Draft dated 28 April 2020

The enigma of the Omani Mona Lisa

Objective:
The objective of this paper is to propose some ideas that may be capable of building Oman,
as a country, to the next level of prosperity

Thoughts around the challenges

- HM, as the father of the nation, is at the highest, most strategic, visionary level. His
Oman, is every national’s Oman, every resident’s Oman, and Oman’s role and mission is
that of upgrading the lives of all its nationals, by creating equal opportunity. The
outcome of that opportunity must, however, lie in the hands of and be the responsibility
of each individual. Oman can no longer be a country that takes it upon itself to solve
individual’s problems. Instead, maturity must lie in the hands of people, education must
prevail that individuals must take responsibility for their own lives, that hard work,
study, discipline, determination, intelligence and law abiding is everyone’s
responsibility. It is only for the most unfortunate individuals that the country can create
a social safety net

- Government must become a profession of people talented in strategic vision,

governance, policy and lawmaking, fiscal management, defence, commerce and
communication. It must continue to become highly desirable for its competency and
hard work and be remunerated accordingly. The government must be run as a
corporation, with exceptionally talented people identified impartially, where long-term
success is incentivised and inability and failure to deliver gets corrected quickly

- Covid-19 has changed the world forever. A new vision must be formulated. Tourism, as
we know it, may never be the same but new forms will emerge. What are the businesses
of the future that Oman wants to aspire? Under the wise leadership of HM and
supported by the government, internationally competent and specialised talent must
formulate these businesses of the future and identify an implementation roadmap

- Oman’s infrastructure investments must pay off. All main aspects of an Omani’s life are
taken care of by the Government. This includes, education, healthcare even housing
through the allocation of plots of land. Are these investments paying dividends? Despite
the large investments in universities and hospitals, nationals go abroad, largely
government sponsored, and the domestic universities and hospitals fail to excel
internationally. A value proposition must be created, where these infrastructures partner
with the best and brightest on an international scale and form partnerships that further
entrench the cooperation and create a win-win for all

- The country must become an attractive investment destination. The hard and difficult
questions must be asked and answered without shame and actions must be formulated.
Questions such as:

 Why are individuals not investing in Oman through property ownership despite an
approximate 50% expat population
 Why are FDI numbers not substantially increasing despite electricity, oil and gas
availability
 …

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- The GREs must become internationally competitive and return value to their
shareholders. Again, difficult questions must be asked and answered without shame.
Questions such as:

 Why has OMRAN failed to deliver despite its senior board

 Why is the Oman Oil group only making money on its upstream businesses and
none of its other businesses are capable of going public or attracting foreign
investment
 Why are so many government related bodies duplicating the same business of
building hotels, head offices, commercial spaces that deliver little to no return,
effectively destroying value
 …

- The education system must be upgraded for the challenges of the future. Students are ill
equipped for current jobs, let alone the jobs of the future. International experience and
international competitiveness lacks. More broadly, in the workforce, there is no culture
of meritocracy and reward. That must change, failure must be acceptable and success
celebrated and attributed to the individual, pay and incentives must be structured
accordingly. At the end, your biggest asset are your people and this cuts across
nationality

What about this enigma of the Omani Mona Lisa?

Oman must enhance its international attractiveness and become internationally competitive.
To that end, Oman must become known: the Omani Mona Lisa. While Silicon Valley is
known for its IT and technology, Germany for its engineering, France for its Eiffel Tower,
Dubai for its shopping malls and Las Vegas for its casinos… (to name but a few) Oman must
create its own identity. An identity that permeates its government, its business environment,
its workforce and its young population.

To that end, we aim to formulate the following advice:

(1) Bring in the best and brightest. Management consultancy firms such as McKenzie and
Bain & Co or similar can be entrusted with this assignment so as to ensure that the
highest level of impartiality is maintained. To that end, tap into the people of the world
as Oman is part of that world. Establish a system of meritocracy resulting in those
brightest minds to be with you for the long haul and the build the workforce of the
future

(2) Put the brightest to work to formulate Oman’s Mona Lisa, including Oman’s businesses
of the future

(3) Let the government apparatus be corporatised: talented individuals as ministers,

automation tsunami at an administration level, communication at all levels, customer
satisfaction the key

(4) Government to create equal opportunity for every national, but education that
ownership of the outcome lies with the individual; social safety net for specific cases

(5) Investment into the country to be accelerated

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(6) Roadmap for internationally competent infrastructure, including universities and

hospitals

(7) Creation of workforce of the future

(8) Oman’s GREs to be taken out of the realm of government and become true corporations
driven by international competitiveness and return on equity; no more ministers on
boards and centralised agency with professional management and a CEO reporting
directly into HM to oversee those GREs that works on a purely private equity basis

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