The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP) has announced that Oman will be adopting plain packaging for tobacco products, reports Muscat Daily.

Following Saudi Arabia, Oman is now the second country in the region to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products. The MoCIIP issued a decision on Omani Standard Specification (OS 1655:2022) on plain packaging of tobacco products, and deemed it a binding Omani standard specification, reports Muscat Daily.
Plain packaging means that cigarette packets may no longer feature logos, colours, brand images or any kind of publicity and may only display brand or product names in a standard colour, font and style.
Introducing plain packaging is a further step towards the sultanate’s aim of reducing tobacco consumption by 30 per cent by 2025.
“The MoCIIP decision is based on Ministry of Health recommendations and was being worked on for the last few years,” Dr Jawad al Lawati, senior consultant and rapporteur of the National Tobacco Control Committee told Muscat Daily. He said that, moving forward, at least 65 per cent of tobacco packaging will have a public health warning, picture and message to quit with the rest of the packaging featuring the brand name.
The World Health Organization (WHO) office for the Eastern Mediterranean called the move ‘significant and pioneering’.