(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- The Research Council (TRC), in collaboration with the Supreme Council for Planning and the Unesco Institute for Statistics, began the National Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators at Oman Institute for Oil & Gas on Wednesday.
The two-day event is being held under the patronage of H E Dr Ali bin Masoud bin Ali al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and deputy chairman of the Supreme Council for Planning.
Dr Hilal Ali al Hinai, secretary general of TRC, said the sultanate is among the countries that gives special attention to research and development (R & D) in its plan that aims at economic diversification and the establishment of an economy based on knowledge and innovation.
'Countries with strong economies and high competitiveness are interested in R & D. These countries dedicate four per cent of GDP for research and development.
'The budgets are shared by governments with the private sector because it has a positive impact on all segments of society. The budgets for R & D are still without ambition. The sultanate pays attention to R & D within its plan for economic diversification and spent about 0.21 per cent of GDP for it in 2017.
'Although all the R & D indicators are important, expenditure on R & D is one of the key indicators in each of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report and the Global Competitiveness Report, which affects the sultanate's overall ranking on the GII, and the competitiveness.
Dr Ali al Shidhani, director of ICT Research, TRC said, 'The workshop aims at identifying appropriate indicators that measure R & D. It is also important to stress to the industrial sector and companies working in Oman to identify R & D within their activities, focus on them and report them systemically, so they can be counted as R & D activities.'
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