times of oman - april 26, 2016
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Times of Oman - April 26, 2016TRANSCRIPT
Founded 1975 . Volume 41 No. | Pages . Baisas 200 . Subscription OMR63 | ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company | Chairman/Editor-in-Chief: Mohamed Issa Al Zadjali | Printed & Published by Muscat Media Group
085010 1200106April 26, 2016 18 Rajab 1437 AH
TUESDAY
55 40
On the occasion of the 4th National Day, 1974
FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTYTHE SULTAN
Our people have achieved successful results in all fi elds of life, under hard and abnormal circumstances. It was by the help of Almighty God and His belief in the People that such achievements were possible.
‘His Majesty’s Wisdom’
OMAN‘Need to do more on healthcare front’
1With diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases increasing, not enough is
being done by authorities. >A2
OMANGCC growth to slow down: IMF
2IMF has forecast slowing down of growth in Gulf Cooperation Council due
to low oil prices. >A4
T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S
A5Mustangers excel in Qatar drag race event
MORNING MINUTE
HM sends greetings to Tanzania
Isra’a Wal Miraj holiday on May 5 in Oman
MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a ca-ble of congratulations to Presi-dent Dr. John Magfalla of the United Republic of Tanzania on the occasion of his country’s National Day.
In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere congratulations along with his best wishes of good health and happiness to President Magfalla and the Tanzanian people fur-ther progress and prosperity.-ONA
MUSCAT: Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal bin Saud Al Busaidi, Min-ister of the Diwan of Royal Court, Chairman of the Civil Service Council yesterday is-sued a decision declaring Thursday, Rajab 27, 1437 AH corresponding to May 5 as an offi cial holiday for employees at ministries, public authori-ties and other departments of the State’s Administrative Ap-paratus on the occasion of the blessed anniversary of Al Isra’a Wal Miraj. The decision reads as follows: “On the occasion of the blessed anniversary of Al Isra’a Wal Miraj, it has been de-cided that Thursday Rajab 27, 1437 AH corresponding to May 5, 2016 will be an offi cial holi-day for employees at ministries, public authorities and other de-partments of the State’s Admin-istrative Apparatus.
“We seize this blessed occa-sion to extend our greetings to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, praying to Allah the Al-mighty to protect His Majesty, grant him good health, happi-ness and a long life and for the return of this and similar occa-sions on His Majesty for many years to come, the Omani peo-ple and our dear country further progress and welfare under His Majesty’s wise leadership and wellbeing for Muslims all over the world”. >A6
C A B L E D E C I S I O N
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UAE E-VISA ‘A MUST’ BY ROAD OR AIR
RAHUL [email protected]
Dubai: It’s offi cial, as of this Friday, more than 1.5 million expatriate residents of Oman will need an e-visa to cross the border into the UAE whether by land or air.
Speaking exclusively to Times of Oman, Captain Khalil Ibrahim, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Aff airs in Dubai, said that ef-fective April 29, 2016 all GCC residents/permit holders will need to pre-apply for an on-line visa prior to their travel to UAE. This will be applicable at all airports in the emirates plus border entry points from Oman, he said
He also warned that people will be turned away from the border or from the airport if they don’t have an e-visa. “This we have clearly communicated to all the immigration offi cials at the borders and at the air-ports,” he said.
He explained that the goal of the new system is to cut down queues at the borders and airports. The only exception to the rule are nationalities of around 46 countries who have a treaty with UAE, such as the United Kingdom or European Union countries. Citizens of these countries have a choice between visa-on-arrival or ap-plying for a visa online.
“If they want they can apply for the e-visa or they can take it from the entry points at the border or at the airports,” said Captain Ibrahim.
Out of the 4.1 million visi-tors already from January to March this year, Dubai wel-comed 322,000 visitors from Oman, a jump of 32 per cent on the year before, accord-ing to data issued by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).
Captain Ibrahim’s state-ment was echoed by senior airline offi cials operating in UAE who serve Oman. >A5
Captain in General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Aff airs in Dubai confi rms the rule for expats in GCC
Oman to add 3,000 hotel rooms by 2020RAHUL [email protected]
DUBAI: More than 3,000 hotel rooms will be added in the Sultan-ate by 2020, taking the number close to 20,000, the Director Gen-eral of Tourism Promotion, Salim Al Mamari said on the opening day of the Arabian Travel Market, in Dubai on Monday.
Speaking to the Times of Oman, Salim Al Mamari also announced plans to double the number of in-ternational visitors the Sultanate attracts over the next two decades as part of its new national 2040 tourism strategy.
“By 2040, the country wants to attract over 5 million international visitors to Oman, which doesn’t in-clude domestic and one-day tour-ists. And if we count them, then the fi gure may touch 10 million. In
this way we will change the face of tourism,” he said. In 2015, Oman reported 2.4 million tourists.
The Ministry has also revealed that its growth strategy for the tourism sector is going to be based upon an innovative “cluster” ap-proach that will create a series of unique tourism experiences in dif-ferent areas of Oman, refl ecting lo-
cal culture and heritage.Clusters will therefore be based
around the unique coastal expe-rience of Musandam; the Hajar Mountains; the Frankincense trail in Salalah; the culture in Muscat; the deserts and will have a mix of accommodation and experi-ences that will enable the clus-ters to become mini destinations
in their own right. The develop-ment of these new clusters will also help in Oman’s strategic ap-proach to attracting visitors from one of the world’s fastest growing tourism segments – adventure tourism.
Oman’s Ministry of Tourism of-fi cials said they will be working closely with private sector part-ners to ensure that the right infra-structure for accommodation; res-taurants; transportation and other key elements are in place to boost the attraction of each cluster and create more local employment.
Under the new strategy, the tour-ism sector is predicted to employ around 500,000 people by 2020, with an estimated 75 per cent of those being Omani nationals and it is also predicted to help make Oman a role model for responsible tourism in the future. >A5
“ C L U S T E R ” A P P R O A C H
international visitors
would be attracted to
the Sultanate as part of
its new national 2040
tourism strategy
5m
Public may get a chance to foster girl: Ministry
FAHAD AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: In case no relative of the abandoned girl turns up, the public will be given a chance to foster her, a Ministry of Social Development offi cial has said.
“The abandoned girl is be-ing kept now at the ‘Al Wifaq’ Care Centre in the Wilayat of Al Seeb after all legal proce-dures are over,” said Riyadh Al Siyabi of the Ministry’s media department.
He said in such cases, the min-istry is keen to provide enough time for relatives to show up and prove their relations with the abandoned children. >A5
A B A N D O N E D G I R L
Indian nurse’s spouse still in police custody
REJIMON K [email protected]
MUSCAT: Linson Thomas, the husband of Chikku Robert who was found dead in her apart-ment in Salalah, is still under police detention, the Indian consular agent in Salalah said.
“As per the latest information available to us on Monday until 3pm, he is still under detention,” Manpreet Singh, the Indian consular agent, said.
“Robert’s body may be fl own to India on Tuesday. However, we are not sure whether it will happen or not as some paper work has to be completed from the hospital side where she was working,” he said.
“Embassy has completed whatever has to be done to re-patriate the body. Now, the hos-pital has to take it up,” the con-sular agent added. Devassy KO, group marketing manager at Badr Al Samaa hospitals, where both Robert and Thomas were working, said Thomas is under police detention as part of the investigation. “We have provid-ed legal assistance,” the hospital offi cial said. >A6
M U R D E R C A S E
REGIONSaudi unveils plan to end oil dependence
3Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to end dependence on oil and transform itself
into a global power. >A9
Only exception are expats from countries with visa-on-arrival arrangement
A2 T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
OMAN
Two arrested by police on fraud charges
Staff Reporter
MUSCAT: Two African na-tionals were arrested by the Royal Oman Police (ROP) for allegedly committing a series of fraudulent crimes and practis-ing sorcery.
A senior ROP offi cial said the offi cers raided a rented house in Seeb after learning that the accused had off ered to heal an Omani citizen.
Both suspects have been re-ferred to the Public Prosecution.
According to Article 288 of the Oman Penal Code, “Anyone, who obtains from others unlaw-ful benefi t, for himself or for another person by using fraudu-lent means, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from three months to two years and a fi ne of between OMR10 and OMR300.The sentence shall be doubled if the fraud is committed against a person less than eighteen years or against an adult deprived of his perfect mental faculties.”
C R I M E
Need to do more on healthcare front: Al Sarmi
ERIK PRINS [email protected]
MUSCAT: With diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases in-creasing in Oman, not enough is being done by authorities to tack-le this problem, Hilal Al Sarmi, member of the Health Commit-tee of the Majlis Al Shura told the Times of Oman.
“There is a huge increase in non-infectious diseases in Oman, like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases. We have not seen a direct intervention by the Ministry of Health to prevent these diseases,” he said.
When asked about what the Ministry of Health is planning to prevent diabetes, Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed bin Moham-med Al Saidi told the Times of Oman on the sidelines of the opening of the Renal Dialysis Centre on Sunday, that education is the only way to prevent such diseases.
“Education and a healthy life-style are the only way [to prevent diabetes]. Adherence of the pa-tient to a treatment and a healthy lifestyle, physical activities, a proper diet, and stopping smok-ing and other bad habits, will, if not stop the disease, slow its pro-
gression and hopefully slow or prevent the complication arising from these diseases,” he said.
Al Sarmi said more is needed. “We have heard this talk so of-ten, but we don’t see anything realised,” he said. He said that al-though there are programmes in place to raise awareness, they are weak and not sustained. He said that more co-operation should be sought with the relevant parties to organise awareness campaigns in public places such as malls. “They say there are programmes, but we don’t see them. If there are
strong programmes in place, then why do we see an increase in the number of cases?” he asked.
The Majlis Al Shura will host the Minister of Health on Wednesday and Thursday to dis-cuss his statement on the Min-istry’s plans to improve health facilities, their current status, the training of Omani staff , health ex-penditure and other matters.
Al Sarmi, who has read the statement, said that it has stated that the number of cases of non-infectious diseases has increased. “This number ought to only in-crease slightly, be steady or even decrease. This means that the ministry’s actions are insuffi -cient,” he said.
Al Saidi recently told the Times of Oman that the number of kid-ney patients in Oman is increas-ing “rapidly”, with 12 to 15 new patients every month needing kidney dialysis.
Al Sarmi said that the ministry should widen its awareness cam-paigns. “I believe in an increase of the number of awareness pro-grammes through various means, through TV, WhatsApp, Twitter, several websites,” he said.
In addition, authorities should reach out to the public in parks, mosques, schools and even in the privacy of people’s homes. “Visit-ing homes to raise awareness is not forbidden. The most impor-tant way of getting rid of these diseases is awareness, since these are lifestyle diseases,” he said.
According to Al Sarmi, another problem is that in Oman there are no ways to discover non-infec-tious diseases before they actu-ally surface.
Al Sarmi said that his com-mittee will also ask the minister about the increase in the number of smokers in Oman. “We do not see any real action on this issue,” he said.
Although there are programmes in place
to raise awareness about non-infectious
diseases in Oman and how to prevent
them, they are weak and not sustained,
said Hilal Al Sarmi, member of the
Health Committee of the Majlis Al Shura
Experts to discuss effi cient utilisation of resourcesTimes News Service
MUSCAT: A two-day national level symposium on “Effi cient Utilisation of Resources and its Economic Impacts” will be hosted by College of Applied Sciences (CAS)-Sohar on April 26 and 27.
The EUREI’16 symposium will provide a platform for experts from various fi elds of engineering to discuss diff erent aspects of the effi cient utilisation of resources and its economic impact among various stakeholders of the na-tional economy by analysing the current scenario for further devel-opment of the country.
Many participants from across the country will attend the sympo-
sium to present their views.The dramatic fall in crude oil
prices since mid-2014 is having a signifi cant impact on the world and national economy, especially for those reliant on oil inputs. This will enhance a further loss of in-vestment, unemployment and cut public spending.
The impact of the crisis is not limited to those directly employed in the oil industry, but also in-creases the pressure to diversify the national economy to become less dependent on oil.
Many countries are developing a dedicated resource effi ciency policy outlined as a response to the anticipated utilisation of re-sources. The resource effi ciency
concept has to be implemented at a national level with a focus on rais-ing the effi ciency of use of material resources.
The impact of the decreasing crude oil price on the environ-ment, economic development must be decoupled from the amount of resources we con-sume. The effi cient utilisation of the resource programme focuses on reducing the adverse environ-mental and economic impact of producing, processing and using goods and services and also meet-ing human needs and enlightening well-being.
The symposium aims to attract participants with diff erent back-grounds and experience, to pro-
mote cross-pollination between the diff erent fi elds of Engineering and Science, Information Tech-nology and Business Management, and hence render and converse pioneering theories, frameworks, methodologies, tools and applications.
The two-day symposium will see keynote speakers delivering their expert talk, paving the way for rigorous discussion. Many sci-entifi c papers will be presented during the various parallel ses-sions, which will cover themes, such as technology harnessing, case studies on resource manage-ment, the social and economic as-pect of the present scenario, which can leads towards sustainability.
S Y M P O S I U M
PROBLEM: Another problem is
that in Oman there are no ways
to discover non-infectious
diseases before they actually
surface. – File photo
NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: College of Applied Sciences (CAS)-Sohar
will host the national level symposium on “Effi cient Utilisation of
Resources and its Economic Impacts”. -Supplied photo
There is a huge increase in non-infectious diseases in Oman, like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases. We have not seen a direct intervention by the Ministry of Health to prevent these diseases
Hilal Al Sarmi, member of the Health Committee of the Majlis Al Shura
A3
OMANT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
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Our aim is to give better education, says headmaster
Staff Reporter
MUSCAT: A’soud Global School (AGS) is not here to compete with the other International Schools in Oman, the founding headmaster of the school has said.
“We would like to start as the other International schools, but with a better standard of educa-tion,” Andrew Hurst, founding headmaster of AGS Muscat, said on the sidelines of the announce-ment of the opening of AGS in September.
“Curriculum wise, we would be similar and we would like to be equal to the very high standard and reputation of many schools in Oman,” he asserted.
“We would like to work to-gether with other International schools, such as BSM, ABA, etc. and help each other,” he added.
According to him, most of the schools in Oman have good qual-ity of education.
“We are looking to off er a dif-ferent type of education, based on the independent school model, which is so renowned in the U.K.,” Hurst said, explaining the educa-tion model.
“The British independent school model of Pre-Prep (3 to 7 years old); Prep (7 to 13 years old) and Senior (13 to 18 years old) is
something that appeals to par-ents because it is clear how the school’s curriculum will adapt to diff erent stages of a pupil’s devel-opment,” he clarifi ed.
Great interestSpeaking about the admission for the current year, the headmaster said, “A large number of parents are showing an interest and we are getting a good number for reg-istration.”
According to him, half of the admissions are students from other schools, who are looking for something diff erent.
“We are hoping to start our operations with over 200 stu-dents,” he stated. Speaking about the teachers and staff , Hurst said, “We have nearly 32 staff and among 25 of them are teaching faculty; and all the class teachers have a Bachelor’s of Education or Bachelor of Arts with PGCE.”
“Our teachers are all qualifi ed to British standards and also un-derstand the international con-
text of the school; all of them have the experience of British Schools in both the United Kingdom, Eu-rope and the Middle East,” the headmaster asserted.
“We want the same high expec-tations of a British independent school, but we also want to cel-ebrate Omani culture, Arabic lan-guage and Islamic faith in order to educate and prepare our young people for an international life,” he added.
Speaking about the Omani workforce in the school, he said, “20 to 30 per cent of the staff are Omani nationals and we want to develop them and make them fa-miliar with the curriculum.”
“We follow the National Cur-riculum for England adapted to include further academic rigour, along with Arabic, Islamic and Social studies through the Minis-try of Education,” Hurst said.
He added that they are provid-ing a wide variety of extracurricu-lar opportunities and learning outside of the classroom.
A’soud Global
School will open
in September,
says Headmaster
Andrew Hurst
NEW SCHOOL: The school follows the National Curriculum for
England adapted to include Arabic, Islamic and Social studies
through the Ministry of Education. – Shabin E
Opera Galleria
to have musical
presentations
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Weekend shopping at Opera Galleria will include musical presentations, both Ar-abic and Western that will add melody to the air and rhythm to the shoppers’ steps.
This is one more way in which the mall is adding charming touches that make every visit an unforgettable event. The performances will be held once every Friday — 7 to 8:30pm—and twice on Saturdays—11:30am to 12:30pm and 7 to 8pm.
The added experiential value will go a long way in enhancing the shopping and fi ne dining that is the forte of the mall and the favourite of its visitors.
One of the objectives of the musical programmes—besides its primary function of enter-taining visitors—will be to edu-cate the public about the beauty of diff erent instruments and demonstrate how experts make the most of their tonal qualities.
S H O P P I N G
Job boost for maritime graduates as ministry signs pact with firms HASAN SHABAN AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: Graduates from the International Maritime College Oman will have more job opportu-nities now as the Ministry of Trans-port and Communications (MoTC) gas signed agreements with six international ship classifi cation and supervision companies to start businesses in the Sultanate.
“All kinds of ships will now be able to choose the company which will inspect their ship,” said Said bin Hamdoon bin Saif Al Harthi, Undersecretary of Ports and Mari-
time Aff airs. These fi rms have been selected as they are the best players in their fi eld and are planning to open offi ces in Muscat, he added.
Al Harthi, who signed the fi rst set of agreements, was talking to the Times of Oman on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, which was held at the MoTC headquar-ters in Al Khuwair on Monday.
The fi rst set was signed by American, Norwegian and Indian fi rms to inspect big ships which come under international treaties.
The second set was signed by Korean, German and Japanese companies to check on smaller
ships which do not come under such treaties.
The mandate of these compa-nies comes as an implementation of the International Maritime Or-ganisation (IMO) resolution 739.
The mandate includes conduct-ing technical inspections on ships carrying the Omani fl ag, issuing certifi cates on maritime safety and environment.
The Undersecretary of Ports and Maritime Aff airs also revealed that new equipment are being in-stalled in Sohar Port which will make it capable to receive the big-gest cargo ships in the world.
S H I P C L A S S I F I C A T I O N A N D S U P E R V I S I O N
A4 T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
OMAN
REJIMON K [email protected]
MUSCAT: Multiple policy adjust-ments and structural changes are required for greater diversifi cation away from oil, economists say as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast slowing down of growth in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries due to low oil prices.
In its updated Regional Eco-nomic Outlook on Monday, the IMF has said that the GCC econ-omy will slow down to 1.8 per cent this year. The IMF update adds that oil exporting countries in the Middle East lost a staggering $390 billion in revenue due to lower oil prices last year, and should brace for even deeper losses of around $500 billion this year. The growth forecast is lower than the projec-tion in October, when the fund forecast the region would grow 2.8 per cent. The region’s economy grew 3.3 per cent last year.
MeasuresAccording to economists in the GCC, FDI liberalisation, allowing 100 per cent foreign ownership, open skies policy for airports, and developing local currency debt markets for defi cit fi nancing, de-velopment and infrastructure fi nance are some of the meas-ures which can be adopted by the
coutnires in the region to cushion the eff ect.
Dr Nasser Saidi, a well-known economist in the region, said that as oil price continues to stay around the $40-mark, the Oman government might also want to consider moving towards a cur-rency basket peg alongside fi scal reforms and removal of subsidies.
“This could be complemented by establishing a programme to subsidise on-the-job training for skill development and apprentice-ship for young Omanis,” he added.
Faisal Hasan, the head at invest-ment research in Kamco, a Ku-wait-based investment company, said that oil price has taken a toll on GCC economies and Oman, in particular, is aff ected owing to its dependence on oil revenues.
“We believe Oman should focus primarily on the non-oil sector both in the short and longer term. Tax measure is one of the ways of increasing government revenues. Oman has already in place a dif-ferential tax system (which it is doing away with) and it plans to implement a fi xed tax rate of 15% on non-oil corporates in addi-tion to a much higher tax rate on oil and gas companies. Higher tax rates should stem government rev-enues,” Faisal added.
Faisal says that IMF’s projec-tions on Oman, remains conserva-tive, especially the average oil price
per barrel over the next fi ve years. Meanwhile, Dr Anchan CK, a
Muscat-based investment advisor, said that there is heavy competi-tion amongst the GCC nations to lure the investors.
“Each country is trying to pro-mote better, in other words, things are challenging. Countries are adopting simplifi ed licensing pro-cedures for foreign investors, in-cluding owner ship of land and tax benefi ts. “The current focus is to move away from oil base economy to other alternate economy,” the investment advisor said.
“It is one thing to call for im-provement in government deliv-ery, a breakdown of barriers in the private sector, and improved accountability. It is another thing to deliver on these promises. The need of the hour is to be more ambitious, focusing eff orts on increasing labor productivity, building a stronger business envi-ronment, and managing fi nances sustainability, including fi scal consolidation and working to eliminate the budget defi cit in the next few years,” he added.
Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s Mid-dle East and Central Asia Depart-ment director, said on Monday that oil prices are likely to remain low for many years to come, and as a result, countries in the Middle East, which depend on oil for their economies, are going to go through
a number of years of diffi cult ad-justments to balance their budgets to the new lower oil prices.
“The countries in the Middle East have to design a new growth model to drive their economy which doesn’t depend on oil pric-es,” the offi cial added.
The report adds that the outlook for lower oil prices implies weak oil revenues for years to come, dra-matically reducing the capacity of governments to spend.
Decline“Export receipts in Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pa-kistan (MENAP) oil exporters de-clined by $390 billion in 2015 (17 percent of GDP). Despite a partial off set from reduced imports owing to subdued prices of non-oil com-modities, the combined current account of the GCC and Algeria has reversed from a comfortable surplus to a projected defi cit of about 8 percent of GDP in 2016,” the report adds.
The report also adds that the defi cit of other MENAP oil export-ers is projected to be 4 percent of GDP this year.
According to IMF, stepped-up structural reforms in business, labor and fi nancial markets, and trade are critical for boosting eco-nomic prospects, improving living standards, and creating much-needed jobs.
F I S C A L W O E S
MENAP OUTLOOK
Source: MENAP Regional Economic Outlook (April 2016), International Monetary Fund Graphics
Low oil prices and deepening conflicts continue to weigh on economic activity in the MENAP region (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). The growth prospects for most oil exporters have been revised down markedly since last October.Oil exporters’ growth is still projected to rise from 2 per cent in 2015 to 3 per cent this year; however, this is mainly due to increased oil production in Iraq and post-sanctions Iran.In the GCC, economic activity is projected to slow further.
Real GDP Growth (%)
Brent Crude Oil(US Dollars a barrel)
2014 2015 2016
GCC
Iran
MENAP oil importers
MENAP oil exporters
4.24.04.3
3.5
2.9
2.7
3.8
3.3
1.9
0
3.5
2.9
1.8
3.7
3.1
2.3
40.99
34.75
50.79
2017
The average price of oil was $50.79 in 2015; the assumed price based on futures markets is $34.75 in 2016 and $40.99 in 2017. 0
140
0
5
PSC chairman vows to ensure better services
SHAHZAD [email protected]
MUSCAT: Pakistan Social Club (PSC) Oman has decided to raise the bar and perform even better by focusing on operational excel-lence, large scale community in-volvement and wide-ranging ser-vices to the community.
Close to 250,000 Pakistanis re-side in Oman but the PSC mem-bership has been abysmally low. Enrolling more members will be the top priority of the newly-elected team.
“I want our membership to reach 10,000 in the next two years. We are going to reach out to the community with a new vigour and resolve to raise the PSC’s pro-fi le. A lot of Pakistanis are holding high profi le positions in Oman. Many are heading even multi-national companies. I want those bright and brilliant Pakistanis to join the PSC and help us serve the community better,” Mian Mo-hammed Munir, Chairman of the Pakistan Social Club, who was re-cently re-elected for another term of two years, said in an interview to the Times of Oman.
The PSC has already intro-duced an electronic card for its members with computerised data encryption. The digital card also carries a bar code to prevent du-plication. The card will also help streamline attendance issues on occasions like Annual General Meeting (AGM).
“To attract the community’s at-tention, we are trying that the new membership card should come with a number of incentives. Once we are able to negotiate success-fully with our partners, each PSC member will be entitled to a bou-quet of benefi ts for a nominal an-nual membership fee of OMR10,” he added.
When asked to explain the kind of incentives which would be on off er, the PSC Chairman cited a number of attractions like dis-counts on food, health and travel. all of which are being planned.
“We have requested the PIA to off er 5 kg extra baggage to PSC cardholders.
The airline is waiting for ap-proval from its head offi ce in Karachi. We are also negotiat-ing with leading Pakistani res-taurants to off er discounts to our members.
Talks are on with leading hos-
pitals for discount. The Life-line Medical Centre has already agreed to off er medical consulta-tion for just OMR1. Our members could consult their specialists by paying a highly discounted fee of OMR2,” Munir explained.
He said the club had also re-quested the Pakistan Embassy to set up a special counter for the PSC cardholders or address their issues on a priority basis.
“We have been assured of a pos-itive response soon,” he added.
Talking about eff orts to in-crease community involvement, the PSC chairman said the club has directed the welfare commit-tees all over Oman to increase their eff orts to boost PSC mem-bership in order to enhance its reach across the country.
Shining example“This could be my last term as PSC chairman. I want to raise the performance bar to set a shining example for the future PSC teams. That is precisely why we have giv-en strict instructions to the heads of all the wings to perform to the best of their ability or leave the job for someone else.
We are going to monitor their performance and review it every
three months. We expect them to organise a lot of quality events, and get as many members as pos-sible,” announced the PSC chair-man. Pakistan Social Club Oman has seven wings functioning under its banner, which include a highly active Literary Wing, Youth Wing, Cultural Wing, Sports Wing, Media Wing, Ladies Wing and Professionals’ Wing. Formation of a Doctors’ Wing is also under consideration. Having moved to a new premises recently, the PSC wants to organise a chain of events in its community hall all through the year.
“This hall can accommodate up to 100 people and small events can be held here easily, which, to some extent, will solve the problem of looking for a venue,” he added.
The new PSC Board of Direc-tors for the term 2016-2018 com-prises: Mian Mohammed Munir (chairman), A H Raja (vice chair-man), Mohammed Zaeem Akhter (general secretary), Amjad Fa-rooq (fi nance secretary) and di-rectors Chaudhry Mohammed Abbas, Haji Mohammed Shaukat, Syed Aftab Gilani, Mohammed Ali Fazal, Mohammed Aslam Nawab, Imran Iqbal and Chaudhry Mo-hammed Iqbal.
Close to 250,000
Pakistanis reside
in Oman but the
Pakistan Social
Club membership
has been abysmally
low. Enrolling more
members will be the
top priority of the
newly-elected team
A lot of Pakistanis are holding high profile positions
in Oman. Many are heading even multi-national
companies. I want those bright and brilliant
Pakistanis to join the Pakistan Social Club and help
us serve the community better
Mian Mohammed MunirChairman of the Pakistan Social Club
Oman Air training reaffi rms its commitment to passenger safetyTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Air conducted an on-site security training ex-ercise at Muscat International Airport recently to familiarise security personnel with aircraft interiors, reminders of the impor-tance of instant emergency re-sponse, leadership, and the alloca-tion of individual roles.
The results of the searches were then analysed during a post-exer-cise briefi ng, before a summary of the course content was provided
to delegates. Feedback from del-egates was extremely positive and Oman Air’s Security Department declared itself confi dent that the training will make a valuable con-tribution to safeguarding passen-gers and aircraft.
While the measures detailed during the training are already in place in stations throughout Oman Air’s network, the airline is com-mitted to ensuring that policies and procedures relating to safety remain current and are regularly updated.
W O R K S H O P
EXERCISE: Feedback from delegates was extremely positive and
Oman Air’s Security Department declared itself confi dent that the
training will make a valuable contribution to safeguarding passen-
gers and aircraft. -Supplied photo
Ooredoo in tie-up with ITA for high speed networkTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Ooredoo has signed an agreement with the Information Technology Authority (ITA) to build and operate the Omani gov-ernment’s next generation High Speed Network (NGN).
Greg Young, CEO of Ooredoo, commented, “Being chosen from a fi eld of experienced and expert tel-ecom companies to build the back-bone for Oman’s e-government strategy is an honour and a testa-ment to the drive and ambition of Ooredoo, as we establish ourselves as the Government of Oman’s telecommunications partner of choice. The investment in this next generation High Speed Network is a clear demonstration of the coun-try’s innovative and forward look-ing ICT strategy, which supports current needs while preparing for the demands of the future. By
facilitating a more effi cient inter-action between the local commu-nities, businesses and the govern-ment, Ooredoo is looking forward to empowering people and trans-forming how Oman does business through technology.” Ooredoo has invested over OMR124 million in network modernisation and cur-rently covers 99 per cent of the Sultanate’s population.
T E C H N O L O G Y
Greg Young
This agreement is a breakthrough in elevating and improving Oman’s Government Network (OGN), in line with the e-oman’s strategy to adapt to the rapid change in technology. Ensuring maximum speed, enhanced security solutions, as well as cost eff ective integrated services will ultimately improve the government e-services provided to citizens
Dr Salim bin Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO at Information Technology Authority
Modern College, Oman Tourism College to stage career fair from next Monday Times News Service
MUSCAT: Leading higher educa-tion institutions and corporations in Muscat will be participating in the Intercollegiate Career Fair from May 2-3, 2016 at the Oman Tourism College campus in Seeb.
The career fair is being jointly sponsored by Modern College of Business and Science and Oman Tourism College, with participa-
tion from Muscat College, Arab Open University-Oman, and Wal-jat College of Applied Sciences.
“This is the second intercol-legiate career fair to be held in Muscat, and it has the potential to grow into a mega career event, with wide industry and academic participation. The fair will pro-vide much needed exposure for Omani students to the Sultante’s private sector and available career
opportunities, as well as selec-tion criteria. On the other hand, the fair will provide the perfect platform for the corporate world to interact with young graduates and match their capabilites with various job requirements,” said Dr Shoba Zachariah, Assistant Dean at Oman Tourism College, dur-ing a press briefi ng held at Oman Tourism College on Sunday.
Speaking at the briefi ng, Prof.
Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Naamany, the Dean of Modern College, said, “The career fair will open up a world of career oppor-tunities for graduates. Last year, when Modern College was brain-storming over the idea of holding the fi rst intercollegiate career fair, we wanted it to be as inclusive and broad-based as possible, so that both students and industry re-ceive maximum benefi ts.”
I N T E R C O L L E G I A T E E V E N T
Growth in GCC will slow down to 1.8 per cent, says IMF
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OMANT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
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Mustangers excel in Qatar drag race event
TARIQ ZIAD AL [email protected]
MUSCAT: Doing the country proud, Oman Mustangers’ drifter, Said Badwawi, clinched the fourth position overall at the Qatar Drift-ing Championship in Doha earlierthis week.
The drifter battled against strong competition throughout all four rounds of rubber and smoke to come up just shy of the third place but has proven that Oman has what it takes to compete in the in-ternational arena of motorsports.
Briefl y speaking to Badwawi, he said, “I’m happy with my per-formance in the championship, especially considering there were tough competitors. They had bet-ter tuned vehicles and more ex-perience in this fi eld. I appreciate the support I gained from Sheikh Fahad Al Amri.”
Speaking on behalf of Badwawi, Nooh Al Zadjali, an administra-tive member of Oman Mustangers said, “It was a tough competition since you have champions and professionals in drifting from all over the globe. Some of the cars were modifi ed more than ours, but sometimes luck also plays a part.”
The Oman Mustangers have
competed in Um Al Quwain in United Arab Emirates and achieved third place over all after being crowned champions in Al Ain’s free drifting competition.
“We try to participate in every competition,” said Al Zadjali.
When asked about what it takes for someone to become a drifting champion, Al Zadjali said, “The driver must be brave and should be able to control the vehicle. He must possess immense concentra-tion and fl uid control of his vehicle while drifting.” He also advises young drifting aspirers to always be safe and avoid drifting since there are areas where one can perform the drifts under supervision from professionals. Oman Mustanger’s next competition will be held in Al Ain on May 6, 2016, which will be a free drifting contest.
Oman Mustangers’
drifter, Said Badwawi
battled against
strong competition
throughout all four
rounds of rubber and
smoke to come up
just shy of third place DOING OMAN PROUD : The Oman Mustangers have competed in Um Al Quwain in United Arab
Emirates and achieved third place over all after being crowned champions in Al Ain’s free drifting
competition. – Supplied photo
Developer Muriya opens community centre in villageERIK PRINS [email protected]
MUSCAT: In an attempt to meet the needs of the nearby village of Al Sifah, the developer of the Al Sifah Resort, located in a remote area some 50 kilometres from Muscat, opened the Al Sifah Com-munity Centre yesterday.
The community of Al Sifah has welcomed the initiative and is look-ing forward to more cooperation between the resort and the village. The Al Sifah Community Centre, operated in collaboration with the Omani Women’s Association, in-cludes a kindergarten and class-rooms and will off er classes in IT, English, cooking, as well as social activities catering to the youth.
Developer Muriya said the cen-tre is a way to give something back to the local community, boosting employability, entrepreneurial drive and income generation. Ahmed Dabbous, chief executive offi cer (CEO) of Muriya, said the centre evolves according to local needs. “This is like an incubator for any good idea for the commu-nity. We’re not dictating what they should and shouldn’t do, it’s the community that comes with the ideas,” he stated.
Olivia Amr, senior commercial director at Muriya, said the centre will promote local skills. “We sup-port local talent and work on the skills of the community, including women,” she stated.
She said the women and chil-dren of Al Sifah will get free Eng-lish classes, while the resort com-munity can learn Arabic from them. “We fi nd that this relation-ship is beautiful. They already started under a tree and it hap-pened organically,” she said.
Amr added that their partner Omani Women’s Association (OWA) has been present in the vil-lage for a long time. “They under-stand the needs of the community.
We need to support those needs and make it happen,” she stated.
Under the supervision of OWA in Muscat, the Al Sifah Communi-ty Centre employs three full-time and three part-time employees in the Al Sifah village, of whom fi ve are women.
Noof Al Muaini, head of OWA in Muscat, said the centre will enable women to engage with other com-munities by developing handicraft skills. She said every handicraft course will be open for 15 to 20 persons, including boys.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hameed Al Ghabshi, deputy wali of Muscat, praised the role of Muriya in this initiative, saying that it will off er women a chance to sell their handi-crafts in the resort. “Economically, it will benefi t the community,” he said. Although the number of locals employed in the resort is already “good,” Al Ghabshi said more are expected. “We expect the company to increase the number of those working in the resort,” he said.
According to the PR agency of Muriya, 26 locals from the area are employed at the Al Sifah Resort, working in the hospitality, secu-rity, construction, IT and HR.
A L S I F A H
WELCOME MOVE: The
community of Al Sifah has
welcomed the initiative and
is looking forward to more
cooperation. – Supplied photo
Criteria specified
for fostering child“If no one shows up, then the centre will open a fostering op-tion for the public, based on the procedures and requirements that are usually considered in an adoption process,” said Al Siyabi.
Al Siyabi added that there are criteria to be followed in order to foster a child, and those who are interested must contact the Child Aff airs Department at the Ministry of Social Develop-ment and should meet these requirements.
The girl was found abandoned last week in a public park in Al Buraimi and was transferred to one of the child care centres in Muscat, which falls under the Ministry of Social Development.
The news went viral on social media as the reactions varied be-tween many who off ered to foster the child; others showed sympa-thy with her and some others of-fered a cash award for any person who could fi nd the abandoned girl’s parents.
The unidentifi ed girl is around two years old, said the Royal
Oman Police (ROP), while ap-pealing to relatives or members of the public, who have any in-formation about the abandoned child, to immediately contact the Al Buraimi police station, or call at the emergency number 9999. The police has referred the mat-ter to the Ministry of Social De-velopment after completing the required procedures.
A B A N D O N E D G I R L
Clearly defi ned road map
Salim Al Mamari also said: “The announcement of the 2040 tour-ism strategy for Oman provides us with a clearly defi ned and structured road map for future growth and expansion ensuring that tourism becomes one of the most important economic pillars for the country’s future.”
“The Sultanate has a truly unique off er for tourists within its regional geography, and provides an amazing diversity of visitor experiences. We are well positioned to benefi t from growing international tourism trends, such as adventure tour-ism and creating truly memora-ble experiences for our visitors from a cultural, environmental, natural and family perspective.”
“Omani hospitality is legend-ary and our new cluster concept will build on that and also help create tens of thousands of new jobs for Omani nationals in par-ticular and therefore boost the overall economic prosperity of the country,” he added. To apply for eVisa, applicants have to log on to https://www.gdrfa.ae/
T O U R I S M
April 29 date for e-visa“We are left with no choice other than to follow it,” said Sudhir Sreedharan, senior vice president for Commercial (GCC, Subconti-nent and Africa), fl ydubai said.
Confi rmedOman’s national carrier Oman Air has also confi rmed that GCC expatriates fl ying to United Arab Emirates (UAE) will have to pos-sess an e-visa before boarding the aircraft from April 29.
“The implementation date for the electronic visa required by all UAE airports is April 29. This will be applicable to all airlines and Oman Air will be enforcing the same,” said Saleem Amanulla, Vice President Airport Opera-tions, Oman Air.
Immigration offi cials said that they experienced some technical glitches when it was introduced last year. “However things should be working well this time,” offi -cials said, adding that under the
rules, regardless of the profes-sion, expatriates have to apply online for an e-visa. Earlier, expa-triates holding a certain profes-sional status were eligible to get visa-on-arrival in the UAE.
U A E T R A V E L
The implementation date for the electronic visa
required by all UAE airports is April 29. This will
be applicable to all airlines and Oman Air will be
enforcing the same, said Saleem Amanulla, Vice
President Airport Operations, Oman Air
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The girl was found
abandoned last week in a
public park in Al Buraimi
and was transferred to one
of the child care centres
in Muscat, which falls
under the Ministry of
Social Development
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We have contributors from Tibet, Palestine, Kashmir, Syria, Iraq and even Venezuela and Fiji
Ibrahim Gailani, Pakistani artist
Ministry order to pay staff on off day
Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower is-sued a ministerial decision an-nouncing Thursday, Rajab 27, 1437 AH corresponding to May 5 as an offi cial holiday for employees at the private sector’s companies and establishments.
The decision allowed employ-ers and employees to agree on compensating this holiday if ne-cessity arises, as well as compen-sating employees whose weekly hol-iday coincides with the mentioned occasion.
Private sectorAll employees in the private sector extended their heartfelt greetings and best wishes to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on this blessed occasion, praying to Allah the Almighty to protect His Maj-esty, grant him good health, happi-ness and a long life, and for the re-turn of this and similar occasions on His Majesty and the Omani people with blessings.
M A Y 5Oman children’s art set to be a part of UN peace initiative
BABA [email protected]
MUSCAT: Oman will dispatch scores of paintings drawn by more than 100 expat children to the United Nations as part of its “Call for Peace” initiative, organisers of the art project said on Monday.
Noted Omani songwriter and intellectual Saleh Al Fahadi is leading the team of artists, who are supervising the painting workshop and mentoring the child artists in a bid to create the
world record for the largest num-ber of paintings by “children of the world” calling for peace.
“We will use art to promote peace,” Al Fahadi told a media gathering in the capital. Al Fahadi, the main architect of the art pro-ject, said the mission has been un-derway for the past three months, noting “We have representation from all six continents.”
Young expat artists, aged 8 to 15, from fi ve diff erent schools have joined the project, representing some 80 countries.
“The work of the children, who
have expressed through their paintings their hopes and dreams for global peace, will be spread across the world,” stated Sue Tap-pin, one of the organisers.
Tappin, an expert on the qual-ity and excellence framework, remarked, “We hope to create a (world) record for the largest number of paintings drawn in support of world peace and the end of confl icts.
Contributors“We have contributors from Ti-bet, Palestine, Kashmir, Syria,
Iraq and even Venezuela and Fiji,” noted Pakistani artist Ibrahim Gailani, who is mentoring the stu-dents, told Times of Oman on the sidelines of the event.
Gailani is the founder of Gailani Art Retreat, a creative escape that claims to use art and music for self-discovery in the Sultanate.
Organisers said the paintings will fi rst be exhibited in Oman on May 9. Then, the foreign minis-try, under Foreign Minister You-suf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, will dispatch the artwork to UNICEF and UNESCO.
The paintings will travel across the entire world with the help of the UN agencies, they stated.
Organisers pointed out that Oman is recognised for its in-ternational peace eff orts, and in sending a pictorial message across the globe, they want to communicate Oman’s support for world peace and the renunciation of wars and confl icts. Gailani said the idea behind the project was to portray the emotions of chil-dren who have come from con-fl ict zones and have been living in peaceful Oman for some time.
“One Syrian girl, who is only 8, has painted an eye, inside which she has placed tears and a Syr-ian fl ag. I was surprised to see the emotional pictorial messages that have been drawn on the canvas,” he noted, adding, “These children of confl ict zones have strong ideas about peace.”
Annual eventSaleh Al Fahadi, who also heads the Values Centre, remarked, “If we get sponsors, we will try to make this an annual event in future.” During the gathering, the organisers also launched the project website callofpeace.com and sought further support for their eff orts.
In sending a pictorial
message across the
globe, Oman wants
to communicate its
support for world
peace and the
renunciation of
wars and confl ictsCALL FOR PEACE: Young expat artists, aged 8 to 15, from fi ve diff erent schools have joined the pro-
ject, representing some 80 countries. – Supplied photo
Bangladesh embassy holds prayer meet for His MajestyTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Bangladesh’s embassy in Muscat organised a special prayer and Doa-mahafi l for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on his happy return to the Sul-tanate after a successful medical check-up in Germany.
All the offi cials of the Embassy and prominent members of the Bangladeshi community attended the prayer meet. The programme started at 6pm, with a recitation from the Holy Quran by Qari Ab-dur Rahim.
On behalf of the government and the people of Bangladesh, es-pecially the Bangladeshi Commu-nity living in Oman, Ambassador Sekander Ali conveyed the deep-est gratitude to Almighty Allah and heartfelt congratulations to His Majesty on his happy return to the Sultanate after the success-ful medical check-up in Germany.
He praised His Majesty’s wise and visionary leadership, which has transformed the Sultanate of Oman into a modern and prosper-ous country.
The ambassador also men-tioned that His Majesty the Sul-tan is the embodiment of national unity and a symbol of peace and prosperity and security in the re-gion. He reiterated that Bangla-deshis living and working in the Sultanate of Oman are grateful to His Majesty for his kindness to-wards them.
Finally, a special prayer, doa and munajat were off ered to the Almighty seeking continued good
health, happiness and the long life of His Majesty and peace, pro-gress and prosperity of the Sul-tanate and the brotherly people of the Sultanate and Bangladesh.
Everybody heartily wished that Allah the Almighty bestow upon His Majesty a bounty of blessings to lead his beloved nation in the future days to come.
Noted Bangladeshi Alem Hafi z and Qari Abdur Rahum conduct-ed the Doa Mahfi l.
C H E C K - U P I N G E R M A N Y
SPECIAL PRAYER: A special prayer and Doa-mahafi l was held for
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on his return to the Sultanate
after a successful medical check-up in Germany. -Supplied photo
Arabesque International continues
with its musical journey in schools
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Arabesque Interna-tional is continuing with its mu-sical and educational journey in schools in Muscat, as several workshops will be off ered to stu-dents in the weeks before their concert. The Muscat Chamber Music Series has involved the na-tion’s younger students since its creation. Before each concert, ar-tistes off er workshops and interact with students, who are enthusias-tic to learn.
This innovative approach re-fl ects the organisation’s purpose of highlighting the importance of musical education in the lives of children, as well as raising aware-ness about the values that good music carries. This year, the work-shops will be unique,as young mu-sicians share their knowledge with other youngsters. Amira, 10 years old, and Mariam, 7 years old, will be joining the Horus Piano Duo in visits to fi ve schools.
Besides the musical educational activities in schools, there will also be a workshop at the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Disabilities in Azaiba.
The Muscat Chamber Music Series will be performing its fi rst workshop and is proud to bring music to other young students with special needs. It is known
that music can be therapeutic and research supports that it can be ef-fective in assisting in the develop-ment of children’s functioning.
The workshops will be held at the following schools in Muscat: PDO School, Alshmoukh School, Indian School Muscat, Bangladesh School and Our Planet School. For more details about hours and loca-tion, contact Arabesque Interna-tional at [email protected]
Arabesque International was founded in 2012 by the Egyptian German pianist Ahmed Abou-zahra, General Manager of East West Art Promotion. In July 2014, His Highness Sayyed Mohamed bin Salim Al Said took over the
partnership in Oman. Arabesque International’s mission is to pro-mote, organize and produce all genres of performing arts in the Middle East and North Africa, such as classical music, chamber music, folkloric music, choirs, professional performing troupes, dance, opera and ballet.
Since its establishment in Janu-ary 2012, Arabesque International has brought numerous presenta-tions to prestigious locations in Oman, including the Royal Opera House Muscat, Muscat Festi-val and Al Bustan Palace Hotel. Events have been held in Egypt at the Cairo Opera House and Alex-andria Opera House.
W O R K S H O P S
TRAINING: Before each concert, artistes off er workshops and
interact with students, who are enthusiastic to learn.
Body in apartment
She was supposed to be on duty by 10pm on Wednesday, but as she did not turn up for work, Thomas, who is also working in the same hospital, went to the apartment to look for her, where he found her dead body.
Robert and Thomas had mar-ried in October and she was fi ve months pregnant.
N U R S E M U R D E R
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HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
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OMANT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
52.1%was the rise
registered in the
government vehicles
SAYYID ASA’AD RECEIVES KOREAN ENVOYOn behalf of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Asa’ad bin Tariq Al Said received yesterday Kim Dae
Sik, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Sultanate to bid him farewell at the end of his tour of duty. The ambassador
thanked His Majesty the Sultan for the support extended to him during his tenure in Oman from His Majesty the Sultan, the
government and the Omani people, which had enabled him to carry out his duty. He wished His Majesty the Sultan good
health, happiness and long life, and the Sultanate further progress and prosperity under the wise leadership of His Majesty.
Sayyid Asa’ad thanked the ambassador for the eff orts he exerted in serving the good relations between the Sultanate and
Korea, wishing him permanent success, and the Korean people further progress and prosperity. -ONA
Registration of new vehicles falls 4.9%
MUSCAT: The number of new vehicles (including motorbikes) registered in March 2016 de-creased 4.9 per cent at 8,519, com-pared with fi gures for the same month last year.
The greatest decline was re-corded in the bikes segment, which saw a 30 per cent fall with just 61 new registrations, accord-ing to the latest report on vehicle registrations published by the Na-tional Centre for Statistics & In-formation (NCSI). Over the three-month period ended on March, a total of 25,943 new vehicle regis-trations have been recorded.
Taxi vehicle registrations in March came down by 15.4 per cent to 52, while private vehicles declined by 8.4 per cent to 5,550. The largest number of new regis-
trations were done in the private vehicles category.
Registration of government vehicles went up by a signifi cant 52.1 per cent to 210, while the rise was 5.6 per cent for diplomatic ve-hicles, with fi ve registrations.
There had been a 16.7 per cent drop in the registration of new
driving school vehicles, which numbered 15, while rental vehicle registrations decreased 3.3 per cent to 403.
Registration of new commer-cial vehicles on the other hand posted a modest increase of 1.6 per cent to 1,951 in March com-pared with same month of 2015.
Temporary registrations stood at 266, marking a fall of 10 per cent over March last year. -ONA
The greatest decline
was recorded in the
bikes segment, which
saw a 30 per cent
fall with just 61
new registrations
Oman, Russia plan to raise investmentMUSCAT: Darwish bin Isma’eel Al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Aff airs met yester-day with a delegation of the Oma-ni- Russian Business Council.
The Omani and Russian sides discussed several topics of joint concern.
The meeting focused on rais-ing level of the bilateral coopera-tion between the two countries in the economic and investment fi elds, besides promoting the trade exchange in a way that suits
the deep historic relations be-tween the two counties.
The meeting was attended by Abdulsalam bin Mohammed Al Murshidi, CEO of the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) and Saud bin Nasser Al Shikaili, Secretary General of Taxation.
The Russian delegation com-prised Ivan Menshikov, Chair-man of the Russian-Oman Busi-ness Council, General Director of “Rosneftegaz” and a number of Russian offi cials. -ONA
B I L A T E R A L C O O P E R A T I O N
HISTORIC TIES: Darwish bin Isma’eel Al Balushi, Minister Re-
sponsible for Financial Aff airs met yesterday with a delegation of
the Omani- Russian Business Counci. – ONA
FEWER TAKERS: Taxi vehicle registrations in March came down by 15.4 per cent to 52, while pri-
vate vehicles declined by 8.4 per cent to 5,550. – Supplied photo
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
Meeting held on status of Abalone fi sheries
SALALAH: The Advisory Com-mittee for the management and development of Abalone fi sh-eries held its fi rst meeting for 2016 at the Directorate General of Fisheries in the Governorate of Dhofar under the chair of Dr. Hamad bin Said Al Oufi , Under-secretary of the Ministry of Agri-culture and Fisheries for Fisher-ies and Head of the Committee.
The Committee reviewed the recommendations of the min-utes of the previous meeting, status of abalone fi shery and recommendations of the annual survey program for the abalone fi shery. The Committee also de-termined the status of the dive season in 2016 and the develop-ment of updating proposals of abalone regulations.
A presentation was shown by Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Mazro’ee, Director General of Fisheries Development. The Undersecretary of Fisheries will pay a fi eld visit on Tuesday along with offi cials at the Directorate General of Fisheries in the Gov-ernorate of Dhofar to the Wilay-at of Shleem and Al Halaniyat Islands to meet with seafarers committee, offi cials of the Fish-eries Development Department of the Wilayat, as well as visiting fi sh projects and the proposed port project at the wilayat. -ONA
D H O F A R
NCSI completes training of 570 professionalsTimes News Service
MUSCAT: As many as 573 pro-fessionals participated in skill development programmes in sta-tistics and information technol-ogy during the last seven months. The programme was organised by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Oman’s premier statistical agency. The Centre issued certifi cates to 518 participants.
The training project was launched in September last year, and is part of the eff orts to build statistical capabilities across dif-ferent sectors in the Sultanate, with the objective of strengthen-ing the nation’s knowledge econ-omy, and thus contributing to the overall economic development of the nation.
First phaseThe fi rst phase of the training project will end in May 2016, and discussions are underway about the nature and format of the next phase, expected to be launched in the second half of 2016.The train-ing sessions are held at the Cen-tre’s headquarters in Ghala.
The Centre designed the fi rst phase of the training project with a view to expand the skills of as many as 740 statisticians over the project period, as well as 488 offi -cials working with various stake-holders, and 252 from NCSI.
Those completing the training included statisticians and non-statisticians from various govern-ment agencies and departments.
The training workshops focused on a diverse range of topics in the fi eld of statistics, including Man-agement and Administration in Offi cial Statistics, report writing, sampling theory, data analysis and presentation, quality man-agement, statistics for non-stat-isticians, data dissemination, MS Excel, data collection and fi eld-work, survey methodology, and metadata. Both Arabic and English were used during instruction, with a few training sessions planned to be bilingual, as well.
Benefi tedOffi cials from the Shura Council, Council of Ministers, Supreme Council of Planning, Council of Scientifi c Research and Council of Court Aff airs, various Minis-tries, the Capital Market Author-ity, Central Bank of Oman, Diwan of the Royal Court, General Au-thority for Manpower Record, In-formation Technology Authority (ITA), Muscat Municipality, Mus-cat Securities Marketand various Public Authorities benefi ted from the training workshops.
NCSI has put in place a clearly defi ned set of training rules, as well as assessment parameters for measuring learning outcomes under the Centre’s training policy, and the same is shared with all stakeholders. Every workshop is evaluated for its quality and eff ec-tiveness through a questionnaire distributed at the end of the pro-gramme, allowing participants to honestly register their feedback and suggestions.
S K I L L D E V E L O P M E N T
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Egypt’s tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and critical source of hard currency, has been struggling to rebound after the political and economic upheaval.
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Egypt’s tourism revenue down 66%
DUBAI: Egypt netted just $500 million in tourism revenue in the fi rst quarter of 2016, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier, a tourism ministry adviser told Reuters, highlighting the coun-try’s struggle to kickstart a key dollar-earning industry.
Egypt’s tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and critical source of hard currency, has been struggling to rebound after the political and econom-ic upheaval triggered by the 2011 protests that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
Tourism revenue has also taken a heavy hit since a Rus-sian plane crashed in the Sinai last October, killing all 224 peo-ple on board in what President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi called an act of terrorism. IS said it plant-ed a bomb on board.
More than 14.7 million tour-ists visited Egypt in 2010, drop-ping to 9.8 million in 2011.
In the fi rst quarter of 2016 just 1.2 million tourists trav-elled to Egypt, down from 2.2 million a year earlier, said eco-nomic adviser to the ministry of tourism Adla Ragab.
Egypt aims to attract 12 mil-lion tourists by the end of 2017 through a plan that includes increasing the presence of na-tional carrier EgyptAir abroad, tourism minister Yehia Rashed said in a recent interview with Reuters.
“Many European airlines have halted fl ights to Sharm El Sheikh. It’s too early to say what the long-term impact of the Russian plane crash will be,” said an analyst at hotel industry consultants STR.
The torture of Italian gradu-ate student Giulio Regeni, whose body was dumped on the side of a road in Febru-ary, has also damaged Egypt’s image abroad.
Egyptian intelligence and police sources told Reuters the police had custody of Regeni at some point before he died, but Egyptian offi cials have strongly denied any involvement in Re-geni’s death, saying he was never in their custody. The Regeni case has brought allegations of wide-spread police brutality in Egypt under sharper focus. — Reuters
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Iran sentences French-Iranianto six-year jail
DUBAI: A French-Iranian citi-zen who left Iran in 2009 after facing espionage charges has been sentenced to six years in jail following her return to the country to visit her critically ill mother, an opposition web-site reported.
Former French embassy em-ployee Nazak Afshar, 58, was arrested last month on arrival at Tehran airport, website Kaleme said late on Sunday.
She was freed on bail from Evin prison after sentencing, it said. The Iranian judiciary has not commented on her case or made the charges against her public. Afshar, who had dual citizenship, was arrested and tried in 2009 on charges of spy-ing and acting against Iran’s na-tional security. No verdict was issued and she was freed fol-lowing the intervention of the French government, leaving the country the same year.
Several other dual-national-ity citizens or expatriates have been arrested on returning to visit Iran, and a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday that four had recently been sentenced for their con-nections to foreign countries.
“Five people who were arrest-ed recently for their connec-tions outside the country were put on trial...and four of them have received their sentences,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was quoted as saying by the Tas-nim news agency.
Iran does not recognise dual nationality. Iranian media re-ported last week that the pre-senter of a pro-opposition televi-sion channel was arrested as he travelled to Iran in “the disguise of visiting relatives”. — Reuters
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DESTROYED: Damage is seen at a site hit by air strikes on the Al
Qaeda-held port of Shahr city in Yemen on Sunday. – AFP
Saudi Arabia unveils ambitious plans to end dependence on oil
RIYADH: The young prince over-seeing Saudi Arabia’s economy unveiled ambitious plans on Mon-day aimed at ending the kingdom’s “addiction” to oil and transforming it into a global investment power.
Deputy Crown Prince Moham-med bin Salman said the world’s top oil exporter would raise the capital of its public investment fund to 7 trillion riyals ($2 tril-lion) from 600 billion riyals ($160 billion) and would sell up to fi ve per cent of shares in state oil giant Aramco. The plans also included changes that would alter the so-cial structure of the kingdom by pushing for women to have a big-ger economic role and by off ering improved status to resident ex-patriates. “We will not allow our country ever to be at the mercy of commodity price volatility or external markets,” Prince Mo-hammed said at his fi rst news conference with international journalists, who were invited to a Riyadh palace for the event.
“We have developed a case of oil addiction in Saudi Arabia,” he had earlier told Al Arabiya television
news channel. His “Vision 2030” envisaged raising non-oil revenue to 600 billion riyals ($160 billion) by 2020 and 1 trillion riyals ($267 billion) by 2030 from 163.5 billion riyals ($43.6 billion) last year. But the plan gave few details on how this would be implemented.
The 31-year-old prince gave as-sured answers to questions on the plan, and appeared to pitch his comments to appeal across the Saudi social spectrum, and in par-ticular to young people, who face unemployment and an economic downturn despite their country’s oil wealth.
Even before oil prices started
to plunge in 2014, economists had regarded Riyadh’s fi scal policy and economic structure as being un-sustainable, but reduced income from energy sales has made reform more urgent.
At the centre of the plan is the restructuring of its Public Invest-ment Fund (PIF), which Prince Mohammed said would become a hub for Saudi investment abroad, partly by raising money through selling shares in Aramco.
The partial privatisation of Ara-mco was also central to the plans, and Prince Mohammed said it would be transformed into an en-ergy company that he expected to
be valued at $2 trillion to $3 tril-lion, and that less than 5 per cent of it would be listed on the stock mar-ket. So big is the state oil company because of its rights to the king-dom’s crude reserves, that selling even 1 per cent of its value would create the biggest initial public of-fering (IPO) on earth, he said.
He said other Aramco subsidi-ary companies would also be listed along with other publicly held companies, and added that one major benefi t of privatisation was that it would increase transpar-ency and help limit corruption.
“People used to be unhappy that fi les and data of Aramco are unde-
clared, unclear and not transpar-ent. Today they will be transpar-ent. If Aramco gets IPO-ed that means it has to announce its state-ments of accounts,” he said.
Since the prince was appointed to oversee Saudi long-term plan-ning through the Council of Eco-nomic and Development Aff airs, Riyadh’s focus on reform has grown far more urgent and far more acute. In his rare press con-ference, he presented himself as a modernising leader who seeks to shake Saudi Arabia out of its eco-nomic slumber and its reputation for opacity and rigid bureaucracy, showing an interest in topics in-
cluding education, the public role of women, and football.
The government ran a defi cit of 367 billion riyals ($98 billion) or 15 per cent of gross domestic product in 2015, offi cials said, and this year’s budget plan aimed to cut that to 326 billion riyals ($87 billion). His economic team has already announced eff orts to curb wasteful government spending, to diversify revenue streams by in-troducing sales tax and privatising state assets, and to make reforms in the education sector.
Such was the speculation among Saudis over the details of the plan that hashtags associated with it were the top two trending on Twit-ter on Monday in the country with the highest rate of social media use in the Middle East.
But ambitious targets, such as raising the private sector share in the economy to 60 per cent from 40 per cent, reducing unemploy-ment to 7.6 per cent from 11 per cent and growing non-oil income to 1 trillion riyals ($267 billion) from 163 billion riyals ($44 billion) were not explained further.
The plan also envisaged increas-ing women’s participation in the workforce, something that has al-ready grown quickly over the past fi ve years, to 30 per cent from 22 per cent.
A green card system would also be launched within fi ve years to enable expatriate Arabs and Mus-lims to live and work long-term in the country, Prince Moham-med said, in a major shift for the kingdom. But the focus was on economic restructuring to help reduce oil dependence. “I think by 2020, if oil stops we can survive,” Prince Mohammed said. “We need it, we need it, but I think in 2020 we can live without oil.”
Appealing to Saudi youth, he ended his news conference by promising them a new Saudi Ara-bia. “The vision is not a dream, it’s a reality that will come true,” he said. — Reuters
Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin
Salman Plan ‘Vision
2030’ which aims to
make Saudi Arabia
global investment
power; less than fi ve
per cent of Aramco
be listed on the
stock market
More US special forces in Syria to help militia HANOVER (GERMANY): Pres-ident Barack Obama announced on Monday the biggest expansion of US ground troops in Syria since the civil war there began, saying he would dispatch 250 special forces soldiers to help local militia to build on successes against IS mili-tant group.
The new deployment increases US forces in Syria six-fold to about 300. While the total US ground force is still small by comparison to other American deployments, defence experts said it could help shift the momentum in Syria by giving more Syrian fi ghters on the ground access to US close air support. Obama said the move fol-lowed victories that clawed back territory from IS.
“Given the success, I’ve ap-proved the deployment of up to
250 additional US personnel in Syria, including special forces, to keep up this momentum,” Obama said in a speech in the German city of Hanover, the last stop on a foreign tour that has taken him to Saudi Arabia and Britain.
“They’re not going to be leading the fi ght on the ground, but they will be essential in providing the training and assisting local forces as they continue to drive ISIL (IS) back,” he added.
The US military has led an air campaign against IS since 2014 in both Iraq and Syria, but the cam-paign’s eff ectiveness in Syria has been limited by a lack of allies on the ground in a country where a complex, multi-sided civil war has raged for fi ve years.
Russia launched its own air campaign in Syria last year, which
has been more eff ective because it is closely coordinated with the government of President Bashar Al Assad. Washington’s main al-lies on the ground have been a Kurdish force known as the YPG, who wrested control of much of the Turkish-Syrian border from IS. However, the alliance has been constrained because US ally Tur-key is deeply hostile to the YPG.
“Presumably these are going to assist our Kurdish YPG friends to widen and deepen their off en-sive against IS in northeastern Syria,” Tim Ripley, defence analyst and writer for IHS Janes Defence Weekly magazine, said of the extra special forces.
The Syria Democratic Forces, a US-backed coalition set up in October to unite the Kurdish YPG and some Arab allies, welcomed
Obama’s announcement but still wanted more help.
“Any support they off er is posi-tive but we hope there will be greater support,” SDF spokesman Talal Silo said. “So far we have been supplied only with ammuni-tion, and we were hoping to be sup-plied with military hardware.”
The HNC umbrella opposition, which represents groups opposed to Assad but not the Kurds, also welcomed US forces helping rid Syria of the IS “scourge”, but said Washington should do more to fi ght against Assad.
“Syria will not be free of ter-rorism until we see the end of the Assad regime’s reign of terror. We need help in freeing our country from Assad as well as from Daesh (IS),” spokesman Salem Al Meslet said in a statement. — Reuters
O B A M A A P P R O V E S D E P L O Y M E N T
Yemeni forces seize main oil terminal from Al Qaeda rebelsADEN: Yemeni government forces and their Emirati allies took back control of the coun-try’s largest oil export terminal from Al Qaeda on Monday, se-curity offi cials said, a day after routing the militants from their nearby stronghold.
The lightning advance is a major shift in strategy for the Saudi-led coalition forces, which for over a year have focused their fi repower on the Houthis who had seized the capital Sanaa and driven the government into exile.
The civil war has killed more than 6,200 people, displaced more than 2.5 million people and caused a humanitarian ca-tastrophe in the country. A frag-ile ceasefi re between coalition forces and the Houthis has been in operation since April 10.
In 48 hours, the coalition de-prived the militants of a lucrative mini-state they had built up over the course of a year, based around the southwestern port city of Mu-kalla. About 80 per cent of Yem-en’s modest oil reserves were ex-ported in peacetime from the Ash Shihr terminal, 68 km (42 miles) eastwards along the coast from Mukalla, which has been shut since the war began and Al Qaeda seized the area.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Pen-insula (AQAP) - seeking offi cial recognition as a quasi-state as well as trying to get rich - tried
last year to export the 2 million barrels of oil stored there with the approval of Yemen’s govern-ment, which refused. A statement by the coalition said on Monday that its off ensive had killed 800 Al Qaeda fi ghters and several leaders, though Mukalla resi-dents said the number appeared unlikely and the group withdrew largely without a fi ght. “It’s highly exaggerated. There was only very little combat,” resident Mubarak Al Hameli said by telephone.
A Yemeni military source put Sunday’s death toll at 18 and said 30 Al Qaeda fi ghters had been killed. Residents said local clerics and tribesmen had tried to persuade the Al Qaeda fi ght-ers to leave quietly and that they had withdrawn westward to the neighbouring province of Shab-wa. Local Yemeni offi cials said on Sunday that some 2,000 Yem-eni and Emirati troops advanced into Mukalla, taking control of its maritime port and airport and setting up checkpoints through-out the southern city.
AQAP was taking about $2 mil-lion a day in tax from the port. The coalition off ensive is now seeking to advance westwards on AQAP-held towns along a 600-km (370-mile) stretch of Arabian Sea coastline between Mukalla and the government’s base in Aden, where militants appeared to be mounting fi ercer resistance. — Reuters
N A T I O N A T W A R
VISION FOR FUTURE: Saudi Defence Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during a press conference in
Riyadh, on Monday. Prince Mohammed announced his economic plan reform known as ‘Vision 2030’. – AFP
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78.05 % turnout in fourth phase of West Bengal polls
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: The 49 assembly constituencies in West Bengal which went to polls on Monday in fourth phase of as-sembly elections recorded 78.05 per cent voter turnout with the Election Commission of India saying it was a “smooth” aff air.
Deputy Election Commissioner in the Election Commission in-charge of West Bengal Sandeep Saxena told a press conference here that the fi gure of 78.05 per cent was based on text messages sent by poll offi cers to the Com-mission at 5 pm “and the percent-age is likely to go up when the fi nal fi gures arrive”.
Responding to questions on violence, he said by and large the elections passed of “smoothly” barring “sporadic” incidents of violence. He said in all the cases reported, FIRs have been lodged and “raids were still on” to nab the culprits.
Riverine patrolsA total of 18 people have so far been held, Saxena said. Refer-ring to poll percentage, he said in the 2011 assembly polls, the turnout in these constituencies
was 83.81 per cent and 81.49 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Since the polling in this phase in-volved some islands, 72 riverine patrols were pressed into service and even poll observers witnessed how these work.
With two more phases to go before the six-phase Assembly election in West Bengal ends, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Monday claimed that her party had reached the majority mark, while CPI-M state secretary Sur-
jya Kanta Mishra made a claim that the CPI(M)-Congress alli-ance would win 200 seats.
“Today the fourth phase of polls was held. If I understand politics, after this phase of polls we have al-ready attained the majority mark needed to form the new govern-ment. You can check it when the results are announced,” Mamata told an election meeting here.
The TMC chief claimed that her government in the last fi ve years had undertaken various de-velopment projects and turned
Bengal into the favourite indus-trial destination.
Expressing confi dence about the success of the (Congress-Left) alliance in the election, Mishra claimed, “After the fi rst three phases of polling we said we will surely win in over 100 seats but after today’s polls we aim for 200...seats. And the alliance of the peo-ple is heading towards that.”
Echoing her party supremo, TMC leader Mukul Roy also claimed that Trinamool has reached majority fi gure after Monday’s polling.
West Bengal State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on the other hand claimed that the Trinamool Congress would cease to exist after the results were an-nounced on May 19. Chowdhury said people had been able to resist the terror tactics of the TMC.
“The TMC has engaged its en-tire machinery to stop people from exercising their democratic rights. In many places TMC have captured booths. But people have resisted those terror tactics in most of the places and have vot-ed,” Chowdhury said.
Elections were held in 216 seats till Monday. Polling for the remaining 78 seats in two more phases is scheduled to take place on April 30 and May 5. -PTI
With two more
phases to go before
the six-phase
Assembly election
in West Bengal ends,
Trinamool Congress
chairperson Mamata
Banerjee claimed that
her party had reached
the majority mark
EXERCISING FRANCHISE: BJP leader and party candidate Locket Chatterjee and other voters show
voter identity cards at a polling booth in North 24 Parganas on Monday. - PTI
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University rusticates three students, Kanhaiya is fi nedNEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Mon-day slapped a fi ne of Rs 10,000 on student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and rusticated three others for varying durations over their al-leged role in the controversial Feb-ruary 9 event for which they were charged with sedition, an action which had sparked outrage and triggered protests.
Based on the fi ndings of a high-level enquiry committee (HLEC), Umar Khalid has been rusticated for one semester and another leader Anirban Bhattacharya till July 15.
Umar has also been slapped a fi ne of Rs 20,000. Anirban has also been barred from JNU campus for a period of fi ve years from July 23.
Kashmiri student, Mujeeb Gat-too, has been rusticated for two semesters.
A penalty of Rs 10,000 has been imposed on JNU students union (JNUSU) joint secretary Saurabh Sharma, the only ABVP member in the union. JNU students union president Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban were arrested on charges of sedition in February in connec-tion with the controversial event and are out on bail. Their arrests had triggered widespread protests at JNU and many other universi-ties, following which the Opposi-tion had accused the government of attempting to stifl e dissent.
While Umar and Anirban were blamed for “triggering communal violence” and “disrupting” com-munal harmony on the campus, Mujeeb was found guilty of par-ticipating in sloganeering.
Kanhaiya was pronounced guilty of indiscipline and mis-conduct. Those who have been
imposed fi ne of Rs20,000 each include former JNUSU president Ashutosh Kumar, former general secretary Chintu Kumari, current General Secretary Rama Naga, Aishwarya Adhikari, former Vice President Anant Prakash Narayan and Gargi for “violating” discipli-nary norms.
The campus has been made out of bounds for two former stu-dents — Banojyotsana Lahiri and Draupadi — while hostel facili-ties of Ashutosh Kumar have been withdrawn for a year and Komal Mohite till July 21. In his reaction, Kanhaiya said the punitive action announced by the authorities was “simply unacceptable” and that the students rejected it. The stu-dents will hold an “all party” meet-ing on Sunday night to fi nalise fu-ture course of action.
“We completely reject this far-
cical enquiry report, as it is based on sheer vendetta and a biased enquiry. These are all innocent students, coming from extremely humble and underprivileged back-grounds,” JNUSU Vice President Shehla Rashid Shora said.
The JNU had constituted a fi ve-member high-level enquiry committee to investigate the con-troversial event at the campus on February 9 and the panel had found some students guilty of vio-lating disciplinary norms and dis-rupting communal harmony. on the campus.
Anirban’s punishment is the harshest as he has been debarred from the university for fi ve years.
When asked about punishment to Anirban, the offi cial said, “Dur-ing the period of rustication, the student ceases to exist on rolls of the university but has an option
of joining back and re-enrolling in the same course after period of rustication is over.
“However, following debarment from the university for a period the student cannot enroll in any course or join any academic activi-ties on campus,” the offi cial said.
He said while Umar and Gattoo will have the option of resuming their courses once the period of rustication is over, Anirban has been given a window of a week (July 16-23) to complete his thesis.
“If he is unable to do so, he will not be able to seek an extension or re-enroll as he has been debarred from university for fi ve years on completion of that week. If his PhD is not completed during this period he will not be able to do it from JNU for fi ve years however he can enroll at some other univer-sity,” he said. - PTI
J N U R O W
Over 100 activists write to PM over drought situationNEW DELHI: Over 100 activ-ists, economists and sociologists asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond to the drought in several states and urged him to implement traditional relief measures as well as the National Food Security Act and the Mahat-ma Gandhi National Rural Em-ployment Guarantee Act in letter and spirit.
In their letter to Prime Minis-ter they underscored the need for implementing existing measures such as the National Food Secu-rity Act, 2013 (NFSA) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Ru-ral Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) in an eff ective and expanded manner.
“The response of central and state administrations to looming drought is sadly listless, lacking in both urgency and compassion. The scale of MGNREGA works is way below what is required and wages often remain unpaid for months. Even more gravely, the central and state governments are doing far too little to implement the National Food Security Act, three years after it came into force.
“Had the Act been in place, more than 80 per cent of rural households in the poorer states would be able to secure about half of their monthly cereal require-ments almost free of cost. In a drought situation food security entitlements should be made uni-versal,” said the letter signed by
leading activists such as Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander, Jayati Ghosh, Satish Deshpande, Medha Patkar, Uma Chakravarty, Paul Diwakar, Bela Bhatia, Bezwada Wilson.
Economists Prabhat Patnaik, Vijay Shankar Vyas, Amit Bha-duri, Praveen Jha and Ajit Ranade said, “The highest priority of the central government in a drought situation should be to ensure the creation of millions of addi-tional man-days of work in all af-fected villages.”
“Instead, the government has not even allocated enough funds this year to sustain the level of employment generated last year, Rs233 crore man-days according to offi cial data. At current levels of expenditure per person-day, this would cost well over Rs50,000 crore,” they said.
Members in Lok Sabha also ex-
pressed concern over the unprec-edented situation due to drought, scarcity of water and the heat wave in large parts of the coun-try. Raising the issue in the Zero Hour, Congress member Mul-lappally Ramachandran said the devastating drought conditions have aff ected more than a quarter of the 1.25 billion population. He wanted the situation be declared as a “national disaster” and im-mediate assistance be provided to the people.
“People by and large are in deep distress and they are panicky about the prevailing situation”, he said, adding that experts and sci-entifi c community opine that the heat wave conditions will persist for quite some time more.
“Reports say that we are experi-encing the world’s fi fth deadliest heat wave,” he said. - PTI
C O N C E R N
PAYING TRIBUTE: JNUSU
President Kanhaiya Kumar pay-
ing tribute to BR Ambedkar at
Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai on
Saturday. - PTI
‘Crime has declined by 27% after prohibition’
PATNA: Bihar government on Monday said rate of heinous crimes has decreased by 27 per cent in the month of April since the imposition of total prohibition in the east Indian state.
A high-level meeting held by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with senior offi cials of Patna division comprising six districts of Patna, Nalanda, Bhojpur, Rohtas, Buxar and Bhabua, highlighted that the rate of heinous crime from April 1 to April 23 this year was 2,328 as compared to 3,178 during the cor-responding period in 2015.
The fact regarding lowering of crime rate was stated by Com-missioner Patna division Anand Kishore during the meeting held by Nitish Kumar to take stock of situation in the wake of prom-ulgation of total ban on liquor in the state on April 5 last, an offi cial statement said.
Road accidentsThe Commissioner informed the meeting that cases of death in road accidents have also come down during this period after declara-tion of the state as total dry.
Besides, tension during commu-nal procession and other kind of march have also witnessed a slide due to prohibition, it said.
Kumar, who took a decision to declare Bihar a complete dry state from April 1, has been leaving no stones unturned to plug the loop-holes in implementation of the de-cision. - PTI
B I H A R
WATER SCARCITY: Villagers carrying water collected from a a
water tanker in drought-hit Shahpur, Maharashtra on Monday. - PTI
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INDIAT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
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Ruckus in Parliament over Uttarakhand, Arunachal
NEW DELHI: Angry over impo-sition of President’s rule in Utta-rakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, Congress on Monday created ruckus in Parliament, accusing the Modi dispensation of toppling democratically-elected govern-ments of opposition parties, a charge rejected by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The issue generated heat in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the opening day of the session with Congress members in both Houses storming the Well and party chief Sonia Gandhi join-ing them in raising slogans.
In the Lok Sabha, Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge and his party colleagues staged a dhar-na in the Well as their notice for
adjournment motion on the issue was rejected by the Chair.
“It is a murder of democracy,” Kharge said as the Lower House assembled for the day, telling Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that he has given a notice for an adjourn-ment motion on the issue.
Members of Janata Dal-United(JD-U) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were also in the Well along with Congress.
ProtestAAP leader Bhagwant Mann was repeatedly seen pleading with the Chair to allow Kharge to have his say. Amid a noisy protest by the treasury benches, Kharge said the Union government is purchas-ing MLAs, pressurising MLAs to install BJP government “by kill-
ing Constitution.” The Speaker reminded Kharge that the mat-ter is before the Supreme Court and hence he should not say any-thing further.
Kharge said he is referring to the action of the central govern-ment and not the ruling of Utta-rakhand High Court which had revoked the President’s rule.
The Supreme Court later stayed the High Court’s order till April 27. He said the BJP-government at the Centre celebrates the Con-stitution Day and birthday of key architect of the document B. R. Ambedkar, while it has “destabi-lised” democratically-elected gov-ernments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
“There appears to be a great hurry by the NDA to grab power
in every state... don’t forget there is Constitution... you could have waited for the March 28 fl oor test but you imposed President’s rule on March 27,” he said.
Sub-judiceHe said the House had recently discussed the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case which is also sub-judice. BJD’s B. Mahtab said his party has also given notice on the issue.
“The matter is in the court. We will wait for the verdict. We are confi dent that the court will de-liver justice. But we are against ar-bitrary use of Article 356,” he said.
The home minister said the “crisis” in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh has not been created by National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) or BJP.“It is an internal crisis of their
party,” he said and welcomed Speaker’s decision that the issue cannot be raised in the present format as it is under considera-tion of the apex court.
In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the issue accusing the cen-tral government of “deliberately provoking” the opposition and “inducing” disruption so that the House does not run.
Azad said for the last one year, it has been seen that eff orts are being made by the ruling party to create a situation that the House does not function.
The senior Congress leader said he had never seen that a gov-ernment “does things during the session or just days before the session so that Parliament does not function”. He said during winter session, the duly-elected Arunachal Pradesh government was “brought down” and the Cen-tre did not stop till it installed its own government there.
Azad said President’s rule has been imposed in the past also, but never in such a “crude” way. When he said he wanted to congratulate the judges of the Uttarakhand High Court for “having the guts to fi ght the Government of India”, Deputy Chairman P. J. Kurien said there should be “no commentary” on the judicial issues.
As Minister of State for Parlia-mentary Aff airs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi objected to the raising of the Uttarakhand issue saying the matter was sub-judice, Azad said the Centre “which disrespects the court, cannot be trusted”. “Discus-sion will take place,” he asserted, as several Congress members car-rying placards stood in the aisle. -PTI
The issue of
President’s rule
in Uttarakhand,
Arunachal generated
heat in both the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya
Sabha on the opening
day of the session
with Congress
members in
both Houses
storming the Well
SPELLING OUT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Union Parliamentary Aff airs Minister Ven-
kaiah Naidu, Minister of states Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy addresses the media on
the fi rst day the new session of Parliament in New Delhi on Monday. - PTI
House panel favours Mallya’s expulsion from Rajya SabhaNEW DELHI: Independent MP and business tycoon Vijay Mallya is all set to face expulsion from Rajya Sabha, with a Parliamentary panel examining the matter related to his alleged loan default of over Rs94 billion, on Monday unani-mously favouring such action.
At the same time, the Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha headed by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, decided to give Mallya one week time to explain his conduct, which the members said is a “pro-cedural formality”.
In a step closer to initiating his deportation, the government had on Sunday revoked the passport of Mallya, who is believed to be in the UK after leaving India on March 2.
“We have examined the entire issue related to Mallya’s case. The documents that we had sought from banks have also come. There was a unanimous view in the panel that he should be expelled from the House membership.
‘Procedural formality’“But still we have decided to give him a week time to tell us whatever he has to say. The next meeting of the committee has been fi xed on May 3, when we will take a fi nal decision,” Singh told reporters af-ter the meeting.
Asked whether the committee is unanimous in the view that Mallya should be expelled, Singh said, “the committee is unanimous but we
have to follow the procedures.”Janata Dal (United) President
Sharad Yadav, who is also a panel member said,”Mallya should be expelled from the Rajya Sabha and he will be expelled.
His membership is almost gone now. This is the fi rm view of the committee. It is fi nal that his membership will go. He has been given the time to complete the procedure”. CPI-M General Sita-ram Yechury said that the opinion in the committee was that Mallya has no right to remain a member of Rajya Sabha. The committee had sought details of the liabilities on Mallya’s airline Kingfi sher from 13 banks, which furnished their re-plies according to which the total
liability on Mallya’s company is Rs 94.31 billion.
The committee decided to crack the whip on the ground that Mallya never declared these liabilities in the last ten years, which a member is supposed to do annually.
Enforcement Directorate had last week written to 17 banks and a clutch of probe agencies with an aim to prepare a water tight case against Mallya who is be-ing probed for money laundering charges in the IDBI bank alleged loan fraud case.
Chairman of the Upper House Hamid Ansari had referred the matter to the panel last month.
The panel had taken cognizance of the matter on March 14. - PTI
M E M B E R S H I P
BRIEFING: Congress veteran Karan Singh, head of the Ethics
Committee of Rajya Sabha along with members Sharad Yadav, SC
Mishra and Sitaram Yechury addressing the media after a meeting
on Mallya issue, at Parliament House in New Delhi on Monday. — PTI
India cancels visa to exiled Uighur leader, draws opposition rebukeNEW DELHI: India on Monday said it had withdrawn a visa to an exiled Uighur leader whom China has long branded a terrorist, pro-voking criticism from the opposi-tion that it had buckled to pressure from Beijing.
China blames unrest that has killed hundreds of people in its far western province of Xinjiang on militants looking to establish an independent state for the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
Dolkun Isa, executive chairman of the Munich-based World Uy-ghur Congress, planned to attend a conference this month in India’s northern hill town of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama.Isa’s World Uyghur Congress is
a leading ethnic Uighur group that advocates democracy and human rights. Exiles and rights groups say the Xinjiang unrest is more a reaction to repressive government policies than organised by any co-hesive militant group.
New Delhi granted Isa a tourist visa in a sign that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was ready to break from the past, when it had discouraged a visit by the top exiled Uighur leader, Rebiya Kad-eer, in 2009.
But on Monday, an interior ministry spokesman said Isa’s electronic visa had been with-
drawn, without giving a reason for the decision.
“A visa was given to him. That has been cancelled,” the spokes-man said. The foreign ministry di-rected queries to the interior min-
istry. The announcement came after domestic media quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as say-ing Isa was wanted by China and Interpol had put out a “red-corner” notice for his arrest.
Isa said he was disappointed by the decision to block his travel to a conference aimed at exchanging ideas among diff erent ethnic and religious communities.
Unwarranted controversy“I recognize and understand the diffi cult position that the Indian government found itself, and re-gret that my trip has generated such unwarranted controversy,” he said in a statement on the group’s website.
Modi’s administration has sought a more assertive posture in its relations with neighbours , Pakistan and China, as it seeks to expand commercial ties.
India reacted angrily this month to China’s decision to put a hold on its request to add the head of the militant group Jaish-e-Mo-hammad to the United Nations’ Al Qaeda-IS blacklist.
Some political supporters of Modi’s government saw the ini-tial grant of the visa as a response to Beijing’s decision to side with Pakistan over the militant leader operating from the neighbouring country. The fl ip-fl op provoked op-position criticism. “Modi’s latest foreign policy disaster on China can be termed a Himalayan blun-der,” said Sanjay Jha, a spokesman of the main opposition Congress party. - Reuters
A N N O U N C E M E N T
The announcement came after domestic media
quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying
Dolkun Isa was wanted by China and Interpol
had put out a ‘red-corner’ notice for his arrest
All accused in Malegaon blasts case discharged
MUMBAI: Ten years after a series of bombs exploded in Malegaon killing 37 people, a special court on Monday dropped charges against eight Muslim youths due to lack of evidence against them.
The accused, including two doc-tors, were discharged by V. V, Pa-til, designated judge trying cases under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The serial bomb blasts outside a cemetery near Hamidia Mosque at Malegaon, near Nashik, on Sep-tember 8, 2006, also left over 100 persons injured.
Bombs were planted on bicycles parked near the cemetery and they went off after Friday prayers at the mosque on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat. Hailing the verdict, Farok Makhdoom, a doctor and an ac-cused who argued personally in the court, said, “I was never scared of conviction because I am innocent. There was lot of evidence to prove that I was not involved in the case.”
Nine accused, suspected to have links with SIMI, were initially ar-rested in the case and chargesheet-ed by the Maharashtra Anti Ter-rorism Squad (ATS). One of them died while the case was pending.
Later, CBI, which took over in-vestigations, also confi rmed the charges against them.
Subsequently, in 2011, NIA was asked to probe the case and the agency arrested another set of people belonging to the major-ity community, who continue to be accused in the case.
However, the case took a turn when Swami Assemanand, an ac-cused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing case, allegedly revealed to the probe agency about the role of a Hindu right wing outfi t in the 2006 Malagaon blasts case. - PTI
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Need to open up malaria research Patrick Vallance & Tim Wells
In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in the battle against malaria. According to the World Health Organisation, the number
of deaths from the disease has fallen by a stagger-ing 60 per cent since 2000 – the result of improved access to diagnostic testing and treatment.
To be sure, there is still considerable work to be done, but the downward trend in new infections and deaths underscores the power of collaboration among governments (in malaria endemic and non-endemic countries alike), between commercial and non-profi t organisations, and between aca-demic science and medicine. Without such part-nerships, advances in fi ghting this deadly disease would not have been possible. Alongside coordi-nated action on the ground, increasing openness and collaboration among scientists researching and developing a new generation of medicines and vaccines is paving the way for further progress.
There is a growing recognition within the sci-entifi c community that no single organisation or group has the know-how or resources to tackle ma-laria alone. As with many other diseases affl icting the developing world, the science is hugely com-plex, and the commercial opportunity is limited. Reversing the tide on malaria requires us to pool resources and combine the diverse experience and expertise of scientists from diff erent backgrounds and specialties.
Fortunately, scientists are already taking note, and the result is the emergence and spread of a disruptive new approach to research and develop-ment. Called “open innovation,” it turns the tradi-tional R&D model on its head and removes barri-ers to collaboration. Based on the recognition that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, open innovation is a collegial way of working, in which sharing is everything.
This openness is well illustrated by unprec-edented levels of data sharing. In 2010, GSK, the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, released into the public domain the details of more than 20,000 compounds that are active against the malaria parasite – 13,500 of which came from GSK’s pro-prietary compound library. This was a landmark move, one intended to galvanise the international research community.
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a non-profi t organization, took things a step further. Through the “open access malaria box,” MMV provides physical access to a diverse selection of 400 commercially available compounds. Access is free for scientists around the world, as long as they agree to make the results of their research pub-lic. To date, the malaria box has been shared with more than 250 research groups in 30 countries around the world, and has led to the initiation of several new drug- discovery programmes across a range of neglected diseases.
In addition to facilitating the sharing of tools and insights, open research creates frameworks for scientists from diff erent institutions and back-grounds to work together (both physically and remotely), draw on each other’s strengths, and ex-change know-how.
One example of this type of collaboration is the world’s fi rst “open lab” for research into diseases of the developing world, established in 2010 at GSK’s research site in Tres Cantos, Spain. The lab oper-ates with the support and advice of a broad range of actors, including GSK, the Wellcome Trust, the European Union, and MMV, as well as various other product-development partnerships and aca-demic centers. It enables researchers from leading institutions worldwide to work alongside industry scientists in a dynamic and collaborative environ-ment, with the aim of transforming early research ideas into drug-discovery programs.
With 60 projects completed since its establish-ment, this initiative has gained wide recognition as an incubator for new ideas and a valuable model for R&D into treatments for other major health challenges. Other intensely collaborative R&D ini-tiatives are also bearing fruit. Three potential new treatments for malaria being developed by GSK (two in partnership with MMV) are progressing to clinical trials. Another potential new drug being developed through a collaboration between GSK and MMV, for vivax malaria, is further along in the development process, having entered the fi nal stages of clinical trials. If successful, it will be the fi rst treatment for relapsing malaria approved in more than 60 years. - Project Syndicate
Scan this QR for full articleTimes quiz most awaited event of the year
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the entire team of Time Of Oman for a very well organised Times of Oman inter school quiz competition whose fi nals were held last Thursday. I salute
Essa bin Mohammed Al Zedjali , founder of Times of Oman for gifting this annual event to children as it has become the most awaited and most popular event in our cal-endar year after year. The emotion and pas-sion was not only among the children who were present to support their respected schools, but also among the adults. I con-gratulate all the teams that took part in the event but a special mention for the winning teams of Indian School Wadi Kabir for junior trophy and Indian School Muscat for senior trophy their performance was bril-liant. — Anu Shakih, Wadi Kabir
Not knowing sign language does not lead to miscommunication This refers to the report, Call for greater acceptance of people with hearing disabil-ity (April 24). Lack of knowledge of sign
language is never a sign of lack of communication as what else can communicate better than love that speaks the most easily-accessed language of the world? — Gautam Ghosh-Dastidar, Wadi Kabir
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Public awareness and environment committee meetsMUSCAT: Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Qatabi, president of the Ma-jlis Al Shura, yesterday presided over the fi rst meeting of the public awareness and environment committee. Present at the meeting was Saleh bin Salim Al Ja’afari, committee chairman. Qatabi said the com-mittee was formed in follow-up to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s designation of the year 2001 as the Year of Environment. He called upon the committee members to coordinate with government authorities concerned and to exchange views with these authorities to guarantee success of the committee in its mission. The committee reviewed its prerogatives in accordance with the decision which has formed it.
1514: Copernicus makes his fi rst observations of Saturn.
1929: The fi rst non-stop fl ight from England to India is com-pleted.
1941: The fi rst organ is played at a baseball stadium in Chicago.
1986: The world’s worst nuclear disaster occurs at the Cherno-byl power plant in the Soviet Union.
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The diff erences between Clinton and Sanders are more pronounced than those between Barack Obama
and Clinton in 2008. Then, there were modest divergences on
health care and national security, highlighted by her support fi ve years earlier for George W. Bush’s decision
to invade Iraq
ALBERT R. HUNT
Climate-change policies must be steady and consistent. Action must
lubricate change, not repeatedly stop it in its tracks. Once investors see that the fossil-fuel game is over,
governments must let the eff ects of the resulting capital reallocation play out. It will be bumpy. But there
is no other choice
SIMON UPTON
Pakistan has often been accused of having ‘rogue’ elements in
its security establishment, an accusation that has, on occasions,
not been totally groundless but, I am fi rmly of the view that it is the US that has empowered its CIA to an
extent that creates many times the rogue elements that 10 Pakistans
might house
SHAUKAT QADIR
F R O M O U R A R C H I V E S
T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y
US President Barack Obama meets with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries
APRIL 2001Scan this QR code to send letters to the Readers’ Forum, containing not more than 200 words with full name, address and telephone number, may be sent by e-mail ([email protected]).
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POLITICAL RIVALRY: Pakistani policemen escort suspects alleg-
edly involved in the killing Sikh politician Sardar Soran Singh as
they leave after a press conference in Peshawar on Monday. - AFP
6 arrested over Sikh minister’s murder
PESHAWAR: Police in north-western Pakistan on Monday ar-rested six people accused of gun-ning down a Sikh political fi gure, attributing the killing to rivalry rather than a Taliban attack, as the militants had claimed.
Gunmen shot and killed Soran Singh, a prominent leader of Pakistan’s tiny Sikh religious minority and a lawmaker from cricket legend Imran Khan’s op-position Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, outside his home in
the town of Buner on Friday.“We arrested six people, in-
cluding a member of the Sikh community, Buldev Singh,” Azad Khan, a senior police offi cial, told reporters in Peshawar, capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prov-ince. “During initial investiga-tions, Buldev Singh and other people acknowledged their in-volvement in the murder of Soran Singh.” The killing followed a dispute over the distribution of party tickets in local elections, Khan said.
Hired assassinsSoran Singh was a senior mem-ber of Khan’s party and an advis-er to the provincial chief minister on minority aff airs.
“Soran Singh reportedly re-fused a party ticket to Buldev Singh, which enraged him and he hired assassins to kill Soran Singh,” the police offi cial added.
Reuters was not able to imme-diately reach Buldev Singh’s fam-ily for comment. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility soon after the shooting, saying they would continue attacks.
Police offi cial Khan rejected that claim as false. “This is totally wrong,” he said.
“The Taliban aren’t behind this murder.” — Reuters
Among those
detained by Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa was a
Pakistan Tehreek-e-
Insaf member who
police said killed
Soran Singh over
party ticket for
local elections
Former army chief Beg sees ‘foreign conspiracy’ behind Panama Papers leakISLAMABAD: Former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg has expressed skepticism over the origins of Panama leaks, saying he is suspicious of an ‘evil foreign design’ behind the revelations.
“It is surprising not a single American or Israeli citizen is in-cluded in the Panama Papers,” he said. “We have yet to discover who hired the team of investiga-tive journalists who worked for years preparing these papers.”
He added, “The Papers are a fact but some foreign forces are trying to exploit it for their evil plots in Pakistan.”
CorruptionIn an article released to the me-dia on Monday, Beg said conti-nuity of democratic system in the country was imperative for national security, and would help steer the country out of the pre-vailing aff airs.
“Action against terrorists should also continue as the mili-tary made great strides in con-taining the menace,” he said, adding the operations were yet to achieve their logical end.
The former COAS asked the government to take meaning-ful steps against corruption, and proposed the name of Lt-Gen Shahid Aziz, a former chief of the National Accountability Bureau
(NAB), to head the inquiry com-mission to investigate the Pana-ma Papers leak.
He said the commission should be formed by the Parliament, and initiate proceedings against all those involved in fi nancial wrongdoing.
The former COAS believes India, with US collaboration, is playing a ‘dirty’ role in destabi-lising Pakistan to upset the pros-pect of China-Pakistan Econom-ic Corridor.
Beg also alleged the US used Pakistan Army, judiciary, reli-gious leaders and politicians to topple the elected government in 1977.
Beg likened Imran Khan, chair-man Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, to the former air marshal, saying “Imran is today’s Asghar Khan.”
He said, Imran, like Asghar Khan, was also promised pre-miership of the country by for-eign conspirators. — Express Tribune
C O N T R O V E R S Y
Mirza Aslam Beg
Cross-border attacks repulsed in Mohmand
PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: A security offi cial was killed and at least three others in-jured in multiple attacks, in-cluding a roadside blast, in an area of Mohmand Agency bor-dering Afghanistan between late Saturday night and Sun-day morning, senior security offi cials said.
According to the offi cials, suspected militants from across the border in Afghanistan fi red mortars at a security check post in Mohmand Agency’s Bayzai sub-division late Saturday night. Two Pakistani security offi cials were wounded in the barrage, they said, adding that one of the wounded offi cials was a major.
The check post came un-der attack once again Sunday morning, this time with heavy weapons, the offi cials said. “Both attacks were successfully repulsed. The militants faced heavy casualties,” one security offi cial said.
Later, an improvised explo-sive device (IED) blew up near a Frontier Corps bomb-disposal unit which was patrolling the Soran area of Bayzai, security offi cials said. — Express Tribune
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Bangladesh bank hackers compromised SWIFT softwareBOSTON: The attackers who stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank probably hacked into software from the SWIFT fi nancial platform that is at the heart of the global fi nancial system, said secu-rity researchers at British defence contractor BAE Systems.
SWIFT, a cooperative owned by 3,000 fi nancial institutions, con-fi rmed to Reuters that it was aware of malware targeting its client software. Its spokeswoman Nata-sha Deteran said SWIFT would release on Monday a software up-date to thwart the malware, along with a special warning for fi nan-cial institutions to scrutinise their security procedures.
The new developments now coming to light in the unprec-edented cyber-heist suggest that an essential lynchpin of the global fi nancial system could be more vulnerable than previously under-stood to hacking attacks, due to the vulnerabilities that enabled at-tackers to modify SWIFT’s client software.
Software updateDeteran said on Sunday that it was issuing the software update “to as-sist customers in enhancing their security and to spot inconsisten-cies in their local database records.”
She said “the malware has no impact on SWIFT’s network or core messaging services.” The software update and warning from Brussels-based SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication,
come after researchers at BAE, which has a large cyber-security business, told Reuters they believe they discovered malware that the Bangladesh Bank attackers used to manipulate SWIFT client soft-ware known as Alliance Access.
BAE said it plans to go public on Monday with a blog post about its fi ndings concerning the malware, which the thieves used to cover their tracks and delay discovery of the heist. The cyber criminals tried to make fraudulent transfers totalling $951 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February.
Most of the payments were blocked, but $81 million was rout-ed to accounts in the Philippines and diverted to casinos there. Most of those funds remain missing. In-vestigators probing the heist had previously said the still-unidenti-fi ed hackers had broken into Bang-ladesh Bank computers and taken control of credentials that were used to log into the SWIFT system.
But the BAE research shows that the SWIFT software on the bank computers was probably compromised in order to erase re-cords of illicit transfers.
The SWIFT messaging platform is used by 11,000 banks and other institutions around the world, though only some use the Alliance Access software, Deteran said.
SWIFT may release additional updates as it learns more about the attack in Bangladesh and other potential threats, Deteran said.
It is also reiterating a warning to banks that they should review in-ternal security. “Whilst we keep all our interface products under continual review and recommend that other vendors do the same, the key defence against such attack scenarios is that users implement appropriate security measures in their local environments to safe-guard their systems,” Deteran said.
Adrian Nish, BAE’s head of threat intelligence, said he had never seen such an elaborate scheme from criminal hackers. “I can’t think of a case where we have seen a criminal go to the level of eff ort to customize it for the envi-
ronment they were operating in,” he said. “I guess it was the realiza-tion that the potential payoff made that eff ort worthwhile.” A Bang-ladesh Bank spokesman declined comment on BAE’s fi ndings.
A senior offi cial with the Bang-ladesh Police’s Criminal Inves-tigation Department said that investigators had not found the specifi c malware described by BAE, but that forensics experts had not fi nished their probe. Bang-ladesh police investigators said last week that the bank’s computer security measures were seriously defi cient, lacking even basic pre-cautions like fi rewalls and relying
on used, $10 switches in its local networks.
Still, police investigators said in an interview that both the bank and SWIFT should take the blame for the problems.
“It was their responsibility to point it out but we haven’t found any evidence that they advised before the heist,” said Mohammad Shah Alam, head of the Forensic Training Institute of the Bang-ladesh police’s criminal investi-gation department, referring to SWIFT.
The BAE alert to be published on Monday includes some techni-cal indicators that the fi rm said it hopes banks could use to thwart similar attacks. Those indicators include the IP address of a server in Egypt the attackers used to monitor use of the SWIFT system by Bangladesh Bank staff .
The malware, named evtdiag.exe, was designed to hide the hacker’s tracks by changing infor-mation on a SWIFT database at Bangladesh Bank that tracks in-formation about transfer requests, according to BAE.
BAE said that evtdiag.exe was likely part of a broader attack toolkit that was installed after the attackers obtained administrator credentials. It is still not clear ex-actly how the hackers ordered the money transfers. Nish said that BAE found evtdiag.exe on a mal-ware repository and had not direct-ly analysed the infected servers.
Such repositories collect mil-lions of new samples a day from
researchers, businesses, govern-ment agencies and members of the public who upload fi les to see if they are recognized as malicious and help thwart future attacks. Nish said he was highly confi dent the malware was used in the at-tack because it was compiled close to the date of the heist, contained detailed information about the bank’s operations and was upload-ed from Bangladesh.
While that malware was specifi -cally written to attack Bangladesh Bank, “the general tools, techniques and procedures used in the attack may allow the gang to strike again,” according to a draft of the warning that BAE shared with Reuters.
The malware was designed to make a slight change to code of the Access Alliance software installed at Bangladesh Bank, giving attack-ers the ability to modify a database that logged the bank’s activity over the SWIFT network, Nish said. Once it had established a foothold, the malware could delete records of outgoing transfer requests alto-gether from the database and also intercept incoming messages con-fi rming transfers ordered by the hackers, Nish said.
It was able to then manipulate account balances on logs to pre-vent the heist from being discov-ered until after the funds had been laundered.
It also manipulated a printer that produced hard copies of trans-fer requests so that the bank would not identify the attack through those printouts, he said. - Reuters
C Y B E R - H E I S T
MALWARE: Swift code bank logo is displayed on an iPhone 6s on
top of Euro banknotes in this picture illustration made in Zenica,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, January 26, 2016. - Reuters/Dado Ruvic/fi le
Homeless Nepal quake survivors fear climate shocksDAAMGADE (Nepal): When a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal a year ago, 25-year-old Yama Tamang lost his farm, where he used to grow maize.
To support his wife and their three children, he now makes bamboo baskets in the Daamgade temporary camp in Dhading dis-trict, 90 km (56 miles) from the capital, Kathmandu. The baskets are used on construction sites for carrying materials like stones and cement. Daamgade, one of seven camps set up in Dhading, shelters 131 families, most of whom also make baskets for a living.
Helping families recover after last year’s devastating earthquakes has proved harder than expected, for reasons ranging from funding delays to a fuel blockade. As they struggle to rebuild their homes, many fi nd themselves trapped in camps or forced to migrate to cit-ies — or out of the country — to fi nd ways to support their families.
Manamati Tamang, who shares a common local surname, lives with her three children at the
camp. Their tents were blown away by a wind storm in the last week of March. “Feeding the fam-ily, paying for the children’s educa-tion and other daily expenses has been a struggle,” said Manamati.
“If we lived in a house, we at least wouldn’t have to worry as much about protecting ourselves from the climate.” Manamati’s house in nearby Ree village, where she used to live, was destroyed during the earthquake, forcing her family to leave the land where they grew crops including maize, millet and paddy.
More than 600 earthquake victims living at Daamgade face constantly changing weather con-ditions, including at times heavy rain and hail. The hilly land where the camp is situated is frequently fl ooded, which residents fear may cause landslides.
The Nepalese government’s promise in May 2015 to distribute Rs200,000 ($1,880) to each family aff ected by the earthquake fi lled people with hope, said Daaud Ta-mang, manager of the Daamgade
camp. But most of that money has yet to materialise.
“The recent changes of govern-ment and of management of the country’s National Reconstruc-tion Authority are partly to blame for the delay in compensation,” said Bishwa Prakash Subedi, chief district offi cer for Dhading.
An unoffi cial blockade on Ne-pal’s southern border, sparked by ethnic protests at Nepal’s fi rst post-monarchy constitu-tion adopted in September, also hurt the availability of fuel, medi-cine and other vital supplies for months, hampering reconstruc-tion, Subedi added.
Reconstruction planAccording to Govinda Pokharel, former head of the National Re-construction Authority, the gov-ernment should appoint more staff to speed up the rebuilding process.
“There is a reconstruction plan - it just needs to be executed,” he said. Pressure for residents to va-cate Daamgade is mounting, as the land where it is located is privately
owned. Families were initially only expected to stay in the camp for a few months, until rehabilita-tion got underway.
But with the process showing no signs of being completed soon, the land’s owners are pushing camp residents to fi nd alternative shel-ter. Many are taking their families to neighbouring cities, in the hope of fi nding a job as a builder or a porter. Some are staying with rela-tives, while others return to their villages to build new homes — though without the right building guidelines, these are unlikely to be earthquake-resistant, Subedi said.
Since October 2015, the Inter-national Organization for Migra-tion has put workers in touch with local groups providing month-long jobs for earthquake survivors. The jobs include house demolition work, which pays Rs500-700 a day.
“The rainy season is coming in June, so we have to plan beyond the next few weeks,” he said.
“We simply don’t know what we may face tomorrow, and we don’t want to die.” - Reuters
S T R U G G L E
DEVASTATION: A man walks past the collapsed monastery at the
Swoyambhunath Stupa, a UNESCO world heritage site a year after
the 2015 earthquakes in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Monday. - Reuters
Ghani blasts Taliban, says little time left for peace
KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani said Afghanistan faced a terrorist enemy led by Taliban in Pakistan in a sombre speech to parliament on Monday that nonetheless left the door open to resuming peace talks with parts of the Taliban.
Addressing a joint session of the two houses of parliament following a Taliban bomb blast that killed at least 64 people and wounded hundreds in Kabul on
Tuesday, Ghani branded the in-surgents criminals fi ghting the legitimate government.
But he stopped short of declar-ing a state of national emergen-cy, pledging war against radical groups like IS, or the Haqqani net-work while suggesting there was still some hope of compromise with at least some Taliban.
“The enemies of Afghanistan are IS, Al Qaeda, the murderous Haqqani network and some of the Taliban who enjoy shedding the blood of countrymen,” he said.
He added that the doors of ne-gotiation would remain open for those Taliban ready to stop blood-shed but added: “This opportunity will not be there forever.”
He said Taliban leaders shelter-ing in the western Pakistani cit-ies of Peshawar and Quetta were “slaves and enemies of Afghani-stan who shed the blood of their countrymen” and he called on the government in Islamabad to wipe them out.
He did not say whose slaves he thought the Taliban were, but his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, fre-quently accused Pakistan of har-bouring the Taliban and support-ing other militant groups such Haqqani network.
Pakistan denies harbouring and aiding the Taliban but Ghani urged its government to “fulfi l promises and carry out military operations against those whose bases are in Pakistan”. The re-sponse from the Taliban, who have already rejected peace talks while Western forces remain in Afghanistan, was scornful.
“The nation is not blind, people understand who the slave is and who works for the interest of oth-ers,” spokesman Zabihullah Muja-hid said in a tweet.
After a year that saw 11,000 ci-vilian casualties and some 5,500 members of the security forces killed fi ghting the Taliban, the distinction may make little con-crete diff erence to the fi ghting on the ground. But two weeks after
the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring off ensive and then followed up with the biggest single attack seen in Ka-bul since 2011, there had been wide speculation among politi-cians in Kabul that Ghani could declare the stalled peace process formally dead.
The Taliban, who ruled Afghan-istan with an iron fi st from 1996 to 2001, are seeking to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reimpose its rule.
Ghani’s speech came at a time of growing apprehension in Kabul at the prospect of more intense fi ghting over the summer months.
Over recent days, Afghan se-curity forces have fought back Taliban attacks on Kunduz, the northern city that briefl y fell to the insurgents last year.
Large parts of the southern province of Helmand are now in insurgent hands and there has been heavy fi ghting in several other provinces from Herat in the west to Kunar in the east.
Ghani said security forces, fi ghting alone since the end of NATO’s main combat mission in 2014, were in a stronger position than last year and said a perma-nent minister of defence and head of the main intelligence agency would be appointed soon. - Reuters
Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani said
the enemies of
Afghanistan are
IS, Al Qaeda, the
murderous Haqqani
network and some
of the Taliban who
enjoy shedding the
blood of countrymenTALKING TOUGH: Afghan president Ashraf Ghani speaks during a
joint meeting of the National Assembly at the Parliament com-
pound in Kabul on Monday. - AFP
China places disabled rights lawyer under house arrest
BEIJING: Chinese authorities have placed a disabled rights law-yer under house arrest and pre-vented a group of foreign diplo-mats from visiting her, she said on Monday, ratcheting up pressure weeks after the US State Depart-ment gave her a bravery award.
Ni Yulan, known for defending people evicted from their homes to make way for development, had been held under house arrest for 12 days, she said.
Authorities prevented Ni from travelling late last month to re-ceive the State Department’s In-ternational Women of Courage Award, which the department says is given to female advocates of human rights, justice and gender equality. Beijing police could not be reached for comment.
China’s Foreign Ministry has said exit-entry authorities acted in accordance with Chinese law in the case.
Five foreign diplomats, includ-ing those from the European Un-ion, Germany, Canada, France and Switzerland, had sought to see Ni at her home and deliver food over the weekend, but were prevented from entering, she said.
Diplomats with knowledge of the situation confi rmed the group was turned away. - Reuters
B R A V E R Y A W A R D
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WORLDT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
A US KC-135 refuelling plane fl ew with the two F-22 Raptor fi ghters from Britain to Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea.
Obama urges Europe to stay united for good of the world
HANOVER (GERMANY): US President Barack Obama on Mon-day said the United States needed a strong, united Europe to main-tain international order, and he urged European allies to increase defence spending to address IS and other security threats.
Wrapping up a trip to Germany that has focused on boosting trade ties, Obama pleaded with Europe-ans to look past the multiple crises facing their nations and maintain the unity that had brought peace to their continent.
His comments came after an earlier trip to London, where the American president urged Britain to stay in the 28-nation European Union, boosting eff orts by Prime Minister David Cameron to avoid a so-called “Brexit” that oppo-nents warn could trigger damag-ing political and economic con-sequences. “I’ve come here today to the heart of Europe to say that the United States and the entire world needs a strong and prosper-ous and democratic and united Europe,” Obama said during a visit to a trade fair in the northern Germany city of Hanover, drawing applause from his audience.
Obama said worries over Rus-sia’s annexation of Crimea and slow economic growth, particu-larly in southern Europe, had led
to questions about integration on the continent and sparked de-structive politics that stoked fears about immigrants and people with diff erent religions.
An infl ux of migrants fl eeing the civil war in Syria has heightened tensions within the bloc and put pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the preeminent leader in Europe, whose initial open door policy hurt her domes-tic political standing.
Obama’s rare two-day trip to the trade fair was seen as a sign of support for a leader with whom he has forged close ties ahead of Ger-man elections next year. It also
allowed him to put his support for Merkel and Cameron in the wider context of Europe’s role in the world.
“This is a defi ning moment, and what happens on this conti-nent has consequences for people around the globe,” Obama said on Monday. “If a unifi ed, peaceful, liberal, pluralistic, free-market Europe begins to doubt itself, begins to question the progress that’s been made over the last sev-eral decades, then we can’t expect the progress that is just now tak-ing hold in many places around the world will continue.”
Obama has spoken out against
similar trends in the United States. He makes no secret of his disdain for Republican presiden-tial front-runner Donald Trump, who has proposed building a wall on the US border with Mexico and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States.
Obama needs support from European allies to handle foreign policy challenges in Russia and the Middle East, and he used his platform in Hanover to announce deployment of an additional 250 US forces to Syria.
But the president said Europe generally could do more to pre-pare for its own defence and to
fi ght IS. He repeated his call that NATO members step up their contributions and warned of a tendency to get complacent about defence needs.
“We need to stay nimble and make sure our forces are inter-op-erable and invest in new capabili-ties like cyber defence and missile defence,” Obama said.
“That’s why every NATO mem-ber should be contributing its full share, 2 per cent of GDP, towards our common security - something that doesn’t always happen and, I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defence.” — Reuters
US president appeals
to Europeans to look
past crises, urges
allies to increase
defence spending
to address
security threats
US deploys F-22 fi ghters to reassure NATO allies
MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE (ROMANIA): Two highly advanced US fi ghters fl ew to the Black Sea on Monday for the fi rst time since Washington beefed up military support for NATO’s eastern European allies who say they face aggression from Russia.
President Barack Obama prom-ised in 2014 to bolster the defences of NATO’s eastern members, un-nerved by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and the Krem-lin’s backing for pro-Russian forc-es in eastern Ukraine.
A US KC-135 refuelling plane fl ew with the two F-22 Raptor fi ghters from Britain to Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea.
“We’re here today to demon-strate our capability to take the F-22 anywhere needed in NATO or across Europe,” said Squadron commander Daniel Lehoski.
“We want to... actually fl y the aircraft and train with our NATO allies,” he told a travelling Reuters reporter.
The F-22s are almost impos-sible to detect on radar and so ad-vanced that the US Congress has banned Lockheed Martin from selling them abroad. The US has deployed 12 of them at a British base in eastern England.
“The increased size of the 2016 deployment... allows US Forces to assert their presence more widely across the eastern frontier,” said US Air Force spokeswoman Ma-jor Sheryll Klinkel. “We want to be able to operate out of multiple lo-cations. We want to be able to keep our adversary guessing on where we’re going to go next.”
The West is seeking to strength-en the defences of its eastern fl ank and reassure eastern European NATO members - such as Poland, the Baltic states and Czech repub-lic which spent decades under So-viet dominance - without provok-ing the Kremlin by stationing large forces permanently. — Reuters
R O M A N I A
BOOSTING RELATIONS: Left to right, clockwise: British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi meet for informal talks at the Herrenhaus-
en Palace in Hanover, central Germany on Monday. – AFP
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Jordan’s queen meets refugees on Greek island
LESBOS (GREECE): Queen Rania of Jordan met refugees at a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday in a visit to highlight the plight of people she said had “seen unspeakable horror and experienced unthink-able tragedy”.
Scores of refugees and mi-grants clapped and cheered as she walked through the Kara Tepe camp, taking photographs and giving her notes.
They are among more than a million people fl eeing confl ict and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa who have streamed into Europe since last year in the continent’s biggest migration cri-sis since World War II.
Jordan has accepted more than 630,000 Syrian refugees registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-gees (UNHCR). Most of them
are living in poverty outside the refugee camps, according to hu-man rights groups.
Magnitude of crisis“It is impossible to really under-stand the magnitude of the crisis until you come face to face with it,” Rania told journalists after speaking with refugee women in the camp. “These people have gone from suff ering to suff ering and the one thing I keep hearing time and again is that if they had a choice they would be back in their homes; that this was a last resort.”
More than 4,000 refugees and migrants are living on Les-bos, most of them behind the barbed wire fence of a disused military camp.
About 850 people, mostly fami-
lies, live in Kara Tepe, a munici-pality-managed site from which 12 refugees were fl own out by Pope Francis last week after he visited the island.
Rania had been invited by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid agency which has installed showers, toilets, laundry facilities and lights at the site.
To stem the fl ow of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe from Turkey on rubber motor boats, the EU and Turkey signed an accord in March under which those who arrive in Greece from March 20 and do not qualify for asylum will be sent back. “This is a crisis about human beings, not about borders and barriers. It is about human dignity, not about deals,” Rania said. — Reuters
Queen Rania visited
a camp on the Greek
island of Lesbos
to highlight the
plight of refugees
and migrants
Military parades, dawn services mark ANZAC Day worldwideLONDON: With dawn services and military parades, tens of thou-sands of people gathered in diff er-ent countries on Monday to com-memorate the ANZAC landings on the shores of Gallipoli during World War I.
ANZAC Day, on April 25, marks the fi rst major battle involving troops from Australia and New Zealand in Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915. While the campaign against the Ottoman Turks was ultimately unsuccessful, the day has since become a major annual holiday in Australia and New Zealand and one of remembrance for both countries’ troops who have served and died in war. Marking 101 years since the arrival of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on
a narrow Gallipoli beach, soldiers from both countries marched to the beat of drums at a dawn service at ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula. Australian Minister for Veterans Aff airs Dan Tehan and New Zealand Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee paid their respects by laying wreaths. Thousands of people attended dawn services in Wellington and Auckland while in Sydney Australian military per-sonnel past and present marched by fl ag-waving crowds.
In London, Britain’s Prince Har-ry laid a wreath on behalf of Queen Elizabeth at the Cenotaph war me-morial after attending a commem-orative dawn service. In Thailand, where ANZAC Day is observed to also remember those who served
and died during the Japanese oc-cupation in the early 1940s, Aus-tralian and New Zealand nationals gathered at a memorial service in the western Kanchanaburi Prov-ince. Earlier in the day, former Australian prisoners of war had returned to the Hellfi re Pass me-morial for a dawn service to re-member those forced to worked in harsh conditions to build the Thai-Burma railway track during World War II. The Hellfi re Pass holds part of the infamous railway track.
In France, a dawn service was held at Viller-Bretonneux to mark those who lost their lives on the Western Front during World War One. The Gallipoli battle was one of the bloodiest of the war, claiming more than 130,000 lives. — Reuters
W O R L D W A R O N E E V E N T
LISTENING TO SUFFERINGS: Queen Rania of Jordan, centre,
meets with Syrian refugees during her visit at the Kara Tepe refu-
gee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, on Monday. –Reuters
COMMEMORATION PARADE: Members of the Welsh Guards’ Regimental Band play their instruments
as they march during a service to commemorate ANZAC Day at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in central
London on Monday. – AFP
MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6B
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S CA N T H I S Q R CO D E TO I N STA N T LY L AU N C H T H E V I D EO
Top stories in one minute with our new daily Digest
OMAN OIL PRICE DECLINES Oman Crude (June delivery) on Monday fell by 29 cents to $41.12 per barrel, according to Dubai Mercantile Exchange. The average price of Oman Crude (May delivery) stabilised at $36.34 per barrel - a rise of $6.11 a barrel. - ONA
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MARKETT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
ALAN HARTE*
Henry Black Campbell published the fi rst edi-tion of Black’s law dic-
tionary in 1891. The Association of Certifi ed Fraud Examiners cites Black’s Law dictionary on its website when defi ning fraud: ‘A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.’
The world has evolved and changed dramatically since 1891. Keeping pace with a changing world has meant that the prevention and detection of fraud is an interactive process that needs to outpace a chang-ing world. Only then can fraud prevention and detection be
truly eff ective.What is the risk or likelihood of a fraud occurring in your organisation? The Association of Certifi ed Fraud Examiners (ACFE) tells us that a typical organisation loses 5 per cent of annual revenue to fraud. You might think, in response: “Not us. There’d be no way to hide it.” or, “Not us. Our employees are long-serving, honest and hardworking.” Such optimism results in underestimating the probability of fraud occurring in your company. Fraud risk is increased for such a company and unfortunately nobody in the company realises it!
Fraud TriangleIt is not possible to prevent and detect fraud without under-standing the circumstances which act as enablers for fraud to occur. Some of you may be fa-miliar with ‘The Fraud Triangle,’ which identifi es these enablers — incentive, opportunity and ra-tionalisation. More recently, the three sided fraud triangle has been updated to the four-sided Diamond which adds a fourth enabler capability. Let’s elaborate on the enablers.
Incentive refers to having a want or need to commit fraud. The fraudster may be motivated to steal money because of large debts. Opportunity to commit fraud occurs because of a weak-ness in the organisation that the fraudster can exploit. Some of us will be familiar with the fi lm Catch Me If You Can, based on a true story, where a con artist successfully exploits weak con-trols and masquerades as a pilot, doctor and a lawyer. Rationali-sation is where the fraudster is convinced that the fraudulent act is justifi ed. For example, the fraudster perceives stealing the money to pass it on to a worth-while charity as not being a fraud. It is, of course, fraud.
Capability is the fourth ena-bler of the Diamond. Capabil-ity means having the power by virtue of position or authority to commit a fraud. Many large highly publicised frauds that have occurred in recent years would arguably not have hap-pened if the fraudsters did not have capability. Examples in recent years include the Bernie Madoff $65 billion Ponzi scheme and the case of fi nancial state-ment fraud at Enron.
Preventing fraud starts with the culture of the organisation. All large organisations should conduct a fraud risk assessment. Bank Muscat, where I work, has a zero tolerance approach in re-lation to fraud. An organisation can position itself to prevent the occurrence of fraud. Having a code of ethics for employees, running background checks on new employees and training employees in relation to fraud prevention are some of the ways to reduce the risk of fraud. Bank Muscat has addressed all of these and they are embedded across the organisation.
Private informationBy acting smartly in how we conduct our personal and business activities we can also positively impact fraud preven-tion. Examples include being suspicious of others who request your private information by way of unsolicited communica-tions, frequently changing your passwords, avoiding obvious passwords such as name and date of birth and completing due diligence when entering into contracts with third parties.
There are various ways to
detect fraud. Some are common sense, some require technol-ogy and others require the right mindset. Eff ective detective controls require a mix of all three. Some examples of detec-tive controls involve identifying unusual employee behaviour, be-ing aware of scams, monitoring your accounts for unusual trans-actions and verifying unusual emails or text messages from unknown sources requesting personal information.
Unusual activities Technology can also play a lead-ing role in supporting eff orts to detect fraud. Systems can pro-duce reports that show unusual activities and trends in addition to transactions that are outside the risk appetite or policy of the organisation. For example, em-ployees processing transactions outside their delegated author-ity, ordering of goods or services from unapproved vendors, salary payments made to employees that no longer work in the or-ganisation or extended creditor days granted to certain custom-ers. The list is not exhaustive.
The Certifi ed Fraud Examiner ‘CFE’ credential is a badge of
professionalism in the preven-tion and detection of fraud. It is awarded by the Association of Certifi ed Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the world’s largest anti-fraud organisation. The Oman Chapter of ACFE was estab-lished in 2015 and currently Tom Totton, general manager - Internal Audit in Bank Muscat, serves as president. The CFE’s are best placed to implement processes to prevent and un-cover fraud, in turn protecting against and reducing fraud risk. Bank Muscat proactively en-courages and supports employ-ees to achieve this qualifi cation.Fraud will take various shapes and forms as it evolves over time but it will always be a constant. We all have a responsibility to fi ght fraud in our personal and business lives. Taking preventa-tive and detective measures is a must in that fi ght.
The ACFE Oman chapter is organising a seminar on ‘Preven-tion and Detection of Frauds’ on April 27 at Bank Muscat head offi ce from 6 pm to 8 pm.
*The columnist is a director of Association of Certifi ed Fraud Examiners – Oman Chapter
Fighting fraud – the effective way of prevention and detectionC O M M E N T A R Y
Mena markets see unexpected movements after Doha meetingTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Markets in the Middle East and North African (Mena) region witnessed an unexpected calm, exhibiting little volatility despite the unsuccessful Organi-sation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting in Doha last week, according to Al Masah Capital report.
“Market observers were ex-pecting a roller coaster after the collapse of the Doha talks where Opec members failed to agree on
a freeze in production to mitigate falling oil prices, but instead saw an opposite reaction,” the weekly report published by the UAE-based alternative asset manage-ment advisory fi rm, said.
“The fact that oil climbed back over $40 after a brief selloff also surprised investors as most were getting ready for a strong selloff in equities,” the report highlighted.
The unexpected market reac-tion to what can be considered negative news and a subdued re-action by buyers contributed to
a mild week in movement. The weekly average gain of 1.5 per cent was mostly led by a 4 per cent gain in Egypt followed by Abu Dhabi with 2.2 per cent and Qatar with 1.5 per cent.
April now sits pretty with one more week of trading left and in a seemingly strong position to add to the February and March gains and further solidify this mini rally in the fi rst half of the year, it said.
Buyers are more emboldened and willing to stand up to selling pressure.
R E G I O N A L M A R K E T S
Omanoil, Salalah Port sign accord
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman Oil Market-ing Company (omanoil) recently signed a long-term land lease agreement with Salalah Port Ser-vices to develop a new marine bunkering and product trading terminal in the Sultanate’s south-ernmost governorate.
The medium-size terminal will help expand omanoil’s bunker and trading capabilities, provid-
ing ships calling at the Port of Salalah with fueling services by end of 2016.
New trading opportunities“This agreement is a major step forward, one that refl ects our am-bition of expanding our presence throughout Oman and enhances our ability to serve the shipping industry. Through our partnership with Salalah Port Services, we will be able to establish a footprint in-side the port and effi ciently serve our bunker customers. This ter-minal will also open the door for us to explore new trading opportu-nities,” said Omar Ahmed Qatan,
chief executive offi cer of omanoil. “Upon completion, this new
facility will further strengthen-ing the governorate of Dhofar’s position as a key logistics hub and center of maritime trade, prom-ising even greater economic and social benefi ts,” he added.
This terminal project by the company forms part of its busi-ness diversifi cation drive and will further contribute to the national economic agenda. Since its incep-tion, omanoil has worked with key players to further develop the Sultanate’s infrastructure, na-tional workforce, and make major contributions to the economy.
A long-term land
lease agreement
has been signed
to develop a new
marine bunkering
and product trading
terminal in Oman
B3T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
MARKET
Crude retreats from 5-month high on global oversupply
LONDON: Oil retreated from the highest close in fi ve months amid signs a global glut will be pro-longed as Middle East producers boost supplies.
Futures fell more than 1.5 per cent in New York and London. Saudi Arabian Oil Company will complete an expansion of its Sh-aybah oilfi eld by the end of May, al-lowing the world’s largest exporter to maintain total capacity at 12 mil-lion barrels a day, according to two people with knowledge of the plan.
Iran has increased output by 1 million barrels a day since sanc-tions were lifted in January, Shana reported, citing Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
SurplusOil has rebounded after falling to the lowest in more than 12 years amid signs a global surplus will ease as Untied States production declines. The International Ener-gy Agency reiterated on Thursday it expects output outside of the Or-ganisation of Petroleum Export-ing Countries (Opec) to decline by about 700,000 barrels a day this year, which would be the biggest drop in a quarter century.
“We’re still in oversupply,” Wayne Gordon, executive direc-tor for commodities at UBS AG Wealth Management, said in a Bloomberg television interview. “We don’t think that the produc-tion cuts that we’re seeing in the US and non-Opec nations are large enough yet to structurally support the oil price higher. For the next couple of months, we’re going to downside again.” - Bloomberg Neqs
E N E R G Y M A R K E T Bank credit in Oman grows to OMR20.54b, a rise of 12%
A. E. [email protected]
MUSCAT: Oman’s conventional and Islamic fi nancial institutions have achieved a robust 12.45 per cent (or OMR2,274.3 million) growth in credit at OMR20.54 bil-lion for the 12-month period end-ing February this year.
The credit growth was aided largely by demand for fi nance from corporate sector, including government-owned entities for funding large projects, and partly by the retail customers.
The growth in overall credit was more or less in line with the pace of growth witnessed last year, al-though the plunge in oil revenue had impacted the performance of
manufacturing fi rms. Of the total credit, OMR18.69
billion was constituted by conven-tional banks, while the share of Islamic banks and window opera-tions contributed the remaining OMR1,851.9 million.
Total deposits of Omani banks, including Sharia-compliant insti-tutions, rose moderately by 6.32 per cent (or OMR1,154.9 million) to OMR19.42 billion by Febru-ary 2016, according to the latest statistics released by the Central Bank of Oman.
In fact, the recent issue of de-velopment bonds and the fi rst sovereign sukuk issue by the gov-ernment have taken away excess liquidity from the fi nancial sys-tem, aff ecting deposit growth to a
certain extent.Of the total deposits, OMR17.83
billion was from convention-al banks, while the remaining OMR1,586.2 mllion was consti-tuted by Islamic institutions.
Oman has seven conventional
banks — Bank Muscat, Nation-al Bank of Oman, BankDhofar, HSBC Bank Oman, Bank Sohar, Oman Arab Bank and ahlibank – and two fully-fledged Islamic banks – Bank Nizwa and alizz Islamic bank.
Islamic fi nanceA robust growth in Islamic fi nance (which surged ahead by 63.44 per cent to OMR1,851.9 million) dur-ing the 12-month period shows that Sharia-compliant banks are able to establish themselves in the market and able to overcome their teething problems. Further, two Islamic banks and window opera-tions of conventional banks have launched innovative products to attract Omani customers, besides
opening several branches in dif-ferent parts of the country.
There have been consider-able increases in the number of branches and assets held by these entities. Islamic banks are opening up new segments and players and, thus, adding to the competitive environment, not only in terms of effi ciencies and innovations, but by also providing consumers the benefi t of choosing between both conventional and Islamic banking products.
The credit growth
was aided largely by
demand for fi nance
from corporate
sector, including
government-owned
entities for funding
large projects, and
partly by the retail
customers
Saudi Aramco to expand oil fi eld to retain capacity RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Oil Company will complete the ex-pansion of its Shaybah oilfi eld by the end of May, allowing the big-gest crude exporter in the world to maintain its total production capacity, according to two people with knowledge of the plan.
Shaybah’s output capacity will rise to 1 million barrels a day from 750,000 barrels, said the people, who asked not to be identifi ed because the information isn’t public. The fi eld, in the Empty Quarter desert near the border with the United Arab Emirates, produces extra light grade crude with an API gravity of 42 degrees, they said.
Brent crude futures falls Shaybah’s expansion will help Saudi Aramco, as the state pro-ducer is known, keep the compa-ny’s capacity at 12 million barrels a day, they said. Brent crude fu-tures fell 0.5 per cent on Monday amid signs a global glut will per-
sist as Middle Eastern producers boost supplies.
Saudi Arabia is maintaining in-vestments in oil production as the kingdom pursues a strategy of de-fending market share amid a glob-al glut. Saudi Aramco will keep investing in its crude production capacity, chief executive offi cer Amin Nasser said last month. The company also plans to complete the expansion of the Khurais oil fi eld to 1.5 million barrels a day in 2018, he said.
Record productionSaudi Arabia set a crude produc-tion record of 10.564 million bar-rels a day in June, exceeding a previous high in 1980, according to data the kingdom submitted to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). The country increased output after it led the group to refocus in No-vember 2014 and fi ght for sales instead of supporting prices by cutting production.
Saudi Arabia could raise crude output by more than a million barrels a day immediately if there was demand for it, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview ear-lier this month. Aramco could produce 11.5 million barrels a day immediately and go to 12.5 million in six to nine months “if we wanted to,” said the prince, who is also chairman of Aramco’s Supreme Council.
The country pumped 10.2 mil-lion barrels a day last month, ac-cording to data. If the kingdom chose to increase investment in its oil industry, total produc-tion capacity could be increased to 20 million barrels a day but not beyond that level, the prince said. The International Monetary Fund said on Monday that Saudi Arabia’s oil production will in-crease to an average of 10.34 mil-lion barrels a day next year from 10.22 million barrels a day in 2016. – Bloomberg News
E N E R G Y S U P P L Y
ROBUST GROWTH: Central Bank of Oman statistics show that total deposits of Omani banks, including Sharia-compliant institutions,
rose moderately by 6.32 per cent (or OMR1,154.9 million) to OMR19.42 billion by February 2016. – Times fi le picture
Was the share of conventional banks in credit, while the share of Islamic banks and window operations
contributed the remaining OMR1.85b
OMR18.7b
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MARKETT U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET
SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR MONDAY, APRIL 25
REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
OM0000001517 ............HSBC BANK OMAN .................................................... 2,207,369 ...... 259,819......................31 ............0.112 ........... 0.118............ 0.112 ............0.118 ............. 0.108 ............0.010 ............. 9.259 ................ 0.118 .............. 0.118...................0.000 ................ 236,036,909 .......0.100
OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ........... 4,015,088 ...... 532,143................... 196 ............0.130 ........... 0.137 ...........0.130 ............0.133 ............. 0.128............ 0.005 ............. 3.906 ................0.135 .............. 0.135...................0.136 ...................11,970,000 .........0.100
OM0000003521 ............GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. .................. 14,850,623 1,755,654...................468 ............0.120 ........... 0.121............ 0.114 ............0.118 ............. 0.114 ............ 0.004 ............. 3.509 ................ 0.119 .............. 0.118................... 0.119 ................... 34,217,715 .........0.100
OM0000001145 ............PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ....................... 873,550 .........226,358..................... 56 ........... 0.256 ........... 0.265 ...........0.256........... 0.259 ............. 0.251............ 0.008 ............. 3.187 ................0.260..............0.258...................0.260 ..................24,615,360 .........0.100
OM0000001707 ............OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY ..................................... 25,000 .............43,750........................2 ............1.750 ........... 1.750............ 1.750 ............1.750 ............. 1.705 .............0.045 ............. 2.639 ................ 1.750 .............. 1.700................... 1.745 ..................156,975,000 ........0.100
OM0000001087 ............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 675,738 .......... 188,532.....................44 ........... 0.278 ...........0.282 ...........0.278 ........... 0.279 .............0.273 ........... 0.006 ............. 2.198 ................0.282..............0.281...................0.283 ..................27,900,000 .........0.100
OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ...................... 867,522 ............80,701..................... 62 ............0.091 ........... 0.096 ...........0.090........... 0.093 ............. 0.091............ 0.002 ............. 2.198 ................0.095 ..............0.094...................0.095....................2,790,000 ..........0.100
OM0000002176 ............AL JAZEERA STEEL PRODUCTS ........................ 1,891,441 .......366,632....................119 ............0.195 ........... 0.197 ...........0.190 ........... 0.194 ............. 0.191 ............ 0.003 ..............1.571 .................0.196 .............. 0.196...................0.197 .................. 24,230,204 ........0.100
OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST .................................................................... 2,110,613 .... 1,110,934..................... 37 ............0.516 ........... 0.536 ...........0.516 ........... 0.526 ............. 0.518 ............ 0.008 ............. 1.544 ................0.536 ..............0.538...................0.548................. 334,426,007 .......0.100
OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 3,333,693 ......759,002...................184 ........... 0.227 ........... 0.232 ...........0.225........... 0.228 .............0.225 ........... 0.003 ............. 1.333 ................0.232..............0.232...................0.233................... 34,217,100 .........0.100
OM0000001749 ............OMAN CEMENT .......................................................... 410,000 .........203,360........................8 ........... 0.496 ........... 0.496 ...........0.496 ........... 0.496 .............0.490 ........... 0.006 ............. 1.224 ................0.496 ..............0.490...................0.496..................164,112,864 ........0.100
OM0000002200 ...........AHLI BANK ........................................................................ 9,000 ............... 1,639........................8 ............0.182 ........... 0.183 ...........0.182 ........... 0.182 ............. 0.180 ........... 0.002 ..............1.111 .................0.183 ..............0.182...................0.183 ..................259,356,578 ........0.100
OM0000002275 ...........SHELL OMAN MARKETING ..................................... 6,250 ............. 11,875........................2 ........... 1.900 ........... 1.900 ...........1.900 ........... 1.900 ............. 1.880............ 0.020 ............. 1.064 ................1.900 ..............1.900...................2.020 .................180,500,000 .......0.100
OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 3,215,199 ...1,332,146...................459 ............0.416 ........... 0.418 ...........0.412 ........... 0.414 ............. 0.410............ 0.004 ............. 0.976 ................0.414 ..............0.410...................0.414 ................ 1,033,447,607 ......0.100
OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ...................................................... 106,750 ..........122,226......................14 ............1.140 ........... 1.145 ............1.140 ............1.145 ............. 1.135 .............0.010 ............. 0.881 ................ 1.145 .............. 1.150...................1.200................. 229,000,000 .......0.100
OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 433,638 ......... 329,565..................... 48 ............0.760 ........... 0.760 ...........0.760 ........... 0.760 ............. 0.756............ 0.004 ............. 0.529 ................0.760 .............. 0.756...................0.760 .................. 494,717,615 ........0.100
OM0000001483 ............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 467,631 .......... 123,846..................... 25 ........... 0.264 ........... 0.266 ...........0.264 .......... 0.265 .............0.264 ............0.001 ............. 0.379 ................0.265 ..............0.264...................0.265..................390,817,038 ........0.100
OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS ............................................................. 89,619 .............31,947......................19 ........... 0.368 ........... 0.368 ...........0.350........... 0.356 .............0.356 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.354 ..............0.354...................0.358...................19,580,000 .........0.100
OM0000001962 ............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 275,855 ............ 17,955......................14 ........... 0.068 ........... 0.068 ...........0.065 ........... 0.065 .............0.065 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.065 ..............0.065...................0.067...................13,464,840 .........0.100
OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ............ 162,760 ............ 42,541..................... 33 ........... 0.265 ........... 0.265 ...........0.260 .......... 0.261 ............. 0.261............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.260..............0.259...................0.260 ................... 5,481,000 ..........0.100
OM0000002226 ...........AL JAZEERA SERVICES .......................................... 407,700 ..........100,791..................... 26 ........... 0.247 ...........0.249 ...........0.245........... 0.247 .............0.247 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.245............. 0.242...................0.245 ...................15,117,455 ..........0.100
OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE .............................................................729 .................. 100........................ 1 ............0.137 ........... 0.137 ...........0.137 ............0.136 ............. 0.136............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.137 .............. 0.137...................0.145 ...................44,377,234 .........0.100
OM0000002648 ...........NATIONAL FINANCE .................................................44,108 ................6,131........................3 ............0.139 ........... 0.139 ...........0.139 ............0.139 ............. 0.139............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.139 .............. 0.135...................0.139 ................... 37,686,426 .........0.100
OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 190,299 .........303,578..................... 25 ............1.595 ........... 1.600 ...........1.595 ............1.595 ............. 1.595 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................1.595 .............. 1.595...................1.600 ................ 1,196,250,000 ......0.100
OM0000003661 ............VOLTAMP ENERGY ....................................................... 3,963 ............... 1,669........................7 ........... 0.420 ...........0.422 ...........0.420........... 0.420 .............0.420 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.422..............0.422...................0.430 ..................25,410,000 .........0.100
OM0000003711 ............SOHAR POWER .................................................................1,740 .................. 564........................3 ........... 0.324 ...........0.324 ...........0.324........... 0.352 .............0.352 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.324.............. 0.318...................0.326 .................. 77,795,520 .........0.100
OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL ............................................. 397,959............ 29,564..................... 25 ........... 0.076 ........... 0.077 ...........0.074 ........... 0.074 .............0.074 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.074 ..............0.074...................0.075 ...................12,950,000 .........0.100
OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ................................................ 103,615 ............42,482......................18 ............0.410 ........... 0.410 ...........0.410 ........... 0.410 ............. 0.410............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.410 ..............0.404...................0.410 ...................21,525,000 .........0.100
OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH ................................................75,000 ............. 19,105........................7 ........... 0.253 ........... 0.256 ...........0.252........... 0.255 .............0.256 ...........-0.001 ........... -0.391................0.256 ..............0.252...................0.256..................243,415,847 ........0.100
OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 2,329,396 ......423,842..................... 45 ............0.183 ........... 0.184 ........... 0.181 ........... 0.182 ............. 0.183............-0.001 ........... -0.546 ............... 0.181 ..............0.180................... 0.181 ..................288,576,288 .......0.100
OM0000002168 ............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES ............................... 533,450 ......... 144,057......................12 ........... 0.270 ........... 0.272 ...........0.270........... 0.270 .............0.273 ...........-0.003 ........... -1.099................0.270..............0.261...................0.270 .................. 79,977,694 .........0.100
OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES ..................................... 176,182 .............43,179......................16 ........... 0.245 ...........0.248 ...........0.245........... 0.245 .............0.248 ...........-0.003 ............-1.210 ................0.245..............0.245...................0.247 ..................71,209,500 .........0.100
OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 529,730 ............69,814..................... 25 ............0.130 ........... 0.134 ...........0.130 ........... 0.132 ............. 0.134............-0.002 ............-1.493................0.132 ...............0.131...................0.133 .....................7,767,305 ..........0.100
OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ........... 890,450 ......... 118,289..................... 33 ............0.134 ........... 0.135 ...........0.130 ............0.133 ............. 0.136............-0.003 ........... -2.206 ...............0.132 ..............0.128...................0.132 ................... 16,209,375 .........0.100
OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 318,200 ........... 70,005........................9 ........... 0.220 ........... 0.225 ...........0.220 .......... 0.220 .............0.227 ...........-0.007 ........... -3.084 ...............0.225..............0.221...................0.225 ................. 44,000,000 ........0.100
OM0000001319 ............NATIONAL ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS ............. 235,950 ............56,912......................14 ........... 0.240 ...........0.250 ...........0.240 .......... 0.241 .............0.250 ...........-0.009 ........... -3.600 ...............0.250............. 0.240...................0.250 ................... 8,090,719 ..........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 42,265,810 .......8,970,708 ........ 2,098 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......36........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000001590 ............MUSCAT FINANCE .................................................... 250,450 ........... 30,909......................14 ............0.119 ........... 0.124 ........... 0.118 ............0.123 ............. 0.118 ............ 0.005 ............. 4.237 ................0.124 ..............0.124...................0.126 ...................32,806,016 .........0.100
OM0000001053 ............OMAN TEXTILE HOLDING ....................................... 2,870 .................. 947........................2 ........... 0.330 ........... 0.330 ...........0.330........... 0.330 .............0.320 ............0.010 ............. 3.125 ................0.330..............0.320...................0.330 ...................1,980,000 ..........1.000
OM0000001400 ...........OMAN FLOUR MILLS ................................................... 9,500 ...............5,369........................5 ........... 0.560 ........... 0.570 ...........0.560........... 0.566 .............0.550 ............0.016 ............. 2.909 ................0.570 ..............0.570...................0.580 ..................89,145,000 .........0.100
OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING.................................. 948,558 ........... 95,090..................... 69 ............0.103 ........... 0.103 ...........0.098........... 0.100 .............0.098 ........... 0.002 ............. 2.041 ................0.100 ..............0.100................... 0.101 .................... 7,520,800 ..........0.100
OM0000001723 ............OMAN ORIX LEASING ............................................. 326,152 ........... 38,492........................7 ............0.119 ........... 0.119............ 0.118 ............0.118 ............. 0.117 .............0.001 ............. 0.855 ................ 0.118 ...............0.117................... 0.118 ...................29,622,649 .........0.100
OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. .................. 1,474,910 ........ 54,609..................... 52 ........... 0.038 ........... 0.038 ...........0.036........... 0.037 .............0.037 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.036 ..............0.036...................0.037.................... 3,145,000 ..........0.100
OM0000001806 ............MUSCAT NATIONAL HOLDING ..................................380 .................. 707........................ 1 ............1.860 ........... 1.860 ...........1.860 ........... 1.860 ............. 1.860............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................1.860 ............. 0.000...................1.860 ....................9,300,000 ..........1.000
OM0000002333 ...........SALALAH PORT SERVICES .......................................3,240 ...............2,028........................3 ........... 0.628 ........... 0.628 ...........0.624........... 0.648 .............0.648 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.628 ............. 0.000...................0.628.................. 116,534,635 ........0.100
OM0000005963 ...........PHOENIX POWER ...................................................... 832,815 ......... 124,975..................... 36 ............0.150 ........... 0.151 ............0.150 ........... 0.150 ............. 0.150............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.150 .............. 0.150................... 0.151 ..................219,390,219 ........0.100
OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES ..................................................... 642,732 ........... 44,682..................... 43 ............0.071 ........... 0.071 ...........0.069........... 0.070 ............. 0.071............-0.001 ........... -1.408 ...............0.069 ..............0.069...................0.070.................... 8,750,000 ..........0.100
OM0000004511 ............ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK.............................................. 3,038,186 .......181,393..................... 58 ............0.061 ........... 0.061 ...........0.059 ........... 0.060 ............. 0.061............-0.001 ............-1.639................0.059 ..............0.058...................0.059...................60,000,000 ........0.100
OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 1,541,509 ....... 117,638..................... 57 ........... 0.078 ........... 0.078 ...........0.076 ........... 0.076 .............0.079 ...........-0.003 ............-3.797................0.076 ..............0.075...................0.076..................114,000,000........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 9,071,302 ......696,839...................347 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......12........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
BONDS AND SUKUK MARKET ...................................................................................................................................................................... OM0000005971 ............B.MUSCAT COMPL. CONVR. B.B.3.5 ................... 143,936 ............13,530........................3 ........... 0.094 ...........0.094 ...........0.094........... 0.094 .............0.093 ............0.001 ............. 1.075 ................0.094..............0.093...................0.094 .................. 30,471,192 .........0.100
OM0000004867 ...........BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 ......................................... 267,873............. 27,591........................4 ............0.103 ........... 0.103 ...........0.103 ........... 0.103 .............0.102 ............0.001 ............. 0.980 ................0.103 ..............0.103...................0.106 ...................32,923,196 .........0.100
.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 411,809............. 41,121........................7 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 2........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ISIN ......................................SECURITY NAME .................................................................. VOLUME ..... TURNOVER ............TRADES ......OPEN PRICE ......HIGH ............. LOW ........ CLOSE PR. ...PREV. CLOSE...DIFF (RO).........DIFF % ............. LAST PR .....LAST BID .............LAST OFFER ........MARKET CAP .PAR VALUE
O M A N S T O C K S
INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index ....................................... 5,926.55 ...............5,894.31 ................... 5,926.14 ................... 5,891.89 ................. 34.25 ................... 0.58Financial Index ..................................... 7,678.18 ...............7,592.70 ....................7,677.97 ................... 7,592.70 ................. 85.27 ................... 1.12Industrial Index .....................................7,179.12 ................7,147.74 .................... 7,179.12 .................... 7,131.57 ..................47.55 ................... 0.67Services Index ...................................... 3,252.53 ...............3,237.55 ................... 3,243.91 ....................3,247.17 .................. -3.26 .................. -0.10MSM SHARIAH INDEX....................... 877.50 ..................874.25 .......................877.43 ...................... 876.50 ....................0.93 ................... 0.11
Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded51,748,921 ...................9,708,667 ................. 2,452 ...............17,000,082,074 ................24 ......................11 .................... 15 .........................50
MSM index ends higher
MUSCAT: Amid high trad-ing volumes, the MSM30 Index remained buoyant to close at 5,926.14 points, up 0.58 per cent. The MSM Sharia Index ended at 877.43 points, up 0.11 per cent. Galfar Engineering was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. The top gainer was HSBC Bank, with gain of 9.26 per cent while Bank Nizwa, which declined 3.80 per cent, was the top loser.
As many as 2,452 trades were executed on Monday, generat-ing turnover of OMR9.7 million with 51.7 million shares changing hands. Out of 50 traded securi-ties, 24 advanced, 11 declined and 15 remained unchanged. GCC and Arab investors were net buyers for OMR577,000 fol-lowed by Omani Investors for OMR343,000 while Foreign In-vestors remained net sellers for OMR920,000.
Financial Index continued its uptrend to close at 7,677.97 points, up 1.12 per cent. HSBC Bank, Muscat Finance, Al Shar-qia Investments, Al Batinah Development and Oman United Insurance increased 9.26 per
cent, 4.24 per cent, 3.91 per cent, 2.20 per cent and 2.20 per cent respectively. Bank Nizwa, Oman & Emirates, Al Izz Bank, Gulf Investment Services and Bank Sohar declined 3.80 per cent, 2.21 per cent, 1.64 per cent, 1.49 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively.
Industrial Index advanced 0.67 per cent to end at 7,179.12 points. Galfar Engineering, Oman Textiles, Oman Flour Mills, Oman Cables and Al Has-san Engineering gained 3.51 per cent, 3.13 per cent, 2.91 per cent, 2.64 per cent and 2.04 per cent respectively. National Alumini-um, Oman Fisheries and Al An-war Ceramics declined 3.60 per cent, 1.41 per cent and 1.10 per cent respectively.
Services Index ended nega-tively at 3,243.91 points, down 0.10 per cent. Port Services, Shell Oman Marketing and Ooredoo increased 3.19 per cent, 1.06 per cent and 0.53 per cent respective-ly. OIFC, Renaissance Services and Sembcorp Salalah declined 3.08 per cent, 1.21 per cent and 0.39 per cent respectively.
— United Securities
Top gainer was HSBC Bank, with a gain
of 9.26 per cent .while Bank Nizwa, which
declined by 3.80 per cent, was the top loser
Saudi to unveil economic blueprint to cut reliance on oilDUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s plan for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to overcome habits developed over decades of relying on crude sales to fuel economic growth, create jobs and build infrastructure.
Almost eight decades after oil was fi rst found in the country, of-fi cials on Monday are to unveil Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Saudi Vision 2030,” a blueprint seeking to reduce the reliance on revenue from crude exports. Saudi Arabia's ruler ap-proved the package of develop-mental, economic, social and other programmes. Prince Mohammed, known as MbS among diplomats and Saudi watchers, disclosed de-tails of the plan in interviews with Bloomberg in Riyadh.
“Shifting from an oil-based economy to something diff erent is very diffi cult,” said Gregory Gause, a professor at Texas A&M Univer-sity. “The Saudis have been talking about it for decades, but have made little progress. So MbS has his work cut out for him.”
Economic shakeupPrince Mohammed is leading the biggest economic shakeup since the founding of Saudi Arabia in 1932, with measures that repre-sent a radical shift for a country built on petrodollars. His drive may face resentment from a popu-lation accustomed to government largess and power circles stunned by the rapid rise of the 30 year-old prince, political analysts say.
King Salman said pursuing a “comprehensive development” has been a central goal, according to state-run television. He urged Saudis to help implement the plan.
Subsidy restructuringPart of the programme envisages selling less than fi ve per cent of Saudi Aramco and the creation of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.
Authorities are also consid-ering more steps to restructure subsidies, a value-added tax (VAT) as well as a levy on energy and sugary drinks and luxury items. The National Transfor-mation Programme, which will be launched within 45 days of Monday’s announcement, will
focus on ways to boost economic growth, create jobs, attract inves-tors and hold government offi ces more accountable.
Other oil-dependent countries that succeeded in reforming their economies started before crude revenue sank, according to an In-ternational Monetary Fund study in 2014, suggesting that Arab pro-ducers may have missed the best opportunity to move beyond oil when prices were high.
The drop in crude prices has prompted Gulf Arab monarchies to dip into reserves they had ac-cumulated since 2000. Saudi Ara-bia’s net foreign assets fell by $115 billion last year to plug a budget defi cit that reached about 15 per cent of economic output. The gov-
ernment also turned to the domes-tic bond market and is planning its fi rst international dollar bond sale.
Regional eff ortsOther Gulf Arab countries are also taking steps to reduce spend-ing. The United Arab Emirates scrapped subsidies for transport fuels. The Kuwaiti parliament approved a government plan to increase the price of water and electricity for expatriates and businesses, but voted against in-cluding the homes of Kuwaiti citi-zens. A second and fi nal round of voting is scheduled on April 26.
After decades of talk of diversi-fi cation, more than 70 per cent of Saudi government revenue came from oil in 2015 and the state
still employs two-thirds of Saudi workers. Foreigners account for nearly 80 per cent of the private-sector payroll.
“The issue really is how to get the Saudi private sector to hire locals, how to make the numbers on that right, since so much of the Saudi private sector has had busi-ness models based on lower-wage foreign labour,” said Gause.
In response to the country’s weakened fi scal position, Prince Mohammed’s plan is to raise non-oil revenue by $100 billion by 2020. The government announced cuts in utility and gasoline subsi-dies in December. Including future reductions, authorities expect the restructuring to generate $30 bil-lion a year by 2020. - Bloomberg News
S A U D I V I S I O N 2 0 3 0
New system for archiving records adoptedTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) on Monday approved its adoption of ‘Private Document Manage-ment System’, schedules of docu-ments’ extended retention and classifi cation system.
The approval comes under the National Records and Archives Law promulgated by Royal De-cree 60/2007. Article 18 of the law states that a department is responsible for its documents till they are not needed, and that each party shall coordinate with the National Records and Archives Authority to prepare and imple-ment a system for its records.
The event took place in the presence of Dr. Hamad bin Mo-hammed Al Dhoyani, Chairman of the National Records and Ar-
chives Authority (NRAA) who hailed the eff orts of the offi cials at PEIE for their constant follow up that resulted in building the system. He stressed that NRAA will follow up with PEIE on the
application process of this system in the coming period.
“At the current stage, NRAA is working on preparing ‘Private Document Management Sys-tem’ for the companies which
the government contributes to with 25 per cent or more. We are proud of the achievements made through the eff orts of of-fi cials from various government bodies. This support has con-tributed to the completion of the system in several bodies.”
Regulatory frameworksOn his part, Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, chief executive offi cer of Public Establishment for Indus-trial Estates said, “NRAA has performed great eff orts in coordi-nation with the offi cials at PEIE to complete this project. Prior to the approval of the system, PEIE has undertaken all legal and regu-latory frameworks related to the system. The system shall use ad-vanced techniques that ease the access to the documents prompt-ly and ensure their preservation.”
P R I V A T E D O C U M E N T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M
SME fund supports small businessesTimes News Service
MUSCAT: In its fi rst year of full operation, SME Development Fund (SMEF) has promoted their products well and so far 74 deals fall under its nurturing plan.
Subsidised interest refund is made to customers at the end of every 12th month of their tenor. The net interest paid by eligible small and medium enterprises is a very attractive four per cent per annum, on a reducing balance ba-sis. Eligible SMEs are off ered fi -nance at subsidised interest rate.
At a special function, Saad Mubarak Al Mahri, chairman and Tojomon Joseph, chief executive offi cer, Al Saaj Al Abiyad Trading & Contracting Company (ASAAT-
CO) received the fi rst installment of the interest refund from SMEF.
Saad Mubarak Al Mahri said that his company had, with SMEFs accounting support, been able to review the internal accounting procedures and provide necessary advice to streamline the account-ing and operating processes.
He appreciated this service be-ing made available to SMEs by the Fund and encouraged other SMEs to avail the service.
Raphael V. Parambi, chief exec-utive offi cer, SMEF indicated that the key element of the support be-ing provided by SMEF, to eligible SMEs was by way of its nurturing service, comprising accounting support, free software, monitoring and mentoring.
S M E D E V E L O P M E N T F U N D
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: The Private Document Management
System at PEIE has been approved in cooperation with National
Records and Archives Authority. - Supplied picture
Muscat Securities Market. – Times fi le picture
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Jaguar Land Rover, MHD markQueen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday
MUSCAT: Jaguar Land Rover and Mohsin Haider Darwish, the au-tomotive brand’s offi cial retailer partner in the Sultanate of Oman, partnered in the celebrations of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday organised by the British Embassy.
The event was organised at the Port Sultan Qaboos on April 19 to coincide with the arrival of the
world famous Cunard liner The Queen Elizabeth in Muscat.
Exclusive eventAn exclusive event was organ-ised in an air conditioned tent on berth 1/2 of the port with the liner serving as a majestic back drop. More than 200 guests comprising VIPs, government offi cials, representatives of the British and Omani business com-munities and Omani graduates of British educational establish-ments were present at the event, says a press release.
The event was themed as one of the British street parties which historically served to commemo-rate momentous events, such as VE Day at the end of World War II or the Queen’s Jubilees. Millions took part in street parties in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. The tradition continued for years with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, the wedding of Prince Wil-liam and Kate Middleton in April 2011 and the Queen’s Diamond Ju-bilee in June 2012.
Speaking on the occasion Jon Wilks, British ambassador to
Oman said: “Today we are cel-ebrating Her Majesty’s long reign and the great, historic relations between Great Britain and the Sultanate of Oman. But we are also turning to the future, confi -dent that our two countries will remain committed to each other in a relationship of growing impor-tance. We wish long life to Their Majesties Sultan Qaboos bin Said and Queen Elizabeth. What better setting to do it, than in Port Sultan Qaboos alongside the Cunard liner The Queen Elizabeth at an exciting time for the future vision of tour-ism in Oman with the country’s planned development of the port as the Sultanate’s showcase tour-ism and leisure venue.”
The UK’s leading manufacturer of premium luxury vehicles, Jag-uar Land Rover, prides itself not only on fi rst-class quality, innova-tion and technology, but also on be-ing the only automotive manufac-turer to hold all 3 Royal Warrants.
Dating back to 1951, Jaguar and Land Rover were each granted their fi rst royal warrants shortly before The Queen’s accession. The 1953 Land Rover Series One Royal
Review was the fi rst bespoke Roy-al Land Rover.
Ten cars of this series were used for many public appearances dur-ing the six-month, 44,000 mile tour of the Commonwealth which The Queen undertook soon after her Coronation.
The Range Rover, Range Rover Sport SVR and the Discovery Sport along with the Jaguar XF, XE and the F-TYPE were displayed promi-nently at the celebrations organ-ised at the Port Sultan Qaboos.
Commenting on the event’s turnout, David Aziz, CEO- Auto-motive Products, MHD, said: “The Jaguar Land Rover brands have a very strong relationship with the people of Oman and have contin-ued to enjoy strong performance here over the years. We are dedi-cated on further developing this relationship and maintaining our success with the launch of new models including the all-new Jag-uar F-Pace SUV in the month of June 2016.”
The birthday celebrations event culminated with the sailing of the Cunard liner The Queen Elizabeth for its next port of call.
The event was
organised recently
at Port Sultan Qaboos
to coincide with the
arrival of the world
famous Cunard liner
The Queen Elizabeth
in Muscat
MUSCAT: Oman’s corporate lead-ers and infl uential policy makers will explore the potential of gov-ernment’s diversifi cation drive for strengthening the business envi-ronment in the country and creat-ing vital opportunities for Omani businessmen, entrepreneurs and SMEs, at OER Business Summit 2016 & Top 20 Awards, to be held on May 11 at Grand Hyatt Muscat.
Nima Abu-Wardeh, the pre-senter of the BBC World News weekly fi nancial programme Middle East Business Report, will moderate the panel discussions. Over 250 movers and shakers from Oman’s corporate sector are expected to attend the event, says a press release.
The recent sharp decline in the oil price has undoubtedly altered the economic outlook for the GCC economies as a whole and Oman in particular. Low oil prices since the summer of 2014 are hurting corporates, states and countries alike, even more so in view of what may yet be a prolonged pe-riod of low oil prices. Oil-based economies including Oman have begun diversifying their revenue
streams to other sectors, moving the economy away from oil for several years.
What is the potential of gov-ernment’s diversifi cation drive for strengthening the business environment and in creating vi-tal opportunities for Omani busi-nessmen and entrepreneurs? Will the challenges posed by a low oil price environment im-pact the government’s diver-sification drive? And will the government have the tenacity and sustenance to pursue infra-structure development with sig-nifi cantly low earnings in the long run? Want to get insights into the new economic imperative and where the economy is headed in 2016 and beyond, as well as on how the government is positioned to sustain its infrastructure and social spending?
Paper presentationsOrganised by Oman Economic Review (OER), one of the Sultan-ate’s premium business maga-zines, and held under the theme ‘The Diversifi cation Imperative’, the summit includes various pa-
per presentations by experts and incisive panel discussions on the imperative of diversifi cation for the Sultanate’s economy. The summit which will look into the opportunities for Omani busi-nessmen, entrepreneurs and SMEs brought up by the govern-ment’s renewed commitment to economic diversifi cation will cover a wide range of topics such as: ICV in a $30 per barrel envi-ronment, promoting small and medium enterprises: opportuni-ties and challenges, harnessing the potential of industries, ports, freezones and tourism etc.
“OER Business Summit 2016 will bring Oman’s businesses face-to-face with the global, re-gional and national macroeco-nomic trends, and will off er deep-er insights on the diversifi cation imperative from the upper ech-elons of Omani policy making and captains of the industry. The drop in oil price is an opportunity to focus on diversifi cation, and the summit will explore the way for-ward for various businesses and the Omani economy in general,” said Alpana Roy, executive vice
president, United Media Services, the publisher of OER.
ahli bank is the strategic partner of OER Business Summit 2016 & Top 20 Awards. BMW and Shell Oman Marketing Company are the associate partners of the event. Oman Cables, Oman Data Park and Oman LNG are the support sponsors, while Takaful Oman is the Islamic insurance partner. Taageer Finance and Al Jarwani Group are the support partners. Al Madina Logistics is the logis-tic partner. Times of Oman and Al Shabiba are media partners and Mazoon Printing is the print part-ner, while Bloomberg Business Week-Middle East is the knowl-edge partner of the event.
The OER Top 20 awards cel-ebrate the excellence in Oman’s corporate world. Modelled on the Fortune 500, the OER Top 20 is Oman Economic Review's annual ranking of the Sultanate’s Top 20 listed companies. Starting in 2003, the Top 20 has evolved into an authoritative barometer of Oman Inc’s performance and un-derscores the strength and resil-ience of Oman’s economy.
T O P 2 0 A W A R D S
Shifa Al Jazeera provides fi nancial support to Kerala temple tragedy victimsINDIA: The compensation pro-claimed by Dr K. T. Rabebul-lah, chairman, Shifa Al Jazeera Group, was distributed to the Puttingal temple tragedy victims and family members at a function held in Kerala, India.
The programme held at Gov-ernment LPS Auditorium Kotta-puram, Kerala, was attended by K. P. Kurup, chairman, Kollam Cor-poration, K. P. Muhammed Kutty, chairman, Advisory Committee (Shifa Al Jazeera), Shaji Aripra, group director, Ashraf Vengatt, CEO (Riyadh), Muhammed Sha-kir, CEO (Oman), locals and the
grieving family members, says a press release.
Prominent members from po-litical parties, representatives of social welfare organisations, Shahjahan (Trivandrum), Asees Karinjapady, Iqbal Vengoor and Muhammed (Kollam) also at-tended the function. The mes-sage from Rabebullah was read at the function by Satish, vice chairman, Corporate Communi-cations. He has also off ered job opportunities for capable fam-ily members of the tragedy apart from a aid of Rs50,000 (approx. OMR288.52) per family.
F I N A N C I A L A I D
Maisarah opens new branch in Al Khuwair
MUSCAT: As part of its strategic expansion of its branch network across the Sultanate, Maisarah Islamic Banking Services recently celebrated the offi cial opening of its 7th branch in Al Khuwair.
The event was held at the newly opened branch under the auspices of Majeed bin Mohammed Al Ra-was, Media adviser at the Ministry of Information. The ceremony was also attended by Abdul Hakeem Omar Al Ojaili, acting CEO of BankDhofar, Faisal Hamad Al Wa-haibi, chief retail banking offi cer, Ismail Jama Bait Isihaq, fi nancial controller at Maisarah Islamic
Banking Services, as well as mem-bers of BankDhofar and Maisa-rah’s executive management, staff , guests and senior government offi -cials, says a press release.
In a statement during the event, Jamsheed Hamza, Maisarah’s head of Retail, said: “The branch has started serving our customers and today we are celebrating the offi cial commencement of its operations. As part of our strategic expansion plan, we aim to provide Sharia-compliant products and services to cater to more customers in diff er-ent parts of Oman. We aspire to ful-fi l the market demand for Islamic
fi nance solutions and Sharia-com-pliant products and services.”
“The new branch is conveniently located in Al Khuwair commercial area and it is easily accessible for customers from diff erent parts of Muscat. The dedicated and trained members of staff work constantly to meet customers’ individual banking needs and requirements for Islamic fi nance products and services,” added Jamsheed.
Maisarah off ers a wide range of Shariah-compliant fi nancial solu-tions, products and services that cater to the needs of its retail and corporate customers.
I S L A M I C B A N K I N G S E R V I C E S
'Rajanigandha' to mesmerise Muscat audience on May 14MUSCAT: ‘Rajanigandha’, a musi-cal programme is set to amaze the music lovers of Oman in the pres-ence of legendary Indian playback singers P. Susheela and Mano.
Known for showcasing bril-liant talent and entertaining performances with the celebri-ties, 'Rajanigandha' celebrates its 10th episode of its musical even-ing with the old and new entrants on May 14 at the Le Grande Hall of Al Falaj Hotel, Muscat, says a press release.
The organisers will be honour-ing P. Susheela, fondly called as ‘Sushhelamma’ who has contin-ued to dazzle the music lovers with her mellifl uous voice for the last 50 years. She is the proud re-cipient of National Awards for Best Playback Singer fi ve times and numerous State Awards and her name is in the Guinness Book of World Records and the Asia Book of Records.
She has sung more than 40,000 songs in various Indian languages namely Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Oriya, San-skrit, Tulu and Bangla.
Mano, a versatile playback singer, voice over artist, actor, producer, television anchor and music composer will be perform-ing with the popular local talents.
He is the recipient of several awards such as Nandi Awards from the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu. He has recorded more than 30,000 songs in various languages such as Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Oriya including Bol-
lywood movies. He has performed over 3,000 live concerts across the continents. Notably, he has recorded 2,000 songs with the legendary maestro Ilayaraja.
The organisers promise to en-tertain the audience with old melodies, contemporary and semi classical multilingual ver-sions. The event will be a feat to the wide spectrum of audience with the celebrities singing along with the local participants such as Neha Sasikumar, Akhilesh Rad-hakrishnan, Devika Sreekumar, Malavika Menon, Priyadarshini Ashok, Aishwarya Ajith, Karthika Muraleedharan, Saakshi Bhaga-
vath, Anjana Ajith, Shraddha Venkat, Mahadev Sudhin, Sreerag Menon and Revathy Ramesh who have already proved their mettle in various stage shows including pre-vious episodes of 'Rajanigandha'.
This is a nonprofi t event brought to you by Muscat Unique Diamond Entertainment to provide qual-ity entertainment for the wide Indian Diaspora and to encourage the younger talents and showcase their ability to share and sing along with the celebrities. The media partner for this event is Times of Oman and offi cial carrier is Oman Air. Entries to this event are restricted by invitation only.
M U S I C A L P R O G R A M M E
'Rajanigandha' celebrates 10th episode of its musical
evening with the old and new entrants on May 14
at the Le Grande Hall of Al Falaj Hotel
OER Business Summit set for May 11
B6 T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
ROUND-UP
‘Summer Surprises’ on Toyota till April 30
MUSCAT: Time is running out and customers should hurry and make the most of the Toyota benefi ts.
“This is the best time ever to go for the Toyota you have always wanted and enjoy many benefi ts that come along with Toyota’s de-lightful off er,” says a Toyota enthu-siast to his friend, “Wait no more
and make the most of it because the campaign will end soon.”
According to the spokesperson, “We are off ering our customers benefi ts that include cash gifts up to OMR1,100 or a service package for up to 3 years/30,000km or in-surance for one whole year!”
The Summer Surprises off er
is available on select models and model grades and up to April 30. Applicable for all purchases except those made by government organi-sations and ministries. All benefi ts
are model specifi c and may vary accordingly, says a press release.
Another enthusiast readily agrees, “I have told my friends and family members that they should make the most of Toyota’s Sum-mer Surprises campaign and enjoy the benefi ts available during its entire duration..!”
Indeed, for anybody looking at purchasing a new Toyota, the ex-citing benefi ts being off ered make a compelling consideration.
In Oman, Toyota’s outstanding product quality is supported by the nationwide parts and service net-work of Saud Bahwan Automotive. No wonder then that today, Toyota is one of the most trusted and well-known brands.
Indeed, for anybody looking to purchase
a new Toyota, the exciting benefi ts being
off ered make a compelling consideration
Best choice vehicles
available at Best Cars
MUSCAT: With austerity meas-ures being the norm of the day, globally as well as locally, buying a pre-owned car from Best Cars makes so much sense.
This is where Best Cars opens new doors. “Step into our show-room and you will see that we house one of the biggest selec-tions of pre-owned vehicles in Oman at our conveniently lo-cated main facility in Wattayah,” said a spokesperson.
“A vast choice is off ered to cus-tomers from some of the most prominent automobile brands - Lexus, Toyota, Ford, Kia, Daihat-su, to name a few. Come over and take a look. You might agree that the best deal is here,” he added.
At Best Cars, there is a custom-er friendly atmosphere. Once the customer selects a vehicle, Best Cars goes a step ahead and off ers attractive fi nance and instalment options, thereby making the own-ership process hassle-free and memorable, says a press release.
“I like the fact that at any given point of time all over Oman, Best Cars off ers a choice of vehicles from all brands,” a loyal patron is known to have said, “Models are prominently displayed with price and features, ready for test-drive and sale.”
In addition to the main show-room in Muscat, Best Cars also has 13 branches all over Oman. Best Cars is also present on the web through the award-winning website ‘www.bestcarsoman.com’
The website ‘www.bestcarso-man.com’ lists complete details of the vehicle, including the loca-tion. The customer has the option to see the images of the vehicle also. If the vehicle of choice is not available; one can post the re-quirement in the “Register your
requirement” section. During the daily update of the
website, if a vehicle matches the customer’s requirements, the webmaster sends an e-mail alert to the customer informing him of the availability of his choice. If one’s requirement is to sell a vehicle, the website has an option where one can register the details of the vehicle.
“All our cars are fully checked by our trained team of profes-sional technicians, giving cus-tomers the confi dence that they are making a good investment. With these added benefi ts, it’s no wonder that more people are turning to Best Cars,” added the spokesperson.
In short, buying a car at Best Cars off ers complete peace of mind.
P R E - O W N E D V E H I C L E S
DUBAI: Twenty14 Holdings, the hospitality investment arm of Lulu Group International, an-nounced that its fi rst property in Dubai, the Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay, has been awarded the ‘Leading New Hotel’ award at the inaugural Leaders in Hospital-ity Awards 2016, held at The St. Regis Dubai recently.
Despite only being open since November, Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay, the cosmopolitan hotel with a German touch is al-ready making a huge impact on the UAE’s hospitality landscape. Priding itself on impeccable effi -ciency and service, Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay was voted head and shoulders above the competition, leading in its catego-ry on concept, service, facilities, F&B and diversity in off ering.
Commenting on the achieve-ment, Adeeb Ahamed, managing director of Twenty14 Holdings and the owner of the property, said: “We are extremely proud and honoured to have Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay, Dubai recog-nised as the Leading New Hotel at the inaugural Leaders in Hospi-tality Awards 2016. This is a true pat on the back for the dedication and passion that the entire team has put forth in making the hotel a standout property in such a short span of time.”
Puneet Chhatwal, CEO of
Steigenberger Hotels AG: “We have always strived from our incep-tion to stand out from the crowd through our unique concepts, in-spiring campaigns and exquisite standards of hospitality. We will continue to uphold our position as the destination of choice for our guests and this award inspires us to keep improving our services and ensuring that we off er an experi-ence that is second to none.”
He also added: “Many thanks to our exceptional team – especially to Siegfried Nierhaus, vice president Steigenberger Middle East, and general manager Eirik Bergvoll.
The Steigenberger Hotel Busi-ness Bay, Dubai is Twenty14 Hold-ings’ fi rst property in the UAE. The fi ve-star hotel, overlooking the upcoming Dubai Canal, is located in the heart of the city at Business Bay and is just a stone’s throw away from the iconic Burj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building, the Dubai Mall and Downtown Dubai. The 365-room property, including 28 suites designed for business and city leisure travellers, provides un-paralleled views of the Dubai sky-line and off ers fi rst-class amenities and exceptional service. The hotel also off ers great dining options in-cluding Bayside Restaurant & Ter-race, Swim & Tonic Pool Bar and Das Café Lobby Café, along with the Steigenberger Spa and state-of-the-art health and fi tness centre.
L E A D I N G N E W H O T E L
Geely Emgrand GT boasts of high production quality and designMUSCAT: The 2016 China Car of the Year, the Geely Emgrand GT is a true genius.
Designed by the former Volvo design boss Peter Horbury, af-ter Geely Auto’s parent company bought Volvo in 2010, the Emgrand GT is a shining example of a Chi-na-made car that boasts of high production quality and design, a competitive price and worldwide popularity, says a press release.
It is no accident that this car, known as the Geely GC9 in its home market, was named the 2016 China Car of the Year, after beat-ing major international rivals in a tough competition. This was not only the fi rst time that a Chinese car won the award, it was also the fi rst time one had even entered.
A senior spokesperson of Tow-ell Auto Centre (TAC), the sole distributors of Geely range of ve-hicles in Oman, commented: “The Emgrand GT #SuperSedan is the ground breaking model of Geely
that off ers an excellent package of quality, comfort, design, safety, performance along with a reason-able price. It has excellent and high quality equipment levels – an area that Chinese cars usually excel in. Available in Oman with 2.4L en-gine, the Emgrand GT meets Geely Total Safety Management System requirements and puts safety at the forefront with regards to both passive and active safety systems. This gives the driver and the pas-sengers complete peace of mind at all times.”
Launched in Oman in January 2016, the Emgrand GT #SuperSe-dan is a four-door ‘fastback’ sedan with an aggressive profi le, an over-all length of 4,956mm and wheel-base of 2,850mm, giving an elegant and solid stance. It features an artistic innovation that borrows heavily from classical Chinese aesthetic needs and international styling philosophy. The distinc-tive side shoulder line arches over
the front wheel and then sweeps cleanly around the vehicle’s length, combining a sense of speed with character and elegance. The wide shoulder surface gives a strong and confi dent feel. The headlights and grille form a unifi ed graphic, with the arched curve of the grille inspired by the distinctive profi le of historic Chinese stone bridges.
The graceful and modern in-terior design of the Emgrand GT refl ects a mix of technology and quality. The steering wheel, door armrests and front control display have a lightweight and elegant ap-pearance. From the design concept to the manufacturing, all Geely models have been developed in accordance with European stand-ards and by using global techno-logical resources.
By bringing the Geely range to the Sultanate, TAC has reinforced its commitment to provide high-quality products and services to its customers in Oman.
C O M P E T I T I V E P R I C E
I like the fact that at
any given point of time
all over Oman, Best
Cars offers a choice
of vehicles from all
brands. Models are
prominently displayed
with price and features
A Best Cars customer
Twenty14 Holdings-owned Dubai property receives coveted award
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‘Destination Germany’ tourism festival opens with record visitors
MUSCAT: Destination Ger-many, a week-long German tour-ism festival brought to Oman by Bahwan Tourism, in partner-ship with Southwest Germany Tourist Board, German National Tourist Offi ce (GNTO) and Qatar Airways, opened on April 23 at Bahwan Tourism offi ce, Al Rawaq
Building, Al Qurum. The fi rst day of the week-long
festival saw a huge turnout of visi-tors throughout the day; the festi-val runs until April 28 from 9am to 6pm daily.
Franz Josef Dicken, deputy head of Mission, German Embassy in Oman and Amal Suhail Bahwan, managing director and board member, Suhail Bahwan Group, together cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the festival in the presence of Sulaiman Al Harthy, deputy chief executive offi cer, Meethaq Islamic banking, prominent busi-nessmen, VIPs and members of the press, says a press release.
After a tour of the festival, Dicken said, “Germany and Oman have a very long and friendly re-lationship and we have seen close to 20% increase in the number of health and tourism visas issued to visitors from Oman to Germany in 2015 compared to 2014 and in 2016, we are already seeing a 24 per cent increase over 2015 num-
bers. This clearly indicates that Germany is increasingly becoming a popular destination among Oma-nis and residents.”
He further added, “We are glad that Southwest Germany Tourist Board and German National Tour-ist Offi ce have joined hands with Bahwan Tourism to showcase the
beauty of our country for poten-tial visitors, especially the South-west region aptly referred to as the Sunny Side of Germany due to its many attractions.”
Amal said, “While Germany does enjoy a special place among residents and citizens of Oman with increasing number of tourists
visiting Germany every year, it has not yet been explored to its full po-tential. Through ‘Destination Ger-many’ festival Bahwan Tourism is aiming to highlight the many at-tractions of this beautiful country. I am very pleased to see the keen interest of Southwest Germany Tourist Board, German National Tourist Offi ce (GNTO) and Qatar Airways to bring exciting holiday package options to the residents of Oman, especially to those who are planning their summer vacation.”
Joe Rajadurai, country manager - Qatar Airway’s said, “We are very pleased to partner with Bahwan Tourism, the number one travel agent in Oman for this festival. This event gives people of Oman a chance to visit Germany through Qatar Airways’ three gateways Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, and also connect to over 5,600 cities in Germany with our German Rail partner Deutsche Bahn.
“Travellers planning for sum-mer vacations should take advan-
tage of this off er and make the best of their summer vacation.”
Visitors to the festival can meet the tourism experts from Germa-ny to learn more about the many attractions the region has to off er like the Mercedes Benz museum, romantic town of Heidelberg, the famous international resort city of Baden-Baden, the Black Forest highlands and Lake Constance. For thrill seekers, Europa Park which has been rated the world’s best theme parks twice in a row is must-see!
There are many exciting prizes to be won at the event like free tickets to Frankfurt on Qatar Airways and many complimen-tary hotel stay vouchers at Stutt-gart, Black Forest Highlands and Europa Park. Arrangements have been made to keep the young ones busy through fun activities at the event while the parents meet the Bahwan Tourism con-sultants to plan their next dream holiday to Germany.
Visitors to the
festival can meet the
tourism experts from
Germany to learn
more about the many
attractions the region
has to off er
Meethaq honours Omani poet on winning Katara poetry contestMUSCAT: Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, in line with its com-mitment to support and honour national achievements, felicitated Omani poet Jamal Al Mulla on winning the prestigious ‘Katara Prize for Prophet’s Poets’ on the best poem in praise of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Over 800 poets from the GCC, Arab and Islamic countries par-ticipated in the fi rst-of-its-kind competition organised by Katara, the cultural village foundation in Qatar. In the fi nal round, 30 poets vied for the top honours.
The honouring ceremony at Bank Muscat head offi ce was at-tended by Sulaiman Al Harthy, deputy chief executive offi cer – Is-lamic Banking, and senior bank of-fi cials, says a press release.
Congratulating the unique achievement, Sulaiman Al Har-thy said: “Oman is proud of Ja-mal Al Mulla’s achievement, which refl ects the high literary competence and religious values portrayed through the winning poem in honour of Prophet Mu-hammad (pbuh).
“The Meethaq gesture comes as part of Bank Muscat social re-sponsibility initiatives, reiterating the commitment to encourage and promote excellence in all fi elds
contributing to the country’s pro-gress and development.”
Jamal Al Mulla thanked Meethaq for the encouraging ges-ture and said: “I am deeply hon-oured to win this recognition for Oman. The Sultanate under the leadership of His Majesty Sul-tan Qaboos bin Said has recorded spectacular progress and develop-ment in all fi elds during the past 46 years. In the fi eld of Islamic values, Oman preserves distinct Arab-Islamic heritage, which is deeply
revered and honoured.”The ‘Katara Prize for Prophet’s
Poets’ was aimed at highlighting the vital role of poetry in Arab her-itage and tradition, encouraging youth to acquire profound Islamic values, preserve Arab-Islamic her-itage and pass on these values from generation to generation.
The jury composed of academ-ics and specialists in Arabic lan-guage who referred the short-list-ed entries to a higher committee to choose the winners.
‘ P R I Z E F O R P R O P H E T ’ S P O E T S ’
Ooredoo signs pact with ITAMUSCAT: Ooredoo signed an agreement with the Information Technology Authority (ITA) to build and operate the Omani gov-ernment’s Next Generation High Speed Network (NGN).
Leveraging on Oman Broadband Company‘s fi bre network, the new world-class NGN gigabit speed and high capacity bandwidth will deliver better public services by integrating and connecting over 60 ministries under one fast, reli-able and secure platform, allowing for greater effi ciency and data-sharing, says a press release.
Launched in 2003 with the vi-sion of transforming Oman into a knowledge-based economy by 2020, the Sultanate’s e-govern-
ment strategy has since increased digital literacy, facilitated more services and built the local ca-pacities. Over the years, Ooredoo has been working closely with the government, sharing its knowl-edge and expertise to advance the Sultanate’s ICT development strategy, a decade-long relation-ship that brought to light this lat-est fi ve year partnership.
Dr Salim bin Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, commented: “This agreement is a breakthrough in elevating and improving Oman’s Government Network, in line with the e.oman strategy’s aim to adapt to the rapid change in technology. Ensuring maximum speeds, enhanced security solu-
tions, as well as cost eff ective in-tegrated services will ultimately improve the government e-ser-vices provided to citizens.”
Greg Young, CEO of Ooredoo, said, “Being chosen from a fi eld of experienced and expert telecoms companies to build the backbone for Oman’s e-government strategy is an honour and a testament to the drive and ambition of Ooredoo, as we establishes ourselves as the Government of Oman’s telecom-munications partner of choice. The investment in this NGN is a clear demonstration of the coun-try’s innovative and forward look-ing ICT strategy, which supports current needs while preparing for the demands of the future.”
N E X T G E N E R A T I O N H I G H S P E E D N E T W O R K
Kims to host expert general surgery
consultant today and tomorrow
MUSCAT: Kims Oman Hospi-tal is hosting Dr Stephen An-gamuthu, visiting consultant general surgeon, to be part of Kims Oman Hospital’s medical team, today and tomorrow, and will be available to provide his services at Kims Oman Hospi-tal on a monthly basis.
Coming from Royal Bahrain Hospital, Dr Stephan is an ex-pert general surgery consult-ant, who has more than 10 years of professional experience in general surgery, and has con-ducted skilfully and safely more than 1,500 laparoscopic and advanced laparoscopic colec-tomies surgeries. Moreover, Dr Stephan has special interest in performing bariatric surgeries.
“Obesity always leads to
a number of other chronic health conditions, which are called co-morbidities. Some examples are cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, type II diabetes, pulmonary dysfunc-tion, osteoarthritis, gall blad-der disease, cancer (breast and colon), and many others,” said Dr Stephen.
Commenting on Dr Ste-phen’s visit, Dr Hussam Ak-oum, chief operating officer of KOH, said: “Kims Oman Hospi-tal has invited Dr. Stephen An-gamuthu for his distinguished expertise in various general surgery specialties. This in-vitation comes as part of the hospital’s commitment in pro-viding our patients with the best practitioners.”
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Toyota Chairman honours Saud Bahwan Auto with prestigious ‘Excellence Awards’
MUSCAT: T. Uchiyamada, Chair-man, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), at a special event hon-oured Mohammed Saud Bahwan, Chairman, Saud Bahwan Group (SBA), with three prestigious awards for the fourth consecutive year in recognition of the excel-lence of SBA operations.
The Toyota Chairman, who was
in Oman on a brief visit, expressed his admiration for Oman.
“The Sultanate is really a very beautiful country. What strikes me most is the dramatic and varied landscape of the country and the warmth and hospitality of the peo-ple of Oman,” he said.
“The vision and leadership of Oman’s great leader His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has led to rapid growth and international recognition of Oman. What is truly remarkable is that signifi -cant economic growth has been achieved while retaining the his-toric charm and cultural heritage of the country,” he added.
During the awards presenta-tion ceremony, Uchiyamada paid glowing tributes to Mohammed
Saud Bahwan while presenting the ‘Gold Marketing Award’.
“Thanks to the strong and dy-namic leadership of the Chairman, Toyota has achieved remarkable sales performance yet again and retained its dominant position. I congratulate SBA for the excellent achievement under very challeng-ing conditions,” he said.
Complimenting SBA on its customer-centric focus and excel-lent performance in after-sales support, Uchiyamada remarked: “I take great pleasure in awarding you the ‘Outstanding Customer Service Award’ for your signifi cant achievements in Parts and Service activities to further enhance cus-tomer satisfaction.”
Further commending SBA for
the outstanding performance over the years and retaining its position as one of the best distributors, he remarked: “I am delighted to now present you with the most pres-tigious ‘Overall Diamond Market-ing Award’. Congratulations! You are one of the select few Toyota distributors in the world to have achieved this distinction.”
Accepting the awards, Moham-med Saud Bahwan said: “I take this opportunity to acknowledge the close cooperation and excellent support extended to us by TMC, without which these achieve-ments would not have been possi-ble, for which I convey my sincere thanks. These prestigious awards mean a lot to us at Saud Bahwan Automotive. I humbly dedicate
them to our staff and all our cus-tomers, whose loyalty has made Toyota the most admired brand in the country.”
World class facilitiesEarlier in the day, Uchiyamada toured the various facilities of the group. He showered praise on the ultra-modern Toyota and Lexus showrooms and service centres in Muscat, which are one of the big-gest in the world.
The Toyota Chairman appreci-ated that SBA has tailored its vehi-cle servicing systems and capabili-ties according to Toyota’s ‘3S Spirit’ (Seikaku, Shinsetsu, Shinrai:: Pre-cision, Kindness, and Reliability). Today, SBA has the world’s largest Toyota service facility in Muscat
and a network of service centres spread all across Oman.
A sophisticated Mega Body Shop in Muscat undertakes body repairs/crash repairs employ-ing Toyota assembly line repair systems. SBA also has a state-of-the-art central Parts Distribution Centre sprawling over 60,000 sq. metres which has consistently been ranked amongst the best in the world.
At the conclusion of his visit Uchiyamada remarked: “I am truly impressed … your facilities are not only world class but also amongst the biggest and the best!”
Uchiyamada’s visit to Oman is a true refl ection of the importance Toyota Motor Corporation attaches to this country.
During the awards
presentation
ceremony, T.
Uchiyamada,
Chairman, Toyota
Motor Corporation
paid glowing tributes
to Mohammed
Saud Bahwan while
presenting the ‘Gold
Marketing Award’
Bank Muscat partners with CBC
MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the fl ag-ship fi nancial services provider in the Sultanate, and Commercial Bank of Ceylon (CBC) have joined hands to launch mobile banking remittance service to Sri Lanka.
Abdullah Tamman Al Mashani, deputy general manager – Insti-tutional Sales & Products Devel-opment, signed the agreement on behalf of Bank Muscat and Palitha Perera, assistant general manager – Operations, signed on behalf of CBC, in the presence of J. H. Liyanage, Minister from the Embassy of Sri Lanka, Pradeep Banduwansa, chief manager, E-Banking CBC, management team members from Bank Muscat, and prominent Sri Lankan communi-ty members, says a press release.
With the new facility benefi ting 12,000-strong Sri Lankan com-munity in the Sultanate, Bank Muscat customers can make mo-bile banking remittances to Sri Lanka by direct credit to benefi -ciary account with CBC or credit to benefi ciary account with third party banks in Sri Lanka.
Al Mashani said: “Bank Mus-cat is delighted to join hands with CBC, facilitating value added ser-vices to customers, especially the Sri Lankan community in Oman. Bank Muscat is focused on ensur-ing market leading and state-of-the-art products and services for customers. The new remittance service to Sri Lanka reiterates the bank’s commitment to expand-ing world class banking services. The customer-centric strategy of the bank will continue to enhance value added services.”
Liyanage said: “We congratu-late the two leading banking in-
stitutions on the tie-up which is a boon for the Sri Lankan com-munity in Oman. The technology-driven secure remittance facility ensures convenience.”
Perera said: “Commercial Bank is proud to tie up with Bank Mus-cat for the remittance service. The synergy between the two leading banks will signifi cantly benefi t the Sri Lankan commu-nity in the Sultanate.”
In line with the ‘Let’s Do More’ vision and focus on innovation to provide a distinct banking experi-ence, the upgraded feature-rich mobile banking application by Bank Muscat facilitates unique services to do more banking from anywhere, anytime.
Winner of the coveted His Maj-esty Sultan Qaboos Award for the Best Public eService, Bank Muscat’s mBanking is Oman’s preferred mobile banking service with more than 350,000 regis-tered customers.
In keeping with the bank’s fo-cus to provide world class bank-ing products and services, espe-cially electronic services which spell convenience to customers, the mBanking service comple-ments the government’s eff orts in creating a digital society. Bank Muscat enjoys an edge in hi-tech products and services and the mBanking services in particular fulfi l the banking requirements of a young, tech-savvy generation.
The ‘anytime, anywhere’ mBanking has made banking truly mobile for the largest bank-ing family in Oman who can bank 24/7 ‘anytime, anywhere’. Notably, the mBanking applica-tion works on most of the mobile
phones and is customised for iP-hones, Blackberry and Android phones with simple icons and menus. The mBanking applica-tion is available in both English and Arabic.
Robust security features have been built into the ‘trusted’ mBank-ing application. Data exchange from this application is encrypted based on best industry standards and dual factor authentication.
Driven by the latest technologi-cal features and off ering a wide range of options, mBanking pre-sents a unique facility from Bank Muscat that lets customers bank at convenience from ‘anywhere, anytime’. For people constantly on the move, mBanking service is a boon. The remittance service will be soon available on Internet banking, with promotional off ers from time to time.
Established in 1969, Commer-cial Bank is the largest private bank in Sri Lanka and the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the top 1,000 banks of the world for fi ve successive years. CBC is the fi rst private bank in Sri Lanka to achieve Rs10 billion profi t and surpass Rs500 billion assets.
Commercial Bank’s superior fi nancial stability and strength is emphasised by the fact that it has the largest market capitalisation among all listed banks and fi nan-cial institutions in Sri Lanka and the highest assets base among all private banks. The bank operates the country’s single largest ATM network and has a strategically located island-wide network of branches. CBC operates 18 outlets in Bangladesh and is the third big-gest foreign bank in the country.
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Al Harthy’s ORT in top four Pro-Am fi nish at Blancpain Endurance Cup
MUSCAT: Ahmad Al Harthy produced one of the very best per-formances of his racing career in round one of the Blancpain Endur-ance Cup at Monza on Sunday — an exceptional drive during the fi rst third of the three-hour race putting the Oman Racing Team (ORT) in contention for the Pro-Am podium.
In the battle for a richly de-served top three class fi nish for the bulk of the contest, the No.44 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 ultimately ended the fi rst race of the season a nonetheless competi-tive fourth in Pro-Am and 13th
position overall to mark a strong start to the 2016 campaign.
Ahmad, partnered by Jonny Adam and Devon Modell at Oman Racing Team powered by Motor-base this season, was very pleased with the strength of the perfor-mance throughout Sunday after-noon’s race at the Italian venue and personally delighted with the excellent overtaking he delivered.
In particular, the Oman Minis-try of Sports Aff airs, Oman Air, Na-tional Bank of Oman (NBO), Barr Al Jissah and Omantel-supported driver highlighted the consistency and reliability which enabled the trio to mount a podium bid and says such a strong start to the sea-son is precisely what they wanted.
“Personally, that was one of my strongest performances — I en-joyed every minute!” the 34-year-old Omani said. “It was great to pass so many cars during my stint and Devon and Jonny both did a
great job too. The podium was so close for us, but the Ferraris were just too fast this weekend. We’d have taken fourth place though at the start of the weekend.
“The BOP (Balance of Perfor-mance) for all of the cars is much better this season, though, and means we can actually overtake which wasn’t the case in 2015. I have to say a massive thank you to the team for giving us a great car, and to all of the sponsors for giving us such incredible support.”
Beginning round one of the sea-son from sixth in Pro-Am, 13th position overall, after a strong fi -nal run in qualifying from Adam earlier in the day, Ahmad took the opening stint and from the rolling start he positioned himself well into the notorious fi rst chicane and avoided any problems.
Into the outright top 10 and fi fth in Pro-Am as the race entered lap two, the Aston Martin Middle
East and North Africa ambassador raced impressively against a va-riety of ‘Pro Cup’ cars and swiftly climbed the order further – taking ninth overall and third in class on lap fi ve with a superb pass.
Ahmad closed up to, and swarmed all over the back of, the No. 1 Team WRT Audi and after the duo each gained a place due to a car pitting the Omani made his move on the outside line into the fi rst chicane on lap 12 to brilliantly grab seventh overall. Although edged back a couple of laps later at the Parabolica as the cars ran in a tight bunch, Ahmad took seventh again on lap 16.
Next in his sights was second place in Pro-Am, sixth overall, and after catching the target car he moved ahead into lap 30. Hold-ing second in class and sixth in the outright classifi cation, Ahmad’s stint came to an end at the conclu-sion of lap 31 where he pitted to
hand the Aston over to Modell.At the completion of the fi rst
round of pit-stops, Modell held third in Pro-Am and a top 15 plac-ing overall and during the second hour he retained the class podium position. Staying out slightly longer than some rivals, Modell briefl y moved up into the Pro-Am lead and sixth overall before serving the fi nal stop to hand the car over to Adam.
The Scotsman took to the track with around 57 minutes remain-ing on the clock and progressed from fourth in class and 16th overall to end the race 13th overall and fourth in Pro-Am. Adam did climb back into the class podium placings shortly into his stint, and spent the majority of his run bot-tled up behind two dueling Audis, but into the fi nal half hour he was edged back to fourth in Pro-Am.
Next on the Blancpain Endur-ance Cup calendar is a visit to Sil-verstone Grand Prix Circuit in the
UK on May 14 and 15 for round two of the 2016 season.
Blancpain Endurance Cup Rd1 Monza Result: 1. Garage 59 – McLaren 650 S GT3 (Come Ledogar/Rob Bell/Shane Van Gisbergen); 2. HTP Motor-sport – Mercedes AMG GT3 (Dominik Baumann/Jazeman Jafaar/Maximilian Buhk); 3. Bentley Team M-Sport – Bent-ley Continental GT3 (Andy Soucek/Wolf-gang Reip/Maxime Soulet); 13. Oman Racing Team – Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Ahmad Al Harthy/Jonny Adam/Devon Modell).
Blancpain Endurance Cup Rd1 Monza – Pro-Am Cup Result: 1. Kessel Racing – Ferrari 488 GT3 (Michael Bron-iszewski/Alessandro Bonacini/Andrea Rizzoli); 2. AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GT3 (Giancarlo Fisichella/Lorenzo Bontem-pelli/Ishikawa Motoaki); 3. Black Pearl Racing – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (Steve Parrow/Alexander Mattschull/Daniel Keilwitz); 4. Oman Racing Team – Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Ahmad Al Harthy/Jonny Adam/Devon Modell).
In the battle for a
richly deserved
top three class
fi nish for the bulk
of the contest, the
No.44 Aston Martin
V12 Vantage GT3
ultimately ended
the fi rst race of the
season a nonetheless
competitive fourth
in Pro-Am and 13th
position overall
SUPERB SHOW: Ahmad Al Harthy, the Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa ambassador, raced
impressively against a variety of ‘Pro Cup’ cars at Monza. – Supplied photo
Personally, that was
one of my strongest
performances — I
enjoyed every minute!
Ahmad Al HarthyORT racer
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Oman Air aim to extend winning streak MUSCAT: High scores in Mus-cat boosted confi dence on board series leader Oman Air, but Qingdao’s conditions are famous-ly tricky and Act 2 of the 2016 Extreme Sailing Series is likely to be a tough contest where consist-ency will be the buzz word.
The Chinese Olympic venue is regarded as one of the most chal-lenging on the circuit so although Morgan Larson’s emphatic win in Oman, where they won more than 50 percent of all the races, has boosted their confi dence in the new GC32 class, they know they have their work cut out to main-tain a winning streak.
Conditions in Fushan Bay will make for some ‘dramatic’ racing, says Larson, with the breeze no-toriously unpredictable, both in strength and direction and fog a constant trial. Achieving consist-ency as quickly as possible will be more important than ever.
“Qingdao will throw some major challenges at us so we need to aim for consistency. These multihulls can be hard to direct and the course will be tight so in the shifty winds, it could be dramatic,” Larson said.
“We made a strong start in Mus-cat but we can’t rest on our laurels and with everyone still learning the boats so fast, we will defi nitely see some big improvements so hopefully we will stay ahead of the curve. The win in Muscat gives us the confi dence to believe we can achieve that.
“We are still learning about the
GC32s and in what winds we get the most from them – if someone can get foiling in the marginal wind conditions, they will get far ahead. I saw a long term forecast that looked windy which would be great.”
Oman Sail boats have had a mixed record in Qingdao over the
years refl ecting the randomness of the conditions but in the new GC32s, the secret to success most likely lies in making good starts in every race, according to Oman Air bowman Nasser Al Mashari who teams up once more with Pete Greenhalgh, Ed Smyth and
James Wierzbowski. “We worked hard on our starts in Muscat and it paid off ,” said Al Mashari. “If you can start well, it makes life easier over the rest of the course so even though this is a very diff erent race course in Qingdao, we are hoping for a good performance on our starts and fi rst leg and as ever will be aiming to win.”
In Muscat, Oman Air fi nished on the podium in 16 of the 19 races completed and claimed 10 out-right wins which gave them a lead by 33 points over Red Bull Sailing Team in second place and earned them maximum points on the overall leaderboard.
“We were very happy with our performance in Muscat, espe-cially after the run up where we were struggling with our boat speed and trimming,” explained Greenhalgh.
“Hopefully we can resume where we left off -- we will be pushing hard but between Mus-cat and Qingdao, everyone will have studied the videos so we are expecting the other teams to have made big improvements.
“In Qingdao the wind can be full on with big shifts so it could be tricky. We can see 50 degree shifts with 20 knots of wind on one side of the course and none on the oth-er but it’s the same for everyone and the best man always wins!”
Racing in Fushan Bay starts on April 29 with a day of open water racing before the teams take to the Stadium on April 30.
E X T R E M E S A I L I N G S E R I E S
ANOTHER ACT: Oman Air crew’s confi dence is boosted an excel-
lent show in Act 1 of the series in Muscat. – Supplied photo
SRH start favourites against SupergiantsHYDERABAD: On a roll after three consecutive wins, a resur-gent Sunrisers Hyderabad will start as overwhelming favourites against struggling Rising Pune Supergiants in an Indian Premier League match, here on Tuesday.
After losing two games in a row, Sunrisers turned their for-tunes around by posting com-prehensive wins against Mumbai Indians (by 7 wickets), Gujarat Lions (by 10 wickets) and Kings XI Punjab (by 5 wickets).
The Hyderabad outfi t is occu-pying the fourth spot in the eight-team standings with six points from fi ve games. On the contrary, Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Su-pergiants are languishing at the seventh spot with just two points from fi ve encounters.
Despite injuries to its key play-ers, including Yuvraj Singh, Ash-ish Nehra and Kane Williamson, the Hyderabad side has been on a high with the team clicking col-lectively in the last three games.
SRH captain and swashbuck-ling Australian batsman David Warner has been in great form and is presently the highest run scorer with 294 runs from fi ve games which includes four half centuries. Warner is just behind Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli who is lead-ing the chart with 367 runs from
fi ve games. But for SRH the big relief would be the return to form opener Shikhar Dhawan after a poor show in the fi rst three matches of the season. Dhawan regained his touch with unbeaten 53 against Gujarat Lions and 45 against Kings XI Punjab.
Other SRH batsmen, including Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan and wicket-keeper Naman Ojha, have also been making useful contributions for the side in cru-cial situations.
Despite the absence of the sea-soned Nehra, SRH bowlers have made an impact to make it diffi -cult for their rivals.
And come Tuesday, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be eager to break the sequence of reverses and get the Supergiants’ campaign back on track.
Having moved to Pune this year from the banned Chennai Super Kings, where he enjoyed great success, Dhoni will be keen to rep-licate that in his new jersey with a bit of help from his teammates.
For a team comprising Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Ajinkya Rahane, Thissara Perera besides Dhoni, such results are surpris-ing. Among the team’s overseas players Du Plessis has been among runs while Smith is to yet fi re in the tournament even though he got starts. — PTI
I P L P R E V I E WMI back to winning ways
MOHALI: Parthiv Patel shone with a breezy 58-ball 81 and pow-ered Mumbai Indians to a 25-run win over Kings XI Punjab whose campaign turned from bad to worse in the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, here on Monday.
Chasing a stiff target of 190, Kings XI Punjab were restricted to 164 for seven in the stipulated 20 overs. This was Mumbai Indians’ third win in seven outings, while the Punjab franchise suff ered its fi fth defeat in six appearances.
Invited to bat, Mumbai Indians rode on Patel’s knock, his best in IPL, and Ambati Rayudu’s 65 off 37 balls to record their highest score against Kings XI Punjab in the cash-rich league.
Jos Buttler blazed his way to 24 off 13 balls with the help of three fours and a six as the visitors post-ed a competitive 189 for six.
For Kings XI Punjab, Glenn Max-well fi nally found form as he top-scored with 56 off 39 balls, hitting fi ve boundaries and a six. Shaun Marsh made 45 off 34 balls with the help of three fours and a six.
Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of MI bowlers, returning impressive fi gures of 3/26. Batting second, the hosts lost openers Murali Vijay (19) and Manan Vohra (7) cheaply with just 32 runs on the board in fi ve overs. Marsh and Maxwell then got together and rebuilt the innings by playing sensibly.
While they ran the singles and twos, on and off , the Australian duo found the fence to keep the scoreboard moving with the run rate hovering around 7.5-8 an over.
In the halfway stage of the in-nings, Kings XI Punjab were 75 for the loss of two wickets, still need-ing 115 runs from 10 overs.
The home side reached the 100
in the 13th over and, after Maxwell hit his fi fth boundary, Marsh broke the shackles with a six over long-on off Harbhajan Singh.
In the next over, Maxwell sent the ball soaring over in the same direc-tion for similar result, the bowler being Tim Southee. However, Pun-jab were dealt a blow at a crucial juncture as Marsh fell in the same over to bring to an end a partner-ship of 89 runs for the third wicket.
Soon after, Maxwell cruised to his half century in 33 balls. But Max-well too got out after a while and the asking rate just kept heading north, even as KXIP skipper David Miller remained not out on 30 off 17 balls. Patel smashed 10 fours and two six-es, while Rayudu hit four bounda-ries and as many maximums. The total could have been more had it not been for Mohit Sharma’s bril-liant last over in which he conceded just four runs. Mohit was the most
successful bowler for KXIP with fi gures of 3/38, two of them coming in that fi nal over.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians were dealt a body blow in the fi rst over itself with nothing on the board, when medium pacer Sandeep Sharma had skipper Rohit Sharma caught behind by Nikhil Naik with his second delivery.
Patel and Rayudu ensured there was no further setback for the next 15 overs, as they put on 137 runs runs for the second wicket till Ray-udu was dismissed by Axar Patel.
Rayudu was lucky to get a life when Axar dropped an absolute sitter at deep midwicket off the bowing of Pardeep Sahu. Rayudu was batting on 33 then.
During the rebuilding phase, the two batsmen mixed caution with aggression and helped their team to safety before opening up to play freely.
Even as Rayudu smashed Glenn Maxwell over long-on for a maxi-mum to up the ante, Patel followed suit and fl icked Sahu over long-on for a six in the 11th over at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium.
Rayudu then hit Axar for a straight six and a four through the cover region. Rayudu got to his half century in 31 balls, while Patel reached the landmark a little later after facing 41 balls.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 189 for 6 (Parthiv 81, Rayudu 65, Mohit 3-38) beat Kings XI Punjab 164 for 7 (Maxwell 56, Bum-rah 3-26) by 25 runs. - PTI
Chasing a stiff
target of 190, Kings
XI Punjab were
restricted to 164
for seven in the
stipulated 20 overs MAN OF THE MATCH: Mumbai Indians’ Parthiv Patel was at his ag-
gressive best in Monday’s match against Kings XI Punjab. – AFP
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SPORTST U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
TRAINING SESSION: Manchester City players warm-up during a team training session in Manchester. – AFP
Man City need leap of faith against Real
LONDON: Until this season Manchester City’s progression in the Champions League could be measured in baby steps but on Tuesday they can make a huge leap forward when they host Real Madrid in their fi rst European semifi nal for 45 years.
The Abu Dhabi-backed Eng-lish club have already broken new ground this season, moving past the last 16 stage that proved their limit for the past two seasons having failed even to survive the group stage prior to that.
In seeing off Paris St Germain, who have similar fi nancial muscle, in the quarter-fi nals they deliv-ered a powerful statement of in-tent to reach their fi rst semi-fi nal since a European Cup Winners’ Cup defeat by Chelsea in 1971.
They also kept alive the intrigu-ing possibility of a Milan fi nal against Bundesliga giants Bay-ern Munich, whose manager Pep Guardiola will take over the Man-chester City hot seat from former Real Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini next season.
First, however, City’s defence must fi nd a way of keeping Cris-tiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema quiet at their Etihad Stadium so as to arrive at their opponents’ Santiago Berna-beu fortress with something tan-gible to hang on to.
Ronaldo has scored 47 times this season, including 16 in just 10 Champions League appearances, but Pellegrini says he knows how to stop the Portuguese goal machine.
“I knew all about him from (my team) playing (against) Manches-ter United when I was at Villar-real,” Pellegrini said. “We played them four times in the Champi-ons League and each time it was
0-0, so defensively we must have been doing something right.”
Unstoppable RealWhile City’s recent form has been on the rise, if a little late to stop the Premier League’s fairytale title hunters Leicester City, Real have been almost unstoppable of late as they try and chase down Barcelona in La Liga.
Since the beginning of March Zin-edine Zidane’s side have won nine La Liga games in a row and even when they suff ered a hiccup in a 2-0 de-feat by Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarter-fi nal they respond-
ed with a 3-0 home victory.The Wolfsburg loss gives City
cause for optimism, though, and with their Argentina striker Ser-gio Aguero and Belgium mid-fi elder Kevin De Bruyne fi nishing the season with a fl ourish, Real’s defence will be given a testing ex-amination.
Aguero, who recently reached the 100-goal milestone in the Premier League, never fi nished on the winning side against Real while he was at Atletico Madrid and he will be itching to put the re-cord straight against the 10-times European champions.
Wales forward Bale has, howev-er, warned City that Real, who are appearing in their 27th European Cup semifi nal, will seek to infl ict some damage before fi nishing the job next week.
“I think that the most impor-tant thing is to score away from home, said Bale, who scored twice as Real came back to beat Rayo Vallecano 3-2 in La Liga at the weekend.
“At the Santiago Bernabeu we are very strong and, obviously, we’ll have a lot of chances. As long as we don’t lose there, we’ll be very confi dent at the Bernabeu.” - Reuters
The Abu Dhabi-
backed English club
have already broken
new ground this
season, moving past
the last 16 stage that
proved their limit for
the past two seasons
having failed even
to survive the group
stage prior to that
SEMIFINAL, 1ST LEG – APR 26/27 W D L
Sergio Aguero Man CityForward has yet to beat Real in 13 meetings since2006, at both Atletico Madrid and Manchester City
FormGoals for / against18 / 11 26 / 5
Head-to-headDrawn 1
MAN CITY v REAL MADRID Etihad Stadium
Won 0 Won 1
Drawn 1Won 0 Won 1Head-to-head
ATLETICO v BAYERNVicente Calderon
COMPETITION STATISTICS (per match)Shots on target
Shots widePasses
CrossesPossession
4.906.70415
4.9048%
7.808.305785.6055%
FormGoals for / against14 / 5 28 / 9
COMPETITION STATISTICS (per match)Shots on target
Shots widePasses
CrossesPossession
6.305.804285.7048%
8.607.406856.5067%
CLOSING DOWN: City will look to counter Real’spotent strike threat with high workrate to reducespace for Los Galácticos to create chances
92.1
88.3
92.6
102.4Distance covered (km)
81.9
FernandinhoRonaldoKroosCasemiroOtamendi
Man CityRealRealRealMan City
HOME COMFORTS: Cityappearing in first ChampionsLeague semifinal, Real in finalfour for 27th time
City:Homerecord inEurope
W34 D13
L7
Source: UEFA, Gracenote Graphic News / Graphics
Champions League 2015-2016
MOBBED AT AIRPORT: Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo arrives at
Manchester. – Reuters
LONDON: Manchester City will be without their midfi eld powerhouse Yaya Toure in Tuesday’s Champions League semi-fi nal, fi rst leg at home to Real Madrid after he failed to recover from a leg injury sustained at the weekend.
The Ivorian suff ered a muscle injury in the 4-0 win over Stoke City on Saturday and will not fea-ture against the 10-time European champions at the Etihad Stadium. Man-ager Manuel Pellegrini said former Barcelona player Toure could also be struggling to make next week’s second leg.
“Yaya is going to be out, I think. He hasn’t recovered from the muscle injury,” Pellegrini told a news conference on Monday. “Tomorrow the two play-ers not on the squad list are (Samir) Nasri, who is not registered, and Yaya who is injured.” City, playing their fi rst European semi-fi nal for 45 years, face the daunting task of contain-ing a Real side who have won their last nine games in Spain’s La Liga.
However, despite the threat posed by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ka-rim Benzema and Gareth Bale, Pellegrini said he will send his players out to attack. — Reuters
City’s Toure ruled out of semifi nal
Champions League is the Real deal: BaleLONDON: The Champions League is part of Real Madrid’s folklore and it is the nature of the Spanish side to always set their sights on Europe’s most prestig-ious club tournament, having won it more times than any other team, winger Gareth Bale has said.
The 10-time winners take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the fi rst leg of the Champions League semifi nal on Tuesday and Bale felt the tourna-ment was just that “extra bit spe-
cial” to the Merengues.“The Champions League means
everything to the club. It’s the main priority every year... It’s just in the club’s nature, they want to win the European Cup every year. It’s instilled in you and you go for it every year,” Bale told the Times newspaper.
“It’s special to the club. Even when you play on European nights the atmosphere’s that bit better, everyone in the stands is kicking every ball for you. It’s al-
ways more intense for Champions League games, because it means so much for the club.
‘Extra bit special’“All the players know how much it means. That’s not to say the league titles don’t mean as much but it’s just that extra bit special.”
With sections of the media claiming Bale suff ers a fractious relationship with Cristiano Ron-aldo, the Wales international was quick to dismiss such notions,
saying the Portuguese three-time Ballon d’Or winner’s will to win was often misinterpreted.
“The press make a lot of things that maybe we don’t but we get on fi ne. We’ve never had a problem,” Bale said of his prolifi c team mate.
“I’ve never had an argument with him. He’s a very, very pas-sionate person on the pitch... everyone knows that. People sometimes seem to take that the wrong way. We haven’t had a problem.” - Reuters
F O O T B A L L
Leicester’s Mahrez named English PFA player of the yearLONDON: Leicester City forward Riyad Mahrez was named English soccer’s player of the year by the Professional Footballers’ Associa-tion on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Algerian inter-national, the fi rst Leicester player and fi rst African to win the award, has scored 17 goals and made 11 assists in 34 league games to help Leicester move to the brink of their fi rst English top-fl ight title.
Mahrez fi nished ahead of fellow Leicester players Jamie Vardy and N’Golo Kante, Tottenham Hot-spur striker Harry Kane, Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil and West Ham Unit-ed’s Dimitri Payet.
The Algerian praised the contri-bution of his team mates and man-ager Claudio Ranieri after being voted the best player in England by his fellow professionals.
“All the credit is for them, seri-ously,” Mahrez, who joined Leices-
ter from French second-tier side Le Havre in January 2014, said.
“And for my manager and the staff . Without them I wouldn’t receive this award and I wouldn’t score. It’s the team spirit, and I want to dedicate it to them.
“It’s extra special because if the players vote for me it’s because they’ve seen I’ve been great this year so I’m happy.
“Without my team mates I wouldn’t get this award.”
Mahrez also spoke of his pride at being the fi rst African player to receive the award won last year by Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard.
“It’s an honour to be the fi rst Af-rican — not the best but the fi rst,” Mahrez added.
Spurs midfi elder Dele Alli, 20, was named PFA Young Player of the Year, with his team still chas-ing the leaders in a bid to win their fi rst league title since 1961. - Reuters
S E A S O N ’ S B E S T
YEAR’S BEST: This fi le photo taken shows Leicester City’s Algerian
midfi elder Riyad Mahrez celebrating after scoring his third goal
during the Premier League match against Swansea City. – AFP
C4
SPORTST U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
Juventus want to assert themselves in Europe
MILAN: Juventus have no inten-tion of selling their top players and are determined to assert them-selves as a major force in Europe next season after wrapping a fi fth successive Serie A title.
Despite their domestic domi-nance, Juve’s European form has been patchy over the last few sea-sons with one group stage elimi-nation and two defeats to Bayern Munich — in the quarterfi nals and this season in the round of sixteen.
Even when they reached the fi nal last season, they were seen as up-starts rather than equals of teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, who has been in charge for the last two seasons, wants that to change and is determined to strengthen the squad still further in the close season.
“The club will focus on improv-ing the squad, as it did last sum-mer, bringing in young players with great technique. Next year we
must focus on winning the Cham-pions League. It’s somewhat nar-row-minded just to focus just on Serie A,” he said.
“It was hard to digest this year. We got knocked out this year on the fi nal cross of the game against Bayern Munich but we need to do better next year.”
Precocious talentsSerie A is no longer regarded as one of Europe’s top leagues and its clubs often have trouble hold-ing onto their players in the face of the greater fi nancial power of their English and Spanish counterparts.
However, Juventus have already stated that they intend to keep Paulo Dybala and Paul Pogba, their two most precocious talents.
Pogba, 23, has come on in leaps and bounds this season after being given more responsibil-ity after the departure of veteran playmaker Andrea Pirlo to ply his
trade in North America. A player who combines fi nesse and physi-cal power, Pogba could fetch more than 100 million euros if sold, Ju-ventus estimates.
Allegri, however, said jokingly last week that he would rather keep the Frenchman than have the mon-ey to spend in the transfer market.
Dybala, one year younger, has also shone in his fi rst season fol-lowing his move from Palermo, scoring 16 goals.
“Over the course of our history, Juventus have very rarely let our best players go. Paul, as well as Dy-bla, is part of the core of this team and we do not intend to put them on the market,” said chief execu-tive Giuseppe Marotta.
“We want to go out and get great players while keeping our most valuable pieces. We will only sell players who have told us they want to leave, but that is not the case with Pogba or Dybla or any of the others.”
Juventus won Serie A without
kicking a ball on Monday after Napoli, the only team that could have caught them, were sunk 1-0 by a late Radja Nainggolan goal at AS Roma.
In many ways, this year’s title has been the most unexpected of the last fi ve.
Juventus got off to a miserable start after losing Pirlo as well as top scorer Carlos Tevez to his na-tive Argentina and tireless mid-fi elder Arturo Vidal to Bayern Munich, and were 11 points off the pace by the end of October.
But after taking 73 points out of their last 75, they clinched another title with fi ve games to spare.
“To win this season would be really crazy and unbelievable,” said goalkeeper Gianluigi Buff on after the 2-1 victrory at Fiorentina on Sunday.
“We’ve shown the technical and moral strength of the group, the determination not to give in and our ability to astonish.” - Reuters
After wrapping a fi fth
successive Serie A
title, Juventus coach
Massimiliano Allegri
is determined to
strengthen the
squad still further
in the close season ANOTHER TITLE: Juventus’ players celebrate at the end of their Serie A match against Fiorentina at
Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence on Sunday. – Reuters
United’s Mata admits footballers overpaid, live in sheltered worldLONDON: Manchester United’s Spanish international midfi eld-er Juan Mata has admitted in an interview that he and other pro-fessional footballers earn “ob-scene” amounts of money and “live in a bubble”.
Mata, who signed for Man-chester United from Chelsea for a reported 37 million pounds ($53.41 million) in 2014, is be-lieved to earn around 150,000 pounds per week.
“Football is very well remuner-ated at this level. It’s like we live in a bubble. Compared to the rest of society, we earn a ridiculous amount. It’s unfathomable,” Mata said in an interview on Spanish television programme “Salva-dos”, broadcast on Sunday.
“With respect to the world of football, I earn a normal wage. But compared to 99.9 percent of Spain and the rest of the world, I earn a silly amount.”
The Spaniard also said he sym-pathised with critics of the mod-ern game, who claim football has become too commercialised, and criticised the attitude of some young players who become arro-gant after turning professional.
“I can understand what they’re talking about. The business side of football makes it seem as though the owners are now more important than the fans,” the 27-year-old added. “Every player thinks he’s Diego Marado-na when he joins a big club. That happens to all of us but then you notice it in the younger players.
“You see kids who think they’re rock stars; wearing extravagant clothes and driving fl ash cars... sometimes you have to take them aside and have a word.”
Mata added: “I don’t enjoy the business side of football. I love the game. I love training and com-peting.” - Reuters
F O O T B A L L
South Africa bans rugby, cricket from bidding for major tourneys
JOHANNESBURG: South Afri-ca on Monday banned its national cricket and rugby federations from hosting or bidding for internation-al tournaments for at least a year due to their failure to increase rep-resentation of black players.
Sports minister Fikile Mbalula said the athletics and netball fed-erations were also barred from bidding to stage global events after a report showed that four
out of the fi ve biggest sports have failed to create enough opportu-nities for black players.
The minister’s decision was a major blow to the South African Rugby Union’s intention to bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The bidding process starts next month. The soccer federa-tion was the only one of the fi ve to meet its transformation targets, he said. - Reuters
M A J O R B L O W
WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM
DiningSECTIONC L I F E S T Y L E T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
When it comes to afternoon tea party or high tea, there aren’t any fi xed menus. While
sandwiches and cakes are always in the list, why not get a little innovative this time?
Indulge your guests with these quick mouth-watering treats.
Recipes Oneza Tabish
Let Them Eat Cookies, Muffi ns, and Sambousek
CHOCOLATE QUINOA MUFFINSThese chocolate quinoa muffi ns could easily pass off as chocolate cake. Gluten free and hard to be-lieve that they are completely fl our-less with the main ingredient as cooked quinoa. Give your chocolate muffi n a healthy twist and surprise your guests.
Ingredients2 cups cooked quinoa4 eggs½ cup milk1tsp vanilla extract½ cup butter (or any cooking oil)1 cup sugar/brown or castor sugar (honey for a healthier version)1/3 cup maple syrup1 cup cocoa powder1 ½ tsp baking powder½ tsp baking soda½ tsp salt
Preparation• Preheat you oven to 175C.• In a large bowl or stand mixer,
put in all the ingredients and mix well till well combined.
• Pour into muffi n tins just over 1/2 full. Mist your muffi n tin with oil or line with silicone liners or foil liners to prevent sticking.
• Bake for 15 minutes, until you press them and they spring back. The toothpick test doesn’t work well on these as a bit of the crumb will stick to the toothpick as they are rich and moist.
• Sprinkle some chocolate chip for that glossy look.
SPINACH AND CHEESE SAMBOUSEKSpinach and cheese sambousek is a famous Lebanese dish that features a plain fl our shell with succulent spinach and cheese mixture. Feta cheese gives this dish a great texture.
IngredientsFor the dough1 cup all purpose fl our Salt to taste2 tbsp oilFor the stuffi ng2 tsp oil½ cup chopped onions1tsp fi nely chopped garlic 1 cup blanched and chopped spinach ½ tsp baharat powderSalt to taste½ cup crumbled feta cheese2 tbsp roasted and chopped walnuts
Preparation• Combine all the ingredients for
the dough in a bowl, mix well and knead into semi-stiff dough using enough water.
• Heat oil in a broad nonstick pan, add the onions and garlic, and sauté on a medium fl ame for 2 minutes.
• Add the spinach, baharat powder and salt, mix well and cook on a medium fl ame for 3 minutes.
• Transfer the mixture in a deep bowl, add the feta cheese and walnuts, mix well. Divide the mixture into 15 equal portions. Keep aside.
• Now roll a portion of the dough into a 100 mm (4”) diameter circle using a little plain fl our for rolling.
• Place a portion of spinach and cheese mixture in the centre. Fold it over to make a semi-circle. Seal the ends completely using a little water.
• Twist the edges.• Repeat for the remaining dough
circles and stuffi ng to make 14 more sambousek.
• Heat oil in a deep non-stick wok and deep-fry a few sambousek at a time on a slow fl ame till they turn golden brown from all the sides. Drain on an absorbent paper. Serve hot.
HEALTHY BAKED BROCCOLI TOTSBroccoli and cheddar together in little tater-tots are perfect for snacking.
Ingredients2 cups or 12 ounces uncooked or frozen broccoli1 large egg¼ cup diced onion⅓ cup cheddar cheese⅓ cup panko breadcrumbs⅓ cup breadcrumbs2 tbsp parsley ( or cilantro)½ tsp salt½ tsp pepper
Preparation• Preheat the oven to 200C.
Grease a baking sheet with a thin layer of oil or line with parch-ment paper and set aside.
• Blanch the broccoli in boiling water for 1 minute then remove and shock with cold tap water to stop the cooking process. Drain well.
• Chop broccoli fi nely and mix thoroughly with the egg, onions, cheddar, breadcrumbs, and seasoning.
• Scoop about 1.5 tbsp of mix us-ing an ice-cream scoop or your hands and gently press between your hands into a fi rm ball then shape into a tater-tot shape. It helps to wash your hands after every few tots to keep them from sticking onto your hands. Next, place on your prepared baking sheet.
• Bake until golden brown and crispy for around 20 minutes, turning half way. Remove from the oven and enjoy with your favourite dip.
VANILLA SHORTBREAD COOKIESA delicious and simple vanilla shortbread cookies recipe made with only four ingredients. They crumble delicately while melting in your mouth with each bite, and they have just the right hint of sweetness. Simple and elegant, and a perfect companion to your tea.
Ingredients14 tbsp (7 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature½ cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling1 tsp vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract2 cups plus 3 tbsp all-purpose fl our
Preparation• In a bowl mix butter and sugar
until light and creamy. Mix in the vanilla. Mix in the fl our and beat until smooth.
• Put the dough on a large piece of plastic wrap and pat into a rectangle ½ to ¾ inch thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to about ¼ inch thick. Using a 2-inch round fl uted cookie cutter cut out 30 cookies and transfer to parchment paper lined sheet pan. Trimmings can be pressed together and rerolled once for additional cookies. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to allow the dough to chill before baking.
• Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two sheet pans with parch-ment paper. Using a small off set spatula, transfer the chilled cookies to the sheet pans, leaving, at least, 1-inch of space between each cookie. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, switch-ing the position and rotating the sheets halfway through baking, until crisp and light golden brown. Remove the sheets from the oven and cool for 2 to 5 minutes on the sheet pan to fi rm the cookies up a bit. Transfer cookies directly to a cooling rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight
FIND-IT-ALLC6 T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
Dhuhr 12.10pm
Asr 3.36pm
Maghrib 6.38pm
Isha 7.52pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.17am
PRAYER TIMINGS
ROYAL OMAN POLICE
Emergencies and inquiries: 9999
General Directorate of
Passport and Residence 24569603
Directorate General
of Customs 24521109
Traffic violations inquiries 24510228
Public Relations Admin 24560099
EMBASSIES IN OMAN
Afghanistan 24698 791/4
Algeria 24605 593
Bahrain 24 605 074/133
Bangladesh 24 698 660
Brazil 24640100
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China 24 696782
Cyprus 24 699815
Egypt 24 600 982/411
France 24681 800
Germany 24835000
India 24684500
Indonesia 2469 1050
Iran 24 696 944/7
Iraq 24603642
Italy 24693727
Japan 24 601 028
Jordan 24692760/1/3
Kazakhstan 24 692418
Kenya 24 697664
South Korea 24 691490
Kuwait 24 699628
Lebanon 24 693208
Libya 24603466
Malaysia 24698329/643
Morocco 24696152/3
Nepal 24696177
Netherlands 24603706
Pakistan 24603439
Palestine 24601312
Philippines 24605335
Qatar 24 691 153/2/4
Russia 24602894
Saudi Arabia 24601705
Senegal 24694139
Somalia 24697977
South Africa 24647300
Spain 24691101
Sri Lanka 24697841/2
Sudan 24697875
Switzerland 24603267
Syria 24697904
Tanzania 24601 174
Thailand 24 602684/5
Tunisia 24603486
Turkey 24697050/1/2
UAE 24400000
United Kingdom 24609000
United States 24643400
Yemen 24600815
PHARMACIES (ROUND THE CLOCK)
Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24782666
Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542
Salalah 23291635;
Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585
Muscat Region
Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766
Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691
Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740
Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080
Dhofar Region
Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,
Salalah 23291635
HOSPITALS
Al Amal Medical & Health Care Centre
24485052
Atlas Hospital
Ruwi 24811743/
Ghubra 24504000
Al Musafir Specialised
Medical Clinic 24706453
Hatat Polyclinic LLC,
Ruwi 24563641
Azaiba 24499269
Sohar 2683006
Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2
Al Massaraat Clinic &
Laboratory 24566435
Al Makook Medical
Coordinance Centre 24499434
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24787766, 24787780
Capital Polyclinic 24707549
Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,
Ruwi 24799760/1/2
Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740
Ceregem National Raak 24485633
Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217
Elixir Health Centre 24565802
Emirates Medical Centre 24604540
1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274
Lifeline Hospital Salalah 23212340
International Medical
Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5
Kims Oman Hospital 24760100
24 Hrs Emergency 24760123
Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128
MBD 24799077
Al Khuwair 24478818
Magrabi Eye and
Ear Hospital 24568870
Muscat Private Hospital 24583600
Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment
Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666
Al Hayat International Hospital, Al Ghubra
22004000, 94267068/97049520
Al Hayat Clinic, Al Hail 22009455
AIRLINE OFFICES
Muscat Airport Flight information
(24 hours) 24519456/24519223
Aeroflot 24704455
Air Arabia 24700828
Air France 24562153
Air India 24799801
Air New Zealand 24700732
Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128
British Airways 24568777
Cathay Pacific 24789818
Egypt Air 24794113
Emirates Air 24404400
Ethiopian Airlines 24660313
Gulf Air 80072424
Indian 24791914
Iran Air 24787423
Japan Airlines 24704455
Jazeera Airways 23294848
Jet Airways 24787248
Kenya Airways 24660300
KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737
Kuwait Airways 24701262
LOT Polish Airlines 24796387
Lufthansa 24796692
Malaysian Airlines 24560796
Middle East Airlines 24796680
Oman Air 24531111
Pakistan International
Airlines 24792471
Qatar Airways 24771900
Qantas 24559941
Royal Jordanian 24796693
Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485
Singapore Airlines 24791233
Shaheen Air 24816565
SriLankan Airlines 24784545
Swiss International
Airlines 24796692
Thai Airways 24705934
LISTINGS
LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE
FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)
15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily
15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily
15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily
06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily
08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily
13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily
16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily
16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily
14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily
08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily
14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily
TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)
06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily
06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily
TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily
10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily
10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily
19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily
SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily
06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily
13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur
13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur
15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily
15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily
TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily
07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily
07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily
TO MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)
05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily
05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily
05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily
07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily
13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily
13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily
17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily
06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily
15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily
14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily
TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)
12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily
12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily
TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily
10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily
10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily
19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily
DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily
07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri
13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri
15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily
15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily
FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily
16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily
16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily
CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68 www.citycinemaoman.netfacebook.com/citycinemaoman
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Cast: Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu6:00 PMSarrainodu (Telugu) (2D) (Action) (TBC) Cast: Allu Arjun / Rakul Preet Singh8:30 PM
RUWIScreen 1The Jungle Book (2D) (Adventure /Drama/ Family) –PGCast : Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Bill Murray3.30, 6.30, 9.30 PM
Screen 2Fan (Thriller) –PG12Cast : Shah Rukh Khan, Joelle Koissi, Mariola Jaworska3.45, 6.45, 9.45 PM
Screen 3Laal Rang (Action / Thriller) –PG12Cast: Randeep Hudda, Piaa Bajpai, Rajneesh Duggal3.45, 6.45, 9.45 PM
SURPrecious Cargo (Action) (12+) Cast: Bruce Wiilis, Claire Forlani6:30, 11:45 PMThe Huntsman: Winter’s War (Action | Adventure | Drama) (PG12) Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron4:30, 8:15 PMFan (Hindi | Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Joelle Koissi8:45 PMThe Jungle Book 3D (Adventure | Drama | Family) (PG) Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley4:45, 6:45 PMKali (Mal) (Romance | Thriller) (12+) Cast: Dulquer Salman, Sai Pallavi10:30 PM
SOHAR
The Huntsman: Winter’s War – 3D (Action, Adventure, Drama) (PG12)Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron3:45, 6:15, 11:30PMPrecious Cargo– 2D (Action) (12+)Cast: Bruce Willis, Claire Forlani, John Brotherton3:15, 6:45, 9:15, 11:30 PMThe Ones Below– 2D (Thriller) (15+)Cast: Clémence Poésy, David Morrissey, Stephen Campbell Moore5:00, 11:45 PMThe Jungle Book – 3D (Adventure, Drama, Family) (PG)Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley3:15, 5:15, 7:15PMFan-2D (Crime, Drama, Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Joelle Koissi, Mariola Jaworska3:00, 8:30, 11:30PMTheri – 2D (Romance, Comedy) (12+)Cast: Vijay, Samantha Ruth, Prabhu, Amy Jackson6:30PMKali – 2D (Romantic, Thriller) (12+)Cast: Dulquer Salmaan & Sai Pallavi9:30PMSarrainodu – 2D (Action, Masala) (12+)Cast: Allu Arjun / Rakul Preet Singh8:30PM
BURAIMI
Fan PG12 (Hindi, Thriller)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Joelle Koissi8:30 PMThe Jungle Book (3D) PGCast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley5:30, 7:30PMCabin Fever (18+) (Horror)Cast: Gage Golightly, Matthew Daddario, Samuel Davis11:45PMThe Huntsman: Winter’s War PG12 (Action)Cast : Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain5:00, 9:30, 11:30PMPrecious Cargo (12+) (Action)Cast : Bruce Willis, Claire Forlani6:30, 11:30 PMThe Ones Below (15 +) (Thriller) Cast: Clémence Poésy, David Morrissey4:45, 9:45PMKali (12+) (Malayalam) Romantic | ThrillerCast: Dulquer Salmaan and Sai Pallavi7:30PM
SALALAH
The Jungle Book (3D) (PG) (Adventure ) Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley12:30, 2:30, 4:30, 6:30PMThe Huntsman: Winter’s War (3D) (PG12) Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron2:00, 6:00, 11:30PMFan (2D) (PG12) (Thriller) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Joelle Koissi8:15, 11:15PMDemolition (2D) (12+) (Comedy Drama) Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts5:00PMPrecious Cargo (2D) (12+) (Action) Cast: Bruce Willis, Claire Forlani, John Brotherton1:30, 3:15, 10:00, 11:55PMThe Ones Below (2D) (15+) (Thriller)Cast: Clémence Poésy, David Morrissey, Stephen Campbell Moore4:15PMSarrainodu (2D) (12+) (Telugu) (Action / Masala)Cast: Allu Arjun / Rakul Preet Singh7:00PMKali (2D) (12+) (Mal) (Romantic | Thriller)Cast: Dulquer Salmaan and Sai Pallavi8:30PM
CINEMA SCHEDULE CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW
@PANORAMA MALL @ MGM
Precious Cargo – (2D) (Action) (12+) VIP LOUNGECast: Bruce Willis, Claire Forlani,3:00, 4:45 & 11:30PM
The Huntsman: Winter’s War – 3D (PG12) Action| Adventure | DramaCast: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain12:30, 7:30, 11:30 PMGold Class – 5:00 PM
BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (Action)Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron4.00, 8.00, 10.00, & 11.55 PMCP No: 1105 (PG12)
Cabin Fever (Horror)Cast: Gage Golightly, Matthew Daddario, Samuel Davis4.30 & 11.55 PMCP No: 1106 (18+)
Demolition (Comedy / Drama)Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper2.00 & 6.00 PMCP No: 1107 (12+)
Fan (Hindi) (Drama / Thriller)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Waluscha De Souza2.00, 6.30, & 9.15 PMCP No: 1100 (PG12)
STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776
Website: www.isurf.co.om
Sarrainodo (Telugu) (Action & Drama) Cast: Allu Arjun & Rakul Preet Singh 3-30 Pm Cinema Main; 6-45 & 9-45 pm Cinema-3Kali (Mal) (Comedy & Drama) Cast: Dulquar Salmaan & Sai Pallavi 6-30 & 9-30 pm Cinema Main;3-45 Cinema-3 Vetrivel (Tamil) (Action\Comedy) Cast: M. Sasi Kumar& Miya George 6:45PM Cinema -4 Theri (Tamil) (Action) Cast: Vijay & Samantha 3-30, 6-30 & 9-30 pm Cinema-2 Fan ( Hindi) ( Action\Thriller) Cast: Shahrukh Khan 3-45 & 9-45 pm Cinema -4Next Change: Manithan (Tamil)Programmes are subject to change
@ SHATTI
The Jungle Book - (3D) Drama| Family) (PG)Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley3:00, 5:30 & 7:15PM
WEATHER
350
Maximum
260
Minimum
TEMPERATURE
50-15%RELATIVE HUMIDITY
Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 17 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to [email protected]
WITH LOVE
JOCELYNE SHIBU MATHEWApril 26, 2011
MEENAKSHI RAMESHApril 26, 2004
LIFESTYLEC7T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
For centuries, coff ee has been one of the most beloved drinks world-wide. Whether in a coff ee shop, a restau-
rant or at home, people around the world drink it and enjoy it. Cof-fee has many varieties and tastes. One drink of coffee does not al-ways resemble another.
Coff ee beans make a huge dif-ference when it comes to the taste of coff ee. Good quality beans are the fi rst and most important step to achieving a great quality drink. But with so many varieties on of-fer, it might be a daunting expe-rience to make your selection. That’s why while choosing coff ee beans you should have at least a basic knowledge about the subject and make sure your supplier is a professional and only off ers good quality ingredients.
The main types of coff ee beans come from Coff ea Arabica and Cof-fea Robusta. Coff ea Arabica is con-sidered a higher quality ingredient,
but Robusta may also produce a de-cent drink. Other species like Coff ea Liberica and Coff ea Stenophylla are less commercially successful.
Another important factor to con-sider when buying beans is their geographic origin. Coff ea Arabica growing in India may produce a totally diff erent fl avour than the ones raised in Central America. Even within those regions you may fi nd “sub-regions” that will pro-duce various fl avours. So consult your supplier as to the source of the ingredients and their respec-tive fl avours.
The roasting process is also a very important infl uencer on the ingredients’ quality. While you can fi nd good commercial coff ee beans, artisanal coff ee roasters produce the best quality ones. Blends poten-tially produce better fl avours.
Once you have established the source and types of coff ee beans that you want to buy make sure you follow these steps, which will help you en-sure you buy good quality ingredients:
1. Predetermine what kind of fl a-vour you enjoy: mild or full-bod-ied, fl oral-tasting, nutty or winy, and so on, and select the products accordingly
2. Buy freshly roasted beans, for the best quality drink
3. Smell them. Good quality beans look and smell appetising
4. Taste before you make your pur-chase. You can tell which ingredi-ents taste well even in their “raw” shape
5. Check whether they are broken or splintered. “Damaged” ingredi-ents will also damage the quality of the drink they makePaying attention to the advice of-
fered in this article will help you make a better, more educated pur-chase when you start your journey towards the best coff ee for you. How-ever, there is nothing better than experimenting. After you try a few types of beans, from various sources and roasters, you will eventually land on the one best suited for you. — Joan Key/Article City
Coffee Beans Buying Guide
I N T H E N E W S
Good quality beans are the fi rst and most important step to achieving a great quality drink.
But with so many varieties on off er, it might be a daunting experience to make your selection.
While choosing coffee
beans you should have at
least a basic knowledge
about the subject and make
sure your supplier is a
professional and only offers
good quality ingredients.
Toko’s Tapanese menu is wooing people in Dubai
In every country, you have places you go for dining and places you go for a drink. In Japan you can have the best of both worlds: Izakaya – a cool casual destination where you can eat and drink and be merry with colleagues and friends. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Well then, you will be pleased to know that the Japanese version of tapas is making its way to Toko Dubai this April and it comes with a catchy label: Tapanese. Toko’s Tapanese menu will be serving up eve-rything from the freshest seafood including spicy crispy rice salmon and tuna tacos to everything meaty including tender beef aburi nigiri or succulent fried chicken wings and ending off with mini doughnuts with vanilla sauce or dulce de leche ice cream with chocolate cookies. Izakaya food is engineered to be especially delicious with a mug of hops to make the experience that much more memorable.—[email protected]
Savour ‘food by mood’at HolyBelly in Delhi
The advent of European fi ne dining in the capital has enabled foodies relish exotic cuisines with-out having to visit fi ve-star hotels, but now, HolyBelly, a unique “food boutique”, aims to cater to custom-ers’ needs by providing bespoke menus, as per their “mood”. Started around a year ago by chefs Janeya Khanna and Rishi Bharadwaj in Shahpur Jat, Delhi, HolyBelly isn’t your average diner or eatery. It pro-vides gourmet catering services for events and does chef ’s table events.
Reviving authentic Telugu dishes in Hyderabad
Here is a restaurant with a mission to bring back authentic Telugu dishes becoming extinct, to connect people to their roots and relive the magic of their an-cestral homes. After extensive research, Karampodi is serv-ing about 200 authentic dishes from the rich Telugu cuisine to reignite the taste buds.
Drawn from traditional Telugu kitchens, these recipes are cater-ing to the common, yet varied, tastes of people who come from diff erent regions of the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh. The speciality dishes from Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema have all been documented by the restaurant after an elaborate exercise, including help from experts and inputs from grandmothers. Located in Filmnagar, the hub of the Telugu fi lm industry, in the upmarket Jubilee Hills, the restaurant embarked on the unique initiative after real-ising that many dishes are becoming extinct due to changing lifestyles. The name of the restaurant itself evokes curiosity as karampodi is an inseparable part of Telugu culture — a powder made of red chillis along with other ingredients. People mix garlic, tamarind, pulses, bitter gourd or other items to make the powder, usually taken with plain rice. Made in diff erent combinations to suit one’s taste, it is a must on the menu in Telugu homes. — IANS
Cherry JuiceRinse a handful of cherries
and remove the seed. Blanch 4 plums in hot water for 2 minutes and remove its skin. Cut the plums into halves and
remove stones. Blend the blanched cherries and plum in a blender until you
get a smooth puree. Strain the puree through sieve. Add ice cubes in tall
glasses and fi ll them up with the cherry juice. You can also blend watermelon
with cherries and plum for sweetness.
Cherry Fruit SnacksTake 1 cup of cherry juice,
3tbsp gelatin, 11/2 cup raw honey, and a pinch of seasalt. Sprinkle gelatin
over the 1/2 cup cherry juice and keep it aside. Heat the remaining 1/2 cup
over medium heat for a minute and add honey and salt. Mix well and pour over the gelatin mixture. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Pour into moulds and freeze it for
3-4 hours until they are set.
Cherry SoupTake 1 can (250g) of pitted
cherries, 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch, 1/2 cup cold water, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp lemon
juice, and 1 cup sour cream. Drain the canned cherries. Combine cornstarch and cold water in a bowl. Boil it for 5
minutes, stirring constantly. Add sugar and lemon juice. Stir and remove from heat and chill. Add the sour cream and
the drained cherries. Keep it in the refrigerator for an hour and serve
it chill. This soup is ideal for the hot summer months.
LIFESTYLEC8 T U E S DAY, A P R I L 2 6, 2 0 1 6
From savoury dishes like chicken curry to delicious desserts like cakes, juices, and
chilled soups for summers, there are many ways to use cherries in our food.
Chicken Curry with Cherries
Take 2 cups of dried cherries
and pour boiling water over them. Take 500g of boneless chicken thigh and
brown them in 1tbsp oil. Keep it aside. Drain the blanched dried cherries
and reserve the water. In the reserved water add 1 cinnamon stick and 4
cloves, and boil for a while. Add 1 diced onion with a pinch of salt and stir. Add 1tbsp oil, 1tbsp ginger, 1tbsp garlic, and 1tbsp tomato paste, and cook for while.
Add 1tsp cumin, 1tsp coriander, and 1tsp garam masala powder. Cook for a while and then add 2 cups boiling
chicken stock, the blanched cherries, and continue to cook for about 5 to 6
minutes. Once the curry gets a thicker consistency add the chicken thigh pieces. Cover and simmer until the
chicken is cooked throughly, about 20 minutes. Add 1tsp lemon juice before
serving. Serve with rice.
Cherry Cake
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Sift together 11/2 cup fl our, 11/2 tsp baking
powder, and 1tsp salt. In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup shortening and 2/3 cup
sugar and beat for a while till its fl uff y. Beat 1 egg and add 1tsp vanilla essence. Add the fl our mixture and 1/2 cup milk. Add 1 cup cherries and 1/2 cup chopped
nuts. Pour the batter in a greased pan. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Once cool cut into slices and serve.
ONE
INGREDIENT
FIVE WAYS
INGREDIENT
W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION
CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E
D
D4 VACANCY CARGO D7
T U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6
RENT D2
*Tourist visa arranged
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461
FOR RENT
D2 T U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6
FOR RENT
For viewing please call 99466729, 99316410, 92841690, 91313271, 24694088 or email us on :[email protected]
Mtr. Facing main RoadHAR Complex MSQ : 2,3-BHK Flats and 2 & 3 BHK villas with
Qurum : 6 BHK villa with garden, split Acs, shaded car parks, servant rooms
Darsait : 1 & 2-BHK Flats with AC & Shop Ruwi : 2-BHK & 3-BHK Flats and shopsAl Amerat : 2 & 3-BHK Flat , 3 & 4-BHK Villa with A/C
DAILY GUIDE
3 BHK, 3 toilets near Indian School
main Wadi Kabir & 2 BHK, 2 toilet
near Honda road Junction.
Contact: 99737562
Offi ce 55 SQ. Mtrs & 2 B /R new
bldg in Bausher behind bank Mus-
cat from owner. Contact: 92158031 Super deluxe 5 bedroom villa at
North Ghubrah. Contact: 99369081
3 Rooms, 2 Toilets Flat for Rent.
18 November Street. Near Mars
Hypermarket and The Chedi.
Ghobrah -Good for Commercial or
Residential use. OMR 295/- month.
Call 94477222
Running beauty parlor for rent in
Al Khuwair. Contact: 98689280
Room or apartment for rent in
Qurum. Contact: 99664703
Executive bachelor at Rex Road
near Kamat Hotel telugu, kannada
or Tamil. Contact: 99151508
Large Twin villa 6+6 rooms +2
halls +2 kitchens, Large independ-
ent compound, good for compa-
nies, staff accommodations /shar-
ing families/executive bachelors.
Contact 98048207
2BHK Ghubra South with A/C,
300 R.O . Contact: 99342661
1BHK Darsait 200/- R.O.
Contact: 94233661
2BHK Barka with A/C 160/-R.O.
Contact: 99342661
New building 1BHK, 3 BHK fl ats
with AC at Wadi Al Kabir behind
Muscat Bakery. Contact: 99338133
/ 92103604
2 Bedroom fl at near Kuwait
Masjid, Wadi Kabir.
Contact: 98498823 / 97608564
A small villa for rent at Azaiba,
near Al Meera hypermarket. 2
bedrooms, 2 toilets, kitchen, sitting
room and dining room. this will
include curtains and air condition-
ers. please call 99766920
2 bedroom Flat, semi furnished with
spacious living areas comprising
of 2 BR with attached bathrooms, a
living room, separate bathroom and
kitchen. The fl at has Gym facility
and secured under ground parking.
Perfectly situated in Mumtaz Area
nearby Temple and Church,
rent RO 400/-. Contact 97487916
Deluxe 1 & 2 bedroom fl ats, ideal
for offi ce / residence at Qurum
near PDO. Contact: 97721313 /
95070421
Luxury fully furnished 2 bedroom
fl at at Al Khuwair for short or long
term lease contract. Contact Atlas
Real Estate & Rent a Car LLC. Con-
tact Atlas Real Estate & Rent a Car
LLC. Contact 94617563 / 92888376,
tel : 24833848 / 24834888
1 BHK at Walja. Contact: 95915154
1000 SQM industrial land in
Misfah area with 3 rooms, 5 bath-
rooms, kitchen near Azaiba United
2 sides road facing large parking
space. Ideal for workshop, staff
camp, store. Contact: 99454425
1BHK new building with A/C
curtains near Khimji Mart MBD.
Contact: 99061408 / 99024039
1BHK Ruwi & Qurum.
Contact : 99024730
Villa for rent 8 big room, 7 toilets,
big hall, Kitchen & store Al Khoud.
Contact: 91153933
Villa for rent, 4 rooms, big hall, 6
toilets, big living room, kitchen &
store Bousher 750/-OMR.
Contact: 91153933
Villa for rent room, toilet, hall,
kitchen, store with furniture water
& electricity included Bowsher
OMR 300/-. Contact: 91153933
7 rooms villa attach bath at
Azaiba 18th November Road.
Contact: 99224748 / 99332297
2BHK at Mawaleh near
Sadiq Al Amin Mosque.
Contact: 99224748 / 99332297
Room for rent big room, toilet,
washing place including water &
electricity Bowsher OMR 200/-.
Contact: 91153933
Villa for rent, big hall, 4 room, 5
toilets, kitchen, store living room
in Ghubra OMR 650/-.
Contact: 91153933
Warehouse for rent at Ghala Ind.
Area. 800 & 2500 approx sqms
Near Hotel Al-Madinah Holiday,
Ghala. Container can enter. Imme-
diate access to roads & highways.
Contact : 94583320
Available for Rent one Room
with Bathroom and Kitchen in Al
Khuwair (near Sagar Polyclinic),
suitable for Executive Bachelors or
Couples. Contact 99225008
Flat for rent in Ruwi, Mumtaz area
2 bedrooms. Contact: 24291500 /
91409667
1, 2. 3.BHK fl at in Al Khuwair.
Contact 99792181
7 B/R en-suite villa for rent/lease
with ac, 1100 OMR per month,
location: al khuwair opp. safeer
plaza hotel. Contact : 93389107
4 BHK villa in Azaiba.
Contact 99792181
200 & 300 sqr mtrs offi ce space
in MBD (Ruwi). Contact 99792181
2 BHK Offi ce space in Al Khuwair.
Contact 99792181
Flat for rent in South Mabela.
Contact: 95331177 / 95230355
Offi ce space small in Azaiba.
Contact: 99428143
Brand new double bed room fl ats
with two and three toilets, split ac,
elevators available at Al Khoudh
next to Al koudh health center.
Contact 99022675
1 BHK in Azaiba. Contact:
99385835 / 99428143
Flats in Wadi Kabir. Contact
94051789 / 97201688
Flat in Wadi Al Kabir 2 bedrooms,
1 living room, 1 family hall, kitchen
& 3 bathrooms. Contact: 99277787
Two modern fully furnished & equipped offi ces available for rent
at Jasmine Complex Al Khuwair:1) 152 M2 with recepti on, 1 GM Offi ce, 2 meeti ng rooms, 26 working stati ons,
pantry, network connecti on.2) 132 M2 with recepti on, 7 offi ces,
6 working stati ons, 1 conference room, network connecti on.
Contact - 99469698
FOR RENTCommercial Space
Commercial Space For Rent in Al Khuwair. Ideal for Coff ee Shop / Restaurant / Offi ce Space / Showroom
27sqm / 68sqm / 128sqm
Contact: 96775026
DAILY GUIDET U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6 D3
FOR SALE
FOR SALE
FOR RENT
1100.00 m2 com. & Res. plot at heart
of Ruwi. Contact: 93666944
Excavator Volvo 240 & Hydraulic
Hammers. Contact: 99209427
Fork lift Caterpillar (tool carrier cat
it 28 f) oxy / PDO certifi ed with
excellent condition for sale.
Contact details: gsm: 99332937,
land ph: 24446535
Shop for sale in Mabela Sanayya-3
suitable for any business.
Contact : 96653000
2012 S350L AMG Mercedes special
order 62500 KM asking 21800
Tel: 99423189
Expat leaving by 28th april,16, TV
Philips 25 ‘’ with dist TV receiver, TV
Trolley for RO.35 3 in one JVC CD,
VCD, radio & audio player RO 25, din-
ing showcase RO 15, 2 Godrej steel
cupboards 25. Contact 96764105
A well running pharmacy for
sale at prime location. contact
99627621, 93240949
Quality Warehouses
for rent at Mizfa 550 sqm to 3400 sqm.
Contact 99332291 / 96046951
AVAILABLE
Party & Wedding equipment rent-
als. Full line, from Tables, Linen
& Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers,
Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware,
Chafi ng Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to
Large Sound Systems and spec-
tacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606
2222 for Catering and Croyden
9623 5555 for Sound & Light.
ww.tunesoman.com,
E-mail: [email protected]
ACC. AVAILABLE
ACC. AVAILABLE
Room with attached bathroom for
working ladies in a fl at in M.B.D.
Contact: 99694307
Villa for rent in South Mabellah,
3 bedrooms, sitting room, family
Lounge, kitchen, three Toilets
Contact 92212212
between 10 AM to 5 PM.
Furnished room with A/bathroom
in Al-khuwair33 for Indian Execu-
tive. Contact 95234062
A/C room rent 60 R.O Muttrah,
opp. Khimji Mart.
Contact: 97477670
Furnished room / Bath for
Executives Wadi Kabir.
Contact: 99336206
FOR RENTIN RUWI
1 BHK – SPILT A/C,
BUILT IN WARDROBE
&CENTRALIZED GAS.
SPACIOUS 2 BHK.
Contact :990 49 722
Villa for rent in Al Mawaleh be-
hind Al Tawfeer Super market nr
Al Mawaleh facilities - 7 spacious
bedrooms, 7 toilets, 1 big hall,
1 family hall, 1 kitchen & parking,
rent 800/-negotiable.
Contact: 92885889 / 95031133
Offi ce for rent in Mabela. Contact: 99355330
1000 sqmtrs industrial land for
rent in Ghala suitable for
warehouse workshop etc.
Contact 24700120 / 92584715
1000 sqm Industrial space with
offi ce and accommodation, near
Grand Mosque, Ghala.
Contact: 99364938
2 bed rooms fl at with hall,
2 bathrooms in Darsait near
Muscat Municipality.
Contact: 92584715/ 24700120
1BHK at Hamriya near Muscat
Pharmacy & 2 BHK at Mawaleh
near Mosque Sadiq Al Amin.
Contact: 99224748 / 99332297
Flats in Qurum. Contact 94051789
/ 97201688
New fl at at Al Wadi Al Kabir.
Contact: 96130797 / 92130703
Ware houses in Hay Aseem Barka,
11000 m2 near round about new
Beach road at Al Khoud location
open store with offi ce.
Contact 92959129
Fully Furnished apartments in
Boucher (35) Contact 94051789 /
97201688
Wanted one room. Contact 98026234
Looking for a villa in Amerat area.
Contact : 95405033
ACC WANTED
BUYING
Buying cars for cash.
Contact 90202090
Bobcat available for rent.
Contact 97623299
1 BHK fl at for rent in Darsait
Rent - R.O.250/-. Contact no.
99357586,99785068
Room for rent at Al Khuwair for
bachelor 115 RO with A/C bed,
Elect + water. Contact: 95190627
Studio type furnished room with
small kitchen, bathroom and big
balcony behind KIMS hospital
Cont 95405033
Rooms available with Kitchen
facility at Ruwi. Contact: 91214897
Sharing bachelors accommoda-
tion available in Rex Road, Ruwi.
Contact 94442157
Furnish bedroom with attach
bathroom for executive bachelor.
Contact: 97704794
Furnished apartment for rent,
two rooms, majlis, hall, kitchen.
Near Carrefour al-mawalah.
Contact 99336776
Separate entrance furnished bed-
room with attached bath and kitchen
for Executive bachelor in a villa opp.
Star Cinema. Contact: 99314807
Sharing Accommodation avail-
able for working ladies opposite
Al Nadhah Hospital. Preferably
Indians. Room with seperate toilet
and sharing kitchen.RO.90.
Contact 96524717
ROOM for RENT for Filipino, spa-
cious, new building in Al Khuwair
near City Seasons. Water, Wifi ,
Electric Included. Call 97728418.
Room for rent with furniture.
Al Bustan village.
Contact 93687466
Room available in Mumtaz area
1 room, 1 Bathroom, Kitchen & 1
room, common bathroom. Interested
pleasecontact 92680041 Mr. Altaf
Big showroom for sale and fl oor
more than 200 SQM area in Ruwi
main road. Contact: 93591485 or
Whatsapp. Contact: 93333951
20 x40 containers. Contact:
99354909
Dental chair, mobile dental X ray,
instruments, 5 year old, sale for
1000 Rials only in Al Buraimi.
Contact: 92737149
Single colorful Bed and Sofa
for Sale at Al Khuwair. Contact
92881849 /What`s up No 97290565
Villas in Al Khoud.Contact 95056808 / 97201688
Luxury Apartments in Boucher
(35). Contact 95056808 /
97201688
Furniture and other treatment
items for Ayurvedic clinic.
Contact 97986525
Steel Scrap materials for immedi-
ate sale. # 99273774/ 99202278
Almost new beach/ garden lounge
chairs /bar stools/ counter. Photos
can be sent 95865457
Space for printing press available
at wadikabir with or without
machinery. Contact 99328430
Urgent sale of steel scrap only
serious buyers kindly contact +968
96725423 for viewing the items.
HD Scaff oldings, Shuttering
Jacks, Wooden Planks, Shuttering
wood assorted, Tower hoist (lift),
Concrete Mixer, Bending Machine,
Steel Fabrication Machinery
(Searing/Cutting, lathe & Welding)
including tools for immediate sale:
Contact 99273774/ 99202278
Shop for sale near Oman House,
Muttrah. Contact 99024362.
400 sq mtrs Commercial/Resi-
dential land in Mabela Phase 5
Block 2. OMR 165 Thousand.
Contact 99333479 or 95215360 or
97509955
Flats in Darsait. Contact
94051789 / 97201688
Flats in Muttrah. Contact
94051789 / 97201688
Offi ces in Ghala. Contact
94051789 / 97201688
Shops / fl ats available in Honda
Road, Ruwi & Mabellah Indus-
trial area. Contact 24833972/
24833974/ 99367448
Flat for Rent 2 bed room Near ISM
muscat Indian Scoole Dar sate
Tel : 00 968 95158570
Brand new villas in Al Ansab.
Contact 94051789 / 97201688
Offi ces & Showrooms in Mutrah.
Contact 94051789 / 97201688
Duplex villa in QURUM 29.
Contact 94051789 / 97201688
Offi ces & Showrooms in Al Khoud.
Contact 94051789 / 97201688
Flat in Al Khuwair opp grand mall
4 room 3 toilet + hall kitchen in 3
fl oor 400. Contact 99420346
Flats, shops and store for rent in
Ruwi, MBD & Mumtaz. Contact:
97293708 / 92433127
New building Wattayah main road,
showroom & offi ce space.
Contact 94300909
2BHK fl at shops / ware house
space available for rent behind
new ROP building at Honda road.
Contact 91165807
Furnished offi ce (61M2) for sale
/ rent Al Khuwair near Zawawi
Mosque. Contact: 95611569
2BHK Wadi Kabir R.O 300/-.
Contact: 92144045
Flat for rent in South AlGhubrah
3 rooms, hall and 3 toilets, kitchen
rent 450/-. Contact: 99335580
2BHK split A/C 200/- Monthly
& 1BHK spilt A/C 150/- monthly
new building good location Barka
Market. contact 99342661
FOR RENT IN AZAIBA
4 Bedrooms excellent villa with car parking
Directly from the owner
Contact - 97094797
2BHK Big Size Flat Behind Bank
Muscat, Wadi Kabir. Near ISWK.
97826454, 24815012.
New Rent house in Mabela.
Contact: 99880841/96053220
02 BHK residential fl at opposite
to Al Nahdha hospital.
Contact: 99342733 /99795241
1 Bed room, sharing K& T, R.O 100, 2
bedrooms , sharing K& T R.O 200/-
in AL Khuwair. Contact 95154331
Flat for rent 2 BHK 2 split A/C, 2
toilets, Wadi Kabir near Kuwaiti
Masjid. Contact 97007934 /
92629232
Warehouse at Wadikabir - total
area 3500 sqm - covered ware-
house (500sqm), offi ce, ac-
commodation (1000sqm), open
area (2000sqm) please contact:
99273774 - 99202278
Four bedroom two fl oors luxurious
and spacious residential villa in
Al Hail North, near to the sea and
Oman oil. Each room has its own
bathroom. It has splits A/C’s and
shaded car park. OMR 750 month-
ly. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 or
97509955
For rent and investment Land
industrial shops in Rusayl.
Contact: 99323957 / 95490842
Two bedrooms fl at in Al Ghobrah
near Oman Oil of 18 November Street.
OMR 330 Monthly. Contact 99333479
or 95215360 or 97509955.
Sharing accommodation
near ISD. Contact: 99657340
Room available for Executive
bachelor at Al Hail.
Contact 96234708
Furnished room attached bath
for Indian bachelor, Al-Falaj
Ruwi & lady Wadi Kabir near
Mars hypermarket. CONTACT
96202458/96761960
Room with attached bathroom for
a family in Wadi Kabir.
Contact 97167857
Room with attached bathroom
and sharing kitchen available for
Executive bachelor or small family
at wadikabir Contact 93049849
DAILY GUIDED4 T U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
DRIVER
DOMESTIC HELP
MEDICAL
MISCELLANEOUS
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
ARCHITECT
Urgently requires Hiab Driver & JCB Operator with valid Omani /
GCC driving license,
Mason having 5 years experience.
Contact: 24594868/ Fax: 24593880
Mobile 93210740
Email: [email protected]
Urgently required a Driver.
Contact: 99291154
Wanted female Muslim cook for fam-
ily at Qurum, visa available.
93387962
Urgently required Gynecologist& and General Practitioner with MOH
license for polyclinic in Saham.
Contact: 91311990
Urgently required to work in the capital only Customer care Of-fi cer Expatriate (female) at least
3 years experience in the fi eld,
Staff Nurse having MOH license
and NOC, Pharmacist with MOH
license. Send CV’s at
[email protected] or Contact:
Mr. Zubair at No 24818957
Urgently required Nurses for
Al Hayat International Hospital :
Omani Female Nursing Assistants,
Female Nurses (Filipino preferred)
with or without MOH license.
Contact: 00968 94267068 /
97049520,
Email: pradeep.ratnagiri@
alhayathospital.com
Urgently placement for female Staff Nurse & Pharmacist clinic at Samail. Send CV :
Email: [email protected],
Contact 95498105
Required gynecologist GEN: practitioner lady lab Technician and pharmacologist immediately
for a clinic in Suwaiq. # 95081010
Email: [email protected]
Wanted Staff Nurse for
a dermatology clinic in Muscat .
Must have MOH license and NOC.
Attractive salary off ered. Email:
GP doctor needed for reputed clin-
ic. Preferably with MOH license or
with Datafl ow & Paramatics pass
Contact: 95388934
ENGINEER/MECHANIC.
SKILLED / UNSKILLED
SKILLED / UNSKILLED
CATERING
Required Indian Engineer road
Construction 5/10 years experience
Eligibility BE or Diploma Civil Auto-
CAD Estimation with Oman (D/L) &
Indian Heavy Duty drivers.
Contact: 99882127
Email: [email protected]
Required an Electrical Engineer for
contracting company, with experi-
ence working as a Design Engineer
preferably within a consultancy. The
candidate should have knowledge of
all aspects of Electrical Services En-
gineering in buildings, to take care
of several projects at various stages.
Send CV on [email protected]
A leading company in the fi eld of
construction Contracting excellent
grade required buildings Engi-neer with min 6 years experience
in Oman. Should have valid Omani
driving license.
Candidate should send C.V to
Indian male, 25 yrs,
Accountant, 2.5 yrs in
Finance & Accounts, MBA
Finance & HR, exposure in
SAP, Tally, ERP 9 on visit visa.
Contact 96715420 / 91265020, Email : [email protected], [email protected]
SALES / MARKETING
SITUATION WANT-SIT.WANTED
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
ACCOUNT. & FINANCE
Pakistani male MBA fi nance 8
years experience in Accounting
& Finance GCC , D/L on visit visa.
Contact: 95035011
Email: [email protected]
Indian male, M. Com with 3 yr
Oman Exp in Accounts with valid
NOC & D/L on Visit Visa.
GSM : 94744575
A Graduate of Alexandria in
Accounting has freelance interior
designing, experience in
diff erent design programs &
recorded projects achievements,
willing to join suitable job for
his qualifi cation and talents.
Contact: +201003966769 Oman:
99602608 C/o Osman. Email:
A Graduate of Alexandria
Mechanical Power Engineering
and certifi ed International Pro-
curement Manager CIPM basics of
supply chain management BSCM
- APICS seeking suitable job for his
Qualifi cations. Contact:
20 01222399139 Oman
99602608 C/O Osman Email:
Senior Accountant Indian male
with 6 years experience up to
fi nalization in Tally with good MIS
reporting knowledge having Oman
D/L, NOC. Contact: 94035577
Email: [email protected]
Junior Accountant Pakistani
female with more than 2 years ex-
perience in tally with good knowl-
edge in Accounts receivable hav-
ing Oman D/L. Contact: 95287396
Email: mariamnaaz92@hotmail.
com
Accountant Indian male with 7
years experience up to fi nalization
tally & accounts receivable SAP
R/3, good knowledge of payroll
having Oman D/L, NOC.
Contact: 93733996
Email: [email protected]
ICSI & B.Com qualifi ed Corporate
Secretary (female) with 2 years
experience handling compliance
of 200 companies in Indian seeks
placement in compliance fi eld or
company incorporation & allied
fi elds. Contact: 94863182
Email: [email protected]
ADMIN
With 15 years of Gulf experience
in HR / Admin / logistics looking
for suitable position. Fluent in
Arabic / English with D/L.
Contact: 95824598
A Young dynamic post Graduate with 10 years experience of Offi ce
Administration cum transport in
charge in Oman to manage large
fl eet of PDO / Non PDO vehicles
in addition having experience of
managing the labor camp and staff
with their mess valid Omani D/L.
Contact: +968 - 92700274
Email: [email protected]
Indian looking for customer service, purchase front offi ce
Admin 5 years experience in UAE.
Contact: 91744032
Indian female 26 years MBA (BBA,
BIRLA Institute, Oman) seeking for
full / part time job in Secretary /
Admin / Customer Support / Offi ce
Assistant / HR. Contact: 93241466 /
92767450 Email:
Indian male, 26 yrs experience
(1.5 yr in Oman) in HR/Admin/
Offi ce / Sales seeking suitable
placement, local release available.
Contact 93112346
Indian / female, 26 yrs, MBA with
3 yrs experience in HR / Admin
marketing customer relations
currently in Muscat on visit visa.
Contact: 97205038
Email: [email protected]
Indian Male 19 years (8 Years in
Oman) well experienced in HR
/ Admin in Oil & Gas, Construc-
tion fi elds with Oman D/L seeks
suitable position. Release / NOC
available call: 92854993.
Indian Female, MBA-HR having 8+
experience in Administration/HR,
Customer Support, Offi ce Coordina-
tor with good Computer skill, Now
on Visit Visa,looking for suitable
position. Contact: 90196235
Young Omani male have experi-
ence 12 years as P.R.O, CLERK
Helper Supervisor Admin Supervi-
sor, H.R Manager have diploma in
H.S.E, IT and P.D.O license, looking
for H.R position or P.R.O part time
or full time. Contact: 95933288
Teacher female 27 yrs, MCA
5 yrs experience in teaching in
India currently on visit visa
seeking for a suitable placement.
Contact: 96709509
Email: [email protected]
Filipino HRD especialist / material
controller supervisor with 18 yrs
experience looking for suitable job
in Oman. Contact: (+968) 98037142
/ (+968) 92659817
DRIVER
LOOKING FOR SALESMEN
- Required urgently young &
dynamic
- Junior Sales Persons with a
valid
- Oman Driving license for a
reputed printing and graphics
company.
Contact: 96260078 / 96532284
Email: [email protected]
Urgent required Outdoor sales 3-5 years of experience in spare part,
Store Keeper 2 years experience,
Accountant 2-3 years experience.
Tel: 24504726 Fax: 24504723
Email: [email protected]
Required candidates for following
posts: Accountant, Storekeeper, Foreman Building Maintenance, Van-salesman (water), Helpers. Candidates with Omani driv-
ing license preferred. Contact
99273774/99202278
One of a Leading Excellent grade group of Companies is looking for a “Junior Accountant” ( Omani Na-
tionals only ) for their Duqum offi ce.
Interested candidates may send
their CV by email to
Required Accountant with
minimum 4 years experience.
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 7 years experience
as Accountant in Oman having
Oman driving license looking for
job, currently in Oman. NOC avail-
able. Contact: 92859733 Email:
Sudanese Accountant, Alexandria
University Graduate bachelor of
commerce Diploma of Marketing
professional photographer worked
in PR and social media for 2 years
looking for a job in public relations
media, social media or marketing.
Contact: 96976240
Senior Accountant Master (Fin)
ACCA (PART) 14 years of experi-
ence in accounts & payroll work-
ing or focus, familiar with tally
having NOC & D/L, available on
immediate basis.
Contact: 98579882
Email: [email protected]
Accountant Indian male B.Com
with 8 years experience in Oman
knowledge in tally ERP, SAP AX
MIS upto fi nalization, NOC avail-
able. Contact: 96989872 Email:
radhakrishnank2007@rediff mail.
com
Indian male 25 yrs, Graduate in
commerce, overall 5 yrs exp in ac-
counts/ fi nance fi eld. On visit visa.
Immediately available.
Contact 92836216 /
28/male/MBA - fi nance/B.Com -
Accountant with 4 years of Dubai/
India experience looking for a suit-
able placement.Contact 90187483
Senior / Chief Accountant, having 12 years Oman experience
in reputed fi rms seeks suitable job.
Immediate available.
Contact: 99513082
Part time Accountant up to
fi nalization audit & assignments.
Contact: 91126314
Part-time Accounting up to
fi nalization, Auditing, Taxation and
Project Finance assistance -
Contact: 91044655
Qualifi ed and experienced MBA
post graduate with proven work
exposure in Middle East & India,
having more than 5.5 years of rich
experience in accounts , project
coordination and administration in
(3.5 years UAE experience) oil and
gas projects is currently looking
for suitable job. #93953613 , Email
Indian male 24 yrs B.Com, Tally-
ERP 9 with one year exp seeking
for suitable placement.
Contact 93502127
Jordanian Senior Accountant 15
yrs experience in Oman fi nance &
accounts. Contact : 92881223
Accountant 8 Years experience
with D/L and NOC. Contact 97712084
Accountant 8Years Experience
with D/L and NOC.
Contact 97712084
Indian male, 24 yrs, Graduated
with specialization in Accounting
2 years experienced C.A.CPT com-
pleted. #94628086 / 97315091
A young CA (ACA & ACCA quali-
fi ed) with 4 years experience in
one of top audit fi rms in UK & KSA
seeks suitable placement in Oman.
Contact: Kamran: hkamran112@
gmail.com. +44 7480 1196 74.
+968 93595050.
Sudanese female Accountant ex-
cellent knowledge, MS Offi ce, can
work under pressure.
Contact: 97200130
Accountant available with NOC,
7 years experience in Oman.
Ready to join immediately.
Contact 98263394
Indian male , 29 B.com ICWA
(pursuing) 7 years experience in
accountant / audit with valid Omani
D/L seeking for suitable placement,
NOC available. Contact: 94706954
Email: [email protected]
B.Com 3 years business process
outsourcing. Contact: 94657273
Male Accountant M.Com (fi nance
& accounts) having 3 years experi-
ence in accounts looking for avail-
able job on visit visa.
Contact: 94648575
CMA & CIA qualifi ed fi nance
professional with 13 years of me
experience in FMCG industries as
well as various other industries
available for immediate permanent
job openings. Contact: 94543660
Wanted Male/female Indian cook
with experience in Omani & Indian
food for Omani Family. Visa avail-
able. Contact : Antony 99889459
Engineering consultancy offi ce
(new) looking for Architect with ex-
perience in Oman (portfolio needed)
[email protected] - 99441122
Required Architect Minimum
3 years experience for a reputed
Engineering Consultancy in Mus-
cat. Preference for Arabic speakers.
Contact: 92838840 OR
email- [email protected]
We are looking for photogra-pher with experience of handling
Photoshop and a ticket booking
person with knowledge of travel and
tourism. Interested candidate can
forward their CV to
Urgently required Marketing Executive for a business agency
at Barka. Graduate with D/L and
minimum 2 years experience will
be preferred, fresher can also apply.
Contact: 98908634 or Send CV to
Omani Public Relations Manager / Marketing manager required
for an offi ce in Azaiba. Full time
job. Omani citizens with Health-
care qualifi cation or marketing
experience only need to apply with
English cv and photo to :-
Required marketing / PR manager
for a modern restaurant group in
Oman , profi cient in illustrator &
Photoshop charismatic , proactive ,
creative & fl exible excellent writing
/ Editing skills degree in relevant
area fl uent in English. Send CV to
Sales man for printing press with
driving license. Contact: 92177095
/ 93850727
Email: [email protected]
Salesman required for electrical
equipments with driving license
& 5/7 years working experience.
Fax your C.V 24833043 (Jinan
Enterprises)
Looking for Salesman with ex-
perience in vegetable and fruits
sales, good conduct, fl uent in Eng-
lish. Should have driving license.
Email CV on: info@eigllcoman.
com Contact - 96339339
Salesman for a printing press.
Contact: 99498949
EDUCATION
URGENTLY REQUIREDA leading Fire & Safety Company
in Oman urgently requires 3 to 5 years experienced candidates
for the following preferably with Oman/ GCC D/L,
Fire Fighting TechnicianFire Alarm Technician
CCTV. Access control & Security alarm technician
Sales EngineerSend resume to:
SITUATION VACANTCivil Engineer
A reputed, long standing, multi division trading & contracting Company in Oman looking for a young, dynamic, competent Civil Graduate Engineer with relevant Oman experience to
start a Civil Construction Company.Candidates who meet the present Oman Government visa
condition can apply.Send your resume to : [email protected]
Required Indian Mason – 5 nos., eligibility (minimum 5 yrs experi-
ence in road construction fi eld).
Contact: 99882127
Email: [email protected]
Thrust Boring contractor is
required. Contact immediately-
99438397
English Teacher required for a
private school in Barka. Degree +
B.Ed + IELTS. Send CV:
[email protected] /93211417
A well known private school is in need of Laboratory Assistant, English, Maths, Science & Kindergarten teachers. Contact: 96910649
Email: staffi [email protected]
Parameters required in the fol-
lowing disciplines mathematics
science neighborhoods physics.
Send CV at the following
Email: [email protected]
REQUIRED AN AUDITORWith 6years of experience. Th e candidates should be a
commerce graduate experienced in auditing.
Interested candidates may mail their CV’s to:
SITUATION VACANTA reputed Hypermarket in Oman
is looking for the following personal for
immediate appointment:1. Floor Supervisor2. Purchase assistant3. Sales staff 4. Cashier (Omanis only)
Send CV to: [email protected]
URGENTLY REQUIRED
LIGHT HOUSE DRIVER
Aged between 25 to 35 years with a good command of English
Please Contact # 99261098
EUROPEAN RESTAURANTS REQUIRE
WAITRESSAged between 21 to 32 y.o.
Candidates should be friendly, energetic,with a good command of English. Please Contact # 99261098
Urgently required subcontractor in construction for big projects.
Contact : 99416162
Engine cylinder head technician
required immediately for guide
changing, seat changing,
seat cutting & valve lapping.
call or whatsapp immediately
968-98898273
Required Hydraulic Mechanic.
Contact 95251213
ENGINEER/MECHANIC.
Thrust Boring Supervisor is
required. Contact immediately-
99438397
Electrician for Heavy Machines :
experienced with mobile cranes
and Wheel Loader (shovel) with
a background in troubleshooting
and reading a diagram .
Contact : 98856565 .
email : [email protected]
Crane Hydraulic Mechanic : expe-
rienced with Mobile Cranes and
should have knowledge with trou-
bleshooting and hydraulic system
diagnosis . Contact : 98856565 .
email : [email protected]
ACCA fi nalist with 2 years of experi-
ence in a Construction Company as
an Accountant in United Kingdom
here on visit visa for 3 weeks from 12
April - 3 May. Contact: 99171627
Part time accountant, up to fi naliza-
tion, looking for job after 5 pm (loca-
tion prefer - MSQ to Al Hail). Contact:
95694737
Filipino Male, 24 Years Old..
looking for job, have experience
in Cargo & Logistics/ Rent a Car/
Real Estate/ Finance & Accounts/
customer service and as Travel
Agent. Hard working and with
good computer and communica-
tion skills having Omani driving
license. GSM: 95370052
Indian female MBA in fi nance
currently on visit visa seeking
suitable placement in Accounts.
Contact: 92896110
Email: [email protected]
ACCA member with 6 yrs of
experience in Oman looking for a
suitable job in fi nance.
Contact: 99284193
Indian male 34 Yrs, Dual MBA
Finance and marketing with IT
skills, 7+ yrs of experience,
Looking for suitable placement.
contact 94879615,Email-
MBA fi nance from Pakistan with
4 years experience in Accounts &
fi nance department currently in
Muscat on family visit visa, 27 yrs.
Contact: 90590037 Email:
Driver want job. Contact: 93822195
DAILY GUIDET U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6 D5
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
DOMESTIC HELP
ENGG. / TECH./MECH.
SECRETARIAL & OFFICE
Looking for part time job Secre-tarial / Data Entry / Documenta-
tion available every day after 5:00
pm Friday / Saturday full day area
preferred Ruwi/ CBD/ MBD / Al
Khuwair. Contact: 90414827
Lady Secretary / Sales Co-coordi-
nator 12 years experience in Oman
in reputed companies,
seek immediate Employment.
Call: 95244761
Sales & Marketing specialist with 16 yrs experience in Oman in
MNC retails telecom lubes
construction related industry
handled various projects, holding
valid Oman driving license,
release available.
Contact 96960991
EDUCATION/TRAINING
Female B. Ed English teacher, 7
yrs exp seeking suitable placement.
Contact : 99739415 / 92091528
Indian male (28) B.Com education
7 years exp in that 3.5 years oil
& gas co. in Libya. Good knowl-
edge MS Excel, currently on visit
visa. Contact: 95231393 Email:
Indian Lecturer M.Phil, M.Com, MBA
DMM , 3+ years of exp in college & 2+
years exp in corporate seeks a suit-
able position. Contact: 90369540
Email: [email protected]
DRIVER
Young Indian female, BSc Interior
Designer, with 2 years experience
seeking for suitable placement.
Contact: 91102695 / 92191721
Architect Interior designers 3d
Visualizer, 8 yrs exp, Indian male,
have Omani D/L available.
NOC & local release.
Contact: 92710047
Architectural Draftsmen diploma
in construction technology with 6
years experience in drafting and
detailing as per British standard
in Oman with valid Omani license
looking for suitable opportunity
Noc available. Call 94375897.
Free lance /part time autocad
works (ARCH/ MEP) 2D/3D
PH: 97103168
Piping designer with 14 years
experience working with PDO, OXY
for 10 years NOC available.
Contact: 92582356
Revit, Autocad D/man, expected
salary 200 OMR PH :92279784
Filipino Senior Revit/AutoCAD
Draftsman with 20 years profes-
sional experience is looking for
suitable job in Oman. Please Con-
tact: 96489798, (+974) 66653780.
B.E Mechanical Engineer, In-
dian male 34 years, having 10+
years experience in MEP build-
ing construction fi eld (HVAC,
Firefi ghting and Plumbing)
with Omani D/L. NOC available.
96978380;[email protected]
Indian male 22, Chemical Engi-
neer residing in Oman looking for
suitable placement.
Contact: 92379181
Electrical Engg : M 32, having
8 yrs experience in MEP/ EPC
projects with MEDC, OETC & PAEW,
C.E.P holder with D/L,
seeking for better opportunity.
Contact: 93949885
Email: [email protected]
Associate Engineer Electronics
with 3 years of experience in Satel-
lite & CCTV searching for place-
ment. Contact: 99832706
Sudanese Mechanical Engineer +13 years experience in heavy
equipments maintenance experi-
ence in Oil fi eld. Contact 96583270
Proposed position Safety Offi cer
experience 04 yrs and 6 months
qualifi cation NEBOSH IOSH MS,
OSHA, fi re safety certifi cate,
Master in Social Science.
Contact: 93644060
Email: saff [email protected]
B.Tech & Diploma in Mechanical
having 3 years exp. in India looking
for suitable job. Contact : 90542737
Electrical B.E.C Engineer Paki-
stani male 24 years looking for a
job. Contact: 94049812 / 92958112
Civil Engineer having 7 years, 8
months experience with driving li-
cense immediately joining having
NOC. Contact : 99294954
Purchaser (construction) with 4
years experience & driving license.
NOC available looking for similar
job. Contact: 98956725
Civil Engineer 8 years experience.
Contact: 90183630
Indian male, Structural Engineer
looking for job in structural design
fi eld. Having 6 years of experience
in design fi eld. Residing in Muscat.
Contact: 91176187
Civil Engineer 7 months experi-
ence in road domain, have driving
license, looking for job, prefer build-
ing domain. Contact: 91429971
B.Tech Mechanical Engineer 3
years experience in maintenance
and commissioning of compres-
sors, refrigeration system and
other industrial Equipments in an
engineering services company
on visit visa looking for suitable
placement. Contact: 91106765
Email: [email protected]
Electrical Engineer having 16
years experience in switchgear
/ transformer / over head lines &
trading for sales / procurement &
project execution with valid Omani
D/L. Contact: +968 95994727
Email: [email protected]
MISCELLANEOUS
Male having visa, 3 years in Oman
with valid D/L seeks suitable
placement. Contact: 95453393
Indian male 27 years BBA,
Administration marketing & sales
accounts, MS Offi ce can work under
pressure now on visit visa looking
for suitable position.
Contact: 90739819
Indian female master degree one
year experience seeking suitable
placement in any fi eld. #97792820
Email: [email protected]
Indian male, 28, post graduate,
6+ yrs exp in Oman in sales (back
offi ce) & credit control with valid
Oman D/L looking for suitable place-
ments. NOC available.
Contact: 920 66 523
BS in Electrical Engineering, Experience: 5 years(Power Plants).
Contact: 92475206 Email:
MANAGER
SKILLED LABOUR
Freight Forwarding Manager In-
dian male Oman, UAE experience
11 years Air/ SEA / Land imports /
export break bulk air cargo charter
fl ights worldwide agent network,
UAE, driving license & visa seeks
suitable placement.
Contact: 91937030
Procurement and Projects Man-ager having 10 years UAE experi-
ence, MBA Graduate with 6 sigma
& CPPM seeking suitable position.
Contact: 90772927
Purchase/Planning & Logistics
Manager, MBA (Finance), 14yrs.
Oman Exp. with D/L, NOC avail-
able, looking for suitable position.
Contact: 93826090,
Email: [email protected]
Egyptian male 36 years
Warehouse Manager, 7 years in
Sultanate of Oman, 1 year in UAE,
and 3 years in Egypt.
Contact: +968 97200468 Email:
MEDICAL
HOSPITALITY
Indian male BE (ECE) having nine
years experience in medical tran-
scription / health care & documenta-
tion seeking suitable placement as
Medical Transcriptionist Insurance
Coordinator or Medical Secretary,
currently on visit visa.
Contact: 90658764
Email: [email protected]
Indian female (MSC – Microbiolo-
gist) seeking suitable job.
Contact 96791162 / 90618567
Indian Bsc Female Nurse with
6.5 years exp, 4 years in KSA.
Passed Oman Pro Metric with 69%,
completed data fl ow. Presently in
Muscat in visit visa looking for a
suitable placement.
Contact: 94744900, 94742834,
Qualified Certified Management Accountant (CMA-USA) and cost and
management accountant (ACMA-
India) with over 25 years experience in
Sultanate of Oman in finance, banking
and administration is seeking a suitable
placement. NOC available.
Contact -95986767
Oman experienced Lawyer
Indian male, BA, Arabic, LLB, MBA
Knows English, Arabic with over 9 yrs in
legal field, now working as a legal
advisor in Muscat, seeks suitable
placement. NOC available.
Contact 97351649, [email protected]
3 years experience D/L looking for
job. Contact: 94531957
Light driver wanted for suitable
placement. Contact: 95656941
Looking for a job light duty driver.
Contact: 95141473
Light duty & heavy duty driver, GCC valid D/L looking for job (over-
seas). Contact 95175192, Email :
Looking for jobs light vehicle
license, 5 years experience with
Toyota Corolla car.
Contact: 96345442 / 96789570
Indian light driver having 2 years
experience in Oman knowing
language English, Hindi & Arabic
need job. Contact: 97366822
Driver want job with 4 yrs exp.
Contact: 99752611
Driver looking for job.
Contact: 94357030
Looking for driving job.
Contact: 97855341
Looking for light driving job 2 yrs
exp. Contact: 91625977
Looking for driving job
experience 3 years Pakistani.
Contact: 93804176
8 years experience in driving heavy
D/L (PDO) H2S. Contact: 92091528
Pakistani male seeks job, have
Oman driving license, 6 years expe-
rience in driving. Contact: 96915494
Light Duty Driver looking for job.
Contact: 96250185
Light Duty Driver looking for job.
Contact: 96780325
Light driver looking for job.
Contact: 96798075
Temporary light driver.
Contact: 99053510
Light Duty Driver, 3 years 6 months
experience. Contact: 95768440
Experience driver looking for job.
Contact: 95113612
Driver 3/6 years experience,
I have 2 years experience out door
sales man in led light, Pakistani,
Oman experience 6 years.
Contact: 94565993 / 92627855
Family driver available.
Contact 92943094
Software testing professional
6 yrs exp , Engg Graduate.
Contact: 91739424,
Email: [email protected]
INDIAN FEMALE, 23 years, BSC-
CS Diploma in IAD graphics, well
knowledge in computer applica-
tions 6 months experience pres-
ently in Sohar seeking suitable
placement. Contact: 96670907.
Email: [email protected]
Indian Electronic Technician 5 years exp CCTV, Telephone,
video door phone, NOC available.
Contact: 99803912
Indian female M.Sc Computer
Science seeking suitable placement
in Muscat area. Contact: 98660672
Indian female MCA & BSc Physics
Graduate, holder of valid driving
license, seeking suitable placement
in IT or Administration. #99466062
B.Tech (IT) experience in Net-
working server & desktop man-
agement in corporate environment
looking for suitable placement.
Contact: 92954613
IT Support Engineer, Exp 3 years
in Oman 2 years in India.
Contact 94672759
Female 24 yrs, 3 years in IT pro-
grammer now in Oman looking for
suitable job. Contact: 96350234
IT
IT
SALES / MARKETING
PROJECTS
Indian male (25) MBA / MMS
(Marketing) on visit visa valid UAE
driving license exp 2 yrs sales /
marketing. Contact: 98089262
Indian male, 29 years BSc, Gradu-
ate, with Omani driving license
and 7 years of sales experience in
home appliances, IT products, mo-
bile and traffi c safety equipments
currently working on employment
visa, NOC available seeking for
suitable placement immediately.
Contact 97890607
Email: [email protected]
10 yrs experience in Oman in
logistics / purchase have Oman
D/L looking for suitable placement.
Contact 96410767.
email :[email protected]
Procurement / Estimation male 15
years experience in Oman work-
ing with reputed company seeks
suitable placements. N.O.C available.
Contact: 93508898
Email: [email protected]
Indian Male, 30yrs, 7 year experi-
ence in marketing, (3 years Exp.
in Oman & Saudi) seeking suitable
placement in Sales & Marketing.
DL & NOC available,
Contact: 93329021,
D/L, NOC available looking for
salesman job, 1 year experience.
Contact: 91210380
10 years ICT Business develop-
ment & project management exp
in Oman looking for suitable sen-
ior position. Contact: 98987654
Senior Sales Executive, 10Yrs
Exp, India seeking immediate job.
Contact #+968 98444359,
+91 9880637906.
Indian female, BSc, B.Ed, MBA,
Marketing having 3 years experi-
ence, seeks suitable placement in
marketing fi eld. Contact: 95041134
Email: [email protected]
35 years male, Lebanese hold-
ing British passport, 10 years of
experience in procurement, Omani
Government tenders, setup market-
ing plans & strategies, importing,
Organizing events, management,
have car, NOC available.
Contact 94123939
Email: [email protected]
Graduate Diploma, 5+ years in
logistics operation and marketing
/ event management with driving
license. Contact: 92107006
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 31, BBA Muscat born,
fl uent in English above average
Arabic, experience in Sales, Mar-
keting , customer service sectors
ranging from FMCG to real estate,
with NOC, seeks suitable place-
ment. Contact: +968 93870938
24 years experience Sr. Manage-
ment professional as Profi t centre
head. Industry electrical trade
looking for a suitable position in
Oman / UAE. Contact: 91195418
Email: ab_9616@rediff mail.com
Indian male B.com 10 years expe-
rience in Oman stores & ware-
house, immediate job with NOC.
Contact: 95192733, email:
26 yrs Indian male MBA Market-
ing Sales / Marketing Executive,
3 yrs experience now available
in Muscat on visit visa seeking
placement for immediate joining.
Contact: 95978874
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 37 years MBA
graduate in marketing with 9yrs of
experience in UAE in fi eld of brand
promotions & marketing with UAE
D/L on a visit seeking suitable
position. Conatct 95792820
Diploma of Associate Engineering
in Civil technology 14 years expe-
rience in project of construction
works like buildings, roads, oil &
gas fi eld on visit visa expiry date
11/06/2016 looking for good job in
Oman. Contact: 00968 92161978
Email: [email protected]
Civil Eng exp 15 years NOC
available looking job change
Gulf experience over 12 years in
Oman, 8 years experience handled
MOH – project, MOS projects, MOS
– projects. Contact: 98036290,
Electrical Engineer having 5
years experience in the fi eld of
managing supervising testing &
commissioning of electrical
distribution, transmission &
substation projects.
Contact 92322906 / 90377916
Email: [email protected]
Indian male 23 years, young
dynamic looking for draughtsman
in civil. Contact: 94553406 Email:
Indian female 23 years Mechani-
cal Engineer with 1.5 years experi-
ence looking for suitable jobs.
Also interested in sale & and mar-
keting. Contact : 94743992
E mail : [email protected]
Female Electrical Engineer, excel-
lent knowledge, Graduated with
distinction, can work under pres-
sure. Contact: 98133281
Indian female M.Tech in VLSI
Design B.Tech in electronics with
valid IELTS score 6.5 now in fam-
ily visa experience in teaching
& and admin. Contact: 90195131
Email: [email protected]
Mechanical Engineer M.Tech 2
yrs, experience HAVC fi refi ghting
CAD. Contact: 90150913 Email:
Site Supervisor, Diploma in Civil
Engg (cert attested) knows auto-
cad revit, salary exp: 250
Ph : 92279784
Mechanical Engineer (B Tech)
Indian male with 1 year experience
on visit visa looking for suitable job.
Contact : 90510800, Email :
Sr. Electrical Engineer with17+
yrs of exceptional exp in spear
heading strategic planning and
project management initiatives &
executing various high rise resi-
dential & commercial building as
well as roads and highway project
with profi ciency in installation,
seeking a challenging position in a
dynamic organization.
Contact 96570891
Civil Engineer (B.Tech) Indian male
24 yrs having 1+ year experience in
Industrial construction with good
communication skills and software
knowledge, looking for suitable
position available on visit visa.
Contact 968 - 99779538 /
98694939
Email: [email protected]
Engineer with 4 years experience
in Oman in telecom operations
looking for a suitable opportunity
have valid driving license inter-
ested in marketing also. Contact:
98513495
Pakistani male Diploma Civil En-
gineer 4yrs exp in Oman bulling &
mega projects, valid license Oman.
Contact:98921022
HSE OFFICER, having 9 years
experience in construction.
GSM 97035591
Email - [email protected]
DESIGNER/DRAUGHTSMAN
INDIAN MALE, MARKETING & HR SPECIALIST,
25 yrs, Master degree with 2 yrs of experience both HR & Marketi ng,
now on visiti ng visa. Contact 96972939 / 96096723
Email : [email protected], [email protected]
Indian Female, 24 Years - MSc
Biotechnology. Worked in Inter-
national Crops Research Institute
For The Semi Arid Tropics for pro-
ject work as trainee. Looking for
suitable job. Mobile: 92619048,
Email: [email protected]
Housemaid/ baby sitter looking for
job (overseas). Contact 95175192
Offi ce cleaning boy available on
contract basis. Contact: 94262954
Indian male BE (ECE) having 1 year
experience in Engineering and 8 years
experience in medical transcription
seeking suitable placement currently
on visit visa. Contact: 90658764
Email: [email protected]
Civil Engineer diploma, 4 yrsexp
seeks suitable position ina reputed
company. NOC available.
Contact 96789711
Civil Engineer 8 years experience
Structural buildings marine. Avail-
able NOC release.
Contact: 92451323.
Email: [email protected]
Indian male Electrical Engineer, having 6 years gulf experience in
designing, assembling, commission-
ing execution etc having valid GCC
license too looking for a suitable.
Contact: 00968-98052942 Email:
HSE Engineer (B.E Mech+Diploma
Safety+NEBOSH+OSHA) over
10yrs. Exp, (Visa Release Letter
(NOC) available), seeking suit-
able placement, Mob:97061817,
Email:[email protected]
Civil Engineer (B.Tech), Indian
male 24 years with 1+years Indian
experience,(Certifi ed in Staad
Pro/ Quantity Survey/ Auto Cad).
Looking for a Suitable position.
Available In Sultanate of Oman
(Muscat) on Visit Visa.
Contact 92835952. E-mail:
Indian male 26 B.Tech Civil Engi-
neer 3 year’s 8 months Experience
at building construction. In Oman
2 year’s experience N.O.C available
seeking suitable placement
Contact : 97396269
Email : [email protected]
Civil Engineer, 6 yrs experience
with Omani driving license,
local release available.
Contact : 91693008
Mechanical Engineer & Project Manager Sudanese 29 yrs, more than 3 yrs experience in Mining Company,
Profession:Producti on & manufacturing, safety, fi re fi ghti ng designing,
Engineering Management, sales – Muscat, Oman. Contact 968 93642704,
Email : [email protected]
Shovel, JCB, Grader, Excavator, Operator GCC valid D/L looking
for job(overseas), looking for job.
Contact 95175192
Indian male, 28 yrs, B.Sc Hospital-
ity Science with 5 yrs experience
in Hospitality & banking sectors in
Oman & India seeks suitable
placement. NOC available.
Contact 91383167
An Iraqi civil with more than
30 years experience in (Iraq and
G.C.C) looking for a job, (N.O.C)
available. Contact: 96561306
Email: [email protected]
Indian male, Mechanical
Engineer having 1year experi-
ence, on visit visa looking for
suitable job. Contact:97416564,
Email:[email protected]
Civil Engineer 8 years experience
in Oman as a project engineer for
governmental & private projects.
Contact – 90164912
Electrical Engineer Indian male
30 years, having 5 years of experi-
ence in industrial automation
& utility maintenance in Indian
(MRF Tyres) holding valid Oman
D/L. Contact: 92789995 Email:
Indian male B-tech 8 years expe-
rience as senior electrical project
engineer / QC engineer on visit
visa seeks suitable placement.
Contact 94094543
Email: [email protected]
An Electrical engineer with 4+
yrs of experience in Electrical
network (MT, LT) with professional
computer skills seeking for work.
Contact: 99841736 / 93955381/
+149922698343 Email:
Electrical & Electronics Engr,
knows autocad & revit.
PH: 93837973
Male QC inspector Mechanical,
NDT 20 years experience valid
Oman D/L , release available.
Contact: 91001104
9 years of Software Test Consult-ing and business analysis experi-
ence in various CBS (Core Banking
Solutions) and other Banking
related solution implementa-
tions with deep understanding of
Islamic Banking. Completed CDIF -
CIMA Diploma in Islamic Finance
and ADIF - Advanced Diploma
in Islamic Finance conducted by
CIMA, UK. NOC available. Contact:
GSM: 9393 8086
DAILY GUIDED6 T U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6
Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
Indian B-Com Graduate 1 year
Experience in market survey, Valid
Driving License, looking for any
suitable post. Contact: 92567020
/ 96930392, shwayanad@gmail.
com
Indian male, M. Com, 11 years
experience in the fi eld of account-
ancy and Stores. Good knowledge
in SAP, Tally, oracle, MS offi ce and
Excel seeks suitable placement.
Contact 92859733
Senior Accountant, NOC avail-
able, more than 5 years exp., born
& bought up in Oman, Account-
ing upto fi nalization, computer
skills tally9, Sage ERP ACCPAC
500(6.0A), Vcams, Audit ,valid
Oman driving license, lan-
guages known English, Arabic,
Hindi. Can join immediately.
Tel: (+968) 96339599, E-mail-
Indian male, M.Com, 7 years
Oman experience in the fi eld of
accounts and valid oman driving
license & NOC . Good knowledge
in SAP, Tally, oracle, MS offi ce and
Excel seeks suitable placement.
Contact 92859733
Indian male 42, BE-Civil 13 years
experience in Road construction.
looking for suitable placement.
having valid Oman driving license.
Contact: 95225214, Email:
HSE Engineer, Indian male, 4 Plus
years experience in Oil & Gas,
Working in Shclumberger,
NEBOSH,IOSH, & NDT Certifi ed,
M Tech in HSE.
Mobile- +91 9867016808
Indian female 27 yrs, Diploma in
Aviation & Hospitality manage-
ment, seeking suitable placement.
Curnetly in Oman, NOC Available.
Contact 94880684
Indian Male 28 years, Mechanical
Engineer (Diploma) with 2 years’
experience, Automobile ITI NCVT,
CSWI-BGAS Painting QC Grade-2,
NDT Level-2, ISO Lead Auditor
QA (IRCA), Piping QC & Isometric
Drawings, WPS & WPQR, available
on Visit Visa, looking for a suitable
job. Contact: 90653733,
The Business Development Man-ager, Iraqi, Exp. 15 Years Inside and
outside Oman following activities:
construction(Very strong and quali-
fi ed to bringing business for civil
work Or any type of the construc-
tion work for many million per year
with a good experience in pricing
and collect payment and cash fl ow
& marketing projects & invest-
ments & tenders & real estate.
Contact :- 92385033
Safety Offi cer 3 years of expe-
rience in safety certifi cations:
BE (Electrical and Electronics
Engineering),NEBOSH, IOSH, DHSE,
fi rst aid. Contact +97474018995,
email:[email protected]
skype:midhunmike
Bachelor in Hotel Management
Having 13 years experience in
Catering Industry in all aspects of
Operations with D/L looking out for
a suitable placement. #90654826
Email: [email protected]
Indian Female on a visit visa hav-
ing master degree seeking suitable
placement in any fi eld, 1 ,5 year
experience in HR .
Contact+968 91467576.
Indian male network cabling tech-
nician (19-years Gulf experience)
seeking for suitable placement.
Contact 0091-8089909265 (India),
Email: [email protected]
Indian female, MBA, Diploma in
Aviation & Hospitality mgt (IATA),
having 4 yrs of exp, on family visa
seeks job in Oman.
Contact-9910 4529, 95679557,
9 yrs exp Site Engineer in Civil &
Shade Structure. 2d, 3d draughts-
man (HOLDING OMANI DRIVING
LICENSE) seeking job.
Contact: 93790601
LAND SURVEYOR: Male, more than
12 years’ experience in land/pipe
line surveying in Oman and UAE.
Looking for suitable placement.
NOC available. Contact 91215843
ELECTRONICS ENGINEER Indian/
male/24Yrs,Bsc.Electronics &
Communications,ITI,1.7 Years
experience as Service Technician
in India, on visit Visa, looking
For a Suitable Placement.
Contact :92794176 ,
E-mail: [email protected]
Marketing Communications Coordinator Indian, 25 years GCC
experience in Media, Advertising &
Marketing ATL + BTL
branding. Contact: 93031168
Email: [email protected]
Indian male physiotherapist with
3 years of experience, with (moh
license and NOC available. seeking
suitable placement.
Contact 99767528, 91317863
Indian, 32 years, passed M.A. Eng-
lish M.Sc Psychology, DHM & B.Ed
in English with 4 years experience
seeking for part time or full time
job. Contact: 99869535 Email:
27 years old Indian male looking
hospitality jobs in Hotel. Experience
in customer service, front desk,
housekeeping supervisor, captain,
cashier,guest relation manager.
Contact. +968-90351742Email.
27 yearsold Indianmale look-
ing Jobs in documents Collection
executive.Experience in collection
executive. Contact. +968-90358068
Email [email protected]
Indian male, 26 years old BA Gradu-
ate having 1 year experience in
accounts fi nance fi eld. Looking for
suitable Job On visit visa
immediately available. #9565 9415
Anishkhan991867@gmail. Com
ELECTRONICS ENGINEER Indian/
male/24Yrs,Bsc.Electronics &
Communications,ITI,1.7 Years ex-
perience as Service Technician in
India. On visit Visa, Looking For a
Suitable Placement. #:92794176,
E-mail:[email protected]
Pakistani male 23 years old expe-
rience in travel agency - ticketing
looking for a suitable job, NOC avail-
able. Contact: 93253759
Indian with 3 years for experience
in sales and marketing fl uency in
English, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil and
Malayalam looking for suitable job.
Also hold valid Driving License,
currently in oman Mob : 93451439
HSE Engineer, Indian male, 4 Plus
years exp. in Oil & Gas, Working
in Shclumberger, NEBOSH, IOSH,
& NDT Certifi ed, M Tech in HSE.
Mobile- +91 9867016808
Indian Male, 40 Years, B. Com, having
10 years experience in Oman, Tally
&ERP- looking for suitable placement
( Local release and Oman driving
license available. Tel- 92469789
Indian Male 42 year’s, MBA, Sr.
Material controller having 12 years
experience in Oman with reputed
companies. Having Oman driving
License, Seeks suitable replace-
ment immediately. Available NOC.
Cont. 00968-92944026,
Email – [email protected]
SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED
SITUATION WANT-SIT. WANTED
ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN Indian/male/24Yrs,Bsc.Electronics
& Comm,1.7 Years experience as
Service Engineer in India. On visit
Visa, Looking For a suitable place-
ment. Contact : 92794176
E-mail:[email protected]
Indian male Executive Secretary
having vast experience in admin,
logistics & procurement well versed
with computer seeks suitable
placement. #99514286
Indian male Kerala, B.com & B.PE.
Currently on visit visa, looking for
a suitable job in Accounts, Store
keeper etc. Ready to join as early as
possible. Contact:-93301023,
email:- [email protected]
Female Dentist with MOH license
and NOC, 7 years experience 2 yrs
out of them in Oman looking for a
job. Contact 97401243
Electrical diploma Engineer
Indian male 22 years, 2 years
experience in control panel contact
93047707 [email protected]
IT System Administrator 6 yrs
experience, male, Filipino Desk-
top, Laptop and printer Support,
Backup administrator, Router and
switch Network, Server Adminis-
trator. +968 94134295
Female dentist with MOH license
and NOC ready to join 7 years
experience 2 of them in Oman.
Contact 97401243
Having 10 years exp. in Admin &
HR in reputed companies. Pres-
ently working in Muscat and seek-
ing for suitable placement.
Contact No.: 97693456. email :
Indian Male 42 year’s, MBA, Sr.
Material controller having 12 years
experience in Oman with reputed
companies. Having Oman driving
License, Seeks suitable replace-
ment immediately. Available NOC.
Cont. 00968-92944026,
Email – [email protected]
NOC available, Indian Male - MBA
(HR) and B.E (E.I.E) with total 9 years
of experience in HR & Admin and
Business Development (3 yrs of Gulf
exp.) can join immediately - 91240251
M. Sc Computer Science – 2 year
Experience – in India, looking suit-
able Placement. Email:-elvisgt6@
gmail.com, Mob:-+91 9497482305
(INDIA), Oman:-98291626.
Indian, 30 years, B. Com with 2
years Oman experience in Tally
ERP-9 available in Muscat seeking
suitable positions. # on 95186652
ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN Indian/male/24Yrs,Bsc.Electronics
& Comm, 1.7 Years experience as
Service Engineer in India, On visit
Visa, looking for a suitable place-
ment. Contact : 92794176,
E-mail:[email protected]
B-tech Civil with honours, Civil En-
gineer (structures) Experience more
than six years. #91431483. Email
mohsinyousuf86@rediff mail.com
HSE Engineer,Indian male, 4 Plus
years experience in Oil & Gas .Work-
ing in Shclumberger NEBOSH, IOSH,
& NDT Certifi ed, M Tech in HSE.
contact +91 9867016808
PART TIME ACCOUNTANT avail-
able, well experienced in account-
ing up to fi nalization. knowledge in
tally also. contact. 92643875
Chief Accountant 25 years
experienced looking for part/full
time accountant job.
Contact: 95598477 / 98803439
Indian Pediatric consultant, md
with 20 years experience and wife
gynecologist md with 15 years plus
experience seeking opportunities
with reputed hospitals in Muscat.
14 years experienced light driver
with valid Oman license looking for
suitable job. Contact 99442481
Indian male: 24 years, diploma
in computer science and B.E(CSE)
having experience in hardware and
networking seeking for the suitable
job. Contact: 91170912,
Email- [email protected]
Indian male auto cad draughts-
man (civil) 8 years experience,
seeking for part time job. mobile
no: 0096899070584. email:
Civil Engineer (roads and struc-
tures) Education B. Tech Civil
Engineering with honours
experience more than six years.
Contact no 91431483 ,Email
mohsinyousuf86@rediff mail.com
Indian male 6 years exp in diff er-
ent fi eld, with valid Oman driving
license. Languages known Hindi,
English, looking for any job(Driver
for executives). Contact 98696795
Sudanese male, 5 years experi-
ence in warehouse management
and logistics services#90644186
Draughtsman, 15 years’ experi-
ence, Indian male currently in
Oman looking for suitable position.
Gsm – 95358115, 96977289,
Email : [email protected]
HSE Engineer,Indian male, 4
Plus years Experience in Oil &
Gas .Working in Shclumberger.
NEBOSH,IOSH, & NDT Certifi ed,
M Tech in HSE,
contact [email protected]
Mobile- +91 9867016808
Indian male Network cabling tech-
nician ( 19-years gulf experience)
seeking for suitable placement.
Contact : 0091-8089909265 (In-
dia), Email: [email protected]
Experienced B.Com graduate +
IATA Diploma holder looking for
Accounts/Admin/Travels related
job. Mob. 91142997. NOC available
.
Indian male B.A degree & diploma
in hotel management with 16 years
experience as restaurant & catering
manager in Oman & Saudi with V/L
Oman D/L seeks suitable placement.
Contact : 92100141
MBA Graduate (Indian male 26
years) having 2 years experience
in Qatar as admin assistant looking
for suitable placement.
Contact 93041141 Email:
Indian female, MBA with 9 yrs of
experience in fi nance & procure-
ment currently on family visa
looking for suitable position in
fi nance & supply chain.
Contact 95622568
*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00
noon for next day’s publication.
* Subject to space availability
IT professional, B.E. in IT, CCNA,
MCSA, MCSE, 3yrs exp. in IT,
valid Omani D/L seeking suitable
placement in IT/Network/Server
support/Retail sales.
Contact 91496939.
Indian male, Fire & Safety Engi-
neer having 1 year experience on
visit visa looking for suitable job.
Contact: 95208305
Email: [email protected]
A/C & Fridge Technician 25 years
experience in Oman India seeks
suitable placement.
Contact: 95680380
Indian female, 27 yrs, B.E
(Telecom) with 3 yrs exp in IBM
(India) as Senior Security Delivery
Analyst. Now on family visa seek-
ing for suitable position.
Contact: 95600437
Tea boy looking for job Name:
Man Bahadar Contact No. 97859837
Indian male, M. Com with 3 yr
Oman Exp in Accounts with valid
NOC & D/L on Visit Visa, available
to join immediately .
GSM :94744575
Electrical & Electronics diploma
engineer Indian male 22 years, 2
years experience currently in visit
visa. Contact 93047707
Indian Female, 29 Yrs Age, M.Sc
Microbiology, looking for Job any
reputed organization / Hospitals,
seeks suitable position.
Contact : 95218424 / 9610 6604.
On Family Residence Visa.
Indian male 34 years MBA fi nance
& marketing 7 years experience in
India accounts & Administration,
currently in Muscat on family visa.
Contact: 98104991
Email: [email protected]
Indian Female, M.Sc Computer
Science, Seeking suitable place-
ment in Muscat Area.
Contact : 98660672
FOR HIRE
Crane trailer, hiab. Contact:
99354909
Quality concept trading LLC Crane
rental daily monthly cranes
available for rent at attractive prizes
Contact: 92870992
WANTED
IELTS Coaching (academic)
required nearby wadi Kabir
area. Please call on mobile or
msg on Whats up. Mobile no:
92927880/99012165
MV SALE
Geely 1.3 model 2012
manual gear used 72000.
Contact: 96778006
Expatriate driver 4 WD Jeep
liberty 2007 model in excellent
condition 165000 K.M ,
2,500 R.O. Contact: 97008026
Prado 2007, Mazda 2000,
lancer 93, 3 ton truck double
cabin. Contact: 99454425
Skip loader Hino 1999 model.
Contact: 99441640
Jeep Grand Cherokee, 2012, expat
owned, company maintained,
125000 KMS, warranty up to 2018,
expected price E 8500.
Contact: 99330509
Honda CRV, 2015, white, expat
lady driven, 9000 kms, No.2
expected price 10500. Contact:
99330509
Nissan Pathfi nder 2012 model.
Contact: 99467005 /
92552328
Forklift caterpillar 5 ton, 2006
model. Contact: 99467005 /
92552328
Nissan sunny, year 2000, km
190k, expat lady driven in good
condition, RO 700 negotiable.
Suzuki alto, year 2008, km 127k,
expat driven in good condition
RO 600 negotiable.
Call or whatsapp immediately
968-98898273
FOR LADIES
Off er!! Treading Gold Facial &
Pedicure just for 10 RO, Al Doom
Parlour Ruwi: # 99619409
NRI
INDIAN RAILWAYS
Ticket Reservation
Hotel & Bus Tickets
Star Travel92820665 / 24711734
910 SQ FT, 1 B/R fully furnished fl at
at Quepem – Goa. Contact: 97094797
MANPOWER
DAILY GUIDET U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6 D7
TOURS
TOURS
RENT A CAR
25 - 50 seater bus with PDO & BP
specifi cation for monthly rent &
small car with driver.
Contact: 99839898
SITUATION WANTEDCARGO
Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with
Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain
Marine Tours contact 98029602,
92808636
We arrange tours & accommoda-
tion at all the beautiful places in
Oman. Contact 99839898
Moon Travel L.L.CSaudi Arabian Government approved agent
Contact: Tariq Al Balushi - 99218069 Ahmed Maseehuddin - 99353611, O ce: 24790746/24706217
Umrah Package by Road & AirBus Departures- Apr 19, May 03, 17 & 31.2016
Ramadan Schedule - Jun 06, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26 & 30.2016
RENT A CARBest Rates for Saloon
Contact: 97869042 / 95730550
SITUATION WANTEDBUSINESS
Investment RequiredMinimum OMR 500,000 to transfer
5 Excavators big + 5 Tippers 2015
Astra, working on good profitable
Excavation projects. Assured
income 36 %.
98867530 / [email protected]
Required partner investor to
build an apartment in Al Mobelah.
Contact: 99355330
Investment opportunity for
lucrative building and decorative
product. Contact: 99421513
Email: [email protected]
MATRIMONIAL
Tamil Hindu Brahmin Iyer/boy, parents invite proposal for their
only son 25 yrs / 6.1 ht / B.Tech
(NIT), MBA (IIM), EX- ISM student,
employed MNC Bangalore star Ut-
tira Thdhi seeks suitable alliance
fom Iyer/Iyebger families.
Parents in Oman
Contact: 98288925 / 92264915
Keralite Muslim parents invite
proposals for their daughter 22 yrs
with MSC Psychology + MBA HR, re-
siding with parents in Oman. Good
alliance sought form boys from
well to do settled family preferably
working in Oman / GCC. Interested
Contact: 00968-94443037
27 years RC Girl working as
a staff nurse in MOH Sur seeks
suitable alliance from Kannur,
Wayanad, Kozhikode.
Contact: 92115860
Malankara Catholic Male Nurse (28) from Thiruvalla working in
Nizwa Private Co. Alliance invites
parents/nurses working in Oman.
Contact 968 98267338,
0091 9287215726
Indian male Roman Catholic 40yrs divorcee working in Muscat.
Seeks suitable alliance from
widow/ divorcee/ single.
Contact 96059801.
GOOD NEWS
Ayuruedic treatment for joint
pain, backache, paralysis, mas-
sage, steambath, obesity, Spondy-
litis, Ideal Care Ayurvedic Clinic,
18 November Street, Azaiba.
Contact: 99639695 / 97397320
Ayurvedic treatment for back-
ache, paralysis, arthritis etc
& massage, All Season (Vaid-
yaratnam).Contact:24475280 /
95371664 / 92504980
www.siddhayur.com
FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know
more about Islam,
please call: 99425598, 99250777,
99353988, 99253818, 99341395,
and 99379133.
For ladies: 99415818, 99321360,
99730723
Orvisit:www.islamfact.com
D8 T U E S D AY, A P R I L 2 6 , 2 0 1 6
DAILY GUIDEEmail: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624
CATERING SERVICES We do industrial catering
service, Canteen / mess,
3 times packed meals and
all types of catering events.
Contact: 92188777 / 99249899 SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES
SITUATION WANT-SERVICES
SERVICESWe Provide Cleaners,
Offi ce boys, Cleaning Contracts, General cleaning etc.
Al Mudakhir Nati onal Est. LLC Contact : 94277020
A/C Maintenance & Servicing,
Fridge, Washing machine & Dish
washer repairing, Painting & Clean-
ing services, Electrical & plumbing.
Contact 99447257 / 97014234 /
24504281
we do building maintenance all
kind of works. Contact 99247663
PEST CONTROLAL TABA SERVICE LLC
Ants, Rodent, & cleaning On monthly,
Harmless & Odourless
100% Professional A ordable Rate !!!
CALL - 91464586
Pest control & Building cleaning all kinds of pest control building. Cleaning ti les /
Marble polishing monthly/ Yearly contracts available.
Contact: 98814733 /98814740 Al Husn Cleaning L.L.C
Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-
Contact 99320217/24788722
Pest control treatments, Ocean center LLC
Contact 99344723
House shifting. Contact 99708138
Marble crystallization & grinding, cleaning & carpet shampooing.
Ocean center LLC.
Contact 99344723
Muscat Driving School estab-
lished for over 15 years drive
safe with MDS. Meet our profes-
sional friendly Instructor. Contact:
99773651 / 95840670 Sohar
26844412 Ruwi / Darsait 24781123
MGM 24399951 AL Khudh
24536348
Al farzdaq Al Fedi Trad and Cont
Maintenance services electric,
plumbing and A/C. Contact:
96524904 /94285064
Marble crystallization & grinding, Ocean center LLC
Contact: 99344723
All MEP & Civil shop drawings.
Contact : 93070771 Email :
Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile
polishing, pest control &
anti-termite treatment, general
cleaning painting,Plumbing,
Electrical, shifting.
Contact Mundhir
Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.
Contact: 24810137, 99450130
House Shifting Packing. Contact:
99657644 / 98518013
Split A/C servicing R.O 10 only.
Contact: 94217681 /99210141
Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles
polishing, carpet shampooing,
maintenance. Contact ABU QA-
BAS- 99320217 /24788722
CAD drawings Archi/ MEP CAD –
comply BIM. Contact: 91233975
Split & window A/c installation &
maintenance specialist package &
ducted units. Contact 98667326
GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,
Contact 99314807/24792998
MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of
your marble. contact 24793614/
99314807
Split & window A/c servicing &
maintenance. Contact 93769089 /
95323517
House shifting & transporting.
Contact 92490422
SITUATION WANTEDEDUCATION/CLASSES/COMP./WEB.
Spoken Arabic class for Non Arabic Speakers & English
class for Malayalam Speakers in Azaiba and Ruwi
• Learn in two months• Satisfaction guaranteed
Tel: 95244310
Karate and self defense classes at
Azaiba 18 Nov Street. RO 10 per month
twice a week Monday and Tuesday 6.
30 TO 7. 30. PM. # 98294551
WEB, ERP and Business Intel-
ligence (BI) creation and man-
agement at rock bottom price.
Contact: http//webviewoman
Window & split unit A.C servicing
& repairing. Contact: 99557080
Split unit & window unit A.C
servicing & maintenance.
Contact: 96236476
Split unit & widow unit A.C servic-
ing & maintenance.
Contact: 95323517 / 93769089
DRIVING
TRANSPORTATION
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation available on rent 10
ton Hiap Trailers. Contact 94207475
/ 95649231/ 97982842
Transportation. Contact: 95190627
Transportation. Contact 92015894
Transportation available Ruwi to
Al Khuwair, Ghubra & Azaiba.
Contact: 91103909
Transportation required from
Qurum to WadiKabir at afternoon
only 1 PM. Contact - 99012165
Transportation. Contact 99508282