Infra Oman, one of the exhibitionsorganised by Al Nimr Expo, has beennamed the most admired event inthe Middle East at the CMO Asia -Event Industry Awards held inSingapore. Salim Omar al Hashmi,CEO of Al Nimr Expo, accepted theaward and said, For a young Omaniexhibition company to be recognisedand honoured internationally is aproven testimony of our teamsefforts and hard work. I thank HEZakariya Hamed al Saadi, OmansHonorary Consul General inSingapore, for attending the awardsceremony and making our achieve-ment more significant.

Melwin Dcunha, director of Al

Nimr Expo, said, This is the firstexhibition company not only fromOman but the Middle East to winsuch an accolade. This award followsthe Al Roya Award for the BestBusiness Enterprise - Private Sectorin January 2012 held in Oman andthe Oman Web Awards for the BestWebsite in the Event ManagementCategory held in December 2011.

Jenitha Martin, project manager,said, Infra Oman is the ideal plat-form for all contractors and develop-ers to meet, thus giving them anopportunity to present their projectsand achievements and source theirrequirements. Infra Oman has grownsignificantly since its debut last year.

Given Omans location in one of themost arid areas in the world, it is nosurprise that water production andconsumption is a concern. One wayto reduce consumption is looking atthe type of plants being planted foraesthetic purposes and through theGroasis waterboxx. Clive Winbow,project manager at Ample Harvest -that distributes the box - and authorof the book Native Plants of Oman -An Introduction: With Notes forGardeners, hopes to encourage anew way of growing plants.

The Groasis waterboxx wasdeveloped by Pieter Hoff and wenton to win him the Popular ScienceGreen Tech Best of Whats NewInnovation of the Year Award in2010. It works by shelteringsaplings from the sun and provid-ing water to them through rain andcondensation that is delivered insmall amounts. On the Groasiswaterboxx, Clive said, AmpleHarvest wants to spread the use ofthe box as a means of people plant-ing native trees in wild areas of thecountry, which have either alwaysbeen desert or have become desert

through overgrazing and such.The main purpose, he said, of this

is to combat desertification. One ofthe advantages of the Groasis water-boxx is that these dont need any fol-low-up maintenance, so once theyare planted you can walk away andbe fairly sure the box will do its job.

Aside from being used in wild areas,Clive hopes the box will be used inbeautification and landscapinginside and around the capital area sothat people can see how nativeplants can be grown with little waterand no irrigation.

Native plants are also shown to bebeneficial for local birds and wildlife,and Clive added, What you are bat-tling against is a prejudice that for-eign plants grow quicker, are greenerand have bigger flowers. But nobody

likes to say we cant have a certaintree because it uses too much water.All the Gulf countries are spendingtoo much money on water purifica-tion and water for irrigation and thisis basically unsustainable.

Ample Harvest is currentlyinvolved in a project being run byDhofar University that looks at howthe box works in a number of planting areas on the jebel aboveSalalah which has been affected

through overgrazing by camels. Theproject began in June shortly beforethe khareef and Clive will be visitingthe area soon to see how the boxesare doing and what the next stepsshould be. He admits it has beenhard trying to show some peoplethat this project is for their benefit inthe long run.

The biggest problems when itcomes to planting in Oman is thesalinity and aridity of the soil, plusthe temperature that plants have to

deal with. But from earlier projects, itlooks as if the box deals with theseissues. At the companys plantationin Amerat, 70 per cent of the plantsthat were planted in March at thestart of the hot season have survived.I think its a remarkable achieve-

ment given what we have put theplants through, he said.

Oman has around 1,200 nativeplants, but of those, Clive said thatthe trees are the most important asonce they are established, otherplants can grow under them. On the

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GOINGNATIVEClive Winbow talks about the importance of growingnative plants in difficult areas

Emma Abdulaaltheweek@apexmedia.co.om

WRONG IMPRESSION What you are battling against is a prejudice that foreign plants grow

quicker, are greener and have bigger flowers - Clive Winbow

BankMuscat organised a work-shop on ATM fraud preventionaddressed by Douglas Russell,expert in ATM fraud and secur-ity risk management, recently.The workshop held at the bankshead office was attended by thehead of economic crime, RoyalOman Police, senior officialsrepresenting various banks inOman and frontline staff dealing

AL NIMR EXPO WINSAWARD FOR INFRA OMAN

BANKMUSCATHOSTS WORKSHOPON ATM FRAUDPREVENTION

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future, Clive said, We hope to startnew projects and I am very hopefulabout introducing it to some of thehigh dunes in the Empty Quarter,which we would have to do using adifferent type of tree.

The type of trees we can grow

there would be very different to whatwe can grow in say the coastal areaor in the mountains. I am very exci-ted about this Dhofar project,because Dhofar is somewhere withexceptional flora that is having a badtime and it is mans fault.

Omantel organises workshop on IT security

Omantel organised a workshop oninformation security at its headoffice last week. A number of infor-mation security professionals fromthe sultanate and other countriesparticipated in the workshop, apress release said. The workshopwas part of Omantels plans toenrich the ICT sector and updateprofessionals on the latest develop-ments in this important field. It is also one of the important programmes in the agenda of thecompanys Oman Telecommu-nication Institute, which will be

officially launched this month.The workshop included a num-

ber of important papers byrenowned speakers. Dr Badr alManthri of ITA presented a workingpaper on cloud computing, the use of computing resources that aredelivered as a service over a net-work. Berry Luis, CEO of Surprise, aspecialised company in the field ofinformation security, training andconsultancy with over 40 yearsexperience in the field of comput-ers, presented a paper on ISO27002in Mobile Phones Technologies

Audit. The second session includeda paper by Albert J Marcille, CEO ofBusiness Automation Consultancy,on information security manage-ment, while Berry made a presenta-tion on protection control.

Manal al Harthi, project lead,said, IT security is of a growingglobal interest and offering of thisworkshop comes in line with thecompanys efforts to keep pace withthe recent development in the ICTfield. We are thrilled that we havebeen able to attract global and localprofessionals to speak here.

with operations, ATM management,card operations, security and audit,a press release said.

The workshop provided anoverview of the primary attackmethods that criminals deployagainst ATM terminals and systems.The workshops objective was toobtain a strategic overview and torecognise the most common cate-gories of criminal devices employedin ATM fraud. Discussions coveredvarious ATM fraud and securitythreats, financial risk to the ATMchannel, reputational and conse-quential challenges.

Waleed al Hashar, group generalmanager - corporate services, said,

BankMuscat is proud to host thisworkshop aimed at addressing cybercrimes and ATM fraud which haveassumed global ramificationsinvolving financial and reputationalrisks to banking and financial insti-tutions. Therefore, it is important forall of us in the banking and financialsector to contribute and supplementgovernment efforts to tackle finan-cial crimes. The subject assumesgreat importance, so the workshopwas organised by the bank to facili-tate exchange of experience andinformation on cyber crimes andATM fraud. Douglas is renowned for global experience in creating and implementing