(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman is on the road to major development with a slew of mega projects worth a total of US$112bn either being executed or in the pipeline. Some US$56bn of major projects under execution or planned are due for completion by the end of 2017, while all projects will be completed by the end of 2022.
Data revealed at the recently concluded Oman Projects Forum 2013 pointed out that around US$40bn worth of projects are under execution, with some of the big ones at an early stage of development, while the largest portion of the projects programme is yet to come to the market with more than US$50bn of projects under design or study.
Statistics compiled by MEED Projects show that 40 major projects are in the pipeline. Of these, almost 25 per cent are in the construction sector, dominated by plans to build a new town in Duqm.
Duqm Port and a special economic zone, which is the single largest project with budgeted investment of US$20bn, are also going to be the location for a 250mn barrel oil storage facility and a range of new industries.
An equally large amount of capital investment is planned in the transport sector, including the US$15.6bn national railway project.
Speaking at the forum, H?E?Ahmed bin Hassan al Dheeb, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that in the next few years some of the biggest investments will take place in the scale not witnessed earlier. He said that an estimated US$20bn was planned to be spent on transport infrastructure, including the Oman National Railway project, the ongoing and planned Sohar, Ras al Hadd, Duqm and Adam airports, Muscat and Salalah airports'
expansion, work on the Batinah Coastal Road and expressways.
H E?Dheeb said that a further US$17bn of projects were expected in the oil and gas sector while US$13bn worth of investments were expected from the manufacturing sector in and around the Free Trade Zones and elsewhere. In addition, there will be several billion dollars' worth of
investments in the tourism sector, the proposed logistics hub, power and water sectors and other areas.
He said that both government and the private sectors will be part of this investment and development, which is sure to open up the economy and opportunities for the betterment of Omani people.
Planning and development of these projects, accompanied by strong economic stimulus by the government, helped offset the setbacks of 2009, when the world was reeling under economic crisis, leading to healthy growth in the GDP of the country, H E Dheeb said.
The economic push was well supported by injection of liquidity by the Central Bank of Oman, which resulted in an 11.6 per cent increase in the GDP in 2012, an increase of 19 per cent over 2011.
Going by current indicators, the ongoing year would be even better with the strong oil prices and increased production levels, coupled with the continued strength of the non-hydro-carbon sectors, the Undersecretary added.
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