MUSCAT — Three agreements worth RO 2,454,341 were signed yesterday at the Manpower Ministry for the expansions of the Higher Technical College in Muscat, the Technical College in Ibra and the construction of Manpower Department at the Wilayat of Ibra in the Al Sharqiyah North Governorate.
The agreement was signed by Shaikh Abdullah bin Nasser al Bakri, Minister for Manpower and CEOs and GMs of the contractors.
The agreements include the designing and construction of four classrooms in the Higher College of Technology in Muscat on 3,642 square metre.
It includes 16 classrooms, 5 laboratories, 6 offices for the teaching staffs, 8 toilets, 5 rest rooms for the students, teaching staff, service rooms, some administrative offices and meeting rooms.
The agreements also include the civil works for the Applied Sciences Department at the College of Technology.
The contractor will supply furniture for the laboratories of the Science Department at the Higher College of Technology together with the electrical works, in addition to a building for the Manpower Ministry department building at the wilayat of Ibra and North Al Sharqiyah Governorate on 1833 square metres.
The Manpower Minister pointed out that the implementation of these projects comes as part of the interest shown by His Majesty the Sultan's government to develop the human resources, improve the quality of the technical education programmes and avail specialties and curricula that meets the needs of the market and the constant growth in the number of those admitted to the Technical Colleges from among general diploma graduates.
He added that an agreement has been reached with these companies to complete these expansions at no more than six months from this date.
Speaking to reporters, Shaikh al Bakri added that the expansions which kicked-off at the Higher College of Technology in Muscat and the Technical College in Ibra is the beginning of the expansion works at the other colleges, which will be implemented between the end of this year and next year.
He added that the expansions at the technical education sectors comes in a bid to meet the recent growth in capacity, in addition to other expansions which 
help to increase the number of technical education outputs.
The minister said that the ministry is keen to avail the suitable services for the citizens at the different wilayats.
He added that the construction of this department in Ibra comes in a bid to meet the growth in the number of visitors to the department and provide the place which provides more advanced labour services.
He added that the project will be completed in 8 months.
The Manpower Minister affirmed that the employment was not limited to the 50,000 and that the number of citizens employed at the different sectors of the sector is more than 85,000, 45,000 of them have been employed by the private sector. — ONA
