The Public Debt Law provides a general governance framework of how the government plans to make decisions regarding the management of public debt and introduces controls on government debt. This new regulation provides a more specific set of rules for implementing this law.

The Executive Regulation of the Public Debt Law provides comprehensive details on the procedures and controls for contracting public debt, the role of the MOF in approving and managing debt operations, and other requirements that apply to government debt and government guarantees. Most importantly, the executive regulation sets restrictions on the ability of OIA subsidiaries to borrow money, and requires the OIA to obtain the approval of the MOF in regards to certain transactions. The regulation also imposes other obligations on the OIA such as reporting requirements.

The Executive Regulation of the Public Debt Law has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below: 

You can read the circular in full in English below:

This regulatory framework is issued pursuant to article 9 of the Banking Law, was issued by a circular, and not a decision that was published in the Official Gazette. This regulatory framework entered into force at the beginning of this week.

You can read the Regulatory Framework for Digital Banks in English in full on the link below:

The regulation covers matters such as the objectives of welfare homes, the conditions for admitting an elderly person to an elderly home, the conditions for volunteering at a welfare home, and the actions to be taken when an elderly person dies in a welfare home.

It is worth noting that the MOSD issued late last year a Governance Regulation of Temporary Welfare Institutions that aims to provide services for women, children and victims of human trafficking.

The new Governance Regulation of Social Welfare Institutions enters into force tomorrow. You can read in full in English on the link below:

We previously wrote a blog about this policy in August of last year, when it was still at the public consultation stage. Now that the AI governance framework has officially been issued, it’s worth noting that, as expected, the MTCIT has chosen to release it as a non-legally binding policy. While this means that it does not impose fines or include enforcement mechanisms, this approach has its advantages as it allows for flexibility and encourages voluntary compliance without imposing serious restrictions on the adoption and experimentation of this cutting edge technology.

Furthermore, as predicted in our blog on the implications of the EU AI Act for Oman, the EU’s regulatory approach had an influence on Oman’s approach in governing AI. While the MTCIT’s AI governance framework is non-legally binding (unlike the legally binding EU AI Act), it borrows several concepts from the EU AI Act, particularly in regard to the distinction between the obligations of AI system providers and AI system deployers.

The policy sets a general framework of technical controls and ethical principles that both public and private sector entities need to take into account to when developing or deploying AI systems. Those ethical principles include considering humanity and societal well-being, inclusivity, fairness, and responsibility when developing or deploying AI systems. This policy also includes provisions on periodic evaluation of AI systems for accuracy, bias, and harmful content; implementing human oversight for crucial AI decisions and their societal impact; ensuring deployed AI systems provide tangible benefits; adhering to data protection laws, restricting data use with robust security and cybersecurity best practices, and documenting AI processes for transparency.

The policy has already entered into force on 9 April 2025. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

The system sets the overall framework for the training programme and specifies that the MJLA might conduct this training programme online or offline. The training programme must be completed within a period that does not exceed six months, and the overall score is based on attendance (10%), active participation in the sessions (20%), and exam results (70%). Trainees are required to achieve an overall score of 70% to pass the programme.

The actual specifics of the content of the programme or the nature of the exams are not mentioned in the system.

It is also worth noting that this system only relates to the training of trainee advocates and government officers doing litigation work and does not cover the continuous education requirements for advocates in the upper rolls.

This training system has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

Oman had its first Electronic Transactions Law in 2008, which was based on model laws developed by the UNCITRAL for e-signature and e-commerce. As a result, the Omani Electronic Transactions Law of 2008 gave electronic transactions the same power as paper transactions, and created the legal framework for electronic signatures, authentication, intermediary liability, and even data protection in connection with electronic transactions.

The new Electronic Transactions Law of 2025 does not make any groundbreaking changes to the existing comprehensive framework set by the Electronic Transactions Law of 2008. Instead, it carefully adjusts its scope, modernises the technical concepts used by the law, and imposes higher punishments for violating the law.

In terms of scope, the new law explicitly states that it does not prejudice regulations set by the CBO in all matters relating to the regulation of banks and financial institutions, which suggests that CBO now has the power to override certain provisions of this law. The previous law also excluded personal status matters, court procedures, and transactions that require attestation by the Public Notary from its scope. All these exclusions have been removed from the new law.

The new law also replaces the concept of “certification services” with the much wider concept of “trust services”, which is defined in article 24 of the law to cover issuance of electronic authentication certificates, qualified electronic signatures, electronic seals, verification of electronic identity, and electronic delivery services.

Furthermore, the law now makes a distinction between simple electronic signatures, advanced electronic signatures, and qualified electronic signatures; sets new rules for recognising such signatures as reliable evidence; and specifies which of these types are considered trust services.

Finally, the law increases the punishments that may be imposed for violating the law from a maximum of 5,000 Rial Omani under the old law to 50,000 Rial Omani under the new law.

The new Electronic Transactions Law has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

His Majesty issued by royal decree a new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law in October of last year, which repealed the Advocacy Law of 1996 and introduced a major reform of the legal profession in Oman. The new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law splits the legal profession into two separate activities: advocacy and legal consultancy, with advocacy essentially covering all the activities of the legal profession—such as giving legal advice, drafting contracts, and providing litigation services, while legal consultancy covers the same activities with the exception of litigation services. Both advocacy offices and legal consultancy offices are also permitted to do arbitration work.

The framework created by the new law requires advocacy work to be exclusively delivered by advocacy offices that can only hire Omani advocates, while legal consultancy work must be exclusively delivered by legal consultancy offices that can only hire Omani and non-Omani legal consultants and no advocates. This means that if a law firm wishes to provide litigation services, this law firm must be registered as an advocacy office, and it will not be able to hire any non-Omani lawyer. If a law firm wishes to hire any non-Omani lawyers, this law firm must be registered as a legal consultancy office, and it will not be able to provide litigation services. The law also introduced new provisions that permit international law firms to open a branch in Oman in the form of a legal consultancy office without having a local partner.

In addition to this new classification, the law creates new qualification and continuous development requirements for advocates that an advocate is required to meet to move up the rolls that enable the advocate to appear before higher court levels.

While the law had comprehensive details of how advocates are admitted and qualified, it did not provide details on how legal consultants would be admitted, and left this matter to the executive regulation of the law, which was published this past Sunday.

The Executive Regulation of the Adovcacy and Legal Consultancy Law stipulates that for an Omani lawyer to be registered as a legal consultant, this lawyer must have at least two years of legal work experience, and that for a non-Omani lawyer to be registered as a legal consultant, this lawyer must have at least five years of legal work experience. The term used for legal work experience in the context of legal consultancy work is not the same term used for advocacy equivalent works provided for in article 12, so it is not clear what kind of legal experience is required. However, what this appears to suggest is that legal consultancy offices would not be able to hire any Omani person as a legal consultant if this person does not have at least two years of experience, and it also means that foreign lawyers can work in Oman in private practice only if they have at least five years of experience and only in legal consultancy offices.

Unlike advocates, there are no examination or continuous development requirements for legal consultants.

In regard to international law firms, the executive regulation stipulates that they can operate in Oman on their own or in partnership with legal consultancy offices (but not advocacy offices). This is only permitted for law firms that have been established for more than 15 years and have branches in at least three countries.

Both the law and the regulation have many other key changes that will affect the licensing of lawyers and law firms, and the impact that this will have on the industry will be unpredictable. If a local Omani law firm currently hires non-foreign lawyers (including Egyptian, Sudanese, and Indian lawyers), this law firm would have to decide whether to let go of these lawyers—if it chooses to remain as an advocacy office—or transform into a legal consultancy office and give up on its litigation business. International law firms operating in partnerships with Omani law firms might also have to reconsider their partnerships as the law now prohibits establishing a partnership with an advocacy office, and instead allows them to either operate independently or in collaboration with a legal consultancy office.

Both the law and its executive regulation have already entered into force. However, existing law firms generally have until October of this year to comply with it, and law firms established in partnerships with a non-Omani have until October of 2027 to remove the non-Omani partner.

You can read the law and its executive regulation in English in full on the links below:

The Omani Financial Law does not relate to the financial industry, banks, or financial services. Instead, it sets the framework for the management and oversight of financial operations in the Omani government by setting the rules for disbursing and collecting money by government entities, the process for developing the government’s annual budget, and the prescription rules for collecting money owed by and from the Omani government.

The new Financial Law of 2025 does not make significant changes to the framework previously established by the Financial Law of 1998 and, for the most part, merely modernises the language and structure used in the law. However, there are still some subtle and specific changes such as a new provision permitting the sub-lease of a part of a government property in certain cases and the extension of the prescription period by 15 years when a final judgment is made in connection to a claim.

We highly recommend that those who do business with the Omani government read this law. The new Financial Law entered into force yesterday. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

A strange thing about this new Law of Special Economic Zones is that it does not define the terms “Special Economic Zone” and “Free Zone”. However, the key differences between them appear to be that a special economic zone is a more comprehensive project that may or may not include a free zone within it; that a special economic zone is directly managed by OPAZ, while a free zone is required to have a third-party operator; and that special economic zones can include real estate development projects where property may be sold to Omani and non-Omani persons, while standard free zones can’t.

The provisions regarding real estate development projects in special economic zones are a new addition not previously found in the System of the Special Economic Zone in Duqm. Outside this key change, the law appears to mostly attempt to consolidate the provisions that were uniquely provided through the System of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm into general provisions that can apply to any special economic zone to be created in the future.

It is worth noting that the provisions of the law remain conservative and the status they grant special economic zones is not comparable to the status of special free zones in neighbouring countries such as DIFC, ADGM, or QFC, that operate in a manner independent of the national legal system of the state and have their own regulators, substantive laws, and court system. In Oman, special economic zones created under the new Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones remain basic free zones that offer time-limited tax reliefs along with streamlined processes for obtaining government approvals.

The new Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones entered into force yesterday. You can read it in full in English on the link below: