Oman-India Investment Meet concludes

Muscat: Organised by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates – Madayn to strengthen investment ties between the Sultanate and India, the two-day Oman-India Investment Meet concluded on Monday. The event was attended by a high profile business delegation from India comprising 35 businessmen representing sectors including food, logistics, information technology, telecommunications and renewable energy.
During the second day of the event, a field visit was organised to Al Rusayl Industrial City where the Indian delegation was briefed on the current projects implemented by Oman Investment and Development Holding Company (Mubadrah) at Al Rusayl. These projects include the logistics project valued at around OMR 1,600,000; new gates and entrances project with a value of OMR 2,500,000 and the project of developing and incorporating services to expand the industrial city with a total value reaching OMR 34,000,000. Furthermore, Mubadrah is also preparing to float a tender for B2 Phase to expand Al Rusayl Industrial City. The value of this tender is expected to touch OMR 15,000,000.
The officials also highlighted that the total area of Al Rusayl Industrial City has come close to 11 million sqm by the end of 2018 and is home to 309 projects. The total volume of investments in this industrial city has touched approximately OMR 372,554,229 and the number of the national and foreign workforce has reached 21,881 during the same period.
During discussions, the Indian delegation was acquainted with the localisation process in the various industrial cities in Oman, the objectives of the one-stop-shop, time taken to finalise the procedures, in addition to the types of investments in the country.
As part of their visit to Al Rusayl Industrial City, the Indian delegates visited Oman Fiber Optic, which was constituted in 1996 and commenced cable production in early 1999. OFO is recognised for using state of the art technology to draw fibre and manufacture world-class fibre cable products.
The delegation then toured the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) where they were introduced to KOM’s vision in enhancing Oman's position as the region's leading centre of business excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship, in creating, promoting and developing Oman as a robust, diverse, prosperous and self-sustaining knowledge-driven economy. KOM aspires to contribute to the advancement of economic diversification through offering investment opportunities in the IT sector and eventually build a knowledge-based economy in the Sultanate.
The delegation also visited the National Business Centre (NBC), which is an initiative launched by Madayn in KOM to offer promising Omani entrepreneurs a platform to develop their business ideas and advance them into growing ventures. NBC provides a premier platform for Omani entrepreneurs by offering business development support and guidance, training and mentoring, access to markets and industry experts, and state-of-the-art and fully equipped office space, meeting rooms and presentation facilities. NBC offers intensive training, coaching and mentoring to the incubated companies to enhance their entrepreneurial skills through a cutting-edge environment that allow the companies to flourish, network, form partnerships, and have access to business mentors.