Reem Batteries, United Media Services and Intilaaqah are backing the first Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) seminar of the year.

The event, titled 'Education, Training & Manufacturing: Going Global', will be held on January 28 at the Muscat InterContinental Hotel.

Leading the panel of speakers will be Professor Andrew Self, OBE and former pro-vice chancellor, Kingston University, London.

Recent figures indicate that Oman’s manufacturing sector is on the rise and for many companies export order books are full.

“The figures are highly encouraging. Clearly, we’re witnessing a fundamental shift in our economy and it’s being driven by globalisation, knowledge, technology and innovation and it’s quickly changing the nature of manufacturing and the type of workforce and skills we need in the sector,” said CEO, Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), Hilal Al Ahsani.

“Today’s manufacturing sector is knowledge, skills, innovation and enterprise driven and if we’re to keep export order books full we need to ensure that manufacturers stay focused on these key issues,” he added.

Al Ahsani suggests that one way of fostering innovation and enterprise in manufacturing is to strengthen the sector’s ties with higher education.

In early 2007, PEIE introduced the OMG, a quarterly networking seminar programme that brought together a core of enthusiastic and energetic individuals from manufacturing and academia, committed to developing and sustaining a strong future for Omani manufacturing.

One issue which gives Al Ahsani cause for concern is that manufacturing has historically demonstrated a serious weakness in what he describes as networking capacity.

“Bluntly, not enough people within the sector are talking, interacting and trading with each other. This is why we see OMG as such an important initiative and that’s why we’ve designed a further four OMG seminars for 2008,” said Al Ahsani.

While many manufacturers may not see the need for supplementary business support from academia, those that have sought it have generally been highly satisfied with what they have received and how it has helped them take their operations forward. – TradeArabia News Service