Monday 08 / July / 2024
Muscat: More than 20 foreign investors have received their Investor Residence card on Sunday.
26 foreign investors have been issued 10-year residency visas under Oman’s “Investor Residence” programme.
The investors were issued their residency permits by Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef, the Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion.
“The “Investor Residence” programme comes within the aim of facilitating residency for periods ranging from five to 10 years for investors wishing to invest in Oman,” said Al Yousef. “The ministry’s investment services centre provides this residency, which can be extended under clearly-defined controls and procedures.
“Investors are offered encouraging incentives and advantages for investing, provided they adhere to the specified regulations throughout their stay,” he added. “The programme aims to attract and promote qualitative investments that contribute to the growth of GDP and create job opportunities to supplement the national economy.”
The rolling out of the “Investor Residence” programme also falls under the objectives of Oman Vision 2040, which aims to provide good standards of living and competitiveness through job opportunities created from a diversified and sustainable economy.
This aims to be achieved through localised industries, technology transfer, the adoption of modern technology and innovations, and improving the investment environment, all of which takes into account the social, legal, security, and economic factors governing Oman.
The long-term residency offering is one of those allied with the “Invest in Oman Programme”, a national initiative that aims to attract investments and promote exports. It is supervised by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion, along with the Oman Investment Authority and the Follow-up Unit for Vision 2040.
“An important factor that encourages investors to choose the Sultanate of Oman as a key investment destination is its strategic location close to the emerging markets in the Middle East, East Africa and India,” said the ministry in a statement.
This is aside from a logistics network that enhances access to products for a large segment of consumers at competitive cost, an attractive investment environment, and the presence of good quality ports and other facilities.
To further encourage investors to set up operations in Oman, in January 2020, the country also rolled out the Foreign Capital Investment Law. The new law entails a wide range of benefits to foreign investors.
These include 100 percent ownership by investors, reduced capital requirements, incentives for investment projects established in less developed regions, assigning real estate privileges to long term investment, certain exemptions on custom duties, and providing equal treatment and rights to both local and foreign investment projects undertaken in Oman.
“Beyond the scope of the new law, Oman has other incentives that should attract foreign investment in the country,” said the Central Bank of Oman in its 2020 Annual Report.
“These include the geographical advantage of the country, the wide logistic network all the way from Musandam to Salalah, the credible currency arrangement granted by the established peg to the US dollar, and reduced corporate tax rate that is capped at 15 percent.
The government has been undertaking measures to further strengthen these features of the country and make Oman a stellar country to invest in.” Creating a conducive environment is also one of the objectives listed in Oman’s state budget report.
“Oman has achieved positive outcomes and indicators in 2021 as a result of government measures and efforts towards achieving national objectives,” said the report, issued by the Ministry of Finance. “Such an approach, if maintained, will ensure better outcomes in 2022, and strengthen rating agencies and investor
confidence.”
With inputs from Oman News Agency
