. IMF is concerned that infl ation will rebound in the coming months. It has forecast that infl ation in Paki-stan will hit 10 percent this year. Pakistan is committed to increas-ing growth and improving fi nancial stability, while implementing meas-ures to reduce defi cit. State Bank of Pakistan has estimated economic growth in current fi nancial year of up to four percent, surpassing fore-casts by international agencies.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $6.7 billion loan package for Pakistan in Sep-tember last year, subject to strict economic reforms, particularly in its troubled energy sector and tax system. In the last fi scal year, Paki-stan’s economy grew at 3.6 percent, the central bank said and infl ation fell to single digits. But it warned infl ation could rise as high as 11 per-cent in the current fi scal year.
The latest macro-economic indi-cators show a strong recovery of Pa-kistan economy. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar recently noted that the fi s-cal defi cit is well below the target for the current year, infl ation is down to single digit and foreign reserves have crossed the $10 billion mark. He said that the stock market in the country is booming and has reached the 31,000 mark. The government had cleared the circular debt and was able to add 1,700 MWs of elec-tricity to the national system in the near future, which led to growth in large scale manufacturing.
Economy on the road to recovery, stability
HIGHLIGHTSPak economy showing
signs of improvement,
says IMF
GDP growth expected
to reach four percent
in 2016
Robust manufacturingand service sector
pushing growth