Oman: Outcomes of Manjam Labs’ First Phase Approved

Muscat: A meeting was held at Oman Institute for Oil and Gas, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) today, by a number of ministers and undersecretaries who approved the outcomes of the first phase of Majam laboratories on streamlining procedures of government services.

Manjam Labs programme, launched in January 2023, is being realized through the engagement of 22 government institutions.

In the first phase, the procedures of 145 government services were simplified. This was achieved by streamlining 53 percent of the “ratio of change in the steps” of providing the services and 73 percent in the “average of change in the timeframe” scheduled for providing these services.

Eng. Said Hamoud Al Ma’awali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, said that the plan envisages the digitization of procedures of 145 government services before the end of 2023.

The procedures of 400 government services are scheduled to be simplified this year (2023), said the minister. He affirmed that the endorsement of outcomes of the first phase of Manjam laboratories reflects the high level of coordination, integration and cooperation among government units.

The first phase of Manjam Labs targeted government institutions, which include the Ministry of Labour; the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion; the Foreign Ministry; the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones; the Capital Market Authority; Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the Environment Authority; the Civil Aviation Authority and the Supreme Judicial Council, in addition to governorates and municipalities.

The first phase of Manjam Labs saw the participation of 17 trainers specialized in the field of continuous improvement and Lean Methodology, as well as more than 300 participants from target institutions and supporting establishments and more than 60 directors-general—who all joined hands in reviewing and approving the outcomes.

As many as 126 instances of participation in the first phase of Manjam Labs were registered. They included actual attendance at the sites of the labs and centres rendering the services. Eight visits were made to service centres in different government institutions as part of the programme.

After the approval and signature of the heads of the relevant units of the final outcomes, a detailed plan will be devised for the schedule of digitization. The plan also defines the requirements of electronic integration among institutions through the third quarter of this year (2023).

The second phase of Manjam Labs began last May (2023) and it involves the streamlining of procedures of about 120 government services. It targets 10 government institutions and more than 10 supporting government establishments. – ONA