Business ‘climate’ promising in Oman

MUSCAT: The Sultanate of Oman is committed to delivering world-class facilities and is making efforts to promote foreign investments in the country, according to Faisal Abdullah Al Rawas, Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI).

In his exclusive remarks to Times of Oman recently, Al Rawas said: “The business climate is promising in Oman with various measures being taken to ensure and safeguard the interests of foreign investors. Though, in recent times, the whole world has been facing serious economic challenges due to different reasons.”

The OCCI chief added: “There has been a big disruption in supply chains and air connectivity in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for each country to try and build a system that could mitigate the impact of such unforeseen developments. A flexible economic system is the need to deal with such variables, and I am certain that it would help each country.”

Al Rawas said: “We have to be competitive in order to attract foreign investments. It is a challenge but the efforts made by the Sultanate of Oman have borne fruits and there are positive indicators in the growth of the Omani economy. We have already witnessed improvements in many global indicators, be it the financial ratings, attracting foreign investments, or the ease of doing business.” 

The Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry said: “The recent legislation related to foreign investment, long-term residence for investors, financial facilities, and regulation of the labour market system makes the business climate promising in Oman.”

The Sultanate of Oman witnessed a positive growth in real GDP estimated at 4.4 percent in the last quarter of 2022, and the expected growth for the current year is estimated at 4.1 percent, although the global economic growth rate is estimated at 2.8 percent for the year 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data.

On the other hand, the global inflation rate is expected to decrease from 8.8 percent for the year 2022, to 6.6 percent. For the year 2023, however, the inflation rate in the Sultanate in March of this year, amounted to 1.6 percent.