PHOTO
02 April 2017
The Sultanate of Oman aims to boost its revenues from tourism and attract more foreign direct investments, mainly from the Gulf Cooperation Council, as part of its bid to diversify its sources of income away from hydrocarbons, a senior Omani official said.
Oman, like much of the Gulf Arab region, was badly impacted by the economic recession that hit the region following the 2014 steep decline in oil prices.
The sultanate is estimated to be running a government deficit of nearly $13 billion, Reuters reported last January, citing data from the International Monetary Fund.
"We are targeting Saudi, UAE and Qatar, we are targeting investments and tourists from there. There are 28 million Saudi tourists for instance, we are working to attract some of them to Oman," Sayyid Fasial Al Said, the director general of the state-run investment promotion authority Ithraa, told Zawya in an interview on Sunday.
"Given the current economic situation, investments and tourism is the way to move forward," Al Said said, speaking on the sidelines of the Annual Investment Meeting event in Dubai.
Oman is aiming to add another 6,000 new hotel rooms by 2020, to facilitate this growth in tourist numbers, the sultanate’s Minister of Tourism said month.
“Our main priority in tourism is the hotel sector. We think we need more than 25,000 rooms by 2020. We are doing well on that. We had more than 18,000 rooms as of 2016 and we will add 6,000 more rooms by 2020,” Ahmed bin Nasser Al Mahrezi, Minister of Tourism, was quoted as saying by the Times of Oman newspaper.
Currently, around of 70 percent of funds handled through Ithraa come from overseas, with the remaining 30 percent from local investors, but Al Said hopes to increase this going forward.
"We are targeting more and more FDI,” he said, adding that the authority was targeting ten key strategic sectors, including education, fisheries, manufacturing, minerals and tourism.
He did not believe the increase in FDI will harm local companies as the authority is seeking to attract big multinational companies that will work with the local workforce and share their knowledge and experience with local Omanis.
"This (increasing FDI) is one of the issues the government is studying and is keen to move fast in."
FDI inflows to Oman increased to $822 million in 2015, up from $739 million the previous year, according to data released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), Reuters reported.
New laws and taxes
Al Said said the country’s authorities were looking to improve its FDI laws, as part of its bid to encourage the flow of more investment into the sultanate.
When asked if Oman is ready to adopt a new value-added tax that is expected to be implemented across the GCC from January 1, 2018, Al Said said Oman is part of the GCC and is committed to the rules and decisions agreed upon by the regional bloc.
"Oman being part of the GCC is obliged to abide by whatever the council agrees to," Al Said said.
"It is time everyone starts to not take things for granted or treat places as safe havens," he added.
Two sources told Reuters earlier his year that Oman is negotiating with wealthy Gulf Arab states to secure a multi-billion dollar deposit in its central bank, a claim which was denied by the sultanate.
© Zawya 2017
The Sultanate of Oman aims to boost its revenues from tourism and attract more foreign direct investments, mainly from the Gulf Cooperation Council, as part of its bid to diversify its sources of income away from hydrocarbons, a senior Omani official said.
Oman, like much of the Gulf Arab region, was badly impacted by the economic recession that hit the region following the 2014 steep decline in oil prices.
The sultanate is estimated to be running a government deficit of nearly $13 billion, Reuters reported last January, citing data from the International Monetary Fund.
"We are targeting Saudi, UAE and Qatar, we are targeting investments and tourists from there. There are 28 million Saudi tourists for instance, we are working to attract some of them to Oman," Sayyid Fasial Al Said, the director general of the state-run investment promotion authority Ithraa, told Zawya in an interview on Sunday.
"Given the current economic situation, investments and tourism is the way to move forward," Al Said said, speaking on the sidelines of the Annual Investment Meeting event in Dubai.
Oman is aiming to add another 6,000 new hotel rooms by 2020, to facilitate this growth in tourist numbers, the sultanate’s Minister of Tourism said month.
“Our main priority in tourism is the hotel sector. We think we need more than 25,000 rooms by 2020. We are doing well on that. We had more than 18,000 rooms as of 2016 and we will add 6,000 more rooms by 2020,” Ahmed bin Nasser Al Mahrezi, Minister of Tourism, was quoted as saying by the Times of Oman newspaper.
Currently, around of 70 percent of funds handled through Ithraa come from overseas, with the remaining 30 percent from local investors, but Al Said hopes to increase this going forward.
"We are targeting more and more FDI,” he said, adding that the authority was targeting ten key strategic sectors, including education, fisheries, manufacturing, minerals and tourism.
He did not believe the increase in FDI will harm local companies as the authority is seeking to attract big multinational companies that will work with the local workforce and share their knowledge and experience with local Omanis.
"This (increasing FDI) is one of the issues the government is studying and is keen to move fast in."
FDI inflows to Oman increased to $822 million in 2015, up from $739 million the previous year, according to data released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), Reuters reported.
New laws and taxes
Al Said said the country’s authorities were looking to improve its FDI laws, as part of its bid to encourage the flow of more investment into the sultanate.
When asked if Oman is ready to adopt a new value-added tax that is expected to be implemented across the GCC from January 1, 2018, Al Said said Oman is part of the GCC and is committed to the rules and decisions agreed upon by the regional bloc.
"Oman being part of the GCC is obliged to abide by whatever the council agrees to," Al Said said.
"It is time everyone starts to not take things for granted or treat places as safe havens," he added.
Two sources told Reuters earlier his year that Oman is negotiating with wealthy Gulf Arab states to secure a multi-billion dollar deposit in its central bank, a claim which was denied by the sultanate.
© Zawya 2017
