TRC, MoE hold meet on National Innovation Strategy

Dr Sharifa al Harthiya, director of NIS at TRC made a presentation on NIS, its stages and the efforts that have been made by the various government, private and civil society institutions.

The meeting was attended by Dr Hilal bin Ali al Hinai, secretary general of TRC and a number of senior officials from the ministry including two undersecretaries.

The meeting discussed collaboration aspects between TRC and the ministry as well as indicators of the Global Innovation Index. Officials from both the sides stressed on the importance of enhancing cooperation. Dr Hinai said, “Education has a very vital role to play in NIS. One of the first programmes established by us was the Educational Innovation Support Program.”

He said that the reason some countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the US have benefited from knowledge, research and development faster than Arab countries is that they have a shared and integrated vision. “Those countries have efficient national innovation systems. This is where there is a need for NIS in the sultanate.”

The NIS organisational structure consists of a grand committee, supervisory committee, quality assurance team and four technical teams. NIS took around a year to be developed by over 70 experts from government and private sectors along with academia.

It was also reviewed by 13 TRC specialists and a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (UNCTAD-STIP) team. As part of the NIS development project, four pillars to lead the national innovation system in Oman have been defined: human capital, economic diversification, intellectual property & knowledge transfer, and institutional and social integration.

Dr Sharifa said the strategy in the short-term focuses on initiatives like development of digital and Internet services, the removal of regulatory obstacles and promoting development of policies for small and medium enterprises.