Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Plans to create economically viable opportunities that help diversity and expand industries in the various governorates across Oman, and help enhance the GDP of the country, are to be launched on Monday by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP).
The move comes as part of the second package of investment opportunities in the industrial sector, and is aimed at bringing more investors to Oman.
It is also a key aspect of the Industrial Strategy 2040, which was founded to enable the ministry to search for investment opportunities in various industrial sectors, in collaboration with the Follow Up Unit for Oman Vision 2040, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates, Petroleum Development Oman, Nama Holding, and Mazoon Dairy.
The inauguration ceremony will be sponsored by Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, in the presence of a number of ministry officials. Also in attendance will be ambassadors and consuls of foreign embassies in Oman, businessmen, investors, and representatives from the chambers of commerce from the other five countries of the GCC.
The new package of investment opportunities will also be helped by the ministry’s Fast Track Initiative, which aims to speed up approval processes for investment projects planned for Oman. The initiative falls under the country’s efforts to improve the current business environment, and also attract more foreign investors.
The Fast Track Initiative is part of the Invest in Oman campaign, which was launched on 20 March, 2021. It is aimed at enhancing and empowering the role of the private sector in leading economic development by attracting investments and supporting the development of exports in foreign markets.
“Through the Fast Track Initiative, the ministry seeks to accelerate the pace of completion of a number of investment projects that have come a long way, and are in need of support,” said Asila bint Salim Al Samsamiyah, the Undersecretary for Investment Promotion at the ministry. “The team responsible sped up a number of projects by supporting them in the form of licences, allocating lands, signing usufruct rights, providing electricity connections, and looking at requests for tax exemptions.”
Al Samsamiyah, who is also the chairperson of the National Investment Programme, added: “This programme is an accelerator for the first phase of Oman 2040, which is linked to both the economy and development. Together with the financial sustainability programme, this is one of the catalysts designed to support the national economy.
“Fast tracked projects move towards rapid interventions by technical committees and work teams to enable investment projects to efficiently begin their operations in Oman,” she said.
In the first stage of operations, projects worth OMR2.779 billion were identified by the Fast Track Initiative, spread across renewable energy, industry, mining, tourism, logistics, and food security.
Investment projects are provided support across several stages: they are first reviewed and studied for evaluation, and those areas that require support and then provided accordingly. Following this, a form is filled to highlight the views of the technical committee, as well as any further support required from them.
Field visits to the projects in question are then organised, so that investors’ needs can be identified and met, which enables them to contribute towards the growth of Oman.
With inputs from ONA
