It is no doubt that Oman among all other countries in Gulf employ more Indians in advisory role in government sector due to deep ties between Delhi and Muscat and close bonds between ruling family and India

Qaboos chief architect of Indo-Oman strategic partnership including access for Indian Navy at Duqm Port had a special connect with India having studied in Pune under Shankar Dayal Sharma who later became India's President.

Oman’s decision to give priority to local population in government jobs is not a new phenomenon as the process of Omanisation started way back in 1988 under the last Sultan and no of Indian expats in this Gulf country grew over last few decades.

Oman’s Finance ministry on Wednesday directed all state-owned companies to replace foreign workers with local Omanis to develop the national workforce that was painted as a “catastrophe” in some quarters. However, this decision could impact those in role of supervisors in Oman’s state-run firms.

It is no doubt that Oman among all other countries in Gulf employ more Indians in advisory role in government sector due to deep ties between Delhi and Muscat and close bonds between ruling family and India.

Omanisation is a policy enacted by the government of Oman in 1988 aimed at replacing expatriate workers with trained Omani Personnel. The Sultanate of Oman sets quotas for various industries to reach in terms of the percentage of Omani to foreign workers. Companies which reach their government mandated goals are given a "green card", meaning they recieve press attention and preferential treatment in their dealings with the government. Several Universities have been opened by the Sultanate to train Omani workers.

This was done due to growing number of Omani graduates in the Sultanate and ready to join in senior positions and supervisory role. Many of the government ministries have already reached 100% Omanisation. The establishment of the National Centre for Employment (NEC) in Oman was announced in March 2019.

Interestingly, Oman started getting more Indians over the last few decades. There are at least 8,00,000 Indian workers in Oman.

Oman is India’s oldest strategic partner in the Gulf. It may be recalled that last January India declared national mourning for deceased Sultan Qaboos bin said Al Said, one of Delhi's closest partners in West Asia for decades sharing special bonds with this country. Qaboos chief architect of Indo-Oman strategic partnership including access for Indian Navy at Duqm Port had a special connect with India having studied in Pune under Shankar Dayal Sharma who later became India's President. When Sharma visited Muscat in 1996 as the President Qaboos arranged a grand welcome for him breaking protocol. “While other Gulf Arabs prefer to get on a camel and go west into the Arab desert, Omanis prefer to be on a boat and drift towards India,” Sultan Qaboos had once observed.

In 2018 during Modi's visit to Muscat Qaboos made special gesture of sending breakfast made in Palace for the PM at the hotel where he stayed. Omani Royal family has a special connect with India. Sultan Qaboos’s grandfather once ruled Oman from India in early decades of the last century and has been buried in Mumbai. Qaboos who was passed away this January was extremely generous towards the Indian community. Qaboos father too had an India connect and was an alumnus of Mayo College. He took personal interest in two temples in Muscat and gave Omani citizenship to nearly 1,000 Hindus. Oman under Qaboos emerged as India’s first strategic partner in West Asia.

Under Qaboos India and Oman developed a defence partnership with Delhi supplying rifles for the Sultanate's security. Last December India and Oman signed a Maritime Transport Agreement during the visit of foreign minister S Jaishankar to the Sultanate last month. The pact – the first with any Gulf country – enables India to expand its footprint in the Western & Southern Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and east Africa as part of Indo-Pacific vision.

The Port of Duqm SEZ, which is earmarked to be the Indian Ocean’s largest deep-sea port, is where an Indo-Oman joint venture, Sebacic Oman, is undertaking a $1.2 billion project to set up the largest sebacic acid plant in the Middle-East.

An agreement to develop Little India, an integrated tourism complex project in Duqm worth $748 million, has been signed between the two countries. Oman’s sea ports and industrial hubs established along its 1,700 km coast on the Indian Ocean makes it an ideal home for international businesses.