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When the prince visited
Prince Andrew hails Oman-UK ties

The Duke of York, H R H Prince Andrew, special representative for trade and investment, was in Muscat to attend a business council meeting of the Oman British Friendship Association (OBFA). In his capacity as the joint honorary patron for OBFA, H R H Prince Andrew outlined that over the past ten years, Oman has seen positive diversification where a move has been made, away from dependence on oil and towards tourism, education and IT. He added that the education sector, including training and improvement of skills, was the key to the future for Oman. He said the UK could help the sultanate develop in this direction.

Encouraging tourism and ecotourism to promote foreign investment can also help the sultanate, said H E Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minster of Commerce and Industry, at the meeting.

Sizzling up service
Workshop on building a successful service culture attracts corporates

Service guru Ron Kaufman was back in Oman in March, this time for the workshop 'How to build a company culture that serves, sizzles and succeeds', which was held at the Shangri-La's Barr al Jissah. The interactive event, managed by Gazelle International, focused on the need for innovation and improvement in the organisational culture.

The programme involved sharing winning ideas and proven action steps that demonstrated how to build a powerful service culture through attracting, developing and retaining the best people; supporting customer relationship mana-gement and polishing critical perception points.

Kaufman believes culture is the modus operandi of the team, setting the standards for what is accepted, rewarded and forbidden. "It is the context that surrounds your staff, supports their actions and keeps them focused on the goal," Kaufman told his audience, consisting of top management from different business hou-ses in Oman.

Need for speed
Khalid al Qassimi wins maiden Rally Oman title

International motorsport action returned to the sultanate when Rally Oman, the second leg of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), was flagged off on March 14. Over the next two days, 36 teams battled for supremacy on some of the most spectacular rally stages in the region.

Khalid al Qassimi of the UAE, and his British co-driver Nicky Beech clinched their first ever Rally Oman title after a dramatic final day's action over seven demanding gravel stages. At the wheel of his Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Team Abu Dhabi’s al Qassimi – the 2004 MERC winner – leapt into a four-point lead in the seven-round series after taking the lead for the first time on the 11th special stage.

Qatar's Nasser Saleh al Attiyah looked on course to win Rally Oman for the fifth successive year, after extending his overall lead to 95 seconds on the tenth stage on Friday morning. But the defending MERC and P-WRC champion, who had led from the start, dramatically crashed out of the event five kilometres from the finish of the 11th Yitti stage after leaving a rocky section of road at speed following a mechanical failure.
The impact with a large rock badly damaged the front of the Subaru Impreza, but both Nasser and co-driver Chris Patterson were uninjured. The incident marked the crew's second serious accident in the space of nine days on opposite sides of the world.

"I didn't have time to take in the fact that Nasser had crashed, because we had our own problems on the same stage. The track was rough and very rutted and we punctured a tyre and damaged the front suspension. I was just desperate to reach the finish of the special stage," said Khalid on the last day's gruelling action.