08 April 2025

Excellencies,

Sayyid Dr Sultan bin Yarub bin Qahtan Al-Busaidi, Advisor in the Private Office.

Dr Hilal Bin Ali l-Sabti, Minister of Health

Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to join you here today to launch the National Health Policy for the Sultanate of Oman 2025-2035.

In pursuit of “health for all” and in line with the Oman Vision 2040, this National Health Policy provides the strategic framework that will guide Oman’s progress on health over the next decade.

It aims to achieve an equitable, sustainably financed, and decentralized healthcare system, powered by cutting edge technology and staffed with an innovative national workforce that can deliver high quality preventive and clinical care to all Omanis.

The Oman NHP will be pivotal to improving health outcomes, guiding resource allocation, and ensuring equitable access to healthcare services.

It aligns with WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work, the Strategic Operational Plan for the Eastern Mediterranean Region 2025-2028, and our three regional flagship initiatives on expanding access to medicines, building up the health workforce, and tackling substance use.

One of the strengths of this NHP is its recognition that a population’s health and well-being is a responsibility shared by all.

Achieving equitable access to healthcare must be a collective effort.

A wide range of social factors can impact our health – including how and where we live and work, how educated we are, and our income.

That is why all sectors of society must consider how their decisions will affect people’s health, work together to create positive health outcomes, and prevent actions that could harm health.

The NHP also leverages strategic enablers such as empowering the health media, fostering health leadership development, and strengthening regulatory instruments. This will be critical to its successful implementation.

The Sultanate of Oman has made significant improvements in public health since the WHO Country Office was first opened in Muscat in 1971.

While challenges remain, the success of your public health efforts is evident in better health outcomes and healthcare infrastructure, and in your government’s continued commitment to pursuing “Health for all, by all”.

Thank you.