Ashraf Abo Arafe
The budget of 2019 envisages the prospects for Oman’s economic and investment future as the preliminary reading of the general budget reveals that the Sultanate of Oman aims to achieve a set of goals. The estimated total revenues for the state budget for 2019, calculated on the basis of the price of oil (58) US dollars per barrel, reached about 10 billion and 100 million Omani riyals, The total public expenditure amounted to RO 12 billion and RO 900 million, an increase of RO 400 million from the estimated expenditure for 2018.
* Leadership .. priorities .. necessities!
The Government of the Sultanate of Oman seeks every year to establish a general budget to ensure the support of economic and social policies that seek to achieve the prosperity of the citizen and ensure economic growth with the application of the jurisprudence of priorities and necessities, as reflected on the budget of 2019. The government has formulated plans for the implementation of several developing projects And investment, without forgetting efforts to rationalize spending and delay in the implementation of non-urgent projects, steps to ensure control of the deficit in the framework of plans to reduce it.
* Education and health!
The government’s first priority is to provide education to citizens, which will enable to achieve a more advanced future with social and economic sustainability. To provide education services in all its forms and basic or higher education, the government will allocate RO 1.6 billion to spend on the sector during the year as current and investment expenses.
In the health sector, government efforts are continuing to spend billions of riyals a year on building hospitals, equipping them with sanitary equipment, providing medicines, paying doctors and nursing staff, and the cost of electricity available in hospitals and elsewhere.
The state budget for 2019 revealed that government expenditure on health will reach 666 million riyals, including a promising project package. The budget statement indicated that a number of strategic projects are under way, including the establishment of Sultan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah, Khasab Hospital, In addition to completing the construction of a number of health centers in some states of the Sultanate.
* Infrastructure and logistics!
Building infrastructure is the real basis for sustainable development and construction, supported by maintaining security and stability of the country. Electricity, water, airports, factories and other sectors enjoy great Omani interest.
The government will spend SR 12.9 billion during the current fiscal year. The general budget for expenditure on development projects during the year 2019 is based on allocations of SR 1.2 billion.
2019 budget included allocations for the five sectors targeted within the national program to promote economic diversification and “implementation” of the manufacturing sector, the logistics sector, the tourism sector, the fisheries sector and the mining sector. In this program, the private sector is mainly dependent on the financing and investments required for the projects targeted in this program.
The government’s contribution – in addition to providing funding for some of the main projects – is through facilitating procedures, improving the business environment and providing support to these sectors.
