Undersecretary of Investment Promotion – Oman Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Investment Promotion

 

Asilah is a self-motivated, dynamic, enthusiastic problem solver, strong team player with innovative ideas and is a visionary individual, strategically adaptive and driven to reach her vision to add value where and when it needed for her team, organisation and Oman.

Asilah was appointed in August 2018 as the EMDAD Manager, under External Affairs and Value Creation Directorate in Petroleum Development Oman.  Her role is focused on enabling national capabilities and job creation in Oman while leading the establishment and development of EMDAD Strategy by identifying the potential strategic partners, structuring the framework and ensuring sufficient funding to support the sustainability of EMDAD’s projects. Through leading the sub-committee of EMDAD and communicating all progress to EMDAD committee and BoD, Asilah develops and drives the short and long-term plans, oversees the operations, ensures a successful execution process and addresses any potential challenges, issues or concerns. Asilah is currently leading the development of the Blue Ocean Strategy that is focused on job creation within the oil and gas sector and ensuring a flexible model that can be replicated to other sectors. She also developed the national workforce redeployment guidelines in order to reduce the impact of the recent cost-cutting in the oil and gas sector on the Omani workforce within the contractor community in PDO.

Beyond her current role responsibilities, Asilah led and facilitated a study on the Impact of fourth Industrial Revolution on PDO staff in 2019. She led the development of the turnaround initiative, which became another successful story as it materialised to become the first strategic project aimed at localizing the turnaround activities in the oil and gas sector and enabling national capabilities in the relevant jobs as part of the in-country value initiative.

Asilah also submitted a white paper to the Cabinet that outlined the strategy and implementation plan to establish and operate the National Centre of Employment in 2019. She managed to deliver the remaining 20,000 job creation opportunities, out of the targeting 50,000 across all sectors in 2019. Asilah is currently leading the Shabab Hub initiative that is focused on creating a platform for freelancers to match potential job and project opportunities. She is fully engaged with Tanfeedh and selected diversification projects across the defined sectors outlined in the plan. She also participated in the “Oman New Economy” program with Diwan Royal Court and as an Advisor in the Economy Diversification workshop- Private Public Partnership – hosted by the College of Defence.

Previously, in 2015 she was assigned as Senior Manager Administration and Projects alongside Deputy Executive Vice President of the Transition Office at Oman Air. Her role involved making strategic decisions and ensuring the successful delivery and full engagement in the carve-out and restructuring of the delivery services division. This led to the creation of Oman Aviation Services Company and five different subsidiaries such as Oman Air SATS Cargo and Oman Aviation Handling Company aligned with entire establishment of Oman Aviation Group. Asilah was also responsible to ensure allocation of resources, equipment, new IT system alignment training requirement is in place during the different phases of the development of new Airports of Salalah, Muscat and Duqm.

She was extensively leading the due diligence of potential international joint venture partners. In addition, she worked closely with Oman Air to lead the Omanisation plan across the aviation sector. She successfully managed to create 800-1,000 jobs supporting the recent openings of the new Muscat and Salalah airports. She was deeply involved in the implementation and execution of the project phases within a defined timeframe as well as maintaining a long-term relationship with different stakeholders and entities such as Oman Airports, Ministry of Finance, Public Authority Civil Aviation, Royal Oman Police, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Transport.

In 2018, she was assigned as Senior Manager of External Affairs in Oman Aviation Services and her role as the Senior Manager of Human Resources and Administration at Oman Aviation Handling Company. She was responsible on assigning the main key personal and oversee the different functions such finance, supply chain, administration and human resources. Asilah led the organization change management initiatives that were driven by “game changer” team to develop a new organization culture.

Asilah’s experience also covers the education sector where she worked for 12 years, mainly with the Ministry of Education and the International College of Engineering and Management (ICEM) as Head of Human Resources. Asilah successfully established the HR department and frameworks as well as led the restructuring of ICEM within a limited timeframe by reviewing and developing the overall business strategy, organisation structures, policies and KPIs as well as creating a healthy working environment in order to enhance business productivity. In addition to her role in the college, she has taken the initiative to create two divisions, the occupational training institute and fire prevention consultancy office to diversify the source of revenues.

Previously, Asilah was an Advisor to the Board of Molecules Services Group in Oman and Molecules Medical and Molecules IT Solutions. In addition, she is an active member of the Omani Society for Human Resources, Omanization Committee and the OPAL Forum, National Centre of Employment and in Oman Business Forum. She has also developed and submitted a study on the effectiveness of the performance appraisal system of the civil services in Oman to the Ministry of Education. She has an extensive networking platform locally and internationally and she is interested in exploring new fields, leading national projects to deliver clear and precise ideas.

Recently, in the 18^th of August 2020 and based on his Majesty royal decree 113/2020 Asilah had appointed as Undersecretary of Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion.

In addition, she is a board member of Molecules service group, international institute for studies and diplomatic skills, authority for public service regulation, public authority for special economic zones and free zones, environment authority and supreme committee for national celebration.

She enjoys research, reading, social activities and outdoor adventures. She is highly involved in voluntary work during her free time to support the youth, women, entrepreneurs and attracting investors locally and internationally by providing business opportunities across all sectors, advisory services, required market resources and connectivity to ensure added value to Oman through the success of these projects in different sectors.

 

Teaching Certificate – Muscat Teaching College (1996)

BSc in Business Administration (hr) – The University of BEDFORDSHIRE (2006)
National CEO program – IMD (DIWAN of Royal Court (2018)

Certified lean Manager (2020)

 

Email: usip@moci.gov.om