2 December 2011

A BIGGER CANVAS A

year back few would have guessed that 2011 would turn out to be such a

watershed year for the Middle East. The self immolation of the 26-year-

old Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, set in motion a wave of protests

across the region. The issues and concerns– jobs for nationals, better

standards of education, weeding out corrupt officials and accountability

– cut across geographical boundaries.

Taking about accountability, I would like to share a piece of conversation with the

CEO of a telecom company. The CEO mentioned that the turn of events this year had

trained the spotlight firmly on the role of companies and businesses in community

welfare. In 1970 the Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman wrote a famous article for

The New York Times titled, ‘The social responsibility of business is to increase its

profits.’ The principal argument of the article was that corporations add far more to

society by maximising long-term shareholder value (profits) than they do by donating

time and money to charity or other causes. From an investor’s point of view, the

purpose of business is to maximise profits, but this seems to be a narrow definition of

corporate responsibility.

The other school of thought is that business should have a social conscience and companies

should be concerned with promoting desirable ‘social’ ends like providing employment,

eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution etc. An enlightened corporation should

try to create value for all of its constituencies -- customers, employees, suppliers, and the

community. Each of these group defines the purpose of a business through the prism of

its own needs and desires, and each perspective is equally valid and legitimate. In the

new milieu, it is imperative that Corporate Oman proves itself to be up to the task of

promoting the larger interest of the community.

On behalf of the entire team of OER, I would like to wish all our readers a merry

Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Mayank Singh

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-ChiefHH Sayyid Tarik Bin Shabib

Group EditorMayank Singh

Assistant EditorVisvas Paul D Karra

DESIGN

Senior Art DirectorSandesh S. Rangnekar

Senior DesignerM. Balagopalan

Senior PhotographerRajesh Burman

PhotographerMotasim Abdulla Al Balushi

Cover conceptChanjeet Singh

Production ManagerGovindaraj Ramesh

MARKETING

Business HeadJacob George

Senior Advertising ManagerAvi Titus

Advertising ManagerArif Abdul Bari

Assistant Advertising ManagerSanjeev Rana

CORPORATE

Chief ExecutiveSandeep Sehgal

Executive Vice PresidentAlpana Roy

Vice PresidentRavi Raman

Senior Business Support ExecutiveRadha Kumar

Business Support ExecutiveZuwaina Said Al-Rashdi

DistributionUnited Media Services LLC

OER Presentation

OER Suplements on:– Oman Dry Dock Co.– TRA

Published byUnited Press & Publishing LLCPO Box 3305, Ruwi, Postal Code - 112Muscat, Sultanate of OmanTel: (968) 24700896, Fax: (968) 24707939Email: publish@umsoman.comWebsite: www.umsoman.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The publisher does not accept responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person or organisation acting or refraining as a result of material in this publication. OER accepts no responsibility for advertising content.

Copyright © 2011 United Press & Publishing LLCPrinted by Oman Printers

Correspondence should be sent to:Oman Economic ReviewUnited Media ServicesPO Box 3305, Ruwi 112, Sultanate of OmanFax: (968)24707939Email: editor@oeronline.comWebsite: www.oeronline.com

No 137 December 2011

To read, click on link at: www.oeronline.comOER -magazine

4 December 2011

DIVIDING THE GAPYour cover story article (The great mismatch, November, 2011) has rightly analysed the prospects and challenges of vocational training in the Sultanate. It is unfortunate to learn that some of the reputed training institutes in the country had to close their facilities in different parts of the country due to lack of students at a time when the country suffers from lack of trained workers in different areas. In any country, the mismatch between employer needs and employee skills is a potential threat hampering economic growth. To remain competitive in a global economy, Oman must have a skilled workforce that is able to adapt to change. Though the government and various public and private institutions

have poured a large amount of money into various job-training and summer youth programmes, the outcome is not very much satisfactory. We need to take serious measures to ensure that National Funded Programme (NFP) is effectively utilised for achieving its avowed objectives. There are a number of students who stop their training midway when they get any job. It means that they are not serious about their career. There should be a proper mechanism to create awareness among the youngsters about the importance of proper training in the long run. When the economy grows robustly creating plentiful jobs, the national workforce should be ready to seize the opportunities.

Jawad Abdul Karim, Ruwi

On the occasion of the 41st National Day, United Press & Publishing

(part of UMS Group) has published the seventh edition of Oman - A Nation on the Move. The publication was recently unveiled by His Excellency Sheikh Sa’ad bin Mohammed bin Said al Mardhouf al Sa’adi, Minister of Commerce & Industry.

‘Oman-A Nation on the Move’, an annual bilingual book published every year on the occasion of National Day, has been highlighting for the last seven years the developments made by the country in various socio-economic fields with a special focus on inclusive growth. This year’s edition has been dedicated to His Majesty’s vision to create a modern country with state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure to take Oman further ahead on the road to prosperity. It focuses on the economic and social development of the Sultanate in the last 41 years.

The book addresses how the policy of liberalisation and modernisation is paying rich dividends in the economic and social wellbeing and development

of the Sultanate. It captures the impact of global economic outlook and regional developments during the year 2010-2011 on Oman. In addition, it looks at the opportunities and challenges for Oman’s society and economy. The book does a detailed review of the path-breaking steps being taken up by Oman to meet the changing needs of the polity and market. It presents thought provoking critical analyses on relevant subjects by domain experts and key national icons and symbols which

are uniquely identified with Oman. It also features messages from the senior ministry officials apart from showcasing the major achievements in prominent sectors including Manufacturing, Trade & Commerce, Oil & Gas, Banking & Finance, Insurance, Capital Market, Healthcare, Education, Power & Water, Telecom, IT, Retail, etc.

Oman – A nation on the move is also available digitally in the form of an eB-ook on www.oeronline.com.

Oman-A Nation on the Move’s 2011 Edition released

EVENT

Write to us with your comments/feedback at: editor@oeronline.com

CORRIGENDUM In OER’s November 2011 Cover Story, titled ‘The Great Mismatch’, Nadeem Ahmed, senior divisional manager, Khimji Training Institute was quoted as saying, “By the time the ministry gives us a work order it goes into months, while it should not take more than 15 days. There have been instances when a person who has been unemployed for six months gets completely frustrated by the time lag and uncertainty.”

The quote was alluded to Nadeem Ahmed erroneously. The mistake is regretted. – Editor

HE Sheikh Sa’ad bin Mohammed bin Said al Mardhouf al Sa’adi, Minister of Commerce & Industry unveiling the 7th edition of Oman -- A nation on the move

6 December 2011

BANKINGOff the blocks

Sulaiman Al Harthy, Deputy General Manager, Consumer Banking Group, BankMuscat shares

his thoughts on Islamic Banking

32

INSIDE

INTERVIEWSouth Africa beckonsSouth Africa has become a centre of

attraction both for business and pleasure thanks to its rich natural resources and

business friendly climate

2428

PERISCOPEMaking money in high yield asset classes!In a world where bank deposits pay only 2 per cent, investors have several high yield opportunities in the GCC/MENA debt market

31REAL ESTATEBuilding the nationEng Mohammed A Al Ghassani, CEO, Global Omani Development & Investment Company (GLOREI) shares his company’s vision for Oman’s development

A comprehensive look at the year gone by...

33

DEBATEStage set for an intensive

Oman Debate 2011Oman Debate 2011, the most awaited annual

business forum in corporate Oman’s calendar, will be held on December 14, 2011

30

8 December 2011

INSIDE

78AUTO TALKSporting luxury

ENVIRONMENTMoulding a green generationNomac Oman has embarked on a new green initiative to collect used papers and plastic from schools in order to send them for recycling

82

77LEGALAmendments to the Labour LawThe changes are quite far-reaching and it will be interesting to see whether the amount of labour cases decrease as a result

80ECONOMYSectoral SymbiosisA look at recent economic investments in the Sultanate reveals significant potential for various types of economic symbiosis

76GOLF UPDATEAn ideal mixAjay Ganti, CEO, SARCO and the winner of The Most Promising Golfer to be Award at OER CEO Golf 2011 shares his thoughts on OER CEO Golf

Editorial 2

Event 4

Economy Watch 12

Business Briefs 14

Executive Movements 22

Billboard 84

Market Watch 86

Retail 87

CARTOON CORNERBy Kannan Murali

12 December 2011

ECONOMYWATCH

NUMBERSThe Omani retail market

Although Oman is a relatively smaller retail market compared to most of the other GCC countries,

the retail landscape has altered vastly over the last few years. Traditional markets and small shops

are being replaced by shopping malls selling international brands. Several factors such as increasing

infrastructure spending by the government, growing employment opportunities for locals as well as

expatriates, and increasing foreign investment have fuelled growth of the country’s retail sector. Moreover,

given the strength of fundamental drivers such as growing number of people living in cities, increasing

disposable income and changing lifestyle, the sector has proven to be highly resilient to the financial crisis

and its after-effects.

Source: Alpen Capital’s latest industry report

GLA Completed and Under Development in the GCC (2010) Modern Grocery Sales Penetration

4,044.83,036.5

4,233.7

1,211.8

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Total Completed GLA - 10.3 mn sq m

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Note: *Provisional, **PreliminaryNote: Size of Retail Trade as Accounted in Oman’s GDP; *Provisional, **Preliminary

1,088.6

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Retail Trade as Percentage of Overall GDPSize of Retail Trade

14 December 2011

CHEDI AMONG BEST LEISURE HOTELSAS many as 81,000 readers of Condé Nast Traveller have voted The Chedi Muscat as one of the top 20 travel experiences in the Middle East and Africa in the “Best Overseas Leisure Hotel” category. Rated on service quality, culture and value for money, the results were recently published in the magazine’s 14th Annual Readers’ Travel Awards 2011.

TOYS “R” US OPENS NEW STORE Toys “R” Us, the world’s favourite toy retailer, opened its new store at Muscat City Centre (Seeb area) shopping mall. With the opening of the new store, the Al-Futtaim Group company has 14 stores across the MENA region. Located on the first floor, East Wing, Block 145, the store at Muscat City Centre offers a diverse and exclusive product range with an easy-to-shop floor layout.

PETROCHEMICALS WELDING SEMINAR HELDHi-Tech Services and Supplies (Hi-Tech), part of the trading SBU of Al Hassan Group along with its principal, Böhler Welding Group, Austria jointly organised a technical seminar on welding for petrochemicals recently at Grand Hyatt Muscat. Böhler Welding Group is a member of the Voestalpine Group, Austria, a leading international customised high quality and high-tech steel products and solutions company. The technical sessions were followed by a highly interactive Q&A session wherein around 50 delegates from leading firms engaged in detailed technical discussions with the experts from Böhler.

BankMuscat has joined hands with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Oman Development Bank (ODB) to launch a guaranteed loan programme for small and medium enterprises (SME). The self-sustainable initiative marks a major step to provide the required fillip to the SME sector. Ilham Al Hamaid, head - SME credit and marketing, says, “BankMuscat is proud to join hands with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry

BankMuscat to provide fillip to SME sector

and Oman Development Bank to create the loan guarantee programme. The bank encourages creativity and innovation among

people, thereby contributing to national initiatives and economic development. The bank is a strong supporter of the government policy to encourage individual initiatives aimed at self-employment.” BankMuscat, the first financial institution to target the SME sector in the Sultanate, is of the strong belief that SMEs help boost the local economy, contribute to the GDP and create employment opportunities.

OCTAL to build largest PET producing siteConstruction work on the world’s largest PET producing site is well underway as OCTAL Petrochemicals’ third and fourth manufacturing facilities begin to take shape over 10 hectares in the Salalah Free Zone. The $200M expansion will position the Sultanate as a world-class producer of PET resin and sheet that will cater to the European, American and Asian markets which OCTAL currently serves. The manufacturing plant comprising two production lines with a capacity of 750 metric tons per day, employs

the latest cutting-edge PET technology. Scheduled for completion in May 2012, a record timeline for a project of this magnitude, the plant will add an additional 527,000

tonnes per annum of PET bottle grade resin to OCTAL’s current production capacity to reach 927,000 tonnes per annum, making it the largest in the world on one site.

The Wave gets RO140mn credit facilityA credit facility agreement worth RO140mn was signed between The Wave, Muscat and four leading financial institutions in the Sultanate at Golf Academy at The Wave, Muscat. The agreement with BankMuscat, Bank Sohar, Bank Dhofar and Oman International Bank is designed

to support the project’s insurmountable potential to become a premier destination in the heart of Muscat. The capital injected will leverage The Wave, Muscat’s financial flexibility to capitalise on quality living and lifestyle offerings given Oman’s rich heritage and culture. “Our longstanding

relationship with these national banks and solid government backing bolsters The Wave, Muscat’s market stability and investor confidence not only as a residential property but as a fully integrated, master planned community,” says Michael Lenarduzzi, CEO, The Wave, Muscat.

16 December 2011

OMRAN MARKS 1MN HOURS SANS LOST-TIME INJURYThe Crowne Plaza Hotel site in Duqm, Omran’s sixth hotel project within the Sultanate, commemorated the completion of one million man hours without lost-time injury within 331 days of construction. Wael bin Ahmed Al Lawati, CEO of Omran, appreciated the contractors, engineers and workers for demonstrating the company’s commitment to establishing the highest standards of HSSE management.

AIR ARABIA’S 8TH ANNIVERSARYAir Arabia has celebrated the eighth anniversary of its first flight’s take-off from Sharjah International Airport. Air Arabia has experienced massive, sustained growth since October 2003, when it introduced a new way of taking flight to the Arab world. The region’s low-cost pioneer is now widely seen as one of the Middle East’s true corporate success stories, says the carrier’s Group CEO Adel Ali.

BANKMUSCAT LAUNCHES HSE INITIATIVEBankMuscat has recently announced a major Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) initiative. Defining global benchmark HSE procedures for the bank, an HSE policy document was signed between BankMuscat and the International Organisation for Safety and Health (IOSH), the largest health and safety professionals’ body in the world. The health and safety initiative marks an international first for Oman as BankMuscat is the first to create a safety management system in place in the banking sector in Oman.

Sohar Aluminium chief executive Henk Pauw has hailed the ARABAL 2011 conference a huge success that has helped to put the world spotlight on Oman’s growing aluminium industry and the vital role that the regional industry now plays in global terms.

Over 400 delegates from 30 countries attended the conference that debated a wide range of issues around the theme “Global challenges for sustainable growth in the aluminium industry and the role of the Gulf smelters”.

ARABAL 2011 was hosted by Sohar Aluminium for the first time, reflecting the growing importance of the country’s rapidly expanding aluminium industry that is making a significant direct and indirect

ARABAL 2011 a huge success

contribution to creating thousands of new jobs and economic prosperity in the Sultanate.

Making his concluding remarks to close the conference, Henk Pauw says, “This has been an enormously successful conference that has ensured the highest level

of presentations, debate and discussion on industry issues that impact our industry both here in the Gulf and around the world. We have been delighted that the world’s leaders in the aluminium industry have spoken and participated in ARABAL 2011 – the 15th time this increasingly influential conference has been held.

New sea-air links from SalalahThe Port of Salalah has signed an agreement with Oman Air Cargo that will strengthen links between the Sultanate’s sea and air freight transport sectors, as well as increase opportunities to develop Oman’s European freight transport market. The agreement will see cargo arriving at the Port of Salalah from Asia being air freighted to the key European hubs of Frankfurt and Milan – two very important destinations on Oman Air’s network.

NPA Events wins IFEA awardNational Performing Arts and Events garnered glory at the industry leading IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards competition conducted by the world’s leading International Festival & Events Association (IFEA) of Boise, Idaho, USA.

NPA Events has won the silver award in the ‘Best New Promotion (Product Launch)’ category. This coveted recognition was awarded for the innovative and path-breaking launch event of the new Mercedes Benz CLS.

HSBC brings multi-function ATMsHSBC Oman is set to re-define customer experience with the introduction of an innovative line of automated telling machine technology, the first of its kind in the Sultanate. The multi-function Wincor ATMs have cash deposit and withdrawal services in one machine, optimising infrastructure and diversifying banking service channels. Customers can use the newly introduced multi –function ATMs at Muscat City Centre and Qurum branches of HSBC.

DB Schenker, KR set up JV in OmanDB Schenker, the leading global integrated logistics services provider announced its joint venture (JV) partnership with Khimji Ramdas, its longtime ally in Oman. The new joint venture company Schenker Khimji will provide logistic solutions in air freight, ocean freight, land transport, warehousing and supply chain management.

The new company will be an important new entity within DB Schenker’s worldwide network and will strengthen the group’s aim to provide its customers with integrated

Oman Air orders Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 enginesOman Air has ordered Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines to power the six Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft it just ordered. The airline is the first in the Middle East to select the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine, which last month powered the first 787 Dreamliner into service. Peter Hill, CEO, Oman Air, says: “We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with Rolls-Royce through the selection of Trent technology, for next generation aircraft, that offers both efficiency and environmental advantages. In line with our expansion

plan, which saw us receiving the first two Embraer E175 aircraft this year, we have now confirmed our order for the next phase of our fleet strategy.” The 787 Dreamliner achieves new levels of fuel efficiency.

logistics services worldwide. The agreement between DB Schenker and Khimji Ramdas was sealed during the DB Schenker NMEA (Near Middle East and Africa) Conference 2011, held in Oman recently. Pankaj Khimji, director, Khimji Ramdas and Peter Glatz, CEO Region NME/A, Schenker Middel East FZE signed the agreement.

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is priorityFollow us on /ums_oman

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Top policy-makers and corporate decision-makers will share their views on

significant social issues and their impact on the economy. The dialogue that will

hopefully, lead to sustainable solutions for more opportunities, better incomes and a

brighter future for all.

Celebrating ExcellenceOER Top 20 Awards, the most

authoritative ranking of listed companies in Oman, will recognise the best

corporate performers of 2010.

To stay tuned with the event highlights, log on to www.omandebate.com

Venue: Oman Auditorium,Al Bustan Palace Ritz Carlton

Time: 9.00 am to 1.00 pm

At Oman Debate 2011, Tim Sebastian – celebrated presenter of BBC HARDtalk

and The Doha Debates – will steer a spirited discussion on one of the most

challenging issues of our time.

Viewpoints go head-to-head on 14 December 2011

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20 December 2011

OMANTEL REDUCES TOLL FREE TARIFFOmantel announced a reduction of up to 43 per cent on its Toll Free service (800 numbers). The service is offered at a monthly rental fee of RO 10 and according to the new lowered tariff, calls from fixed lines to Toll Free numbers will be charged at 17 bzs/minute only while calls from mobile will be charged at 27 bzs/minute only.

PARK INN IS NOW PARK INN BY RADISSONPark Inn has now taken another step forward with a small, yet highly significant change of name. Moving upwards and onwards Park Inn has been christened ‘Park Inn by Radisson’. This was announced at a high profile event held at the rooftop Lounge, Sama Terrazza that was attended by partners and key corporate clients. “It is a progressive step designed to preserve all of Park Inn’s existing brilliant brand strengths and concepts while adding an instantly recognisable connection to our successful and upscale Radisson Blu brand,” says Rabih Zein, general manager, Park Inn by Radisson.

BRITISH COUNCIL TEAMS UP WITH ROLLS-ROYCE The British Council and Rolls-Royce have teamed up to launch ‘The Big Science Challenge’, a competition aimed at secondary schools across the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman , Jordan and the United Kingdom. The competition invites students aged 11 – 16 in the Middle East and UK to research and design an original, innovative solution to a problem concerning water, either locally, nationally or globally.

The German Industry and Commerce Office (AHK) organised the visit of a

German business delegation from the German state of Niedersachsen (Lower-

German delegation visits SultanateSaxony) led by State Secretary HE Dr Oliver Liersch, Ministry of Economy, Labour and Transportation of Niedersachsen. Liersch had visited the gulf region in previous years also, leading other business delegations.

The AHK organised a business cooperation forum at the Grand Hyatt Muscat, where Omani companies and the members of the business delegation had the opportunity to discuss potential partnership possibilities.

Omantel revenue grows to RO333.2mnOman Telecommunications Company revealed the company’s preliminary financial results for the period Jan-Sep’2011, showing a revenue increase to RO333.2mn from RO315.8mn and net profit after tax of RO 82.7mn compared to RO83mn for the corresponding period of last year. On a quarter

over quarter basis, for the period ended Sep 2011, the net profit has increased by 25 per cent to RO28mn, compared to RO22.4mn in the third quarter of 2010. Omantel’s total customer base witnessed an increase of 4.1 per cent to 3.437mn while its mobile business – Oman Mobile – continued to

see significant growth with the mobile network’s market share increasing to 57.3 per cent. Oman Mobile network was able to capture all of the total market net additions during the past 12 months. On the fixed network side, Omantel maintained its leadership of the market with 95 per cent.

Visa teams up with IMRGVisa, one of the world’s leading payment solutions providers, has partnered with Interactive Media in Retail Group International (IMRG), the industry body for global e-Retail, to launch a new quarter-ly overview of the burgeoning e-Commerce market across the GCC. The in-depth study, which is part of Visa’s ongoing drive to build e-Commerce in the region, identifies cur-rent levels of e-Commerce performance and potential

by assessing the breadth of existing research undertaking in the region. It covers trends, data and forecasts concerning e-Commerce in the GCC as part of a world-class com-parison to key markets. The relative low volume will grow under the influence of a boom-ing economy, high disposable income, retailers offering a multi-channel offer especially fashion, consumer electronics and the like. Another fac-tor that could influence the

expansion of e-Commerce in the Sultanate is the increase in the number of Internet users – from 3.52 per hundred inhabit-ants to 62.6 per hundred or a growth of over 1600 per cent since 2000.

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint, with our goal of 25 percent reductions in carbon related emissions by 2014.

PO Box 369, Salalah, PC 211, Sultanate of OmanTel: +968 23219500. Fax: +968 23219540. Email: info@salalahport.com

www.portofsalalah.com

22 December 2011

Hamptons MENA has appointed Benjamin Cullum as the new General Manager to spearhead the company’s Oman operations. He heads a team of professionals whose shared vision is to put Hamptons MENA on an accelerated path to robust growth by leveraging the firm’s competencies as an end-to-end real estate solutions provider.

SHANGRI-LA’S OPENS NEW CONCERT VENUEThe Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa opened its brand new venue ‘The Theatre’ at Al Mazaar Souk for the first time with a debut concert by international singing sensation Nesma. Nesma was the first performer to grace the stage at “The Theatre” and gave a stunning performance well worthy of a “First Night”as hundreds of guests experienced Muscat’s newest concert venue for the first time. The audience were treated to an “up close and personal” evening as Nesma serenaded them in her own inimitable style, with a mixture of both traditional and contemporary songs.

Nawras has promoted Said Ahmed Safrar as Chief Customer Experience Officer and a member of the Executive Committee team while Wolfgang Wemhoff joins Nawras as Chief Technical Officer; Hussain Al-Lawati and Jim Maxwell are promoted as Acting Chief Sales & Distribution Officer and Chief Counsel, respectively.

Said was previously the Customer Service Director of Nawras. His leadership of the 24-hour multimedia customer contact centre included handling an average of 40,000 customer interactions each day. Wemhoff is an experienced international executive with a strong customer centric orientation and expertise. Hussain will take on the

responsibility of the extensive sales and distribution network that is serving customers all over the Sultanate.

Maxwell as General Counsel has the responsibility for all legal, regulatory and company secretarial duties, and like all Nawras employees is focussed on ensuring an excellent service for Nawras customers.

Oman Web Awards 2011 announcedThe Oman Web Awards 2011 grand ceremony, presented by Spotlight events, a member of SJS Group (Oman), was held at Al Bustan Palace Ritz Carlton Hotel. Held under the auspices of the Information Technology Authority (ITA), Dr Mohammad Ali al Wuhaibi, Under-secretary for Communications at the

Ministry of Transport and Communications, was the Chief Guest. Dr Salim al Ruzaiqi also honoured the gathering along with several top government officials and corporate heads. Gulf CyberTech once again won the Best Web Design Company of the year award this year. Nawras won the

Diamond Award for the best website of the year 2011 for www.nawras.om.The competition received a flood of entries in 25 categories, including banking and finance, travel and tourism, hospitality, oil and gas. The jury comprised members from various countries of the Pan Arab region.

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24 December 2011

The Vuvuzela, one of the most endearing symbol of Football World Cup held in South Africa in 2010, filled the stadiums with its

loud and raucous sound reflecting the exhilaration of supporters. It wouldn’t be off the mark to say that the echo of this sound horn was heard all over the world including Oman.

“After the World Cup, things have not been the same in South Africa. Tourism boomed, businesses grew and even the global financial crisis has had a minimal impact on our country,” says HE Yusuf

Saloojee, South African Ambassador to the Sultanate. More importantly, Omanis are now eyeing this beautiful country not only for visiting as tourists but also for businesses.

The visit of South African President Jacob Zuma has come at the most opportune time as it gives a tremendous boost to the economic and bilateral trade relations between Oman and South Africa, says HE Saloojee.

“We have always been enjoying friendly relations with Oman. On the international front, Oman and South

Africa are both part of the Indian Ocean Rim, Non-Aligned Movement etc. We want to translate those good relations into something concrete which will help to enhance the trade between both our countries,” says HE Saloojee. Diplomatic relations between Oman and South Africa were established in 1994 after South Africa’s first democratic elections but bilateral trade and investments relations have been sagging for various reasons.

Oman presents an abundance of opportunities for South African businesses to get involved and at the same time, South Africa also offers

Following the Football World Cup in 2010, South Africa has become a centre of attraction both for business and pleasure. Omani investors should cash in on this opportunity, says HE Yusuf Saloojee, South African Ambassador in an interview with Visvas Paul D Karra

INTERVIEW

SOUTH AFRICA BECKONSSOUTH AFRICA BECKONS

25December 2011

many lucrative opportunities for growth and investments. Currently, some of the areas are infrastructure development, agriculture, mining and beneficiation, manufacturing, the green economy and tourism. There are also opportunities for collaboration in the areas of education and training, science and technology and agriculture, he says.

Partnership OmanOne of the big developments that took place on the bilateral front was the visit of HE Yusuf bin Alawi, Oman’s minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs to South Africa in 2010. There, HE Alawi signed an agreement known as Partnership Forum with HE Maiti Mashabane, South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation. The agreement covered several areas of cooperation including trade, economic development, arts and culture, higher education, transport and agriculture.

In that meeting, it was also agreed that the first meeting of the Partnership Forum would be held in Muscat, which indeed took place in October, 2010. The South African delegation to Oman was led by Ibrahim Ibrahim, deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa and the two sides worked out a number of details and identified areas of mutual cooperation. The next meeting would be held in South Africa in 2012.

According to HE Saloojee, there is no point signing agreements unless there is follow-up and implementation. That is precisely why visit of the South African President Zuma came close on the heels of that October meeting. During the two day visit on November 15-16, HE Zuma held a meeting with His Majesty and visited the Port of Sohar. In a speech delivered at the Business Forum of South Africa and Sultanate of Oman held at Al Bustan Palace Hotel, HE Zuma said the continent of Africa and the Sultanate of Oman have relations that date back to ancient times when traders from both regions were using the maritime routes along the Indian Ocean rim to trade their goods.

“I am truly pleased to be in Oman on a state visit, at the kind invitation of His Majesty the Sultan. I was pleased to have

had an opportunity to discuss a number of critical issues with His Majesty, including the need to strengthen our political and economic ties. As you would be aware, South Africa and the Sultanate maintain a very strong bilateral relationship and have done so since diplomatic relations were first established in 1994. I hope my visit will lead to further high-level exchanges between the two countries, the importance of which should not be underestimated,” HE Zuma said.

HE Zuma was accompanied by Defence and Military Veterans minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Trade and Industry minister Rob Davies and International Relations and Cooperation minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

Food hub“One of the important developments has been an agreement signed with the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and Sohar Port to take South African produce via Oman to the GCC countries. For this a cold storage facility will be built in Freezone Sohar,” HE Saloojee informs.

The Freezone Sohar signed an agreement with a consortia comprising leading South African and Omani companies to set up a Food Hub in the Logistics Park of the Zone. The project cost for Phase 1 is approximately RO7mn and the facility is expected to be operational by

the first quarter of 2013. The consortia also intends to embark on agricultural enhancement programmes to uplift agricultural and processing practices in Batinah region to world-class standards.

A double taxation avoidance agreement has also been signed between the two countries in a bid to encourage more trade activity between the two countries.

Omani eyes on South AfricaHE Saloojee wants the bilateral relations to extend beyond trade and economy. He says that Oman is fortunate to have a ruler like His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said who is not only keenly ensuring that the Sultanate is developing on the economic front but also on the cultural side as well. The Royal Opera House is an iconic symbol of Oman’s cultural heritage, HE Saloojee opines.

In that respect, HE Saloojee has a few plans up his sleeve to enhance the cultural ties between the two countries. “I am looking for an opportunity to bring one of our cultural groups to perform at the Royal Opera House as well as organise a South African Film Festival. Besides those, I would also like to introduce South African handicrafts to Oman,” he says.

Veteran diplomatHE Saloojee, while tracing his roots to India from his great grandfather’s side to the state of Gujarat, says that he joined the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa at a very young age. And he has been a diplomat with the current government since 1998. Prior to that he was in the Liberation Movement and was an African National Congress diplomat in Canada for almost 15 years. In those days, while the apartheid regime had representatives only in 14 countries, the Liberation Movement had its diplomats in over 50 countries.

“I remained in Canada till the fall of the apartheid system and returned to SA in 1991 after 22 years in exile and I kissed the ground at the first opportunity I got,” recalls HE Saloojee. He worked in the offices of the ANC in the international department and was then posted to Abu Dhabi. After that he headed the ME desk and was again posted to Iran and then to Oman.

South African President Jacob Zuma

golf with him.P.G Wodehouse, Author

s.

By invitation only.

Business meets golf.On 12 January 2012, Nawras presents the 8th Edition of OER CEO Golf. The event will host the top echelon of corporate Oman at one of the country’s most exciting golf courses. Out on the greens at Muscat Hills Golf and Country Club, high profile business leaders will network over a game of 18-hole golf. While golfers vie for the win, beginners get an expert initiation to the game.

Golf meets excitement.It’s not just high-powered business networking. The highlight will include an elegant red carpet evening complete with world-class entertainment, socialising, fine dining, a glittering awards ceremony and loads more exclusive excitement.

2012

JAN 12 I MUSCAT HILLS

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28 December 2011

Making money in high yield asset classes!In a world where bank deposits pay only 2 per cent, investors have several high yield opportunities in the GCC/MENA debt market

BY MATEIN KHALID

GCC investors are naturally interested in double digit dollar returns

without taking currency risk. There are several high yield opportunities in the GCC/MENA debt market that could make serious money for investors. Take the DIFC Investments sukuk that matures in June 2012 and offers a 12 per cent yield if it is redeemed at par at maturity.

Dubai’s economic model necessitates that finance and aviation/ports are treated as strategic industries by the government. This means that DIFC Investments, despite operating losses of $850mn in the past two years, the devaluation of its non-core asset sale pipeline in MENA due to the Arab spring, will redeem its $1.3bn Sukuk placed with global investors at the height of the credit bubble. Jebel Ali and DIFC are surely strategic and therefore merit credit support, even though refinancing risk on the sukuk exists.

The DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) ten

year debt yields 7 per cent, compared to safe haven GCC sovereign debt where ten year debt in Qatar and Abu Dhabi offer a mere 3.2 per cent yield. As an investor, I believe DEWA is underpriced since its debt is backed by the utilities huge cash flow, with revenues up 40 per cent in 2011 to date to AED6.6bn. It is entirely possible that DEWA (2020 maturity) bonds credit risk will compress relative to the US Treasury yield curve.

In post-Baathist IraqA high risk but high reward strategic trade would be to buy the Republic of Iraq sovereign callable dollar denominated Eurobond that yields 7.5 per cent but only if the price falls below 80 or a potential yield of 8 per cent. Iraq’s financial fundamentals have undergone a paradigm shift since 2006, when Baghdad restructured $27bn in Saddam era debt with credit that ranged from South Korea’s Hyundai to Russia’s Lukoil then negotiated an exchange offer (with a 80 per cent haircut) into its inaugural post-Baathist dollar denominated Eurobond.

Iraq now exports 2.4 million barrels of oil a day and the West Qurna/Majnoon bidding round attracted the most powerful consortia in Big Oil. These include Exxon, Oxy, Total, BP and several Chinese oil companies.

Turkish, US, Britain and Norwegian oil companies are active in Kurdistan despite the fact that no Petroleum law is in place. Royal Dutch Shell has committed to a natural gas infrastructure/producing deal in Basra worth $12bn with the Iraqi government. The Iraqi stock market is up 40 per cent, the best performing in MENA. Iraq’s GDP growth next year could top 12 per cent, the highest in the Arab world, comparable only to LNG colossus Qatar. The Central Bank of Iraq was looted by Saddam and his sons in March 2003 even as American tanks entered the streets of Baghdad in Bush’s “shock and awe” invasion.

The Iraqi government is a coalition of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish parties, though Muqtada Al Sadr’s Mehdi Army is a political kingmaker in Parliament, with 40 MPs.

The author is a renowned investment

banker based in Dubai

29December 2011

GCC INVESTORS ARE TOTALLY UNDER INVESTED

IN ENERGY MASTER LIMITED PARTNERS LISTED

ON THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

PERISCOPE

This means the Nouri Al Maliki government exits (and could well fall) due to sectarian politics. A far more serious risk to Iraqi stability is terrorism, though Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has lost its desert sanctuaries in Anbar and Diyala provinces as the local tribes defeated them in the 2007 US “surge”. Another wild card after the exit of US military troops from Iraq in December 2011 is a potential Israeli/US preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. This means that the Iraqi sovereign bond is both high risk and as the risk is geopolitical, it cannot be quantified.

A far safer asset class, in my opinion, is US mortgage REITs listed on the New York Stock Exchange. These can offer dividends as high as 15-20 per cent (though taxable to non-US investors at a 30 per cent rate) as they are portfolios of agency collateralised mortgage obligations/pass through (CMO’s) and secondary market loans/notes leveraged via borrowing in the money markets. This beautiful high yield return is rock solid as long as the Federal Reserve does not raise the Fed Fund

rate by 2012, as Chairman Bernanke has committed after successive FOMC conclaves. This means the funding cost for mortgage REIT’s will not rise though periodic mood swings in the global markets due to Euro/Italian debt mean safe haven inflows into long duration US Treasury debt and therefore a potential risk in hedging cost.

Hedging costs are also correlated to a rise in debt market volatility, which I cannot see falling as the Eurozone debt soap opera reaches its endgame.

However, it is extraordinarily profitable to invest in mortgage REITs now and collect 15 per cent after tax dividend returns because US money centre banks, flush with deposits from cash rich corporate and deleveraging consumers at a time of sluggish loan/lease growth, take advantage of Bernanke’s QE2 and the leveraged US Treasury debt yield curve to put on profitable “carry trade” in high yield mortgage debt even as they managed the repayment risk via dynamic hedging. The macroeconomic

case for a housing rebound is not necessary to make money in big board listed mortgage REITs.

I also believe GCC investors are totally under invested in energy master limited partners (MLPs) again listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Shale oil in Texas, the Rocky Mountain States and North Dakota means onshore crude production will double in the next four years to 2.5 million barrels a day. This means a money making bonanza for owners of fixed reserve midstream infrastructure assets like pipelines, crude storage/terminals and natural gas gathering/processing plants. The MLPs thus earn revenues from fees/tariffs on the pipeline as well as arbitrage profits from crude price differentials as they optimise their midstream networks.

An energy pipeline operator can easily offer 7 per cent yield and 8 per cent cash distribution growth for a 15 per cent dollar return. In a world where banks deposits pay 2 per cent, this is a highly profitable, high yield!

30 December 2011

Oman Debate 2011, one of the most eagerly expected events in the Sultanate, continues to generate tremendous excitement

in the corporate world of the country. Anchored by renowned television host Tim Sebastian, the founder and chairman of ‘The Doha Debates’ and former BBC Hard Talk presenter, the debate will feature a distinguished panel of speakers to discuss core issues.

The annual national debate is organised by Oman Economic Review (OER), the leading business magazine in the Sultanate, in association with the

STAGE SET FOR INTENSIVE OMAN DEBATE 2011Oman Debate 2011, the most awaited annual business forum in corporate

Oman’s calendar, will be held on December 14, 2011 at Oman Auditorium,

Al Bustan Palace Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Tim Sebastian

Capital Market Authority (CMA). The debate encompasses key themes that form the business environment of today and tomorrow in Oman. Thanks to the grassroots issues tackled in a healthy atmosphere where representatives from both the public and private sectors are present, a lot of excitement has been generated around the third edition of the event.

The strategic partners for Oman Debate 2011 are Bank Sohar, Nawras, Genetco Canon, Audi and Ominvest while the support partners are Al Habib, Taageer Finance, Sharq Sohar Steel and GLOREI. The media partners will be Times of Oman and Al Shabiba newspapers while the Official call centre is Spanco.

Oman Debate 2011 is raising various socio-economic issues like job creation, raising salaries, sops and benefits and Omanisation for deliberation during the Debate. It will also discuss whether the Sultanate is at the crossroads of a watershed moment in Oman’s socio-economic history where everything that was held as sacred needs to be questioned and redefined.

This year’s discussions will be heavily focused on how government and private companies plan to deal with subjects such as job creation for Omani nationals and the impact of rising salaries on companies and the economy at large.

DEBATE

How has GLOREI’s performance been in Oman during the last year?We have many upcoming projects in the residential, commercial, hospitality, logistics and other sectors. GLOREI’s shareholders are a group of leading financial and investment companies in the Gulf. There is a clear strategic vision consistent with the founders’ commitment to participate in the economic development of the GCC countries in general, and Oman in particular, taking the real estate development sector as the base of our investments. GLOREI is moving ahead at a good pace which is coupled with high financial capabilities, a strong network of strategic partners and affiliates, a team of highly qualified professionals, and certain basic principles and values to undertake its day-to-day operations and development processes, these are professional honesty and equity in our dealings, providing healthy working environment conducive to creativity and invention, active participation in community development and preservation of a clean environment.

What are your current projects and what is your outlook for the future?In the hospitality sector, GLOREI started the development of a five-star hotel -Shaza Muscat Hotel which is coming up next to the Tilal Al Khuwair complex in the Al Khuwair area of Muscat. It is about 16 km away both from the Muscat International Airport and the Central Business District (CBD) in Greater Muttrah. In addition, GLOREI has the first Business Centre in Muscat with full services, the modern and sophisticated business centre (Maktabi Al Khuwair) which is located in the heart of the city of Muscat in the prestigious business district and diplomatic area.

Another project which marks GLOREI’s expertise in commercial office spaces is an environmentally friendly commercial project- Maktabi Al Watiyah. Apart from all these, the first large-scale development project of the company is to be unveiled soon; it is an integrated real estate development that includes residential and commercial units in Wilayat Bausher.

What differentiates you from other development and investment companies?Our core business is real estate develop-ment and investment and our investments have till date covered a range of real estate projects- commercial, residential, hospi-tality, mix-use, logistics. We have yet to see another company that has achieved so much diversity in such a short span of time with such consistency. Our aim is to expand our project portfolio to cover dif-ferent geographical areas of Oman.

What made you to partner Oman Debate 2011?GLOREI’s participation in the Oman Debate will provide us the opportunity to actively contribute in the areas related to investment and development sector and to be proactive in raising topics affecting the wider sector across Oman and the whole region. Also, through our wider experience, we will be providing valuable inputs into discussions related to our sector.

What are your expectations from Oman Debate 2011?The event will provide an excellent opportunity for GLOREI to determine the importance of various set of issues and hot topics which focus on how to cope up with the developments of the Arab Spring. The value of our contribution would come through meeting of the finest experts coming from around the region.

BUILDING THE NATIONEng. Mohammed A Al Ghassani, CEO, Global Omani Development &

Investment Company (GLOREI) shares his company’s vision for Oman’s

development. Excerpts from an interview:

REALESTATE

32 December 2011

The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has allowed Islamic Finance/Islamic Banking in Oman. What impact will the decision have on the banking and finance industry in Oman?There are several reports about the probable impact of the decision on the banking and finance industry in Oman. Some of these reports suggest that Islamic Banking has taken about 15 per cent of the conventional business in the region.

As we are in a country where a majority of people follow Islam, one can assume that hundreds of thousands of Omanis will definitely prefer Islamic Banking compared to conventional banking. So, there will be some impact, however the extent of this impact is difficult to estimate as of now.

Some analysts and experts have claimed that Islamic Finance in

Oman is a business opportunity running into billions of dollars. Do you agree with such claims? Estimates or claims about Islamic Banking being worth billions of dollars in Oman, may be on the higher side, but yes, it is definitely a big opportunity.

Islamic Banking has been growing rapidly across the globe, what makes it an attractive proposition for customers?Islamic Banking is an ethical proposition, and to many who want to have financial arrangements that are close to their faith, it is a very good alternative.

How is BankMuscat gearing up to take up the opportunity and challenge presented by Islamic Banking? We are eagerly waiting for CBOs approval, and would immediately increase our speed to launch our window.

The Central Bank of Oman has allowed for both Islamic Banks and Islamic Banking windows. What kind of a facility is BankMuscat looking at for its customers? Since the CBO has allowed for Islamic Banking related window structure, we will be opting for a window. The other reason for opting for an Islamic Banking window is that it will be faster and quicker to launch.

There are concerns that existing banks may not segregate the sources of funding and accounts between conventional and Islamic Banking. How will BankMuscat ensure that there is a complete separation between these two businesses?This is one area about which we are going to be very strict. BankMuscat has detailed policies and procedures in place, we have the system capabilities that will allow us to do so. In addition, we will religiously comply with the regulatory requirements on the issue and go by the guidance of our Sharia Board.

When does BankMuscat expect to start offering Islamic Banking services in Oman? Once we receive the requisite CBO approvals, we will immediately start offering Islamic Banking.

OFF THE BLOCKSSulaiman Al Harthy, Deputy General Manager, Consumer Banking Group, BankMuscat shares his thoughts on Islamic Banking with Mayank Singh

BANKING

A comprehensive look at the year gone by...

34 December 2011

SULTANATE’S NEWS MAKERS

Promoting tourismShaikh Abdulmalik bin Abdullah Al Khalili, Minister of TourismShaikh Abdulmalik bin Abdullah Al Khalili, minister of tourism, was earlier the chairman of a leading bank in the Sultanate. HE Khalili brings with him his dynamic leadership that character-ised his stint in the financial sector. In his new responsibility as the minister of tourism, he has been involved in a lot of activities. He launched a booklet under the theme ‘Tourism Linking Cultures’ to mark the World Tourism Day. The booklet will be used for tourism promo-tions and as a resource for students considering a career in tourism and hospitality sectors.

The Ministry of Tourism also hosted the third Global Geotourism Conference showcasing the earth’s amazing geology and landforms and promoting awareness of geological heritage and sustainable development of geological

resources in Oman itself.With Muscat being named as the 2012 Arab Tourism Capital, HE Khalili and the ministry of tourism will have their hands full.

Digital movementHE Ali Masoud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Sports Affairs and Chairman of ITAHE Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, Sports Affairs Minister has been entrusted with the extraordinary task of heading the Information Technology Authority (ITA) which he is doing with aplomb. All his speeches delivered on behalf of ITA speak of his knowledge on the subject and conviction about the digital strategy of Oman.

HE Sunaidi points out that since the establishment of the ITA, it has been responsible for implementing this strategy in collaboration with the different governmental institutions.

To this end it implemented the unified governmental network, the national Data Centre, Information Security Centre, Information Safety Centre, E-Payment portal and the development of e-government services. The value of software exports, products and services amounted to around RO70mn or 2 per cent of the gross non-oil exports. The internet service penetration rate amounted to 74 per cent as of June 2011. As per the Census 2010, 54 per cent of the Omani families have computers.

Enterprising, dynamicHind Bahwan, Chairperson of Bahwan CyberTek and Director, Suhail Bahwan Group

Hind Bahwan, chairperson of Bahwan CyberTek Group and director of the

OUTSTANDING ROLESOman has seen quite a few of its leading personalities making waves either

by winning awards, promoting international ties or by simply standing up

in their line of duty

35December 2011

Suhail Bahwan Group, was conferred the prestigious ‘ABLF WOMAN OF POWER AWARD’ by the Asian Business Leadership Forum – a platform backed by a think-tank of prominent leaders, policy-makers, academicians, media and opinion leaders of core industries across Asia.

She is recognised in the Middle East as an enterprising and dynamic businesswoman. She founded Bahwan CyberTek Group in 1999 which is now a leading provider of IT products and Services with 1450+ professionals in its workforce rendering products and services in 20 countries across 4 continents. Bahwan CyberTek has its centre of excellence in Chennai, India and presence in the USA, Dubai, Egypt, Brunei, besides India.

As one of the directors of the multi national conglomerate the Suhail Bahwan Group and founder of Bahwan CyberTek Group, Hind plays a key role in working with the government and other leading corporate entities in pursuit of creating a digital society in Oman.

Flying highHE Maithaa Al Mahrouqi, Undersecretary, Ministry of TourismMaithaa Al Mahrouqi, a science graduate from the University of Oxford Brookes, UK, started her career as an airlines executive with Emirates

Airlines, then moved to Gulf Air as its business development manager and was subsequently promoted as the general manager of Gulf Air for Oman. She then went on to become the country manager of Oman Air. With a wealth of experience and knowledge that she acquired within a span of a decade, HE Maitha was destined for bigger roles in life. Her appointment as the undersecretary of Ministry of Tourism is a testament to her experience in the hospitality industry.

She also carries with her the tag of perhaps being the first female cartographer from the region, and the first Omani cartographer as well. HE Maitha’s exposure of working with major airlines of the region and her vast knowledge of the tourism and hospitality industry enables her to wield her influence and competence in promoting the country as a big tourist destination.

Cultural tiesShaikh Mohammed Saud Bahwan, chairman, Saud Bahwan GroupShaikh Mohammed, who as the chairman of Oman-Japan Friendship Association, took the lead in helping out tsunami-stricken Japan. Seiji Morimoto, Ambassador of Japan to the Sultanate of Oman, appreciated the gesture of the Oman Japan Friendship Society.

Shaikh Mohammed has always been

known for his philanthropic activities and the initiative to help Japan is one of them.

Under the leadership of Shaikh Mohammed, the Saud Bahwan group’s automotive division has been gaining new ground despite adverse conditions in the global automotive market. His efforts have been recognised by Toyota Motor Corporation which Marketing Excellence Award to Shaikh Mohammed.

Shura surpriseNe’ma Al Busaidi, member, Majlis A’Shura

Ne’ma Al Busaidi became the only woman to win the elections to the seventh term of Majlis Al Shura from the Seeb wilayat. She is the lone woman member in the 84-seat Consultative Council. Ne’ma is a teacher at Al Mabeela Northern School in A Seeb area and was a graduate from the Teachers’ College in 1988. She has been teaching for 23 years. Her motivation to contest the elections came from the fact she has been teaching for a long time during which time she became close to students and their parents and with the people in the community at large. She wants to serve her country in a bigger way, to represent the people and their needs to the government. Ne’ma says despite being the lone lady in the council, she will represent women and the issues facing them.

36 December 2011

NEWS MAKERS

Strong determinationShaikh Saad Suhail Bahwan, Chairman of OTE Group and member of Majlis A’ShuraShaikh Saad, the son of Shaikh Su-hail Bahwan, was elected to the Majlis A’Shura as member from Sur. He is expected to play a greater role in that body. Shaikh Saad, one of the pioneers of successful business establishments in the Sultanate, formed OTE in a small way in 1990 and has taken the trading company to new heights. The automobile division of OTE has recently witnessed tremendous growth thanks to Shaikh Saad’s visionary moves to invest in the facilities and brands of the division. The companies that sprouted under the wings of OTE since then are now firmly rooted.

Pleasingly differentRoss Cormack, CEO, Nawras

Ross Cormack has been named Outstanding Leader of the Year at

the third TMT Finance & Investment Awards Middle East, held in Dubai. This accolade for Oman’s customer friendly communications provider follows a year in which Nawras became a public company after the largest IPO in the Sultanate since 2005 and also began offering broadband services to corporate and residential customers.Cormack has led Nawras, a Qtel Group company, since its formation in 2004. From the launch of customer-friendly mobile services to today’s successful public company delivering innovative mobile services and broadband internet services, Nawras has remained true to its values of being caring, excellent and pleasingly different. In March, Cormack received the Strategic Leadership Award at the Global HR Excellence Awards.

Country firstDr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and GasDr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and Gas, has been spearheading the sustainable development of the oil and gas sector of Oman. HE Rumhy has also become the new chairman of Oman LNG, the country’s only gas production facility and the second biggest revenue earner for the country. Despite the challenges in discovery of new oil and gas fields and some big companies like BG pulling out of the Oman market, the ministry continues to attract new firms to explore for hydrocarbons in the country. The most significant development has been

the awarding of a licence to US-based international energy firm PetroTel to explore for hydrocarbons in Block 40 offshore Musandam Governorate in the north of the Sultanate.

Exceptional statusSayyida Rawan Bint Ahmed Bin Thabit Al Said, Deputy Chairwoman, National Bank of Oman and Group CEO, ONIC Holding

Sayyida Rawan bagged the Business Leader of the year 2011 at the sixth BizPro Business Leader Awards 2011. This is mainly thanks to her dual role in two large financial entities – as CEO of ONIC and deputy chairwoman of NBO – which will probably remain unmatched in the Sultanate and we dare say probably in the whole of the Middle East. Acknowledging her unique position, NBO stated that she is an asset to their board of directors. Her intellect, passion and management experience have been making a significant contribution to the bank. Sayyida Rawan distinguished career in banking and investments has won her the trust of stakeholders of both companies. The opportunities given to her strengthen her resolve to implement the long term strategies of both companies to take them to greater heights, she says. Sayyida Rawan earlier held key positions in Oman Oil Marketing Co and The State General Reserve Fund.

38 December 2011

PERSONALITIES

Tough parentAmy Chua, writerAmy Chua’s latest book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, published in January 2011, is a comic memoir that ignited a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting techniques. Her second book, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall (2007), examines seven major empires and posits that their success depended on their tolerance of minorities.

Amy, 48, is brutally honest in her memoir, and her willingness to share her struggles is a gift. Amy L Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law

at Yale Law School. She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She specialises in the study of international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, globalisation and the law.

Beacon of hopeAngela Merkel, German ChancellorAngela Merkel has managed to maintain the delicate balance between Germany, a major continental European power and its grand coalition by using her talents in jump-starting Europe’s

economy, which was in a slump when she took power in 2005. With her decisive political action, commitment and hard work, Merkel, 56, has steered Europe through the financial crisis earning her country great influence around the world. Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany. In 2007, she became the second woman to chair the G8, after Margaret Thatcher. In November 2011 she became the longest-serving leader of a G8 country.

PhilanthropistAzim Premji, Wipro Chief

Azim Hashim Premji is an Indian business tycoon and well known for his philanthropic activities. Recently

GLOBAL NEWSMAKERSThe world’s most prominent people come from diverse backgrounds and

they include activists, reformers, captains of industry, sports. Their lives have

influenced millions and their roles have inspired others to keep them as role

models and emulate them

39December 2011

he donated $2bn to the charitable association founded by him. He is the chairman of Wipro Limited and has guided it through four decades of diversification and growth to emerge as one of the leaders in the software industry. According to Forbes, he is currently the third wealthiest Indian, and 36th richest in the world, with a personal wealth of $16.8bn in 2011. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011. Premji owns 74 per cent of Wipro Limited, which grew from a company of $2.5mn to a giant of almost $7bn under Premji’s leadership. Wipro Technologies, the Global IT Business of the company, is one of India’s largest software companies and is ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally.

New age ideologyJoseph Stiglitz, Economist

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz who predicted the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 has become the president of the International Economic Association for 2011-2014. An American economist and a professor at Columbia University, Stigliz had predicted the Asian crisis as well. He advocates global answers to problems that cannot be solved at local or national level.

Stiglitz is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979) and has numerous books on economics

which have become international bestsellers. He is also the former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalisation, free-market economists (whom he calls “free market fundamentalists”) and some international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Stiglitz, 68, chaired US President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and developed theories that give better understanding of economics.

Master of the beautiful gameLionel Messi, FootballerLionel Andrés Messi, born on June 24, 1987, is a diminutive Argentine footballer who won five La Liga titles and three Champions League titles, scoring in two of those finals, against Manchester United in both 2009 and most recently in 2011. Messi is the first one to win the Champions League top scorer titles for three consecutive years after Champions League changed its format in 1992.

He plays for FC Barcelona and captains the Argentina national team, mainly as a striker. Messi received several Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21. His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi as his ‘successor’. Messi began playing

football at a young age and his skill and potential was soon realised by Barcelona. After scoring 12 goals in the 2010–11 Champions League, Messi became only the third player (after Gerd Müller and Jean-Pierre Papin) to top-score in three successive European Champion Clubs’ Cup campaigns.

Leading from the frontMahendra Singh Dhoni, Indian cricketer

India won the Cricket World Cup in 2011 after 28 years and sent the entire population of one billion into a tizzy. And the man who pulled off this feat was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 29, the Indian captain, with a flamboyant flick of the ball into the stands. India once again regained its position in the crick-eting world and Dhoni began to be ac-knowledged as India’s best captain ever. Dhoni exudes confidence and humility and is seen to be cool under the most demanding of circumstances. But it is Dhoni’s humble beginnings which show that if you can excel in whatever you do, then you can make it big.

Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007–08, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 and 2010 against Australia 2–0 and 2011 World Cup. His Test, ODI record is best among all the Indian captains to date. He also captained Chennai Super Kings to victory in the IPL and in the Champions League.

40 December 2011

PERSONALITIES

Social media revolutionMark Zuckerberg, Facebook FounderFacebook, a social media website created by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, crossed the 800 million active users mark this year. Zuckerberg, an American computer pro-grammer and Internet entrepreneur co-created the social networking site Face-book, of which he is chief executive and president. Zuckerberg launched Face-book from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004. It was co-founded as a private company by Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University. As of 2011, his personal wealth is estimated to be $17.5bn.

Inspiring talksOprah Winfrey, Television pioneerOprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress,

producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which has become the highest-rated programme of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world’s only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

This September, the show that has transformed daytime TV ended its 25th and final season. Winfrey started a new channel known as the OWN channel.

Sparking a revolutionWael Ghonim, Google executiveWael Ghonim (born December 23, 1980, in Cairo, Egypt) is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship. In 2011, he became an international figure and energised pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after his emotional interview following 11 days of secret incarceration by Egyptian police – during which he was interrogated regarding his work as the administrator of the Facebook page, “We are all Khaled Saeed”, which helped spark the revolution.

Wael Ghonim grew up in Abha, Saudi Arabia until he was 13 years old; then he moved back to live in Cairo.

In January 2010, Wael was promoted to head of marketing at Google in the Middle East & North Africa and moved to Dubai, the UAE. He earned a BS in computer engineering from Cairo University in 2004 and an MBA, with honours, in marketing and finance from the American University in Cairo in 2007.

Fairy tale weddingPrince William and Kate Middleton, Royal couplePrince William and Kate Middleton got married culminating a nine-year relationship between a handsome royal family member and a 29-year-old beautiful and modern young woman. Not only the media but billions of people had whipped up a frenzy to witness this love story. Coming as it did amidst gloom and doom created by the global financial crisis, the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London.

The wedding service was broadcast live around the world, and was compared and contrasted in many ways with the 1981 marriage of William’s parents, Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

42 December 2011

BUSINESS DECISIONS

PATHBREAKING INITIATIVESThe year saw some major changes in government policies, inauguration of

several institutions and the lone IPO in Oman

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said presided over the official opening of the Royal Opera House Muscat in October. The iconic opera house symbolises His Majesty’s personal interest in developing the arts, heritage and culture of Oman.

His Majesty the Sultan, on the occasion of the opening of the Opera House, said, “Oman throughout its long history has played prominent roles in various cultural fields and the time has come now to cap that rich march by means of adopting concepts of international culture and by effective contribution to its promotion. Towards that end, we have established the Royal Opera House Muscat as a centre of cultural radiation

for the Omani people and all humanity.

The Royal Opera House will play a significant role in disseminating world heritage and reinforcing the principles of peace, co-existence and understanding among all nations and peoples through art events that express a common human cultural heritage of strong meaning and deep impact.

Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot (tale of a frigid Chinese princess named Turandot) was the first opera at the newly inaugu-rated ROH. This opera was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, conducted by Placido Domingo and performed by the Fondazi-one Arena di Verona from Italy.

Royal Opera House opens

Revision of Budgetary numbers

The government in April revised its General Budget for 2011 by allocating RO1bn in additional funding towards employment generation of almost 50,000 jobs, unemployment payouts, cost of living allowances, and enhanced pension and social security payouts, among other welfare benefits decreed by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

Around RO444mn has been earmarked to finance the recruitment of 40,714 Omani nationals in civil ministries as well as various defence, security and related establishments. A further RO90mn will go towards paying RO150 in monthly unemployment benefits to an estimated 50,000 Omani job-seekers.

The expanded budget also announces an outlay of RO43mn towards meeting the 100 per cent in monthly pensions of social security households. Higher monthly pensions for all retired civilians and military personnel add a further RO89mn to government expenditure. The cost of living allowance now payable to all employees in military and civil establishments accounts for a significant chunk of the additional funding allocated by the government in fiscal 2011, said Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs, HE Darwish bin Ismaeel al Balushi. At RO251mn, it makes up roughly a fourth of the RO1bn in new spending this year.

Additionally, a sum of RO10mn has been earmarked towards increasing the allowances of students enrolled in government colleges, institutes and

43December 2011

Deep water jetty

The Port of Sohar’s new deepwater jetty was built at a cost RO100mn to accommodate world’s largest bulk carriers at this industrial port. Sohar Industrial Port Company (SIPC), the landlord-operator of the industrial port constructed this 1,380-metre-long deepwater jetty, boasting drafts of 25 metres. The first ship to call at the port was MV Bulk Asia, a 170,000 deadweight-tonne (DWT) Cape-size vessel carrying iron ore for Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel company. The deepwater jetty has a capacity to handle the new generation of bulk carriers with capacities equalling three times that of MV Bulk Asia. The state-owned Oman Shipping Company (OSC) is currently building four Ultra Large Ore Carriers (ULOCs), each of a staggering 400,000 tonnes capacity.

centres affiliated to the ministries of Higher Education and Manpower.

School bus operators providing transportation services to students will also receive RO15mn in additional funding. Omanis in the private sector stand to benefit from these allocations as well. The revised budget earmarks RO25mn in meeting the cost of paying increased pensions to nationals employed by the private sector. Finally, grants totalling RO14mn have been set aside in support of sporting and youth activities, as well as the information sector.

Al Balushi stressed that the RO1bn in additional funding will largely come from oil revenues earned above the $58 per barrel benchmark set by the government in formulating the 2011 State Budget. As a result of the new financial commitments by the government, public expenditure will burgeon to about RO9.1bn during fiscal 2011, up from RO8.1bn announced in the State Budget unveiled at the start of the year. Consequently, the budget deficit is set to rise to RO1.9bn.

Muscat named Arab Tourism Capital 2012

The city of Muscat has been named as the Arab Tourism Capital for 2012 by the Arab Tourism Ministers’ Council.Tourism Minister HE Abdulmalik bin Abdullah Al Khalili said it was proof of the status of this beautiful city on the Arab tourism map. He added the sultanate would strive to make 2012 a ‘distinguished year’ with a number of activities that highlight the vast tourism potential of the country. HE Abdulmalik underlined the importance of Oman’s rich natural environment and its ancient civilisation and cultural heritage, in addition to several tourism resorts that distinguish the Sultanate from the rest of the countries of the region.

Greater powers for Majlis A’ShuraPerhaps the most defining moment in the political history of Oman has been the empowerment of Majlis A’Shura with more legislative and auditing powers in October 2011. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said had promised more powers to the Shura Council in the aftermath of the pro-reform protests in February-March.

A Royal Decree widened the powers of Majlis Oman and some provisions of the Basic Law of the State allowing members of the Majlis to take part in proposing laws and also suggesting changes in government regulations. The 84-member Majlis A’Shura which was elected in October was allowed to select its chairman and speaker by a vote. The Council will also be able to question the ministers. The chairman of Majlis was also made a part of a core team that will be involved in choosing the successor to His Majesty should there be any dispute in the Royal Family Council.

Furniture which Evoke a Sense of Power

The Of ce in Future

46 December 2011

BUSINESS DECISIONS

Oman Drydock Company’s soft launchThe Al Wusta Region of the Sultanate in May witnessed the launch of the soft operations of the Oman Drydock Company in Duqm when it received the first two vessels owned by a Belgian company for maintenance. This augurs well in laying the strong pillars for a new industrial development in the Sultanate namely the marine industry.

HE Said bin Hamdoon al Harthy, under-secretary of the Transport and Commu-nications, for Ports and Marine Affairs and chairman of ODC said, “As of today, the government pumped more than RO700mn of investments in the con-struction of the dry dock.” The drydock will be ready by the end of August 2012 to receive all types of commercial vessels of different sizes including oil tankers, container vessel of the fourth and fifth generations and other vessels with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes.

SMN Power launches IPO

SMN Power Holding launched its initial public offering (IPO) of 6,987,246 shares representing 35 per cent of the total share capital in September. International Power is a founding shareholder of SMN Power Holding, together with Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi and National Trading Company of Oman. The only IPO in Oman in 2011, and one of the very few in the region this year, the SMN Power Holding IPO attracted strong interest from regional and international investors. The issue was oversubscribed 1.7 times, raising RO40.9mn against the target size of RO24.6mn. Following the IPO, 35 per cent of the shares of SMN Power Holding will be held by public investors, with the founder shareholders retaining the balance of 65 per cent of the shares.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS

Vale Oman sets new benchmarks for steelOman entered a new stage in the steel industry as Vale successfully began operations in its Industrial Complex at Sohar Industrial Port in June. The company’s Pelletising Plant and Distribution Centre aims primarily to transform iron ore into pellets to cater to the growing demands of iron ore in the Middle East, North Africa and India (MENAI). Vale Oman Pelletising Company’s production capacity is designed to reach 18 million tones. Vale’s Industrial Complex in Sohar comprises a two-unit pelletising plant, each with a nominal production capacity of 4.5 million metric tonnes of direct reduction pellets per year, in addition to a distribution centre with an annual capacity of 40 million metric tonnes.

Voltamp opens facility Voltamp’s new Sohar factory was opened for production of transformers in the second half of 2011. Its initial orders have been placed by Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) for 125MVA 132/33kV class transformers. The company’s new RO11mn plant was inaugurated in the Sohar Industrial Estate by HH Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq al Said in the presence of HE Sa’ad al Saa’di, minister of Commerce and Industry, and W Y Lin, president of Taiwanese technology partner Tatung. The plant has the capability to produce and repair 315MVA 220kV class transformers - the biggest in the region.

47December 2011

Amendments to Labour LawIn October, the Ministry of Manpower ef-fected significant amendments to Oman’s labour law. As per the amendments, the workers are entitled to two-day weekly off and not more than 45 hours of work per week. Any working hours above this should be treated as overtime.

The amendments also stipulates that salaries of employees should be deposited in banks within 7 days of completion of a month. The amendments also include the workers’ entitlement to a paid annual leave of not less than 30 days in addition to a paid emergency leave for six days during the year. HE Abdullah bin Nasser al Bakri, Minister of Manpower, confirmed that the recent amendments to the provisions of the Labour Law took into account the interests of all parties involved in the process of production, with a special focus on procedures that ensure a healthy relationship between employers and employees.

Approval for Islamic Banking

The Central Bank of Oman (CBO), in a landmark decision allowed conventional banks operating in the Sultanate to offer

Sharia-based financial services – basi-cally Islamic banking. HE Hamoud bin Sangour al Zadjali, executive president of CBO stressed that the imminent introduction of Islamic Banking serv-ices would help support the country’s economic development. Oman offers a large potential for the growth of Islamic banking in the future and it is expected to to complement the con-ventional banking sector in promoting the development of the economy. The CBO’s board of governors had approved in May the inclusion of Islamic banking in the provisions of the Omani Banking Law, in line with the Royal Directives of His Majesty the Sultan. The apex bank also approved the establishment of the country’s first Islamic bank – Bank Nizwa – to provide banking services un-der the Sharia Law, while another new bank, Al Izz International Bank, has been authorised to offer Islamic banking services as well.

Tourist portPort Sultan Qaboos located in the capital area of Muscat and one of the three big ports in the country, will be converted from a commercial port to a tourist port. All commercial, import, export, general cargo and container activities will be transferred to the Sohar Industrial Port.

The commercial and tourist ports have major strategic importance in sustainable development. The development of the port sector will also enhance the ‘Oman Vision 2020’, which aims at diversifying the resources of the national economy and reducing reliance on oil revenues. Cruise shipping is expected to be the mainstay of the converted port. In July, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of Tourism issued a joint statement that in coordination with the respective public and private departments, the ministries will develop a master plan and detailed designs for the port and its associated services and utilities.

Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel plantThe integrated steel complex of Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel was dedicated to the nation at the Port of Sohar. The RO200mn project will produce 2 MTPA of finished steel by the second phase of its operations.

The JSPL took over Shadeed Iron and Steel in July, 2010 and commissioned its Direct Reduction Unit with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) for Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) and Hot DRI (HDRI) four months ahead of schedule on December 5, 2010 and commercial production started from January 1, 2011.

48 December 2011

RICHEST PEOPLE

ROLLING IN MONEYA list of world’s Top 10 billionaires

Rank NameNet Worth

($bn)Age Citizenship Residence Source(s) of wealth

1 Carlos Slim Helu & family 74.0 71 Mexico Mexico Telmex, América Móvil, Grupo Carso

2 Bill Gates 56.0 56 United States United States Microsoft

3 Warren Buffett 50.0 81 United States United States Berkshire Hathaway

4 Bernard Arnault 41.0 62 France France LVMH Moët Hennessy & Louis Vuitton

5 Lawrence Ellison 39.5 66 United States United States Oracle Corporation

6 Lakshmi Mittal 31.1 60 India United Kingdom Arcelor Mittal

7 Amancio Ortega 31.0 74 Spain Spain Inditex Group

8 Eike Batista 30.0 53 Brazil Brazil EBX Group

9 Mukesh Ambani 27.0 53 India India Reliance Industries

10 Christy Walton 26.5 55 United States United States Walmart

Lakshmi Mittal Amancio Ortega Eike Batista Mukesh Ambani Christy Walton

Carlos Slim Helu & family Bill Gates Warren Buffett Bernard Arnault Lawrence Ellison

Department of Gastroenterology

Welcomes

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OTHER DEPARTMENTS

50 December 2011

“I just killed a pig and a goat. I celebrated by drinking their blood naked at dawn.”

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, who has made vow to only eat meat from animals

he killed himself

“The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.”

James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer for News Corp., on the decision to close the British tabloid

after a phone-hacking scandal

“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire friendly Congress.”

Warren Buffett, investor and the world’s third richest person, proposing a higher tax rate

for America’s super-rich

QUOTABLE QUOTESA look at the best quotes of 2011

“People laughed at us for using the word magical. But you know what? It turned out to be magical.”

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, unveiling new iPad

“Daddy, you’re so handsome.”

Dallas Wiens, first person in US to receive a full face transplant, recounting at press conference what his

young daughter Scarlette told him when she laid eyes on him after his March operation

“They’ve shown a stunning lack of knowledge about basic US fiscal budget math.”

Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, on Standard & Poor’s downgrading of US debt

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo!’s chairman of the board.”Carol A. Bartz, Yahoo!’s chief executive, in e-mail sent

to employees with subject line ‘Goodbye’.

“As for me running for president, look, there’s a guy in office who is smarter than anyone you know, and nicer, and he’s having an almost impossible time governing. Why would anyone volunteer for that job? I have a very good job, so I have no interest.”

George Clooney, Actor

“If the Queen asks you to a party, you say yes. If the Italian prime minister asks you to a party, it’s probably safe to say no.”

British prime minister David Cameron

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

US President Barack Obama, on death of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs

52 December 2011

TRIBUTE

LEAVING AN IMPRESSIVE LEGACYEven though their lives came to an end, they left a legacy that is their own.

Posterity will remember them for their great contributions for human civilisation

Dr Rajiha bint Abdulamir bin Ali (1953 -2011) who breathed her last in February 2011 was Oman’s first Minister of Tourism. Dr Rajiha, who took the helm of the nascent Ministry of Tourism in 2004, was fully aware that her portfolio was very critical for the development of the national economy. The road was tough and the journey long, but Dr Rajiha had boundless energy to steer the ministry with the Omani mast flying high. The results of Dr Rajiha’s tireless efforts are there for everyone to see. Oman’s name is now firmly stamped on the world tourism map and the contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP of Oman has exceeded the set targets. Dr Rajiha’s death was an irreplaceable and profound loss to the nation. Her dedication and commitment to work was so remarkable that she continued to discharge her ministerial duties even from her hospital

room till she died. She was also the chairperson of Omran, the government organisation to promote tourism and tourism integrated properties in Oman. It was her foresight that led Oman to host the 4th International Conference on Responsible Tourism Destinations in Muscat in 2004. As many as 380 delegates from 34 countries attended the conference which advanced the cause of Responsible Tourism in the region and internationally.

Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud (1930-2011) was the crown prince of Saudi Arabia at the time of his death. He served as the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and Aviation. He was one of the Sudairi Seven. HH Sultan was first in the Saudi line of succession. He

became governor of Riyadh in 1947 and oversaw ARAMCO’s construction of the Kingdom’s rail link between Dammam and Riyadh. He became Minister of Agriculture in 1953 and Minister of Transport in 1955. HH Sultan was the kingdom’s defence minister in 1990 when US forces deployed in Saudi Arabia to defend it against Iraqi forces that had overrun Kuwait. As defence minister, Sultan oversaw extraordinary expenditure on modernising the armed forces, as multi-billion dollar deals made Saudi Arabia one of the world’s biggest arms spenders. He was also one of the strongest supporters of forging close ties with the US - links which came under strain after 9/11.

Steve Jobs (1955 –2011), who died at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer,

53December 2011

made an unprecedented impact on the world’s consumer electronics markets with a string of successful products, including the iPod media player, iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet computer. In little more than a decade, he took Apple – the company he co-founded in 1976, and returned to in 1997 – from near-bankruptcy to being the world’s second most valuable company by market capitalisation, after the oil giant Exxon, with around $80bn in the bank. Jobs was a quintessential Silicon Valley hero who built one of the world’s richest and most successful corporations against all the odds, using his own taste, talents and willpower. He was, of course, in the right place at the right time – the start of the personal computer industry – and he was well placed to catch the wave as analogue industries changed from vinyl, tapes, film, paper and other physical formats to digital ones.

Wangari Maathai (1940 –2011), the Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel peace prize winner, who has died of cancer aged 71, was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the US at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organisation focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood

Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental efforts to help the poorest. It gave her an international profile and a strong platform to travel the world, pressing home the message that ecology and democracy were indivisible. In 2006, she led a UNEP tree-planting scheme that has resulted in more than 7bn trees being planted across the planet. Maathai was an elected Member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.

Maqbool Fida Husain (1915 – June 9, 2011) commonly known, was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognised Indian artists of the 20th century. A former movie billboard artist who rose to become India’s most sought-after painter before going into self-imposed exile during an uproar over nude images of Hindu icons, Husain has been widely regarded as the “Picasso of India” and has influenced a whole generation of artists in the country. He mastered not only the techniques of line and colour, but also those of becoming a superstar of modern Indian art. Husain was associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. A dashing, eccentric figure who dressed in impeccably tailored suits, he went barefoot and brandished an extra-long paintbrush as a slim cane. He never maintained a studio but spread his canvases out on the

floor of whatever hotel room he happened to be staying in and paying for damages when he checked out. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—usually treated in series—include topics as diverse as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life.

The British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932 –2011), who died of heart failure at the age of 79, was in the public eye from the age of 11 and remained there even decades after her last hit movie. She managed to keep people fascinated, by her incandescent beauty, her courage, her open-natured character, her self-deprecating humour, her eight marriages (two of them to the actor Richard Burton), her many brushes with death, her seesawing weight, her diamonds and her humanitarian causes, all of which often obscured the reason why she was famous in the first place – she had a tantalising screen presence, in films including A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Butterfield 8 (1961), Cleopatra (1963) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programmes; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993.

54 December 2011

TRIBUTE

The photographer and film-maker Tim Hetherington (1970 –2011), who has been killed at the age of 40 while covering the escalating violence in Misrata, Libya, was an outstanding photojournalist and film-maker, who defined a generation of reportage. The canon of work he bequeaths will be cherished for generations. He was best known for the documentary film Restrepo (2010), which he co-directed with Sebastian Junger; the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011. Hetherington won the 2007 World Press Photo competition for his picture of a tired American soldier covering his face with his hand following a day of fighting in the Korengal valley, Afghanistan.

Amy Winehouse (1983 –2011), who was found dead at the age of 27, was one of the outstanding singers of her generation, known for her powerful deep

contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse’s music spoke to people so persuasively that her second album, Back to Black, became Britain’s bestselling record of 2007 and reached No 2 in the US, making her one of only a few British female soloists to achieve that level of transatlantic recognition. Its success spurred sales of her initially overlooked first album, Frank (2003), so titled because of the diary-style lyrics that produced songs such as Stronger Than Me, which railed against a “ladyboy” ex-boyfriend. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for Stronger Than Me, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for Rehab, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Love Is a Losing Game, among other distinctions.

The American actor Cliff Robertson (1923 –2011), who has died at the age of 88, had many claims to fame, among them being selected by President John F Kennedy to portray him in the 1963 film PT 109 and an Oscar-winning performance in the title role of Charly in 1968, plus a successful directorial debut with JW Coop in 1971. With a film and television career that spanned half of a century. But it was his role at the centre of a Hollywood scandal involving the

misappropriation of funds by producer David Begelman at Columbia Studios that brought Robertson additional – and unwanted – celebrity, adversely affecting his subsequent career. On television, he portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 adaptation of Aldrin’s autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 adaptation of John Ehrlichman’s Watergate novel The Company, and portrayed Henry Ford in the 1987 Ford: The Man and the Machine.

Sathya Sai Baba, who died of heart failure at the age of 84, was the most influential and richest in India’s long line of spiritual teachers claiming supernatural insight and powers. He was a revered guru with a global following though his work was dogged by controversy. The foundation centred on his ashram in his native village, Puttaparthi, the total value of which is estimated at $9bn, is devoted to building and maintaining schools, hospitals and irrigation works with a reach far beyond his own state of Andhra Pradesh. Since Sai Baba founded his first permanent meditation centre more than 60 years ago, a vast construction programme funded by donations has converted the remote village where he was born into a thriving small city with dozens of temples, its own 220-bed specialised hospital offering free treatment, a university and an airport.

56 December 2011

BOOKS

GRIPPING READSPicking up a few favourite titles among the bestsellers of the year is a difficult task especially when books have always been a subjective choice. Here is a list up of the 10 notable books of 2011

What It Is Like to Go to WarBy Karl Marlantes

With unflinching honesty, bestselling author Karl Marlantes tells us What It Is Like to Go to War in his compassionate, powerful narrative on Vietnam. Marlantes does not shy away from recounting experiences that, outside the arena of war, are horrifying or embarrassing and addresses a soldier’s self-imposed “code of silence” as an attempt to fit back into a society that “simply wants us to shut up about all of this.” In What It Is Like to Go to War, Marlantes sets a new standard for understanding the experience of war.

In the Garden of Beasts By Erik Larson

In his In the Garden of Beasts, Erik Larson has crafted a gripping, deeply-intimate narrative with a climax that reads like the best political thriller, where we are stunned with each turn of the page, even though we already know the outcome.

The book is is a vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought to life through the stories of two people: William E. Dodd, who in 1933 became America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his scandalously carefree daughter, Martha.

Moonwalking with EinsteinBy Joshua Foer

Moonwalking with Einstein follows Joshua Foer’s compel-ling journey as a participant in the US Memory Champion-ship. As a science journalist covering the competition, Foer became captivated by the secrets of the competitors, like how the current world memory champion, Ben Pridmore, could memorize the exact order of 1,528 digits in an hour. He met with individuals whose memories are truly unique – from one man whose memory only ex-tends back to his most recent thought, to another who can memorize complex math-ematical formulas without knowing any math.

Lost in Shangri-LaBy Mitchell Zuckoff

A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that vividly brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening, and comic, Lost in Shangri-La is a thrill ride from beginning to end. The book recounts the incredible true-life adventure of three survivors of a plane crash towards the end of World War II. The transport plane carrying them along with 21 other members of the US military crashed into the New Guinea jungle during a sightseeing excursion. Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site.

58 December 2011

BOOKS

The Art of FieldingBy Chad Harbach

Chad Harbach writes his fic-tion debut The Art of Field-ing with the self-assurance of a seasoned novelist. He exercises a masterful preci-sion over the language and pacing of his narrative, and in some 500 pages, there’s rarely a word that feels out of place. The Art of Fielding explores relationships and the unpredictable forces that complicate them.

1Q84By Haruki Murakami

1Q84, Haruki Murakami’s magnum opus, is an epic of staggering proportions that folds in a deliciously intriguing cast of characters. 1Q84 goes further than any Murakami novel so far, and perhaps further than any novel before it, toward exposing the delicacy of the membranes that separate love from chance encounters, the kind from the wicked, and reality from the dreams under an alien moon.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone By Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor has created a lushly imaginative, fully realised world in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Tay-lor weaves a masterful mix of reality and fantasy with cross-genre appeal. Exqui-sitely written and beauti-fully paced, the tale is set in ghostly, romantic Prague, where 17-year-old Karou is a 17-year-old art student with a most unusual family.

Before I Go To Sleep: A NovelBy SJ Watson

At the heart of SJ Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep is the petrifying question: How can anyone function when they can’t even trust themselves? Suspenseful from start to finish, the strength of Watson’s writing allows Before I Go to Sleep to transcend the basic premise and present profound questions about memory and identity.

Steve JobsBy Walter Isaacson

It is difficult to read the opening pages of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs without feeling melancholic. Jobs retired at the end of August and died about six weeks later. Now, just weeks after his death, you can open the book that bears his name and read about his youth, his promise, and his relentless press to succeed. But the initial sadness in starting the book is soon replaced by something else, which is the intensity of Jobs’s focus and vision for his products.

The Marriage Plot By Jeffrey Eugenides

In The Marriage Plot, his third novel and first in ten years (following the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex), Eugenides describes a year or so in the lives of three college seniors at Brown in the early 80s. This is a thoughtful and at times disarming novel about life, love, and discovery, set during a time when so much of life seems filled with deep portent.

60 December 2011

AUTOMOBILES

DESIRABLE CARSThe auto industry witnessed tremendous growth worldover in 2011 with a huge

demand for vehicles. Here we draw up a list of the 10 outstanding cars of 2011

No brand is more deeply rooted in off-road adventure than Jeep. The new Grand Cherokee stands at the top of the lineup with not only a much more luxurious and roomy interior but also more power and, yes, enhanced on- and off-road chops. The new 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 churns out 290 hp and 260 lb ft of torque, delivers 16 mpg city and 23 mpg highway and will tow 5000 pounds. For the first time, the unibody Jeep

uses a four-wheel independent suspension for enhanced steering and suspension precision. Opt for the Quadra-Lift air suspension, and the Jeep will provide five distinct suspension-height levels, with up to an impressive 10.7 inches of ground clearance. Best of all, the Grand Cherokee can lower itself back down and provide a pillow-soft luxury-car ride on the way home from the trailhead.

Jeep Grand Cherokee

61December 2011

Peugeot RCZ Sports CoupeThe brand new Peugeot RCZ sports coupe is totally unique among its Peugeot counterparts with its revolutionary new looks and styling. Featuring a powerful Turbo 156 hp engine, 6 speed automatic gear box, 18 inch alloy wheels, sports car style front seats, carbon fibre roof, mobile rear wing feature, space for two back seat passengers and a unique double bubble roof – the new Peugeot RCZ is a sensational achievement in modern automotive design and engineering that is uniquely French in its styling and approach. The car has won rave reviews around the world for its innovative styling and looks that have captured the imagination of drivers around the world who have relished its combination of stunning looks, elegant interior and powerful sports-driven driving experience.

Honda Odyssey

Honda isn’t giving up on the family-oriented minivan. The interior of the new Odyssey has gotten a complete makeover that renders the vehicle’s cabin roomier and brighter. The Odyssey now comes with an optional rear-seat DVD system with a 16.2-in. (41 cm) screen — with split-screen capability, in case the rear-seat passengers can’t agree on what to watch — and a navigation system that gives updates on traffic conditions around the vehicle. The exterior has also been redesigned, giving the car a sleeker, more aerodynamic look. The Odyssey is powered by a V6 engine and still comes with sliding doors.

Mazda 2Mazda convincingly demonstrates that subcompact cars don’t have to be dull. The Mazda 2 gets 100 horsepower from its 1.6-litre engine, while a solid suspension and excellent steering give the car great presence on the road. The car comes with a neatly finished interior that is surprisingly roomy and capable of carrying a passenger or two as well as their luggage or gear. It also has an excellent sound system and a handy fifth door in the rear. The short wheelbase makes it easy to park in tight, urban spaces, and it comes with a full range of safety equipment, including six airbags, antilock brakes, traction control and stability control.

62 December 2011

AUTOMOBILES

Buick RegalGeneral Motors is rebuilding the Buick brand, and the 2011 Regal is a good start: the car comes with a larger backseat from China; a nicely tuned, European-style suspension from Germany; and a high-tech, fuel-efficient, four-cylinder American motor, all of it wrapped into an understated exterior design. The engine — which produces 182 horsepower — is matched with a six-speed transmission that, on average, will get 23 miles per gallon in city driving and 30 m.p.g. on the highway, according to GM. The Regal’s comfortable interior is large enough to satisfy Buick’s traditional customers, but at the same time, its crisp steering and handling give the nimble feel of a smaller car.

Kia SportageKia continues its quest to satisfy young, hip urban buyers looking for something different in their personal vehicle by giving the Sportage a complete makeover for the coming model year. The 2011 Sportage has been equipped with electric power steering, which improves the overall handling and boosts the fuel-economy rating of the new four-cylinder engines to 23 m.p.g. in the city and 31 m.p.g. on the highway. The exterior design moves away from the boxy styling of the past and includes versatile features like an easy-to-use rear liftgate, and the vehicle manages to provide ample cargo space despite its relatively compact size. The Sportage comes with a backup camera, a navigation system and dual-zone climate controls.

Ford ExplorerFord isn’t ready to give up on the sport-utility segment; it has made some big changes to the 2011 Explorer to make it more fuel-efficient. The new Explorer has been switched to a unibody construction (replacing the old-fashioned body-on-frame architecture), so the vehicle is lighter and less cumbersome. The result is a smoother ride, say Ford’s engineers. The vehicle’s handling has been given a boost with the inclusion of a steering system with electric power assist, while its fuel economy has been improved by a new, more efficient engine that delivers 17 m.p.g. in the city and up to 25 m.p.g. on the highway. The interior, which retains its roomy, family-friendly character with seating for seven, has been revamped to make it more luxurious. The vehicle also comes with the latest communications gear from the Ford-Microsoft combine.

63December 2011

Toyota Scion tCThe Scion tC is like the cars Toyota used to make before the company became part of the automotive mainstream. It’s a subcompact car with a nifty interior that brings the gauges and controls close to the driver. It also has a solid feel on the road, excellent brakes, steady ride and handling and good fuel economy: 23 m.p.g. in the city and 31 m.p.g. on the highway. Equipped with a 180-horsepower engine, it comes with either automatic or manual transmission as well as well as a youthful, contemporary exterior design.

Nissan RogueNissan has made artful small vehicles for years, and the Rogue, a compact utility vehicle, returns to the tradition with a versatile interior capable of hauling cargo or luggage and sports gear, while its 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine will get 22 m.p.g. in the city and 28 m.p.g. on the highway. The Rogue comes with a long list of features, including xenon headlights, heated outside mirrors, UV-reducing glass, remote keyless entry and a fold-down passenger seat for extra-long cargo.

Jaguar XJGorgeous styling both inside and out have made the new Jaguar XJ one of the most eye-catching vehicles to debut this year. The exterior, with its bold grille and elegant rear-quarter panels, revives Jaguar’s long tradition of producing unique designs that stand out on the road and are almost instant classics. The XJ’s interior is luxurious and reinforced by levels of craftsmanship and attention to detail that are hard to match. The car’s long wheelbase, rear-wheel-drive layout and five-litre V8 engine with 385 horsepower should ensure a comfortable ride under all sorts of conditions.

64 December 2011

BOX OFFICE HITS

KEEP IT SIMPLESequels set new records at the box office in 2011, underlining the strength of

established franchises with audiences across the globe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Theatrical release: July 15Box office: $380.97 mnStarring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph FiennesDirector: David YatesStudio: Warner Bros.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is a 2011 epic fantasy film and the second of the two films based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is also the eighth and final installment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron and Rowling. The film opened to universal critical acclaim, and is among the best reviewed films of 2011. At the box office, the movie created a worldwide opening weekend record, earning $483.2mn. The film is currently the third highest grossing film of all time, the highest grossing film of 2011, the highest grossing film in the Harry Potter series, and the ninth film ever to gross over $1 billion.

Box office figures as of November 21, 2011 in the US.

65December 2011

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Hangover Part II

Theatrical release: June 29, 2011Box office: $352.39mnStarring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormandDirector: Michael BayStudio: Paramount (DreamWorks)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a 2011 American science fiction-action film based on the Transformers toy line. It is the third installment of the live-action Transformers film series. Like its predecessors, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. Dark of the Moon grossed $1.12bn worldwide, and is currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, the second highest grossing film of 2011, the highest grossing film in the Transformers series, and the tenth film to gross over $1bn. The film’s story

structure revolves around a genuine NASA manned mission to the Moon.

Theatrical release: May 26, 2011Box office: $254.46mnStarring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken JeongDirector: Todd Phillips Studio: Warner Bros.

The Hangover Part II is a sequel The Hangover – the runaway hit from 2009. Todd Phillips directed the film in addition to co-authoring the script with Craig Mazin, and Scott Armstrong. Development of The Hangover Part II began in April 2009, two months before The Hangover was released. The principal actors were cast in March 2010 to reprise their roles from the first film. Production began in October 2010, in Ontario, California before moving on location in Thailand. The film was released on May 26, 2011 and, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesTheatrical release: May 20, 2011Box office: $241.07mnStarring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Kevin McNally, Astrid Berges-FrisbeyDirector: Rob Marshall Studio: Buena Vista

Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy-adventure films directed by Gore Verbinski and Rob Marshall, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. All four films are based on a Walt Disney theme park ride of the same name, and follow the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Captain Hector Barbossa, and Angelica. The films started with their first release on the big screen in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In September 2008, Johnny Depp signed on for a fourth film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The movie succeeded in grossing more than $1bn, becoming the eighth and fourth-fastest film to achieve this record. The film franchise has grossed $3.72bn worldwide and it is the only franchise with two films that reached $1 billion worldwide.

66 December 2011

BOX OFFICE HITS

Fast Five

Theatrical release: April 29, 2011 Box office: $209.83mnStarring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, The Rock, Jordana Brewster, Chris ‘Ludacris’ BridgesDirector: Justin LinStudio: Universal

Fast Five is a 2011 action film written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin. It is the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious film series. When developing Fast Five, Universal Studios deliberately departed from the street racing theme prevalent in previous films in the series, to transform the franchise into a heist action series involving cars. By doing so, they hoped to attract wider audiences that might otherwise be put off by a heavy emphasis on cars and car culture. Fast Five is considered the transitional film in the series, featuring only one car race and giving more attention

Cars 2Theatrical release: June 24, 2011Box office: $191.34mnStarring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Bonnie Hunt Director: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis (co-director)Studio: Buena Vista

Cars 2 is a 2011 American computer-animated action film produced by Pixar, and it is the sequel to the 2006 film, Cars. The film is directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Brad Lewis, written by Ben Queen, and produced by Denise Ream. Cars 2 is also the first film that John Lasseter has directed since the original Cars in 2006. The film opened to mixed/average reviews from critics. Despite this, it continued the studio’s streak of box office success, ranking No.1 on its opening weekend in the US and Canada, and topping international success of such previous Pixar’s works as WALL-E, Cars etc.

to action set pieces such as gun fights, brawls and the heist of $100 million. The production mounted a comprehensive marketing campaign,

marketing the film through social media, virtual games, cinema chains, automobile manufacturers and at NASCAR races.

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68 December 2011

BOX OFFICE HITS

ThorTheatrical release: May 6, 2011Box office: $181.03mnStarring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Anthony Hopkins, Ray StevensonDirector: Kenneth Branagh Studio: Paramount

Thor is a 2011 American superhero film based on the comic book character of the same name published by Marvel Comics. It is the fourth film released as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film tells the story of Thor, a god who is exiled from his homeland of Asgard to Earth. While on earth, he builds a relationship with scientist Jane Foster. However, Thor must stop his brother Loki, who intends to become the new king of Asgard. Director Sam Raimi first developed the concept of a film adaptation of Thor in 2001, but soon abandoned the project, leaving it in “development hell” for several years. During this time, the rights were picked up by various film studios until Marvel Studios signed Mark Protosevich to develop the project in 2006, and the rights were picked up by Paramount Pictures.

Captain America: The First AvengerTheatrical release: July 22, 2011Box office: $176.65mn Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic CooperDirector: Joe Johnston Studio: Paramount

Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Set during World War II, the film tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Captain America must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler’s ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of a mysterious organisation that intends to use a device called a tesseract as an energy-source for world domination. Production of Captain America: The First Avenger began in June 2010, and filming took place in London, Manchester and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and Los Angeles in the US. The film was converted to 3D in post-production.

69December 2011

BridesmaidsTheatrical release: May 13, 2011 Box office: $169.10mn Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie KemperDirector: Paul Feig Studio: Universal Pictures

Bridesmaids is a romantic comedy film written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, and Clayton Townsend.

The plot centers on Annie (Wiig). Bridesmaids was produced by Apatow Productions and released in the USA by Universal Pictures. It marked the final appearance of Jill Clayburgh, who died of leukemia in November 2010 before the film was released. Upon release, Bridesmaids met with critical acclaim and emerged as a box office success, surpassing Knocked Up to become the top-grossing Judd Apatow production to date. Bridesmaids was released on unrated US DVD and Blu-ray Disc on September 20, 2011.

Rise of the Planet of the ApesTheatrical release: August 5, 2011Box office: $176.36mn Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom FeltonDirector: Rupert Wyatt Studio: Fox

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. It is intended to act as a foundation with its own origin story for a new film series. Its premise is similar to the fourth film in the original series, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), but it is not a direct remake in that it does not fit into that series’ continuity. The film received positive reviews and became a box office success. Three chimpanzees are captured in an African jungle from their troop by poachers and shipped to San Francisco. Will Rodman (James Franco) is a scientist at pharmaceutical company Gen-Sys who has been trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by testing a genetically engineered gene therapy on 12 chimps. The drug mutates the chimpanzees, giving them a human level of intelligence. The movie follows the series of events that unfolds.

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72 December 2011

GADGETS

IMAGINATION REDEFINEDSleeker, smarter and cutting edge – a list of this year’s best gadgets is

sure to take your breath away

Apple iPad 2Apple’s iPad 2 is the second coming of the tablet that defined the genre. It’s thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor. Lacking a built-in physical keyboard or mouse, Apple’s wisely aimed to keep the iPad 2’s interface simple -- small icons and fiddly tasks aren’t welcome on a tablet, because you have to control it with your blunt, fleshy fingers. With the same touch-friendly user interface as the iPhone, but a bigger screen, even babies and cats could use the iPad 2.

If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod touch, the iPad 2 will feel immediately familiar. A single button below the screen brings you back to the home screen, and the main menu consists of a bunch of rectangular icons that you press to run various features and apps.

Samsung Galaxy S IIThe saturated smartphone market had up until very recently left us wondering exactly where the ever-present devices would go next - they seemed to have hit a plateau of specs that was hard to climb from. Then the Galaxy S II revealed itself and all became clear – dual-core processing has ushered in the smartphone’s second coming. The Galaxy S II eschews 3D gimmicks, pointing its 1GB of dual-core RAM processing prowess purely at making downloads, applications, games 1,080p video and general UI business run at lightning pace. On top of that, it’s only 8.49mm thick and scarily light. It’s one of the new breed leading the charge in 2011 in terms of what smartphones can and will do.

73December 2011

LG Optimus 3DThe first 3D-enabled mobile phone packs a mighty dual-core processing punch. LG uses dual-core architecture throughout to produce glasses-free 3D on its massive 4.3-inch display, and is able to capture and process content through the twin 5-Megapixel cameras. Its 1GHz processor is blazing fast and it’s got four times as many video codecs as any of its current competitors, meaning it has no problems with either displaying 3D onscreen, or recording it. Want to watch your efforts on a bigger screen? There’s HDMI out, meaning it’s ready to hook up to your LG 3DTV.

Canon EOS 600DNeat, compact and light at 570g this DSLR from the Japanese camera colossus gives you stunning 18-megapixel shots, thanks to a CMOS sensor and 14-bit image processing. Beginners and the inept are catered for with an automatic shooting mode, but there’s also a huge depth of features for the more adventurous/talented. Full-HD video is also in its arsenal. The new kid on the block can most succinctly be described as a 550D with an articulated screen, that also incorporates many of the beginner-friendly features we first saw on the more enthusiast-orientated EOS 60D. Perhaps most notable of these is ‘Basic+’, a simple, results-orientated approach to image adjustments in the scene-based exposure modes, that allows the user to change the look of their images and control background blur without needing to know anything technical about how all this works.

RIM BlackBerry PlaybookRIM is taking on Apple and the Android brigade with its own OS and the off-putting tagline of “The world’s first professional-grade tablet.” RIM’s punting the Playbook to its traditional business market then, you might think, but twin HD cameras, access to 7 Digital’s excellent music store, superb video on the multi-touch, high-res, 1024x600 screen, a web browser with support for Flash 10.1 and “hard core gaming” are not the stuff that one would associate with drab offices. With a 1GHz dualcore processor and 1GB of RAM, N Wi-Fi and the promise of 4G access, wherever available.

Samsung 7 Series PCSamsung’s first sliding tablet-laptop hybrid gives you the option of either the 10.1-inch multitouch screen or a regular keyboard, so you can use the former for web surfing, the latter for emails. Windows 7 is on board, and it’ll be available with 32 or 64GB of flash memory. Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom Oak Trail processor gives it more grunt than the iPad.

74 December 2011

GADGETS

Sony NGPSony has just come clean with its next-generation PlayStation Portable. It’s actually codenamed NGP and will revolve around five key concepts: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual (augmented) Reality. It will be compatible with the PlayStation Suite and is backwards-compatible with downloadable PSP games and content from Sony’s PlayStation Store. This scores over its arch-rival Nintendo’s 3DS because it bypasses gimmicks such as 3D and goes all out for heavyweight specs.

Samsung BD-D7500Hailed as the world’s smallest Blu-ray player, the Samsung BD-D7500 is only marginally larger than a couple of taped-together Blu-ray cases. Yet it manages to pack in an enormous amount of leading edge Blu-ray tech, including 3D, Internet and streaming capability. The BD-D7500 is tiny, measuring 380x158x23 mm. It also sports a large, touch-sensitive control panel and copious glowing, pulsating lights. It also allows you to wirelessly download thousands of movies if you’ve shelled out for a six-quid Lovefilm subscription, as well as DLNA for streaming your own music and movies. The severe size constraints have implications of course. There’s no room for rear-ward connections on this deck. Instead you’ll find a shallow cavity on the undercarriage which offers HDMI, digital optical audio and AV mini-jack outputs, plus Ethernet.

Motorola AtrixWinning nine awards on its unveiling at CES 2011, this sleek Android smartphone boasts the same dualcore Nvidia Tegra 2 processor as Moto’s Xoom, 1GB of RAM and a four-inch, 960x540 screen. Despite that, it’s lighter than the iPhone 4 at 135g. That’s impressive, if not exceptional – witness the Samsung Galaxy S – but the USP that’s grabbed the world’s tech heads’ attention is its unprecedented versatility and potential to transform a product category. The Atrix, which will be launched exclusively on Orange, can be hooked up to a host of peripherals via its multimedia dock.

Nintendo 3DSThe first 3D handheld gaming console is appealing, building on the huge success of the DS with a stereoscopic (glasses-free) display that’s 10 per cent larger than the original. Adjusting the degree of 3D using the sliding bar is a great feature, and with 13 titles at launch, upcoming movie downloads, and Nintendo’s proven track record in mobile gaming, this is one to watch – without glasses.

76 December 2011

GOLFUPDATE

You won the most promising golfer to be award at OER CEO Golf 2011. Can you share your views on winning this coveted championship?It was an ecstatic moment, it’s been ages since I won any individual award in a sporting event. I am humbled and moti-vated by the recognition and would like to credit UMS for reinvigorating my sporting spirit. I believe OER CEO Golf is a distinct event which blends an ideal cocktail of networking, sporting and entertainment for corporate executives in Oman.

OER CEO Golf is considered as one of the premier networking events for the business community of Oman where business is mixed with pleasure. What is your opinion about OER CEO Golf as an event?OER CEO Golf has attained a reputation which is beyond comparison and is gradually becoming a barometer for

judging successful professionals, an invitation for the event is treated as a certification and recognition of the achievements of corporate executives and getting labeled as an achiever.

OER CEO Golf will be held in January 2012. What will be your expectations for this year? Each year UMS has raised the bar by experimenting successfully with the format of the event and as ever I expect UMS to beat the expectation this time as well. OER CEO Golf has no one but itself to compete with and I wish team UMS yet another success.

Your comments on the game of golf?It’s a game which is quite unassuming , I always had an impression that it is a lazy man’s game and doesn’t have anything exciting in it, but now I beg to differ and have concluded its a game which actually

accentuates not just your physical fitness but the mental faculty as well. It is the best game to develop the skill sets befitting a corporate role. Golf like any other sport requires a lot of hard work and patience to learn and excel and isn’t as easy as it appears to be. It’s fun and a great stress buster.

AN IDEAL MIXAjay Ganti, CEO, SARCO and the winner of The Most Promising Golfer to be Award at OER CEO Golf 2011 shares his thoughts on OER CEO Golf, the Oman premium corporate sporting cum networking event the next edition of which is coming up in January 2012

77December 2011

LEGAL

The changes are quite far-reaching and it will be interesting to see whether the amount of labour cases decrease as a result

Amendments to the Labour Law

BY JAMES HARBRIDGE

The author is a Partner at Curtis, Mallet-

Prevost, Oman It has been well publicised that the Labour Law has now been amended by Royal Decree

113/2011.

The aim has been, in part, to try to clear up areas of doubt. For instance, employers are now obligated to pay salaries within seven days of the due date. Also, the new Law makes it clear that the 30 days’ annual leave can be taken after the expiry of six months from the joining date.

Emergency leave on full pay has been increased from four to six days per year.

Other important changes include the following:

The maximum working ¡hours per week has been reduced from 48 to 45 hours, and Muslim employees in Ramadhan will now work 30 hours, rather than 36 hours/week.

Article 70 stipulates that ¡an employee must now grant two consecutive days of rest (on full pay; ie on gross salary) per week.

An area of ambiguity ¡about overtime for work performed on weekends

THE MAXIMUM WORKING HOURS PER WEEK HAS BEEN REDUCED FROM

48 TO 45 HOURS, AND MUSLIM EMPLOYEES IN

RAMADHAN WILL NOW WORK 30 HOURS, RATHER

THAN 36 HOURS/WEEK

and official holidays has now been resolved. The old reference to a “double wage” to be paid for such work has now been replaced with an unambiguous clause which says that the doubling would apply to the basic salary, rather than to the gross salary.

Article 81 used to say ¡that women could not be required to work from 7pm to 6am. The Law now changes those timings to 9pm – 6am.

Maternity rights are ¡now enhanced. Female employees have the right, three times during their service with the respective employer, to a 50 day maternity leave on full pay.

The Law also states that a Ministerial Decision will be issued to set procedures

and control mechanisms in respect of private sector establishments which violate the Labour Law.

Furthermore, each employer who does not comply with the stipulated Omanisation percentages will pay a fine of not less than RO250, and not more than RO500, in respect of each Omani employee which should have been employed. The employer will, additionally, be required to rectify the Omanisation percentage within six months from the date when the violation was detected. The fines would be doubled if there is then a repeat of the violation.

In conclusion, the changes are quite far-reaching and it will be interesting to see whether the amount of labour cases decrease as a result. It is clear that employers will be under close scrutiny.

78 December 2011

AUTOTALK

SPORTING LUXURY

THE DRIVER-FOCUSED V8 VANTAGE S FROM ASTON MARTIN FEATURES ENHANCED DYNAMICS, INCREASED POWER AND TORQUE COUPLED TO A COMPELLING PACKAGE OF AGILITY, BALANCE, ENGAGEMENT AND EVERYDAY PRACTICALITY, WRITES VISVAS PAUL D KARRA AFTER AN EXHILARATING TEST DRIVE

When you talk about an Aston Martin, you immediately think of James Bond and his inimitable action packed

adventures – more specifically the high speed car chases with 007 at the wheel of a modified Aston Martin.

That youthful excitement invariably kicks in when you take the wheel of any Aston Martin. And the Aston Martin V8 Vantage S is no different. The moment you push the ignition button located in the middle of the dashboard, the engine rumbles to life with a roar that is unmistakably Vantage. And the knowledge that the V8 engine has

a new ground-up developed seven speed Sportshift II transmission means that the seven short ratio gears will deliver the most engaging and intense driver involvement.

The makers of Aston Martin say the Vantage range has come of age with the new V8 Vantage S. There is no doubt

79December 2011

about it as it is characterised by a host of new driver-focused features all designed to push the honed dynamics of the standard Vantage to a new benchmark level.

The 4.7 litre V8 engine has been engineered to deliver peak power of 430 bhp (436 PS / 321 kW) at 7300 rpm and torque of 490 Nm (361 lb.ft) at 5000 rpm. The engine is willing, the handling is predictable and the controls are easy so it is as comfortable to cruise on the city roads as it is on winding roads. It has a maximum speed of 305 km/h tempting you to throttle the engine on straight roads in the country side.

Even at high speeds, the Vantage S offers immense stopping power for absolute confidence thanks to a competition derived floating disc front brake system which is complete with larger discs and six-piston calipers with a more responsive but heavier steering rack and sporting suspension settings.

ENHANCED FEELINGAt the core of the Vantage S is its seven speed Sportshift II automated manual transmission, offered as standard and delivers exceedingly rapid gear changes. The extra gear permits shorter well-spaced

ratios taking advantage of the optimum torque, which combined with a shorter final drive ratio of 4.182:1 delivers quicker acceleration and an enhanced sporting feel. In addition, the Vantage S features a ‘Sport’ button which quickens the gear changes and gives the driver a more aggressive throttle response while also opening the exhaust bypass valves across most of the engine speed range perfectly characterising the ‘S’ variant. All this ensures exceptional in-gear acceleration for a searing sense of urgency.

The Vantage S benefits from its own unique sound with a new exhaust muffler and bypass valve map, creating a very distinctive and highly vocal exhaust note. The lyrical quality of the engine sound is music to the ears as its gains speed.

The Vantage S conveys agility and performance. From the front, a new lower front bumper finished in perfectly-aligned carbon fibre houses a larger air intake feeding the engine and front brakes. The splitter combined with the extended deck lid ‘flip’ work in harmony to provide increased down force at speed. New 19 inch ‘V’ spoke wheel styles are available as standard, while an optional 10-spoke lightweight forged wheel option, reduces unsprung mass further. A new rear bumper and side sills optically widen the car.

AESTHETIC APPEALThe plush leather interiors, the push buttons for the various drive modes, the sat-nav and all the other knobs and buttons are neatly set into the dashboard to give you the luxurious and seamless feeling. All in all the V8 Vantage S epitomises Aston Martin’s approach to design: A commitment to engineering excellence without aesthetic compromise. Each model shares the same beautiful form, undeniably modern yet with a direct lineage to some of the great Aston Martin models of the past.

As its name and race-bred looks suggest, the V8 Vantage S is a more overtly sporting Vantage aimed at the keenest driver, heavily influenced by the 2011 Vantage GT4 race car. Available as a coupe or a roadster, styling changes include new wheels and race-winning aerodynamics honed in GT racing, while inside unique detailing creates a very special driving ambience.

80 December 2011

A look at recent economic investments in the Sultanate reveals significant potential for various types of economic symbiosis

Sectoral Symbiosis

BY OLIVER CORNOCK

The author is Regional Editor,Oxford Business

Group Long before Pixar’s animated film Finding Nemo c a t a p u l t e d clownfish into the

international spotlight, these little orange sea creatures were known for something else: their curious relationship with sea anemones. Clownfish live in the tendrils of these plant-like animals, feeding on small creatures that might harm the anemone. In turn, the anemone helps protect the clownfish with its poisonous tendrils, keeping larger predators away.

This relationship is an example of mutualism, part of a broader biological process known as symbiosis. The word, coming from two Greek roots: syn meaning “with” and biosis meaning “together,” describes a mutual relationship that develops between two organisms. Sometimes parasitic and sometimes beneficial, symbiosis describes a system in which the two organisms contribute to the other’s support.

The idea of symbiosis can be just as powerful in economics as it is in biology. Rather than dealing with organisms, it can deal with economic sectors. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Silicon Valley, for

example, a type of economic symbiosis has been taking place in the past few decades. Long term investments in education in both areas have helped build up tech-savvy universities like Stanford and MIT.

In recent years, these universities have been attracting and creating cohorts of computer programmers and software designers, who go on to found tech companies – Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google and hundreds more. Meanwhile, the presence of successful tech firms improves the quality of education by providing university students funding, mentors and training. In short, education nourishes a successful tech sector, which in turn continues to give back to education.

A look at recent economic investments in the Sultanate reveals significant potential for similar types of economic symbiosis. This concept is demonstrated in Oman’s energy sector, where ambitions for higher oil and gas exports and more investment in renewable energy are beginning to complement one another. Oman’s hydrocarbon reserves are enough for the country’s own needs, but long-term export contracts and an energy-hungry

industrial sector have meant that Oman still needs to import supplies at times. As a result, companies are always on the lookout for ways to squeeze every last drop of oil out of mature wells. One method of coaxing difficult-to-reach oil out is flooding wells with steam – steam which is typically generated by burning natural gas.

A California-based firm named GlassPoint has found a more cost-effective way to create this steam: the sun. Using low-cost, mirror-like solar collectors inside of glass shelters (imagine a greenhouse), GlassPoint harnesses solar energy to heat water and create steam for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). So far the method is quite competitive. GlassPoint’s solar steam costs $3.78 per million British thermal unit (mbtu). This compares with gas, which goes for $5.78 per mbtu in the company’s home market of California.

Last August, GlassPoint announced that Petroleum Development Oman, the Sultanate’s national oil company, awarded a contract to build a 7MW solar collector. “After extensively researching solar EOR solutions, we’ve identified GlassPoint as the most promising technology for

81December 2011

OMAN’S INVESTMENTS IN SOLAR ENERGY PROJECTS ARE HELPING

TO REDUCE COSTS OF FOSSIL FUEL PRODUCTION

ECONOMY

this pilot”, Syham Bentouati, PDO Corporate Technology Advisor, said. “GlassPoint’s solar steam generators have the potential to release valuable natural gas for use in higher-value applications within the Sultanate.”

This situation demonstrates an interesting case of economic symbiosis. Oman’s investments in solar energy projects are, ironically, helping to reduce costs of fossil fuel production. Meanwhile, fossil fuel production is supporting the development of new solar collection techniques.

As in energy, investments in the Sultanate’s tourism sector have been creating opportu-nities for economic symbiosis, too. Tourism has long been a critical piece of Oman’s Vision 2020 economic diversification plan. Over the past ten years, visitor numbers have been rising steadily. The Sultanate had 1.52 million international arrivals in 2009, according to the World Bank Develop-ment Indicators, nearly dou-ble its 829,000 international arrivals in 2001.

By 2020, the Ministry of Tourism is aiming to attract 12 million tourists annually. In order to reach that goal, more money is being devoted to the sector. The country’s

8th five-year plan (2011-15) earmarks $1.5bn for tourism projects. In coming years investments in the sector are set to total up to $20bn, according to Business Monitor International.

A significant portion of these investments is going toward all-inclusive tourism areas called integrated tourism complexes (ITCs). Examples of ITCs include the $1bn Salalah Beach project and the $400m Jebel Sifah project, both being carried out by Muriya Tourism Development. The company, partially owned by the Sultanate’s tourism arm Omran (30 per cent) and Egypt’s Orascom Hotels & Development (70 per cent), has planned for the resorts to include hotels, restaurants, retail space and golf facilities – in short, all of the anticipated needs of a typical tourist.

By offering ways to

accommodate growing numbers of visitors, ITCs like Salalah Beach and Jebel Sifah provide a number of opportunities for related sectors. For construction, ITCs could lead to higher demand, as the complexes themselves would require massive construction projects. Moreover, development in these areas could lead to longer term growth thanks to aspects of the Sultanate’s property law.

According to a 2007 housing law, non-Omanis are allowed to fully own and develop property in ITCs, making them an attractive prospect for expatriates interested in second homes. By enlarging the market for foreign buyers, ITC investments could offer a boost to the construction sector. Meanwhile, as more expats purchase vacation properties, tourism could benefit from a steady stream

of visitors coming to visit their properties.

In retail as well, ITCs and other tourism investments seem to be creating mutually beneficial conditions. Another ITC called Omagine, for example, is set to integrate hotels, retail shops, a boardwalk and a cultural theme park made up of seven pearl-shaped buildings. The $2.5bn project’s attractions could pull more customers into shops, offering the potential for positive knock-on effects in the retail sector. On the other hand, as retail options grow in the country as a whole, the sector can help attract more tourists for shopping holidays, sending visitor numbers even higher.

The idea here is to invest in areas that can create these positive feedback loops. To that end, progress is promising. Areas like hydrocarbons and renewables are supporting one another’s growth, which in the short- to medium-term could contribute to holding energy prices down. At the same time, a developing trifecta of tourism, construction and retail is helping to diversify the economy away from oil and gas – a long-standing goal of the Sultanate’s economic decision-makers.

TOURISM PROSPECTSSultanate had 1.52 million international arrivals in 2009 ¡It had only 829,000 international arrivals in 2001 ¡By 2020, the country aims to attract 12 million tourists ¡annually8th five-year plan earmarks $1.5bn for tourism ¡projectsInvestments in the sector are set to total up to $20bn ¡

82 December 2011

MOULDING GREEN GENERATIONTeaming up with Oman Green Awards, Nomac Oman has embarked on a new

green initiative to collect used papers and plastic from schools in order to send

them for recycling. Muhammed Nafie reports

ENVIRONMENT

As a sequel to Oman Green Awards (OGA), the first Environmental Awards in the Sultanate, a new initiative for paper and

plastic recycling at schools was launched recently in Barka by Nomac Oman, a subsidiary of ACWA Power International. In keeping with OGA’s established goal to motivate behavioural change and increase awareness to protect and preserve the environment, the initiative seeks to encourage students to make use of recycling as an effective way to reduce their carbon footprint.

As the first step of the initiative, Nomac Oman handed over recycled drums to Al Amal Secondary School in Barka in order to collect waste papers and plastic from the school premises. The company will replace the drums once it is filled to the capacity, and send the waste papers for recycling. The recycling will be done from Dubai through Muscat-based Aman Company. Around 50 students accompanied by two teachers from the

also envisions to mould a new generation of students deeply informed and conscious about environmental issues.

“Recycling is one of the best ways for us to have a positive impact on the world in which we live. Recycling is important to both the natural environment and us. We must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time,” says Fahad. “Since we do not have recycling facilities in Oman right now, we need to send them to Dubai. Nomac Oman will replace the drums once they are filled and take them to Aman Company which will get it recycled from Dubai. If the project proves to be successful we are looking to expand it to other schools and to the society as a whole,” he explains.

During an interaction with students he stressed the importance of making the new generation more serious about the enormous ecological impact of rampant manufacturing of paper on an industrialized scale. “The procurement and processing of raw materials have

school visited the desalination plant at ACWA Power Barka. This was followed by two informative presentations for students on desalination and paper recycling led respectively by Talal Al Mabsali, operation and maintenance manager, Nomac Oman and Fahad Ibrahim Al Kindi, team leader HSE, Nomac Oman. The initiative not only seeks to get the school rid of used papers and plastics getting accumulated in large quantities every day at its premises, but

83December 2011

a variety of negative effects on the environment. Denudation of woodlands and exhaustion of water supplies are some of these effects. As the demand for paper has increased, more timber has been needed to meet the demand for wood pulp. In some cases this has meant the loss of valuable wildlife habitats and ecosystems, as old forests have been replaced by managed plantations, usually of fast-growing conifers. The lack of tree species diversity in managed forests has a direct impact on the biodiversity of the whole forest,” he added.

Zainab Ahmed Al Balushi, teacher at Al Amal School Barka, said that she was very optimistic about the initiative because it could collect the papers and the plastic the school throws out each day and send them for recycling. In addition, it will help create awareness among the students and inculcate the habit of recycling among them. “Being part of UNESCO Associated

Schools Project – ASPnet, our school already has different plans to educate students on issues related to UNESCO’s overarching goal of promoting peace and international understanding,” she said. “It includes several initiatives for sustainable development such as preserving water for the next generation. We are also part of an initiative for preserving water by Life-link Friendship School. They sent us guidelines and we gathered information on household water consumption in our area and sent the results. We also went to Jordan to do the presentation and discuss the results. It is aimed at making the students aware of water consumption and encourage them not to waste the water.”

The students from Al Amal School consider this initiative as a good beginning towards awakening the eco-consciousness of the students. Maryam Saud exuded confidence saying that the new initiative will set the tone for

a good behavioural change in treating used paper and plastic not only among the students but also in the society as a whole. Nada Ahmed and Mathar Mohammed, students from the same school, said youngsters can do a lot of things to make the society more informed about environment conservation. They highlighted the importance of conducting case studies in different areas in order to create awareness in society about the seriousness of this matter.

Oman Green Awards have been created to honour outstanding environmental vision, endeavours and achievements of corporate and individuals who matter most as they strive in this environmental cause. Nomac Oman which runs the operation and maintenance of ACWA Power Barka attaches greater importance to protect the environment by formulating an effective carbon management strategy and plan.

(From Left to Right) Maryam Saud, Mathar Mohammed and Nada Ahmed, students from Al Amal Secondary School, Barka.

Fahad Ibrahim Al Kindi, Team Leader HSE, Nomac Oman

84 December 2011

Jotun’s Multicolour centre in Salalah

Haya Water’s Muscat Water Week Protiviti organises IT conference

Haya Water recently held its special event “Muscat Water Week” at Al Sahwa Park in Seeb to provide a week of education, fun and family entertainment as the company continues to build awareness about water conservation and the environment across Muscat. The seven-day event was held in the park from 5.30pm to 9.30pm. Families in particular were targeted with a host of fun activities for youngsters who had

the chance to participate in fun and educational quizzes about water to win prizes, meet a life-size version of the Haya Water mascot Mudrik and visit the company’s state-of-the-art information booth. Ibrahim Al Suleimany, general manager HR, Haya Water says, “We are in the process of delivering a water reuse infrastructure project that will impact on every individual living and working in the Muscat governorate.”

Berger Paints wins top honoursBerger Paints Oman has scored a spectacular double in the 2011 Observer brand awareness survey, winning the No 1 slot in paints category and No 18 in the overall listing of 180 greatest brands in Oman. In the paints industry, Berger Paints won the top honours, taking an unassailable lead ahead of its nearest competitor Berger Paints competed against 180 national and international brands under 30 product categories. The survey

conducted by Oman Daily Observer, aimed to achieve an accurate assessment of the Sultanate’s top 180 brands. The study traces the accomplishments of leading brands and comprehensively investigates their development over the years.

“We consider this the ultimate honour, to be seen as the most reputable paint company in the Sultanate,” says PK Raj, general manager, Berger Paints Oman.

Jotun Paints Oman opened a new Multicolour Inspiration centre in Salalah in association with Talwin recently. The new centre which is the first of its kind in the Salalah and the third one in the Sultanate will help families and companies in Salalah to opt for their favourite choices of colour and furniture among the the latest trends in paints and interior design. “The concept of the Multicolour

Inspiration Centre is to showcase various environments where families and companies in Salalah can visit and spend time before making their colour and paint decisions. Talwen Inspiration Centre will be truly a novel experience for those who are looking for painting their houses, offices or buildings in a modern way,” says Hanan Salim Al Hadidi, Sales and marketing promoter, Jotun Paints Oman.

Protiviti Member Firm (Middle East) organised an IT conference under the theme “Leadership in IT: What it takes to take the lead?” recently at Shangri La Barr Al Jissah, Oman. Dr Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of Information Technology Authority (ITA), presided over the conference which was attended by speakers from

Protiviti, Microsoft, Cisco, Amideast/Oman, Nawras, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and Omantel. The speakers covered a wide range of areas related to the topic such as mega trends, security and privacy, risk management, and talent management in the IT industry amongst others.

Nissan Oman, through one of its car brand, Juke, went on a nationwide hunt for Oman’s best hidden talents, recently. The Nissan Juke Talent Hunt intends to cover all main colleges in capital area and upcountry locations. A team from Nissan event team is touring all major colleges asking students to show their talents and best talents will be given free prizes/gift vouchers etc and the winner of the final mega hunt will be offered special holiday packages. Comment-

ing on the first ever Talent Hunt by an automotive brand in Oman, an official spokesperson from Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), the sole importers of all Nissan luxury cars into Oman, says, “The Nissan Juke Nationwide Talent Hunt is yet another attempt in the direction of tapping hidden talent, and presenting talented youngsters of the country this unique opportunity to prove their mettle in the national arena.”

Nissan’s nationwide talent hunt

85December 2011

Coinciding with the Omani Women’s Day celebrations, BankMuscat organised a workshop on flower arrangement and gift wrapping for women customers. Naima Al Maimani, expert in jewellery and traditional gift designing and flower arrangement, conducted the Zeinah workshop attended by over 100 participants. Fatma Al Lawati, assistant head – product and service management, says, “BankMuscat is committed to reaching out to women through events aimed at imparting skills that enrich life and help develop

their innate talents. The training in flower arrangement and gift designing essentially achieved this objective as all participants gained from the session.” The Zeinah suite of products and services are the first-of-its-kind banking service in Oman for women in line with the national development objectives. The Zeinah suite includes exclusive cards, designated women counters at branches and specially designed products, including Zeinah savings account, Zeinah auto loan and Zeinah medical care plan against critical illnesses.

BankMuscat hosts workshop for women

Al Maha Ceramics presented its whole range of products at ‘The Saudi Build 2011’, one of the biggest regional building and construction industries fair, in Riyadh recently. ‘The Saudi Build 2011’ exhibition attracted many architects, engineers, developers and contractors from around the world. Over 200 companies from more than 30 countries exhibited an extensive range of modern building materials, construction equipment, and interior furnishings. Al Maha

Ceramics utilised the exhibition as the launch platform to showcase several new design of ceramic tiles. The new products were launched in all type of finishes such as, luster, glossy, matt, semi-gloss etc. “Our participation at this exhibition showed our company’s commitment towards being a leading player in the ceramic tile industry in the GCC. It gave us an opportunity to present our versatile product portfolio to our target customers,” says Arvind Bindra, CEO, Al Maha Ceramics.

Al Maha Ceramics attend ‘Saudi Build 2011’

Spicy Village organises Star Chef HuntSpicy Village has organised its second Star Chef Hunt at its restaurant in Rusayl, recently. Around 140 participants took part in the competition which was aimed at exploring the cooking talents of home makers and showcasing them to the public. The judging panel of 12 members included experienced chefs and culinary experts. The competition included seven culinary art categories – starters, desserts, salads, main course, curry course, rice course and Omani cuisine.

The judging process was managed by Morrison Muscat Chartered Accountants to ensure transparency. Says Ameer Ahamed, group managing director, Manappat, “The competition coincided with the celebrations of the 41st National Day and we are planning to conduct it around this time every year. We received a large number of applications this year and they were shortlisted to 150 participants. Around 500 people attended the competition.”

BankDhofar to fight diabetes in Oman

BankDhofar recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Oman Diabetes Association to work together to raise diabetes awareness in the Sultanate. The partnership plays a pivotal role in BankDhofar’s corporate social responsibility. Present at the signing of the agreement on behalf of the association was Dr Noor Al

Busaidiya, chairperson of Oman Diabetes Association. According to statistics published by the International Diabetes Federation, the Sultanate falls within the top 10 countries in prevalence of diabetes. Says Anthony Mahoney, CEO of Bank Dhofar, “We have partnered with the Oman Diabetes Association to help create better awareness of Diabetes and how it can be managed in our communities.” Bank Dhofar and the Oman Diabetes Association will work together to raise the profile of Diabetes through diabetes screening camps, walkathons, seminars and charity events. The bank will also sponsor a number of educational and health check-up programmes as well as charity events to promote the cause to the wider public.

86 December 2011

SPARKLING AND MISCHIEVOUSSurfing on the wave of success generated by its flagship product, Perrelet acknowledges the ladies by producing its Turbine in a completely feminine look; a collection with two faces, urbane and perfect for getting away. The new TURBINE XS has a 41mm case and is equally seductive in stainless steel as in DLC-coated stainless steel. Its curved lines with alternating polished and brushed surfaces provide a more sensual feel. Like fine drops of frozen rain, diamonds cover the bezel, horns and case sides of the most glamorous version. Dressed ready for an evening occasion bathed in light, the studded varieties of the Turbine XS dazzle with a brilliance, which holds already in itself a promise of elegance. The lower dial in white or black mother-of-pearl allows magnificent rays of light to filter through. With the first motion of the turbine, the observer can measure the scale of the impact, which is spectacular and dazzling.

SMILEY AND CLASSYDid you think funky and vibrantly coloured stationary was meant only for kids? Think again as Splash’s recent launch of the new high fashion Smiley stationary not only matches the colour block theme of the season but incorporates the most popular emoticons which will leave you smiling. The Smiley stationary collection is designed keeping in mind the experimental young teens to the more classy but fun-loving adult. The collection was recently launched in all Splash stores in Oman. The comprehensive assortment features coffee mugs, key chains, laptop bags, trolley bags, bag packs, cutesy sippers along with basic stationary like erasers, pens, pencils and post-its. The collection sees extensive use of a variety of smiley expressions which are applied tastefully on bright coloured merchandise.Part of the collection also comes in more subtle and classy colours like black, white, smiley yellow, red and others.

PRESTIGIOUS COLOURS Mikimoto premieres the Prestige Colors Collection, a limited series of high-end South Sea cultured pearl jewelry. These jewels, accented with coloured gemstones, make a distinctive fashion statement, perfect for woman who wants to be noticed. Prestige Colors combines the world’s finest South Sea White and Black South Sea cultured pearls with diamonds and coloured stones including aquamarine, morganite, spinel and tumbled opal to form beautifully unique jewelry pieces, each one-of-a-kind. These spellbinding jewels seem lit from within and emit a remarkable radiance and sophistication upon those fortunate enough to wear them. Whether on their own or combined with a traditional South Sea strand, these jewels epitomise style and luxury. Prestige Colors exhibits the innovative design, unsurpassed quality and superior craftsmanship for which Mikimoto is world renowned. Jewels destined to adorn a gem collector or pearl connoisseur. The collection consists of necklaces and earrings set in 18K white gold or platinum.

FASHION

ON A DIFFERENT NOTEUMS team

walk the ramp

in Splash

Autumn /

Winter 2011

event

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