One mile of Ocean Front, One Incredible Real Estate Development
Multi-Billion Dollar Agreement Signed With Oman
Message: Oman Daily Observer
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Business forum opens in Beirut Oman’s growth impressive, withstands global crunch BEIRUT — His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tareq al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture, yesterday attended the opening of the Arab Business Forum/Oman-Lebanon Forum under the auspices of Saad al Hariri, Chairman of the Future Movement in Lebanon. In his speech before the forum, Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki, Minister of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council, said that the Sultanate, thanks to the wise policies of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos’s government, has achieved impressive progress in its bid to transfer from a low income traditional economy to high income advanced economy. This is characterised by its high degree of social and economic growth through the implementation of two strategies, the first of which from 1976 to 1995 and the second from 1996 to 2020 or the one termed as ‘Oman Vision 2020’. Highlighting the main features of the Omani economy, Macki pointed out that the government is showing great interest in implementing the economic diversification strategy and developing industry, tourism and industrial sectors and the regions. “To implement the economic diversification, privatisation and tourism development programmes, the government, throughout the last period, has made steady and continuous efforts to improve the investment environment and create a healthy milieu for investment, characterised by political, economic and security stability. “The government also provides scores of incentives, facilities, tax exemptions and guarantees to encourage and protect investors”, he said. With the improvement of the investment environment in the Sultanate, the flow of foreign capital to the Sultanate increased. The gross foreign investment increased from RO 4 billion in 2005 to RO 9.4 billion in 2007, a growth of 138 per cent. During the same period, the balance of the foreign direct investment (FDI) increased from RO 1.6 billion to RO 3.5 billion, a growth of 119 per cent. “The performance of the Omani economy last year was good. Preliminary estimates point out that the GDP will grow by 40 per cent at the current prices and about 10 per cent at fixed prices thanks to the high oil prices, strong local demand, improvement in the competitiveness of non-oil exports and luring direct foreign investments to the Sultanate”, he noted. Macki said that while the Sultanate, like the rest of the world, will be affected by the global crisis, the financial position of the country is good. This is mainly attributed to the sound policies followed by the government during oil price hike, such as enhancing financial reserves and reducing the size of public debt. These measures will enhance the capability of the Omani economy to withstand the implications of the global crisis. n Picture on page 2 |
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