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Oman ruler marks 40-year leap from dark ages to modern era

MUSCAT, Oman - Agence France-Presse | 12/1/2010 12:00:00 AM |

Oman is lavishly celebrating this week the 40th anniversary of the reign of Sultan Qaboos who has hauled his country out of the dark age of isolation and turned it into a modern state.

"It's a celebration of the shift from the middle ages to the modern era," Information Minister Hamad bin Mohammad al-Rashdi told reporters, recalling what Oman was like before Sultan Qaboos deposed his father in 1970.

"In 1970, there were only three primary schools and eight kilometers of paved roads" in the Gulf sultanate, Rashdi told reporters.

Old Omanis recall that back then the capital, Muscat, had no electricity or running water and that the gates of the mediaeval walled city were locked up at dusk.

But Oman has come of age since Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father, Sultan Said bin Taymur, in a bloodless coup in 1970, and is no longer an isolated country living on the margins of the modern world.

The 2010 U.N. Human Development Report released in early November states that Oman made the most improvement since 1970, out of 135 countries, ahead of oil kingpin Saudi Arabia which ranked fifth.

"The high-achieving Arab countries can attribute their success largely to impressive long-term improvements in health and education," the report's main author, Jeni Klugman, said.

In a gesture reflecting his concern to develop education in his country, and to celebrate 40 years on the throne, Sultan Qaboos has ordered the distribution of laptops as gifts to 118,000 students across the nation.

Oman sits atop proven gas reserves of 660 million cubic meters and produces about 800,000 barrels of oil a day but it is not a member of the OPEC oil cartel, unlike most other Gulf states.

The Arabian Peninsula country also produces some 85 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas.

The discovery of oil in 1967 has certainly played a role in Oman's transformation of its vast desert territory of 309,500 square kilometers, slightly bigger than Italy.

Oman sits across from Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, gateway to the oil-rich Gulf through which an estimated 40 percent of the world's crude passes.

In his first five years in power, Sultan Qaboos had to contend with a longstanding Marxist rebellion in the southern province of Dhofar which he put down with assistance from former protectorate Britain and regional countries.

[HH] Tourism potential

Over the years the country has become an increasingly popular tourist destination thanks to a pristine coastline, a rich climate and unique desert landscapes.

But the conservative nation, which has kept a more traditional profile than neighboring Gulf states, has yet to fling wide its doors to visitors.

"There is no room to open up for mass tourism," the undersecretary of tourism, Mohammed al-Tubi, told reporters on Tuesday.

"Tourism is growing slowly but surely," he said.

Tourism currently contributes just 2.9 percent of Oman's GDP, which is mostly derived from oil revenues.

Oman has strict laws stating that the number of foreign laborers must not exceed one third of its total population, which stands at around 3.4 million.

The country's reserved nature is also evident in the architecture of Muscat, where a royal decree prohibits the construction of buildings taller than 10 storys.

On Monday, Sultan Qaboos marked the 40th anniversary of his rule with Jordan's King Abdullah II as his guest of honor.

Queen Elizabeth II, her husband Prince Philip and Foreign Secretary William Hague have also just completed a short visit.