Planning & Development  

Human Resources Development Strategy » Challenges Facing Human Resources Development

The significant improvement during the past two decades in the indicators relating to human resources development has led to the Sultanate occupying a distinguished position among the developing countries. In some indicators the Sultanate has exceeded several countries with a high human development record. However there are still some challenges facing human resources development and the achievement of the envisaged future. These challenges which have been discussed in the reports and evaluation studies are summarized below:

1. The low level of productivity of labour resources. The reluctance of Omanis to join certain professions and occupation has led to reduction of their capacity to face future challenges, affected their integration with the world economy and at the same time has hindered the substitution of expatriate labour.

2. The weakness and inadequacy of basic education to cope with the rapidly changing scientific and technological development.

3. The provision of a mechanism for creating suitable employment opportunities for about a quarter of a million Omanis who are expected to join the labour market within the next century.

4. The existence of variations in employment conditions between private and public sectors (in terms of working hours, official holidays and pensions). These have led to a reluctance of Omanis to join private sector.

5. The challenges resulting from the need for reducing the size of the expatriate labour force especially those engaged in professions with low value added and whose productivity is less then their real economic cost.

6. The increasing demand for basic services such as health, education, housing, water and sewerage systems resulting from the fact that the rate of population growth exceeds the growth rate of national income and government revenues.