Cutting procedural delays
Phase one of the one-stop-shop cut down turnaround time for businesses. Manal Abduwani, DG of planning and follow up, Ministry of Commerce and Industry talks to Mayank Singh about the government’s future plans in this regard

The one-stop-shop is one of the success stories of the IT automation process in the Sultanate. How much ground has been covered by the system?
There has been a strong learning curve that has gone into the one-stop-shop. We developed the idea a few years back but since it involves business process reengineering and coordination between various ministries, procedures, looking at documents, we took it step-by-step. As a start we posted people from six different agencies which are involved with approvals and permits – the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI), the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Manpower, Royal Oman Police, Muscat Municipality and the Ministry of Environment at the MOCI.

From the experience we worked on simplifying the process, enhancing the data, digital intervention and put in place a new business process mapping that would reduce the time taken. Instead of getting approvals sequentially we are now getting them simultaneously. Those activities in which foreign investors come and ask for approvals have been classified according to international ISSAC standards. We devised a single window clearance with a front office and a back office. The front office communicates with the investor, it’s the channel through which an investor comes and submits his applications with the relevant documents. This data gets captured on a digital platform, gets scrutinised and then gets passed on to the back office. The six agencies then simultaneously look at the information and process their approvals.

What have been the major achievements in the process till date?
We have succeeded in doing various things. Capturing the data electronically (and immediately) was a big milestone for us. Second, we have been able to cut down on the time and process taken. Classifying the information according to ISSAC standards was another great milestone. We have created a communication link between these various agencies. In the second phase of development we are looking at the possibility of outsourcing some of these activities to third party agencies. As a start we will be outsourcing some of these activities to kiosks run by young Omanis or by Sanad clearance officers in 2009-10. We have identified ten kiosks or clearance offices and have started by giving them one kind of transaction pertaining to reserving commercial names and this has been going on for a year. For example, the front office could be given to them and they would capture the data, scrutinise it and process it to the back office on behalf of the government or the one-stop-shop. The other is to have some sort of a self service, wherein one can apply online.

How much of the process time has been cut short?
The one-stop-shop serves the mass audience and everyday investments that come in. This constitutes 85-90 per cent of the investments that come to Oman or are generated by local investors. Out of this 72 per cent of the applications get processed the same day, 13 per cent get approved within two days and the rest takes more than that because they involve a visit by a government agency. Earlier this would take a week to ten days, moreover it was a cumbersome process.
 

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