Last Tuesday the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (OCCI) elected a new board consisting of 15 businessmen.

Looking Towards Future

There is much optimism in the business community of Oman as the new board takes charge in the aftermath of what has been a large and protracted nationwide agitation by workers from many sectors. This leaves the new board with a great challenge; how to bring together the private sector businessmen to create an atmosphere of trust and confidence to find workable solutions for their issues with the government, one of the most difficult being issues related to employment.

Drawing Foreign Invesment

Another great challenge for the board will be to find creative ways to attract foreign direct investment through advising the government on the best methods to achieve this goal. It is believed by most members of the business community that direct foreign investment is one of the keys to development of the Omani economy.

Next Board Election in 2014

The 15 new board members were elected from a pool of 59 total candidates. They will serve on the OCCI for a term of four years, from 2011 until 2014.

There are a total of 22 seats on the board of the OCCI- 15 elected and the rest nominated through a royal decree.

This was the first year in the history of the OCCI that the election was conducted in a transparent fashion using and electronic counting machine.

“This also helps to announce the results faster,”

said the director general of the chamber, Abdul Adheen Abbas Al Bahrani, about the machine.