With more than (97) participants from the private sector, public authorities and institutions, and relevant sectors, the efforts in ‘Investment in Health Sector Lab’ are ongoing at the Sheraton Hotel.

The investment laboratory, that was launched on December 4 by the Ministry of Health (MOH), with the support of Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit and Oman National Investment Program (Nazdaher), aims at strengthening the health level through solving challenges, streamlining procedures, providing the enabling and attractive environment for investment in health sector, in addition to attracting private investment in health sectors that contribute in economic diversification, scaling up national exports, reducing length of investment-related procedures, and increasing the percentage of Omani workers in the private health sector.

The Lab is based on four fundamental pillars namely medical industry, health services, promoting health, general enablers.

The medical industry pillar is concerned with investing in the pharmaceutical industry and medical supplies sector, being one of the promising sector in the Sultanate of Oman, through looking for investment opportunities, solving the challenges and exploring more opportunities, especially in the advanced industries.

This pillar also seeks to increase the number of locally manufactured products, reduce dependence on imports, ensure diversification to increase production in the pharmaceutical industry in the coming years, and thus increasing the contribution of the medical industries sector to the total exports of manufacturing industries of the Sultanate of Oman. It also seeks to improve competitiveness, exploit demand for products, update policies, regulations and standards, and build national capabilities, technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The concerned public and private authorities of the medical industry pillar address the empowering initiatives that can be operated to increase and enhance investment opportunities, solve challenges, and possibilities for enhancing initiatives and investing in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. They also study the general policy for drug purchases, activate specialized industrial complexes for private industrial cities and free zones, update intellectual property laws, as well as accelerate networking with the Invest Easy portal in addition to the governance of the medical industries.

The medical industry pillar focuses on the main factors affecting the pillar’s sectors where the deliberations aim to resolve these challenging factors that range from the world market instability to matters related with the health insurance, environmental changes, and instability of legislation.