One billion riyals is the volume of foreign investment in the Sultanate and 6.3 billion Omani investments abroad
Going to form an attractive and economically active environment and the signing of many agreements of encouragement and protection –
50 countries invest in the Sultanate .. the United Kingdom leads and 9 countries covering 82.9% of the total –
The National Center for Statistics and Information announced yesterday the results of the foreign investment survey, indicating that the results show tangible growth in the size of foreign investment, both direct and indirect, supported by encouraging government policies.Legislations and economic incentives in accordance with the best international standards and practices, which makes the Sultanate an attractive environment for investment, especially in light of its strategic location, advanced infrastructure, active and safe economic environment in addition to transparent financial systems.
The survey covers the period from 2011 to 2016, and the total foreign investment in the Sultanate until the end of 2016 reached about 15.465 billion riyals, compared to 13.925 billion in 2015, an increase of 11.1 percent, and foreign direct investment represents 52.4 percent of the total foreign investment in the Sultanate, compared to 41.4 Percentage of other foreign investments that include trade credit, loans and deposits, while foreign investment in portfolios represents 5.8 percentIn financial derivatives 0.4 percent of the total financial investments. As of the end of 2016, the volume of foreign direct investment amounted to more than 8 billion riyals, compared to 6.9 billion riyals in 2015.
And sectorally, the oil and gas sector accounts for 34.1 percent of total foreign investment, with a value of 5.267 billion riyals, compared to 4.124 billion riyals in 2015, and 5.230 billion riyals in 2014, followed by the financial intermediation sector, which accounts for 31.1 percent, and manufacturing industries 19.1 percent, and real estate activities 4.4 percent .
As for foreign direct investment, oil and gas extraction activity will hold 49.1 percent of it, at a value of 4 billion riyals, followed by financial intermediationThe manufacturing industries increased by 17.7 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
On the most important countries that invest in the Sultanate, among the 50 countries that invest in the Sultanate, 9 of them contribute 82.9 percent of the total foreign direct investment, topped by the United Kingdom with investments worth 3.5 billion riyals, followed by the UAE with a value of about one billion riyals, then Kuwait, Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain .
According to the results, the number of manpower in foreign investment institutions witnessed a decrease of 8.5 percent compared to 2015 due to the decrease in the number of manpower in the construction sector by 16.4 percent, and the number of Omanis working in foreign investment institutions decreased by (5.6 percent) and a decrease in the numberThe expatriate workforce is 10 percent, and expatriates account for 65.4 percent of the total workforce in foreign investment institutions in 2016, and Omanis 34.6 percent.
On the other hand, the results of the survey show that the size of Omani investment abroad amounted to 6.337 billion riyals, a decrease of 6.8 percent compared to 2015, and the majority of Omani investments are concentrated in commercial credit, deposits, and loans at 35 percent of total Omani investments abroad, and in terms of countries to which investments are directed. Oman is at the forefront of the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, then India, Bahrain, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, and Egypt. The UAE accounts for 25 percent of Omani investments abroad, or about 540 million riyals.The survey indicated that while the Sultanate looks forward with confidence to the future, efforts are continuing to develop and diversify the resources and resources for the development of the national economy, and in this regard we believe in the importance of expanding the area of ​​foreign investment in the Sultanate in a manner that integrates with domestic investments and contributes to their development, in this context. Regional and international bilateral and multilateral cooperation relations, during the past year, another group of agreements were signed with a number of brotherly and friendly countries, with regard to the encouragement and mutual protection of investment. B double taxation agreements on economic and technical cooperation.It is mentioned that the statistics keep pace with the years of the eighth five-year plan for development 2011-2016, as well as the implementation of the ninth development plan 2016 – 2020, and it is implemented by the National Center for Statistics and Information and in coordination with the Central Bank of Oman, and foreign investment is one of the tributaries on which the Sultanate relies in implementing programs and policies Diversification of income adopted by the government within the future vision 2020, which requires the availability of relevant data that are of quality, comprehensiveness and timeliness and give detailed data on foreign investment in the Sultanate by type of investment such as foreign investmentThe direct, portfolio investments and other foreign investments classified by economic activity and country of origin in addition to data on Omani investment abroad, to provide decision makers with accurate statistics and recent data on foreign investment to enable them to take the necessary decisions to create the appropriate climate to attract these investments, and to standardize criteria for measuring the size of investment Foreigners in line with international standards such as those of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and to identify the role of foreign investment in the current and future development of the national economy, and the distribution of foreign investment in In the Sultanate according to the economic sector, then to indicate the extent of its impact on the various sectors, and to determine the sources of foreign investment in the Sultanate, that is, the geographical distribution according to the exporting country,

Providing information on the extent of the impact of foreign investment on the Omani economy in the areas of manpower, exports, imports and international services in addition to the indebtedness of the private sector, as well as determining the type of investment in a manner that guarantees the maximum possible background and forward links necessary for the development of other sectors to which foreign investment does not go.

Reference: Oman newspaper website.
Date: 9/18/2018