British firms eye Oman's health, education sectors

Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) as well as Oman Centre for Investment Promotion and Export Development (OCIPED) and firms from the oil and gas sector.

With London and the UK's south east region contributing the majority of the UK's £500mn trade with Oman, the region is looking to consolidate Britain's place as the No 1 investor in Oman, said Dermot Shean, trade adviser with UK Trade and Investment South East.

Although retaining its traditional focus on the defence and oil and gas sectors, Shean told Muscat Daily that UK companies are looking at expanding into a range of other sectors including ports, infrastructure, healthcare and education.

Throughout the visit, the delegation held a series of one-on-one meetings with Omani counterparts at the OCCI as well as visits to a host of government departments, from which many delegates left with genuine interest, said UK Trade and Investment international trade adviser Carolyn Bentley.

"After the meeting at the OCCI, where each company had a table, some of them made some very useful contacts and are going on to further meetings this week while they are here."

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Merger to create new university for Scotland

Scotland is a step nearer having a new university following ministerial approval to merge an existing higher education institution and further education college.

Unless any Scottish MPs lodge an official objection to the plan in the next 21 days, which is thought unlikely, then the proposal to join Paisley University with Bell College to create a new university will go ahead on August 1.

The merger will for the first time bring a university to Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland and create the largest school of health, nursing and midwifery in Scotland. A name for the new higher education institution has yet to be decided but there is already a proposal on the table to call it the University of the West of Scotland.

Alex MacLennan, the principal of Bell College and vice-principal designate of the merged institution, said: "Having a university presence in Lanarkshire is hugely important for the area and this announcement brings us one step closer to making this a reality.

"[The] merger will reap tremendous benefits for us, opening up higher education opportunities for many more thousands of people across the west of Scotland. It will give us the opportunity to offer a wide choice of high quality, career-focused programmes from a new and distinctive regional university with strong international links."

His enthusiasm for the new university was shared by the principal designate of the merged institution, Seamus McDaid, currently principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Paisley.

He said: "We aim to have a transformational influence on the economic, social and cultural development of the west of Scotland through the provision of high quality, inclusive higher education and innovative applied research.

"The merger is good news for both the University of Paisley and Bell College as it will permit us to engage in developments of a scale that we could not have done as independent organisations."