Oman—National Cross-Sector ICV Strategy

DAI’s Sustainable Business Group (SBG) led Petroleum Development Oman’s (PDO) effort to develop a National Cross-Sector ICV Strategy. Phase I of the project covered the health and utilities sectors to pilot the methodology used in the sector assessments. SBG coordinated with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) and PDO to design an in-country value (ICV) historical analysis and a forecast based on projections for the demand of goods, labor, and services between 2019 and 2025. The team collected primary data on procurement, service contracts, and employment from relevant public and private sector stakeholders to assess the ICV performance and demand forecasts for goods, services, and manpower. The data was categorized using international standard classification taxonomies to ensure that cross-sector analysis will be possible upon completion of all sector analysis.

Using the findings, SBG then held a prioritization and selection workshop to identify target supply chain categories for deeper study. After conducting the prioritization exercise, SBG performed extensive supplier assessments to understand the competitiveness of suppliers in the prioritized supply chain categories of the health and utilities sectors. DAI specialists in each sector conducted one-on-one interviews with suppliers and industry experts to discuss challenges facing Omani businesses, opportunities they saw for developing their service and goods offerings, and their understanding of In-Country Value. For each, we created a Sector ICV Assessment and Action Plan to provide recommendations for the next steps and for larger programmatic activities and interventions.

SBG identified 50 opportunities to increase ICV through Omanisation, local manufacturing, and the development of services companies. We modeled the potential economic impact of the opportunities and presented PDO and MoCI with a prioritization matrix to allow them to determine which opportunities to realize first. Finally, we provided an implementation plan for Phase II of the project which will cover additional sectors, include a formal legal and regulatory policy assessment and recommendations, and will culminate in a cross-sector strategy and implementation roadmap.