Regulations for holding and managing exhibitions
(Issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry under the Ministerial Decision No. 244/96 on 14/12/1996) 

Chapter One Licensing Procedures

Article-1: For the purpose of implementing the provision of this regulation, all places prepared for displaying samples and models of commodities, machinery, products, paintings, artistic work, etc. with the intention of publicizing or marketing them, shall be considered as and exhibition. 

Article-2: The competent authority at the Directorate General of Commerce shall prepare a special register for recording names of those licensed to carry out the activity of organizing and managing exhibitions. The said authority shall provide the Commercial Registry with a copy of the license immediately upon its issuance and it shall mention that in the commercial registration of the licensee. 

Article-3: For issuing the license to carry out the activity of organizing managing exhibitions, the following conditions shall have to be met: 1. The capital of the license applicant shall not be less than Fifty thousand (50,000) Omani Rials, if his activity was limited to organizing and managing local exhibitions, and not less than Ten thousand (10,0000 Omani Rials if his activity included organizing and managing international as well as local exhibitions. 2. The applicant or his legal representative shall have the knowledge of the rules and regulations prevalent in the Sultanate of Oman, particularly the rules related to organizing and managing exhibitions, taxes, investment, entry visas, custom clearance, shipping, custom duties and release of banned and restricted goods and commodities with the approval of the competent authorities. 

Article-4: The number of staff working with the licensee shall not be less than five in case of international exhibitions and not less than three persons in case of local exhibitions, and their job titles shall be as follows: 1: International Exhibitions: General Manager, Marketing Manager, Exhibition Plan Organizer, Exhibitor Relations Officer and Accountant. 2. Local Exhibitions: General Manager or Marketing Manager, Exhibition Plan Organizer Exhibitor Relations Officer In both case, the experience of the general manager in organizing and managing exhibitions shall not be less than five years and the experience of the remaining staff shall not be less than three years. 

Article-5: The period of license shall be limited to the validity period of the Commercial Registration unless renewed. 

Article-6: The license shall be repealed if the licensee lost any of the conditions mentioned in Article 3 above. Chapter Two Organizing and Managing Exhibitions.

Article-7: The exhibitions shall be classified into: 1. Exhibitions organized by companies for their own products. 2. Exhibitions organized by foreign companies for their own products, through their local agents.3. Exhibitions organized by foreign countries through companies licensed to organize and manage exhibitions. 4. Exhibitions organized by companies licensed to organize and manage exhibitions. 

Article-8: Except for the exhibitions organized by charitable organizations or government bodies for their own products, it shall not be allowed to hold any of the exhibitions mentioned in Article 7 above, without obtaining the license for holding it from the concerned authority at the Directorate General of Commerce. 

Article-9: For issuing a license to hold an exhibition pursuant to Article 8 above, the following conditions shall have to be met: 1. The license application shall be submitted to the concerned authority at the Directorate General of Commerce, accompanied with a full plan of the proposed exhibition, before two months from the date proposed dated of the exhibition if it was a local exhibition and before three months if it was an international exhibition. The plan shall include the following: a. Title of the exhibition and its initial proposal. b. Type and purpose of the exhibition c. Number of expected exhibitors and the economic sectors benefited from it. d. Proposed date and period of the exhibition, which should not exceed 15 days. 2. The exhibition site shall be suitable and spacious for the number of exhibitors and visitors. The actual area of the exhibition hall shall not be less than 500 square meters excluding the passages and the width of the passages shall be three meters. All necessary services shall be provided for the exhibitors in the case of exhibitions in which the displayed products shall be sold. Specialised exhibitions can be held in a hall with a total area of not less than 100 square meters. 3. The approval of the Tax Department at the Ministry of Finance shall be obtained incase of exhibitions selling the displayed products. 4. Necessary approval as per Article 16 below shall be obtained. 

Article-10: A decision on the license applications shall be made within 15 days from the date of submitting the required documents in full. If a decision was not taken within this period, the applications shall be deemed rejected. The applicant can appeal against the rejection decision to the Undersecretary of the Ministry for Commerce and Industry within 15 days of receipt of the rejection notification or from the date of expiring the said period, as the case may be. The decision issued on the appeal shall be final.