Muscat: The Board of Directors of the Oman Development Bank (ODB) has adopted an ambitious development finance plan to support the targeted sectors and economic diversification as mentioned in the five-year plan.

This is part of the efforts to boost investment in product and service sectors of the economy and to keep pace with the plans of the government for diversification and support of the non-oil sectors. In its sixth meeting held last week under the chairmanship of Salim Musallam Al Busaidi, the Board of Directors reviewed ODB’s operational plan for the next year aimed at enhancing development finance activity and accelerating the pace of work to achieve the objectives and aspirations.

The Board of Directors of the ODB discussed the objectives of the operational plan for the year 2020 so that the development finance approvals reach OMR 80 million. The small and medium loans got top priority in the operational goals followed by the microcredit. Then were financial loans for companies and operational credit. The meeting also reviewed the operational achievements and performance between January and September 2019. It also looked into the details of the implementation of the strategic plan and discussed the challenges being faced by the bank and the solutions presented by its management. The board also discussed the foundations of the 2020 goals according to professional standards based on the size of loans and the nature of the economy.

The board of directors of the ODB also approved loans of OMR4 million for four projects with an investment cost of more than OMR8 million in several economic sectors. It also approved financing of more than 5,000 projects worth OMR46 million in the last nine months.

 


The board also discussed the performance of the development finance of the Bank during the last nine months of this year. The ODB has financed OMR46 million for more than 5,000 development projects in the productive and service sectors of the economy in various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman between January and September this year.

The industrial sector was on top in terms of the number and value of projects funded by the ODB. It financed 262 projects of the industrial sector with OMR 18.3 million. Then was the fisheries sector on the second position with its 1,382 projects got finance worth OMR 8.5 million. They are followed by the agricultural and livestock sector’s 695 projects which got total finance worth OMR 4.1 million. The professional and public services sector ranked fourth with the ODB financed it’s 600 projects with total OMR 5.3 million.

 


The ODB’s development loans are distributed in various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. Its branches are in all geographic regions including all wilayats. The data of the development projects financed by the bank show that the South Al Sharqiyah government got 22% of the total 5,072 projects financed by the ODB in the last nine months this year.

The ODB supports the projects which help economic diversification and adaptation of the targeted sectors in the development plans, especially value-added project. It strengthens means of self-employment of citizens in all wilayats of the Sultanate by creating new jobs and protecting existing opportunities offered by some of the sectors such as professional fishing etc. It has also empowered 12,000 direct employment and indirect jobs by the end of September this year.
 

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