The Sultanate of Oman today celebrates the 47th anniversary of the Blessed Renaissance Day.
On July 23 every year, the courageous Omani people renew their pledge and loyalty to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed.
They also express their gratitude, appreciation and love to the Sultan who revived Oman’s ancient glories and built a full-fledged modern state based on equality and citizenship that seeks progress, growth and rule of the law for all citizens.
On this glorious day, the Omanis feel proud of their achievements over the past 47 years under the wise leadership of Sultan Qaboos.
Thanks to His Majesty’s wise vision and the steady efforts and involvement of the Omani people, Oman has become, as outlined by the Sultan, an oasis of security and prosperity, as well as a modern state where all Omanis enjoy decent living, security and safety.
July 23 of 1970 marked the beginning of a bright era for the Sultanate of Oman. Today, Omanis are reaping the fruits of years of building. They are also taking advantage of the successes of the policies implemented by Sultan Qaboos on both internal and external levels.
Since the dawn of the first day of the Blessed Renaissance, His Majesty the Sultan had a fatherly vision that forecasts the future and accommodates all citizens. The Sultan has been very keen on setting up justice organisations, integrating the value of justice and supporting the rule of law.
His Majesty has also developed a foreign policy that is based on co-operation, trust, credibility, frankness and clarity in dealing with brothers and friends during different situations, developments and circumstances.
The foreign policy has maintained Oman’s leading status and positive role. It also enhanced co-operation with the different sisterly and friendly countries and made Oman an active player to ensure welfare of peoples in the region and the world.
The Sultanate, thanks to His Majesty’s peace approach, managed to establish brotherly and friendly relations with various countries around the world. The Sultanate was also keen on continuing and developing these relations in all fields to achieve the interest of the Sultanate and other countries.
The Sultanate has been one of the states that relied on negotiation principle to solve disputes and settle them in a peaceful way based on mutual respect, international law principles, non-interference in other states’ domestic affairs and maintaining co-operation to achieve common interests and good neighbourliness.
At local and international forums, the Sultanate has always stressed its belief that each problem has a solution when the parties have the will to reconcile their interests and when all join hands particularly peoples eager for peace, inclined to understanding and a love of peaceful coexistence, which would safeguard the interests of all parties based on the approach of no harm, no foul play.
His Majesty the Sultan, thanks to these credible policies and stances, has been recognised by leaders of the region and the world, which extended to various aspects of Omani relations with brotherly and friendly nations.
As the Sultanate adopts the peace approach and works within it to preserve peace and stability in the world, its Message of Islam project, within a few years, has formed a global partnership with scientific institutions, academia, universities, institutes and museums in many countries of the world.
The Message of Islam exhibition has exceeded 102 stations around the world, and addressed more than 8mn visitors.
In the military field, the Sultan’s armed forces, the Royal Guard of Oman, the Royal Oman Police and the security services have proven their ability and dedication to preserve every inch of the soil of Oman and to defend the homeland and its sanctities and protect its achievements.
His Majesty the Sultan, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, has been issuing directives to develop and modernise the armed forces to keep pace with the developments in military training and armament.
The Omani armed forces have become a modern integrated force that keeps pace with the development in this area. The armed forces are also known for their scientific efficiency, combat skills and ability to carry out public duties under all circumstances.
In this regard, the first batch of Typhoon combat aircraft and Hawk training aircraft were launched this year as part of the modernisation process being witnessed by the Royal Air Force of Oman. The Royal Navy of Oman also celebrated the launch of “Khassab” and “Al Nasser” vessels, which are the last two ships in “Ufuq” project.
Since the first day of the Blessed Renaissance, the Sultan has been keen on ensuring active involvement of the Omanis in all walks of life, and that every citizen, wherever he may be, will enjoy the fruits of modern Renaissance and enable him at the same time to contribute all his energies and abilities in the march of society towards new horizons of development and construction of the modern state.
His Majesty the Sultan has been keen as well on encouraging the Omanis, especially youths, to show their talents and work hard.
His Majesty also hailed the significant role of the Omani young people and underscored the need to encourage them, support their capabilities and upgrade their level of training to enable them to benefit from available opportunities.
Starting from the interest of Sultan Qaboos of the achievement of intellectual and knowledge, and in recognition of the historical role of Oman in establishing cultural awareness as the most important link in the ladder of civilised advancement of mankind, and in support of intellectuals, artists and literary writers, as a way to promote civilisational progress, Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Letters was created, which reached its sixth session this year.
This session was announced and opened for registration.
This year, Omanis will compete with their Arab brethren.
In keeping with Sultan Qaboos’ directives, the Omani Royal Navy “Oman Youth II” has left for participating in the European ship races on its third international voyage of Friendship and Peace. The six-month tour will visit the Baltic Sea and many European ports and countries to participate in long sailboat races, festivals and celebrations. The ship seeks to convey its mission of extending the bonds of friendship and brotherhood between the Sultanate and the various countries of the world by introducing the authentic Omani culture in its various international stations.
The achievements of the Blessed Renaissance, its successive fruits and its many gains in education, health, roads, electricity, water, telecommunications and other services have spread to every inch in all the governorates of the Sultanate without exception, where justice and balance have been distinctive features of the triumphant process of renaissance over the past years.
The Omani Government has adopted the National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification “Tanfeez” which is one of the national programmes of the 9th five-year plan 2016-2020 in a bid to maximise the benefits from the natural and other resources in sectors, such as tourism, agriculture, fisheries and minerals.
The “Tanfeez” programme is mainly aimed at contributing to the realisation of the Sultanate’s vision for economic diversification, The sectors of economic diversification in the first phase are (tourism, manufacturing and logistics) as well as the supporting the labour market sector and the finance sector.
The second phase of the programme will cover the sectors (fisheries and mining).
Despite oil price slump, the financial and economic conditions of the Sultanate remained stable in general.
The Sultanate is going ahead with its development plans to maintain the economic stability, enhance the social aspect, create a conducive business environment, augment partnership with the private sector and subsidise small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Omani Government also seeks to enhance the Sultanate’s ranking in competitiveness indicators.
After reviewing regional and international experience, the Ministerial Committee formed for this purpose, recommended the establishment of a national office under the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). This office will be in charge of enhancing the Sultanate’s competitiveness.
The Sultanate aims to increase the contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP by 2040.
The Oman Tourism Strategy 2016-2040 aims to enhance the Sultanate’s position globally and make it a global destination for unique hospitality, as well as enhancing the value and sustainability of natural and cultural monuments, achieving economic and social benefits and providing necessary income to preserve, protect and sustain heritage and protect the environment.
To invest on its strategic location and proximity to navigation routes and international trade lines and as part of its efforts to diversify sources of the national income, the Sultanate is seeking to be a leader in transport and communications and to become one of the top 10 countries in international logistics performance by 2040.
The general strategy in the ports sector relies on the continuous expansion of the capacity of these ports and their ability to handle goods of various forms and sizes and at global levels, the ability to receive various types and sizes of vessels.
It also relies on enhancing enhance their competitiveness through the establishment and deepening of berths and processing of offshore services, in addition to the development of equipment and integration in the activities of the Omani ports and its linkage with other industrial and commercial sectors and the establishment of free and industrial zones within the port areas.
The Sultanate’s development, growth, advancement, and prosperity, as Sultan Qaboos in his speech on the occasion of the 22nd Glorious National Day, “The supreme goal and the ultimate goal of every Omani whose heart beats with sincerity and overflows with love and loyalty of his feelings to this nation, but this noble goal can be achieved on the ground only by the generous efforts, continuous giving, conscious planning and enlightened thought, which draws the future and envisages its horizons and explores its challenges in preparation for facing them with science, work, various skills and evolving expertise in various areas of life”.
As Oman’s overall development march enters its 48th year with confidence, glory and pride, and looking forward to a bright and better future, the Sultanate is looking forward to the completion of several important projects that will diversify sources of income, boost revenues and push the national economy along the path of growth, in addition to providing more jobs for the national workforce.
Among these projects, are the currently being accomplished in the SEZD in the oil, petrochemical, industrial, tourism and fisheries sectors, as well as completion of the stages in relation to construction of Duqm Port expected by 2019, the projects being implemented in the industrial zones, Orpic petrochemical projects, tourism projects sector in Ras Al Hadd, Muscat, South Al Batinah, Governorate of Dhofar and other governorates of the Sultanate, in addition to projects in the food security sector, fishing ports, fish farming sector and logistics.
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed of Oman: thanks to his wise vision, Oman has become an oasis of security and prosperity.
