The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) said that it has stopped dealing with industrial establishments which have industrial licences but did not submit their data during the industrial survey. 

The survey was carried out between September 30 and November 7. It required submitting of data electronically through the ministry’s website or the ‘Invest Easy’ portal. The Directorate General of Industry said that the number of industrial establishments which submitted data for the industrial surveys as of December 19 was 715. The total number of industrial establishments targeted during the year 2018 survey was 1,080.  

The ministry said that it has stopped dealing with the industrial establishments which did not provide their data for the survey in the above mentioned period. 

The Industrial Information Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that the suspension of transactions of industrial establishments was due to violation of the unified industrial law of the Gulf Cooperation Council as issued by Royal Decree 61/2008 and the Statistics and Information Law issued by Royal Decree 55/2019. The ministry had earlier published an advertisement in this regards and has also contacted the industrial establishments to submit their data before the end of the specified period. 

The survey included industrial establishments which have been operating in the Duqm industrial and free zones since last year and have industrial licence and the number of their workers is more than nine. 

The ministry said that the work in the digital system for industrial statistics was aimed at making all stages of the industrial survey in the ministry fully digital. This could make the process speedy and accurate. This information would help in the development of the industrial sector of the sultanate and monitor and evaluate the industrial strategy 2040. The ministry is currently conducting a study which includes the survey of data of the year 2019 of all industrial establishments without specifying the number of employees. It said that the next industrial survey operations would begin in March 2020. The information for the survey would be submitted electronically.