Sunday 05 / May / 2024
Muscat: Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s (MoCI) efforts in developing Oman’s businesses environment in a productive way, by following up on various plans and policies to build a more powerful and sustainable economy have enhanced the Sultanate’s ranking in the World Bank’s annual report ‘Doing Business 2017-Equal Opportunity For All’..
The World Bank report evaluates and analyses the ease of doing business and annual variations in rankings across 190 countries, by measuring country-specific regulations that enhance or constrain business activities and presenting quantitative indicators. In an earlier announcement, Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, the minister of commerce and industry, said that the Sultanate’s World Bank report with respect to ease of doing business has improved by three places, from last year’s rank of 69 to 66 in 2016. The Sultanate also jumped 127 places claiming the pole position among Arab economies, even as it ranks 32nd globally in Business Start-Up index in the same report.
“The enhanced ranking for the Sultanate is an appreciation of the various efforts by the ministry and the government to improve the business environment in the Sultanate, in particular the Ministry’s integrated project ‘Invest Easy’ that aims to facilitate comprehensive economic development of the nation,” said Dr Sunaidi, “
“It is worth mentioning that steps such as repeal of capital proof when registering firms, cancellation of articles 5 and 11 in the Commercial Agencies Act, and simplifying the procedures of registering commercial entities by providing 76 electronic services through “Invest Easy” portal have been well received by investors, and helped significantly in improving rankings,” he added.
Business Start-up Index is determined by assessing factors such as the procedures, time, cost, and minimum capital required to start a limited corporation, among others. The Sultanate has made it easy for business start-ups by removing certain restrictions including the one on minimum capital requirements, he added.
The Sultanate also achieved fourth ranking in border trade index, as a result of the ministry’s concerted efforts at easing complication and cost of procedures, and reducing time and effort involved in exports and imports.
The ranking improved mainly because of the developments and improvements in e-transactions and processing of export documents, after the Sultanate established the electronic registration portal that considerably eased export processing, Dr Sunaidi said, giving the major credit to the Royal Oman Police represented by the Directorate General of Customs (Bayan System) in achieving the elevated ranking in the World Bank Report.
It may be noted that “Invest Easy” project facilitates the business sector by providing a whole range of services and advantages under a single portal that acts as a comprehensive source of data related to commercial activities.
The Invest Easy portal provides clarity in procedures and helps companies update data electronically. Apart from significant savings in terms of time and efforts, and enhanced investor confidence, Invest Easy project also aims at improving the overall commercial business environment and encouraging economic diversification in the Sultanate, and facilitates start-ups and attracts more foreign investments by offering greater transparency in commercial dealings with business communities.
