MUSCAT, 7 March 2004 — A book about the modernization of Oman against the backdrop of its ancient civilization was launched on Monday night by Bait Al-Zubair Foundation in association with Trinity College, Dublin. The aim is to project the sultanate’s image at home and abroad.
The 198-page publication, full of striking photographs, was presented by Sayyid Shihab ibn Tareq Al-Said, adviser to Sultan Qaboos, in the presence of royal family members, ministers, dignitaries and book lovers at Bait Zubair, Oman’s only privately-owned museum located in the heart of the old city of Muscat.
“Oman — Ancient Civilization, Modern Nation: Towards a Knowledge and Service Economy” was written jointly by Mohammed Al-Zubair, who has played a formative role in Oman’s economic development, and Professor Vincent McBrierty, a fellow emeritus of Trinity College, who served between 1998 and 2002 as vice president of Sultan Qaboos University.
Al-Zubair, who was Oman’s first minister of commerce and industry, said the book traces the country’s development throughout its colorful history. It spans some six millennia, with special emphasis on the economic development of the last three decades.
Al-Zubair, also a keen photographer, said Oman was one of the first countries to embrace Islam and continued to preserve its culture, customs and social values.
Professor McBrierty, who has published and lectured extensively on the link between education and science, felt the book would serve its purpose.
He said the size of a country didn’t matter and quoted Singapore and Ireland, his home country, as examples of having embraced knowledge-based economy. “Oman has all the ingredients to do the same. Oman’s early people were in fact the risk-takers, innovators and entrepreneurs of their time.”
