25 October 2016
Vinod Nair
Muscat - Work on the Port Sultan Qaboos Waterfront Project will be launched for investment in November with the work expected to begin next year, said Dr Ali bin Masoud al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry, on Monday. In his speech at MEED’s Outlook Oman conference, Al Sunaidy said: “These are challenging times for economies producing and exporting hydrocarbons with oil prices remaining low and forecasts suggest no early return to the levels seen before 2015. That is why it is vital for Oman to speed up the implementation programmes of promoting non-oil economic activities.”

He said: “Five weeks ago, the country embarked on a National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification (Tanfeedh). Over 250 government officials, representatives of Majlis Ash’shura, private sector leaders, experts and young entrepreneurs have been meeting daily in what is called the Labs — drawing from the Malaysian experience.” The findings of Tanfeedh programme will be released on November so, the minister said in a panel discussion.

He added that the objective is to expedite the process of diversifying Oman’s GDP away from oil while creating sustainable jobs for Omanis. At this stage, they focused on manufacturing, tourism, logistics as well as the two enablers, namely, finance and human capital development. The result is so far has been encouraging. This work will continue to cover the remaining two main sectors identified by the 9th Five Year Plan — fisheries and minerals.”

The Tanfeedh Labs have identified a number of projects that are ready to be implemented in the sectors mentioned above while offering innovative ways of financing infrastructure projects including  PPP’s and the transfer of current government assets to the private sector.

In January, the government announced its Ninth Five Year Plan early this year with already committed projects of RO 9 billion. Out of which, 50 per cent have already been awarded and under implantation with expected completion targets this year and the next two years and by the end of September this year, nearly RO 1.2 billion has been paid to contractors by the Ministry of Finance.

“Almost 50 per cent of the above-mentioned government projects are roads, airports and ports. About 16 per cent are education, healthcare and training related. Nearly 10 per cent are housing related and about eight per cent are in the area of electricity, water and water dams,” he said.

Al Sunaidy said that the government is continuing to invest in maintaining oil and gas production capacity.  For the long-term security of supply, Oman is building a large crude oil storage terminal near Duqm.

Besides manufacturing, logistics and tourism, the fishery sector is expected to grow by more than double from 200,000 tonnes to more than 400,000 tonnes by 2020.

The minerals sector now contributes less than one per cent to the GDP with great potential to grow in the coming years based on an easing of regulation, the discovery of sizeable reserves of copper, rare earth and gypsum.

Initial feasibility studies discussed in the Tanfeedh Labs indicated very good return-on-investment for a train section connecting large mineral deposits from Dhofar and Wosta to Port Duqm and, deposits from Dhahirah to Port of Sohar.

© Oman Daily Observer 2016