National Economy Minister Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki, who was speaking to the Oman News Agency (ONA), said the RO14 billion investment programme during the plan would create 199,000 new job openings, out of which 124,000 would be filled by nationals.

Omanisation schemes under the plan, he added, would provide 75,000 jobs for citizens and another 15,000 would find jobs through the ‘Sanad’ self-employment programme.

The rest of the 33,500 openings would result from new projects to be carried out during the plan, Macki said.

“The number of Omani jobseekers is expected to decline radically, indicating that the plan’s programmes will provide opportunities to employ all new national manpower entering the labour market,” he added.

Statistics released by the National Economy Ministry indicate that the total number of jobs in the public and private sectors rose to 911,800 in 2005.