Manufacturing, tourism to drive Oman economy

Business Saturday 22/July/2017 17:35 PM
By: Times News Service
Manufacturing, tourism to drive Oman economy

Muscat: Manufacturing, tourism, wholesale and retail trade will be the main growth drivers for the Sultanate’s economic development, according to a study on future investment and development conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Other sunrise industries include logistics and communications, which have seen a boom in the recent past, making them an attractive and promising sector, with many investment opportunities.
The NCSI study shows that the manufacturing sector, which emerged during the past two decades as one of the growth areas for non-oil economic activities, and the national economy in general, grew by 661.9 per cent between 1998 and 2015. The value of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices (base year of 2010), grew from OMR0.3 billion in 1998 to OMR2.6 billion in 2015, as preliminary data showed.
Based on the annual growth rates in the GDP of the manufacturing industries, the beginning of the millennium witnessed the biggest and most significant growth rate, with the sector remaining steadfast during global instability.
Even in the midst of the global financial crisis, manufacturing industries recorded successive growth in 2008 and 2009.
The study also showed that the structure of investment in manufacturing industries in 2011 was concentrated on non-metallic mineral products, which accounted for 49.4 per cent of total investments in the manufacturing industries this year, followed by chemical, plastic and glass industries accounting for 24.5 per cent of total investment in 2014, followed by metal products by 11.9 per cent.
As one of the leading promising sectors, tourism is an area for attracting huge investment in the Sultanate. Between 2013 and 2015, statistics show a clear and continuous growth in the number of inbound tourists to the Sultanate.
GDP at constant prices for wholesale and retail trade surged during the last two decades from about OMR1 billion at the end of 1998 to OMR2.2 billion for the year 2015.
The official data also showed that there is also a clear growth in GDP at constant prices in the construction sector, which grew by more than four-fold by 2015, from 1998, and the sector was able to grow over 18 years at an average annual rate of about 12.6 per cent.
Statistics indicated that the transport, storage and communications activity achieved a growth of about six times during the period 1998 and 2015. The contribution of this sector to the GDP at constant prices jumped from OMR284 million in 1998 to OMR1.7 billion in 2015, making it a promising sector with lots of investment opportunities.
The study pointed out that during the period of survey (1998-2015), the sector experienced a boom in long-term growth and impact. Between 2000 and 2008, it achieved positive annual growth rates ranging from about 10 per cent to 27 per cent.