The National Competitiveness Office, in cooperation with the Government Communication Centre, organised a discussion on the Sultanate's ranking in the index of Ease of Doing Business Report for the year 2019, which is one of the most important international indicators released by the World Bank and monitored by the office.

The meeting chaired by HE Dr Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Barwani, a member of the National Competitiveness Committee, was attended by representatives of 17 government organisations. The meeting discussed the challenges being faced by the Sultanate in improving its ranking in the Ease of Doing Business index. The initiatives and measures, which could help in increasing the position of the Sultanate in this index, were also discussed in the meeting. The discussion was held in the light of the priority given by the government to improve the business environment in the Sultanate. The report is aimed at measuring regulations and systems which promote business in cities and which create hurdles for them. The Ease of Doing Business report provides a number of indicators related to regulations affecting 11 areas of the business environment and protection of property rights compared with 190 economies of the world. The report includes regulations, which affect the ease of doing business in 10 stages, namely the start of business activity and issuing of construction permits and electricity connection. This is in addition to registration of property, obtaining credit, protecting investors and payment taxes. The report also covers cross-border trade, contract enforcement and settlement of insolvency cases.

The National Competitiveness Office held a meeting with the government communication centre on the evening of November 6, 2018, to increase communication with all segments of the society and to promote the efforts of the Sultanate in the international indicators.