National Investment Reform Agenda Workshop for Oman

Workshop on “Challenges and Opportunities in Economic Liberalisation”

4 June 2006, Muscat

The MENA-OECD Investment Programme, in partnership with the Omani Investment and Export Promotion Agency (OCIPED) and the Canadian Fraser Institute, organised a workshop on “Challenges and Opportunities in Economic Liberalisation” in Muscat on 4 June 2006.

Over the last year, the Investment Programme has worked with the Omani government - represented within the Programme by OCIPED - to identify and specify investment reform priority targets. The workshop topics reflected a number of these targets for investment reform. The workshop featured 6 sessions on the following topics: size of government, legal structure, credit regulation, freedom to trade, labour regulation, and business regulations.

The Programme’s involvement will focus on the issues of foreign ownership restrictions, establishment of a one stop shop, the transparency of OCIPED’s activities to its users, as well as the role of the government in financing of entrepreneurship activities, among others.